As promised I am starting my series of “mini-posts” to add some updated info on what’s been going on with my tank and the addiction hobby during my long absence from posting here.

I thought I’d start with the topic of water changes.  Many a debate can and has been had over this subject.  While most of us do them as a part of our regular tank maintenance, there are many differing opinions and approaches.  Personally I’ve tried everything from daily, to weekly, monthly and even semi-annual.  While they all worked, hands down the small daily water change has shown the most effective for coral health in my system.  Some of you may have read my post a while back about the automated system I set up to do these small daily water changes.  In a nutshell it’s a large reservoir I mix and hold saltwater in.  I use a small pump on a digital timer to deliver about 3 gallons of this new saltwater each morning to the display tank.  In turn this displaces the same amount of water in the sump which is forced out of the overflow I installed.  Presto, water change is done before I’m even out of bed.  All I have to do is refill the reservoir with RO/DI water and add the appropriate amount of salt every 10 days or so.  I used this system for quite a while with excellent results.  Then, one day I got a wild hair, decided I wasn’t vacuuming the sand-bed enough, and so turned the automated system off and started doing manual 10% or so water changes every 7-10 days.  This allowed me to vacuum the sand at the same time I was doing the water change.  I know, I know, why take something that is nearly completely automated and working well and go backwards with it.  Well, it did actually prove educational in a good way.  I can’t say that my coral health suffered per se with the weekly 10% method, but after going back to this method for a while I did see a slight decline in color and polyp extension.  So, I set back up the automated system and went back to the daily 3 gallon water changes.  With-in just a few weeks the change was obvious.  Polyp extension returned to the crazy level it was before and some of the corals that colors had faded a bit began to regain color.  My take on this is that the small daily water changes do a better job of replenishing and maintaining trace elements at proper levels.  Of course the other side of water changes is the removal of excess nutrients, and the daily method doesn’t do quite as good a job at this.  However, I have a large skimmer, a turf scrubber and I’m careful with my feeding; as such nutrients don’t seem to be an issue for me.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  There are lots of ways to achieve the same goal in this hobby.  I also realize that having a basement fish room gives me tons of space for my equipment that might make this method impractical for many people.  That said, for my system this method clearly yields results I’ve been unable to duplicate with any other method…and not having to lug buckets of water around every week is nice too!

Oh, and that deal with vacuuming the sand.  I still feel the need to vacuum the accumulated detritus and other gunk out of the sand-bed every few weeks.  Being a die-hard DIY’er I devised a system that allows me to use my gravel vac to siphon into a filter sock in a bucket and then pump the water back into the display.  So now I can have my cake and eat it too!

I like to always include a photo with each post.  Truth is, I havn’t taken many new ones lateley.  So I leave you with a FTS from a few weeks ago.

Happy Reefing!

…Well almost.  Let’s say back from the dead of winter!  As I type this today’s expected high temperature will only be in the single digits and there is nearly 3 feet of snow drifted up on my back deck.  Winter is here with a vengeance.  I doubt I have any loyal readership left as it’s been so long since my last post.  Things have been hectic in my world.  Some of you may know I’ve been rehabbing houses for the last few years.  Getting this last house finished and on the market was a real challenge.  I’m happy to report the house is under contract and will be making someone a new home very soon.

Since most of you that read this are undoubtedly reef addicts like me, I’ll dispense with any further dribble about my personal life and jump straight back into my tank.  While there haven’t been any real drastic changes the tank is doing awesome.  Rather than one long post detailing various aspects of how the tank is doing, I think I’ll post several short posts, each from a specific aspect.

For now I’ll leave you with a recent photo of the tank from across the room:

Happy Reefing!

So what is this algae turf scrubber (or ATS for short) DIY project that I mentioned in a previous post you ask?  In short it’s a type of filter or means of nutrient export.   The theory is to create an area where algae will grow at a rapid rate thus taking up nutrients in the water.  These excess nutrients can cause unwanted algae growth in the display tank, or at high enough levels even create a less than ideal environment which could cause coral health to suffer.  The nutrients absorbed into the growing tissue of the algae are removed from the system when the algae is “harvested”.

Algae turf scrubbers are quite simple but need a few things to work.  Basically, we are trying to replicate a “surf” environment with flow that allows for high oxygen levels and intense direct lighting in the 6500K or natural daylight spectrum.  This is actually my second ATS build.  The first used a “surge” device to mimic surf/wave action, but had some downfalls that caused me to dismantle it and call it a failure.

The basic ATS concept has been around for decades, but the design I’ve worked off this time is a new twist.  The “growing surface” is plastic canvas that can be found in any craft store/craft department. The basic structure is built from PVC pipe and the plastic canvas is fitted to a piece of pipe with a long thin slot in it.  This slot allows a sheet of water to constantly cascade down the canvas.  All of this is mounted inside a container (in my case a Rubbermaid “box”) which contains any splashing and directs the water back to the sump.  Lighting is achieved using two 6500K CFL flood lights.  Using two allows both sides of the screen to be lit, effectively doubling the algae growing surface.

This photo shows roughly one weeks growth.  I remove the screen every 7-10 days and take it to the sink where I scrape most of the algae off using a plastic kitchen spatula.  The nutrients that have been taken up by the algae have now been removed from the system and there is enough algae still attached to the plastic canvas to start the next “crop” growing.

So is this contraption a success this time around.  Well, it’s really too early to say (remember that old saying “nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank?).  At the very least it’s growing algae very well so I think it must be having some positive impact on nutrient control.

Happy Reefing!

The only new inhabitant in my tank in quite a long time (see post below about family health issues, lack of money, etc.)  is a Blue Hippo Tang.  I was able to score this specimen by trading in $100 worth of Pom Pom Xenia frags to one of my local fish stores.  Don’t worry, while this was an expensive fish I also picked up a few other fish for my wife’s and kid’s tanks out of that credit.  As is typical with most all tangs, this one came with a parasitic infection know as Ich.  Ich is really a term the made it’s way over from freshwater fish keeping.  Marine Ich, while similar in appearance, is actually a critter called Cryptocaryon irritans. Tangs are well known for being more susceptible to this parasite than most other marine fish, and while it’s a normal part of life in the wild, the stress of being caught, transported and acclimated to captive life almost always compromises the immune system enough that they succumb to a full blown infection.  I’ll post more on my thoughts about Marine Ich and how to best battle it in an upcoming post.  For now, I’m happy to say that the infection seems gone (at least visually) and the fish is eating like a pig.

While I love the movie “Finding Nemo”, this fish will NOT be named Dory!  I refer this him simply as “big blue”.  While I’m attached to all my fish, this one is quickly becoming a favorite.  I’ve always loved the intense blue coloration and they have a fun, if somewhat awkward personality.  I’ve had limited success keeping this type of fish in the past, and have never been able to get beyond the stage of the first few days (I think I’ve been unlucky with a couple of less than healthy specimens to start with), so I’m cautiously optimistic about how well this one is doing.

Happy Reefing!

Well, yet again this blog is lacking in new posts!  My wife’s health and other life issues have kept me away from adding posts.  With all the goings on in my life and the subsequent lack of funds, there have been no major changes to the the tank.  OK, I did build a an ATS (Algae Turf Scrubber) but I’ll have to post more on that some other time.  That said, the tank is doing very well.  I’ve been keeping up with basic husbandry and all the inhabitants are looking super healthy.  Everything is showing good growth and while I wish I had some really cool new corals to share with you I really can’t complain as I’m very happy with how the tank is looking. 

Happy Reefing!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? Don’t bother trying to answer that. I’ve always had a love for all types of photography so I am going to inflict my amateur video skills on you anyway. With today’s digital cameras and editing software making your own movie is easier than ever. Of course tying to shoot stills let alone video through glass into a brightly lit tank isn’t the easiest task. Trying to get focus, white balance, colors, etc. even close to right is quite a challenge when shooting fish tanks, but after a few hundred tries I’ve come up with enough footage for a short movie of my 125g reef tank setup. OK, so my family doesn’t think seven minutes is “short”; you can always fast forward if you get bored! So, without further ado, I present my best attempt to date.

The info below originated from a thread on thereeftank.com about deep sand beds…most of the info was originally supplied by a user who goes by the name Elegance Coral. Some of it has been paraphrased here and there to fit into this article. “EC”, as he is known to many, is well respected for his research of captive marine animals. Not only has he spent years working on the long term sustainability of Elegance corals (hence his user ID), but also researches captive breading methods of various coral species and marine fishes.  I’m not sure EC is really a proponent of deep sand beds, but at least we seem to share the same ideas on their myths and what it takes to successfully maintain one.  Thanks EC for doing the bulk of the typing here so all I have to do is cut and paste and add a picture or two!

As with every thing else in this hobby, there are benefits and draw backs to using sand as the substrate in a reef tank. Much like the great lighting debates there are die hard DSB (deep sand bed) people and die hard BB (bare bottom) people, so depending on who you talk to you’ll get a lot of conflicting information. When DSB systems became popular many people jumped on the bandwagon of the latest craze and followed the rule of the day. This rule was that you are not allowed to disturb the sand. However, after several years of accumulating detritus in the sand, problems begin to arise. Corals stop growing (or even die), nuisance algae begins to take over, and the overall health of the system plummets. A BB person tells them that it’s the sands fault, so it should all be removed. In the process of removing the sand the whole system gets a good cleaning. The surviving corals bounce back, coralline algae begins to cover surfaces that were once dominated by hair algae, and a new BB person is born. This scenario plays over and over again in this hobby. Was it truly the sands fault though??? No, of course not, but the sand gets the blame. Several years of accumulated detritus was the real problem. The detritus was removed along with the sand which is why these systems improve.

The real problem here is that popular thinking about DSB husbandry is greatly flawed. It is believed that the hobbyist should not disturb a DSB, but rather you should have tons of critters that are constantly disturbing the sand for you. Many false explanations have been offered up for why we should not disturb a sand bed. One of them is that we can release harmful or even toxic substances from the sand. Well, guess what, there is no invisible barrier between substances in the sand and the rest of the system. If harmful substances are building up in the sand, it will only be a short matter of time before they begin effecting the rest of the system. The only cure for this problem is to keep the sand clean so that problem causing substances don’t have a chance to accumulate. In other words, break out the gravel vac and disturb that sand bed.

Another part of the DSB myth that people buy into is that critters can keep a sand bed clean. This is impossible! It takes a lot of detritus to support a relatively small population of detritivores. Sure there are some animals that can help stir and clean a sand bed, but they also leave a lot behind and in the end they are only breaking things down into smaller pieces. A small amount of this may be removed by filtration and/or skimming, but in the grand scheme of things most of this waste is still not going to leave system.

Then there is the whole oxygen gradient setup that will get disturbed if you mess with a sand bed. It is true, the lower areas of a DSB are home to denitrifying anaerobic bacteria, but should we really be concerned about disturbing this? Not in my opinion. Bacteria are very resilient organisms. If they weren’t companies like Clorox and Lysol would be out of business in very short order. We are not going to kill off all the bacteria in a sand bed simply by vacuuming it with a gravel vac. Sure, some of the bacteria will be displaced, but with the vast population of bacteria in a mature sand bed, they will recover very quickly.

I heard another theory that you will need stronger lights in a system that contains a DSB. I believe this is false as well. You do need stronger lights in a dirty system. The presence of a sand bed does not necessarily equate to a dirty system. Dirty sand beds can raise the level of particulate and dissolved substances in the water that block out light, causing the need for stronger lighting. In a clean DSB tank the corals are elevated closer to the lights, reducing the amount of light needed. The bottom of BB tanks generally get covered in dark colored coralline algae and other organisms that don’t reflect much light. Clean white sand reflects a great deal of light. This further reduces the amount of lighting needed. So in my opinion, a properly maintained DSB system would need less lighting than a BB tank.

The benefits to having a DSB include the fact that they do supply an environment for denitification, less lighting may be needed, many of the critters we keep do much better when sand is available and many people find them visually superior to BB. This last one is a biggie for me. All the places I’ve been or seen that have coral reefs all have beautiful soft white sand bottoms. For most of us, myself included, keeping a reef tank is an attempt to mimic the mesmerizing beauty of what God has created in the natural reefs of the world. To me not having sand would be like not having rock or water. It’s just a part of what makes a reef tank look natural.

Now, with all that said, there are some major draw backs to DSB systems. They are much harder to keep clean. In fact, it’s almost impossible to keep the sand clean when rocks are stacked on top of it. Dirty sand beds are a ticking time bomb. In time they will distroy the health of the system, especially if stony corals are a major part of the system. Even well maintained DSB’s will eventually need to be replaced. Bare bottom systems, when set up properly, are much easier to maintain. In a super high flow stoney coral dominant tank they practically clean themselves.

I personally have sand dwelling anemones and other animals that I would not dream of keeping without a DSB. In the end, it all boils down to personal preference, but regardless of what type of system you run, it must be kept clean.

Happy Reefing!

So we all love to look at pictures right?  And those of us addicted to the reef hobby seem to be able to surf the web for hours looking at pictures of other peoples tanks.  I must admit that although I consider myself a complete novice, I do enjoy the challenge of trying to capture good photos of the underwater animals I keep.  Thank goodness for digital cameras though as I only get one good shot for every 50 or so I take.

Anyway, I just perused the bazillion or so photos I have on my computer and uploaded all the more recent ones that I thought were good enough to share.  So feel free to head on over to the gallery and take a look at the new photos.

Happy Reefing!

So my family had just finished watching a movie the other night and we are sitting around chatting before we get ready for bed, when we hear this “poof,  poof” sound. My wife says it sounds like the dog (who is outside) coughed or something. One of my kids gets up and walks by the tank and says it smells like “that electrical stink”. I opened all the doors to the stand and don’t see or smell anything, then go down to the basement where my sump and most of the equipment reside. There is a faint haze in the air and the definite smell of an electrical fire. What I found was the somewhat makeshift wiring on my frag tank light apparently had enough salt creep (and it was not really very much mind you) to cause an arc between the prongs on one of the plugs.  What we heard was the two arcs.  It wasn’t enough to even damage the light, only to char the plug and the plumbing right above it, but it got my attention none the less.

Let this serve has a healthy reminder for all of us with tanks to take a moment to check/clean excess salt creep from around any electrical connections.

I might add that I am a former safety compliance person, and while the extension cord you see  is not a good idea, it had no bearing in the cause of this problem.  My tank has a titanium grounding probe and is on it’s own dedicated GFCI circuit.  Those things should keep me and my livestock from getting shocked, but unfortunately have very little effect on “across the line” arcs.  The only protection from arcing (and potentially a fire started by said arcing) are the new Arc Fault Interupter Circuit breakers (aka AFCI’s).  A bit costly, but something I may look into in the near future.

Happy (and safe) reefing!

Well all the little things in life that keep us busy have certainly caused me to neglect my blog entries for a while.  The good news is that life is going well both with the tank and also the other things in life.

The tank is stable and really very little has changed.  I moved the clam up onto a rock a little higher in the tank, it looks awesome there and has grown quite a bit.  The Condy anemone was causing problems with some of it’s neighbors but conveniently moved it’s foot just enough I could relocate it rock and all to where the clam used to be.  It actually get’s a bit more light there and seems very happy. One other change has been the food I’m feeding. A local reefer makes a frozen concoction called “Black Jack Reef Crack”. I won’t even begin to list all the ingredients, but suffice to say it has just about everything needed for corals and fish, and it stinks to high heaven so it must be good stuff, LOL!

To close I’ll add a new full tank shot.  I still have trouble getting a FTS that I’m happy with.  The colors and the contrast always seem to be an issue, but this one isn’t too bad.

Happy Reefing!