Simple reef tank? No sump, no skimmer, no dosing

[Chrisfish]

Your tank looks awesome and your fish and corals are beautiful

 

[Albertan22]

I've used one in the past but I have no patience to constantly test and I also hear too many horror stories of these things crashing tanks.

Fair enough. I did try what you are trying with a 120G tank once about 10 years ago. It was mostly LPS with some SPS. It took off and grew great in the beginning, the rock completely covered itself in coraline and also the back of the tank. The fish bio load was small and nutrients weren’t an issue but I didn’t really test for anything. After maybe 1.5 years I got lazy with water changes (probably hadn’t done one in around 10 weeks) and ended up having a mass die off of the coraline algae. This gave green hair algae a solid base to grow and feed on (dead coraline releases nutrients) and I had a big 4 foot tank completely over run by algae. I tested and nutrient levels were low but my alk had fallen down to around 5 which I attributed the coraline die off to. I ended up tearing down that tank and restarting. I believe the mistake I made was having a tank with too much alk consumption and not following through with my water changes to keep the level manageable.

 

[Cacopepo]

I use to run a 90 gallon with a 55 gallon refugium, all soft corals... I never dosed and at 1 point I stop doing water change for like 8 months.. just topping off water evaporation and my corals were growing with no problems, and I had plenty of fish, hippo tang, purple tang, 2 clowns, a dragonet( loved that guy, he ate flakes and pellets) red head solon fairy wrasse and a pink tail trigger.

 

[shoelaceike]

Fair enough. I did try what you are trying with a 120G tank once about 10 years ago. It was mostly LPS with some SPS. It took off and grew great in the beginning, the rock completely covered itself in coraline and also the back of the tank. The fish bio load was small and nutrients weren’t an issue but I didn’t really test for anything. After maybe 1.5 years I got lazy with water changes (probably hadn’t done one in around 10 weeks) and ended up having a mass die off of the coraline algae. This gave green hair algae a solid base to grow and feed on (dead coraline releases nutrients) and I had a big 4 foot tank completely over run by algae. I tested and nutrient levels were low but my alk had fallen down to around 5 which I attributed the coraline die off to. I ended up tearing down that tank and restarting. I believe the mistake I made was having a tank with too much alk consumption and not following through with my water changes to keep the level manageable.

Thats interesting. I definitely should be careful adding anymore stony corals!

 

[shoelaceike]

I use to run a 90 gallon with a 55 gallon refugium, all soft corals... I never dosed and at 1 point I stop doing water change for like 8 months.. just topping off water evaporation and my corals were growing with no problems, and I had plenty of fish, hippo tang, purple tang, 2 clowns, a dragonet( loved that guy, he ate flakes and pellets) red head solon fairy wrasse and a pink tail trigger.

Great to know!

 

[Timfish]

lol! How do you know your fish is happy?? . . .

That's a good question! And we can tell if fish are happy. An unhappy fish may be skittish, spastic, suddenly darting around, or have atypical hiding/swimming habits for it's species (ie, a dwarf angel hiding constantly or a clown staying in just one small place). A fish trying to swim out of the tank is another good indicator, they can see out as well as we can see in so there has to be something wrong if they don't want to stay where they are. Stereotypy behaviour can be a little subtler but it too is an indicator of a fish unhappy with it's suroundings

 

[shoelaceike]

That's a good question! And we can tell if fish are happy. An unhappy fish may be skittish, spastic, suddenly darting around, or have atypical hiding/swimming habits for it's species (ie, a dwarf angel hiding constantly or a clown staying in just one small place). A fish trying to swim out of the tank is another good indicator, they can see out as well as we can see in so there has to be something wrong if they don't want to stay where they are. Stereotypy behaviour can be a little subtler but it too is an indicator of a fish unhappy with it's suroundings

Exactly

 

[dwair]

I know I said it earlier in the thread but if you can just up your WC's to Bi weekly (weekly would be ideal) and I think you can outpace the nutrient export from your sps.

 

[Sweetaz]

What media is in the canister filter?

 

[DeniseAndy]

I would say, nice tank!
I keep my 40g and 20g (same sump) with no dosing. They do have a skimmer though. And an UAS. They currently have nems, lots lps, qt for clams, and lots softies. I have had this system for over 5 years with anything from sps (which I never really keep anymore - was for my traveling tank) to all else.
I just do water changes every couple weeks. Because they are holding my clams, I currently have to monitor a bit closer, but still no dosing after 2 months.
My 6g of course has nothing but a hob and has lps and softies. Been running years and all I do is top off and do water changes every now and then.

 

[Mark]

Simple tanks are great. The only thing I'd change with your set up is:

1) swap the canister for a surface skimming hang on the back like the Seachem Tidal filters. Easier to service and replace carbon. Less likely to get lazy and let it turn into a nitrate factory.

2) I would dose A/B. Monthly water changes will eventually not keep up with Ca/Alk demands.

 

[Timfish]

Thanks. The question is if I can keep it like this long term.

If thats what happens then I will only have softies ....I've had trouble dosing consistently in the past so I'd rather just skip it. Maybe a water change every 2 weeks would work.

I don't know what you're running in your canister filter but you might try using a calcium reactor media and add/replace small amounts each monthly cleaning. Now would be the time to start testing to see what you will need to do to maintain alklinity.

This still seems to be unknown by many aquarists but algae competes with corals for alkalinity. (HCO3)-, aka DIC (Dissolved Inorganic Carbon), aka Alkalinity, is essential for photosynthesis besides for building skeletons and it's possible for zooxanthellae to cause grwoth issues with their host corals. Algae can promote processes pathogenic to corals. Forest Rohwer's book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is an excellent, very readable introduction to the research showing how algae and labile DOC negatively affects corals.

I detest the terms "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies". These are jsut colloquial terms and have no relevance to the husbandry requirements corals have. Wright, et al, for example, showed not species but genotype specific responses to pathogens, one genotype will have very high resistance to pathogens while another genotype will hav little or no resistance. Some species/genotypes are found only with sibling species and consequently should only be housed in aquaria with species of their same genus and found in similar habitats. (Strawberry Shortcake acro is one example, in the wild 95% of the colonies are found only in the company of other acropora species.) J. E. N. Veron's books on corals shows with the larger genus some species can be cosmopolitan, some found only very specific conditions and some sibling species in a genus may live in mutually exclusive habitats and the terms "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies" have no relevance.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I do also hate using those generalized terms, but it makes writing simpler.

 

[shoelaceike]

What media is in the canister filter?

Sponges, filter floss, matrix and carbon. I also add phosgaurd sometimes

 

[shoelaceike]

Simple tanks are great. The only thing I'd change with your set up is:

1) swap the canister for a surface skimming hang on the back like the Seachem Tidal filters. Easier to service and replace carbon. Less likely to get lazy and let it turn into a nitrate factory.

2) I would dose A/B. Monthly water changes will eventually not keep up with Ca/Alk demands.

I've tried the tidal multiple times and do not like them. They are more noisy, the skimmer doesn't really work either. My canister has a surface skimmer on the intake.

 

[shoelaceike]

I don't know what you're running in your canister filter but you might try using a calcium reactor media and add/replace small amounts each monthly cleaning. Now would be the time to start testing to see what you will need to do to maintain alklinity.

This still seems to be unknown by many aquarists but algae competes with corals for alkalinity. (HCO3)-, aka DIC (Dissolved Inorganic Carbon), aka Alkalinity, is essential for photosynthesis besides for building skeletons and it's possible for zooxanthellae to cause grwoth issues with their host corals. Algae can promote processes pathogenic to corals. Forest Rohwer's book "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is an excellent, very readable introduction to the research showing how algae and labile DOC negatively affects corals.

I detest the terms "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies". These are jsut colloquial terms and have no relevance to the husbandry requirements corals have. Wright, et al, for example, showed not species but genotype specific responses to pathogens, one genotype will have very high resistance to pathogens while another genotype will hav little or no resistance. Some species/genotypes are found only with sibling species and consequently should only be housed in aquaria with species of their same genus and found in similar habitats. (Strawberry Shortcake acro is one example, in the wild 95% of the colonies are found only in the company of other acropora species.) J. E. N. Veron's books on corals shows with the larger genus some species can be cosmopolitan, some found only very specific conditions and some sibling species in a genus may live in mutually exclusive habitats and the terms "SPS", "LPS" and "Softies" have no relevance.

Well there are definitely differences between softies and stony corals. Besides the general water quality, softies do not consume calcium.

 

[shoelaceike]

Simple tanks are great. The only thing I'd change with your set up is:

1) swap the canister for a surface skimming hang on the back like the Seachem Tidal filters. Easier to service and replace carbon. Less likely to get lazy and let it turn into a nitrate factory.

2) I would dose A/B. Monthly water changes will eventually not keep up with Ca/Alk demands.

I actually tried running 2 penguin 350s for a week or 2. Not bad and easy to switch out media but definitely more noisy than my fluval canister. My tank is silent right now. Something I really like.

 

[dwair]

I actually tried running 2 penguin 350s for a week or 2. Not bad and easy to switch out media but definitely more noisy than my fluval canister. My tank is silent right now. Something I really like.

Silence is good! At the same time I like just a little bit of noise coming from my tank personally so I know its running LOL.

if its dead silent I'm like oh no, and scrambling to figure out why

 

[DeniseAndy]

Silence is good! At the same time I like just a little bit of noise coming from my tank personally so I know its running LOL.

if its dead silent I'm like oh no, and scrambling to figure out why

Just for fun...
Last night I was sitting near my large system when I heard water trickling. I was looking around frantically when I saw my daughter watering the houseplants. That is what I get for an almost silent system.

 

[shoelaceike]

Silence is good! At the same time I like just a little bit of noise coming from my tank personally so I know its running LOL.

if its dead silent I'm like oh no, and scrambling to figure out why

Lol. As long as I see the corals moving I know it's on