Jessezm's quest for SPS colors/growth (blog)

[jessezm]

Okay, I thought I would start this publicly in case it is a benefit to anyone else thinking about these issues. All this talk lately on SPS coloration, growth, and health has really been fortunate timing, as these things have been on the top of my mind lately now that my tank is really settling in.

This is going to be an ongoing "blog," so pardon my wordiness, and feel free to tag along, chime in, or whatever...

My goal is to do my best to catalogue my system, what goes in (and comes out), and follow my quest to achieve brilliance in my SPS and all other corals.

Unfortunately, nothing in my whole tank is based on entirely one theory, as I find many condraticting theories out there that argue for more light, less light, more nutrients, fewer nutrients, more additives, fewer additives, and so on.

Reading this thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1086412">http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1086412</a> got me really intrigued about the possibilities of increasing SPS feeding with the addition of amino acids and a carbon source for nitrate reducing bacteria.

However, Dana Riddle's lecture on coral coloration, coupled with some other articles (Borneman) on the cyclical nature of this hobby's trends and "miracle" discoveries have introduced a healthy skepticism. And so it is with this lense that I embark on a multi-front campaign to make my tank look, well, better.

 

[jessezm]

First, a little about my tank:

It's a 200g corner pentagon, 30" high, acrylic tank with a 40g sump.

Lighting: 8 X T5s overdriven with IC660 ballasts, and 2 VHOs for actinic supplementation

Filtration: I have an 8"X30" custom skimmer--sort of a clone of a deltec 851 with an OR3700 recirculating meshwheel pump. It pulls about 900lpm of air, but the neck is a little narrow and I'm looking into other options.

I also run and Ozone generator (aquamedic 300), a phosban reactor with GFO, a bag of purigen and sometimes a polyfilter as well. No carbon so far.

Other Biofiltration includes about 200+lbs of liverock and 100lbs of live sand (shallow sandbed--about 2")

Circulation: I have two Dart 3600gph pumps--one for recirculation, and one on a closed loop with an oceanmotions 4-way, vesion 3 drum (flow through two front returns, then two back returns)

I also have just installed a chiller and brought the temps down from 86 to 81.

Other equipment includes a schuran jetestream 1 calcium reactor and an ATO system that doses kalkwasser from a topoff bucket (thinking about updating this system, too.)

 

[wbholwell]

I look forward to following this, Jesse. One question: how do you intend to measure results? Photographs every month using the same camera settings?

 

[jessezm]

As far as the tank inhabitants go, here's a list:

Fish:
4 various Fairy wrasses
3 bartlett anthias
1 small hippo tang
1 LARGE dussumeiri tang (going to a new home soon)
pair of watanabei angels
pair of ocellaris clowns
1 timor wrasse
1 psuedo chromis
1 mandarin goby
1 orange spot watchman goby

Inverts include:
3 tridacna clams (2 croceas and a large derasa)
1 fire shrimp
3 peppermint shrimp
5 emerald crabs
bunches of other snails, hermits, and a few conchs
1 large BTA

Corals include:
Large candy cane
Frogspawn
acanthestrea
zoanthids
GSP
mushrooms
hydnophora
montipora (9 different species)
acropora (stags, tabling, millis)
birdsnest

That gives you a general sense. My goal is an SPS dominant tank with large colonies and LE montiporas encrusting the empty spaces. Also, nice zoas and LPS in the bottom half of the tank.
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[jessezm]

wbholwell;85505 wrote: I look forward to following this, Jesse. One question: how do you intend to measure results? Photographs every month using the same camera settings?

That's going to be the hard part. Yes, photos of course, and whatever other means I (or you) can think of. I must reiterate that this will NOT be a scientific study by any stretch--just my own observations. there are no controls, no real baseline (given I've already started making changes, which I will discuss below in more detail...)

This is just good old, well-intentioned, experience driven, psuedoscience (if you could even call it that!)

 

[jessezm]

My tank has been up and running since late March of this year, so that puts it right at 6 months old. My levels have all been fairly steady at:

Temp (only in the past week): 81 f
pH: 8.05-8.24 (high and low for the past two weeks off my ACjr data log)
CA: 480-520ppm with Salifert kit
Alk: 10.2-11.0 with Salifert kit
NO3: undetectible with Salifer kit
PO4: undetectible with Hach kit (though I know it's there since I have some hair algae and cyano...)

 

[jmaneyapanda]

Jesse, do you really need the chiller to bring the temp down? Running T5s, I wouldve thought your temp would run reasonably low without purposeful intervention. I assumed (likley incorrectly) that you were intending to run high temps previously.

 

[jessezm]

As far as husbandry goes, I test every week for CA, ALK, NO3, and PO4, though I'm sometimes a little lax...

Normal routine is feeding 2-3X per day (I'm out of PE mysis, but that's what I usually use, plus once with New Life Spectrum pellets and once with Nori). Since I've seen some small patches of cyano, and large patches of hair algae, I've cut back a little

I change water sporatically, but when I do, it's either 40 or 80 gallons.

I also just started using GFO, and since last week's chiller addition, 80g water change, and the nightly addition of seachem reef plus aminos, I have noticed some acros coloring up nicely. This is partailly why it will be hard to say what has affected what... but I am going to document what I do anyhow!

 

[jmaneyapanda]

oh yeah, and by the way
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[tsciarini]

I'm seeing alot of heat coming out of a pair of 3600GPH pumps (plus whatever he's using on the skimmer). Also with kids, I can imagine that the house probably isnt kept like an icebox (like my apartment is).

 

[jessezm]

jmaneyapanda;85519 wrote: Jesse, do you really need the chiller to bring the temp down? Running T5s, I wouldve thought your temp would run reasonably low without purposeful intervention. I assumed (likley incorrectly) that you were intending to run high temps previously.

High temps have been a major pain all summer, and have led (I think) to some nice monti's bleaching. I thought that with T5's and all external, efficient pumps, that temp would not be a problem. I was wrong. The Darts actually run pretty hot in my opinion. And I just read and interesting post (don't know if it's true) about how T5's aren't all that much better than MHs, since the heat is spread over a wide surface area, rather than a point source. In the end, it's still 3 IC660 ballasts, which are 440watts each...

I haven't really employed active evaporative cooling because I don't want my house to feel like Bolivia. It would just bring back too many haunting memories...

 

[jessezm]

jmaneyapanda;85521 wrote: oh yeah, and by the way

Patience, I'm getting to it!!!!!

 

[jessezm]

Well, I'm trying to upload, but it looks like I'm having trouble becuase I haven't paid my dues... How soon can I get this taken care of, Tony??? I'll send in my dues NOW.

 

[jessezm]

Photo journal of progress:

Conceptualization to realization:
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[tsciarini]

lol... looks like you figured it out. :thumbs:

 

[jessezm]

Amazing how far a little money goes... More pics on the way! LOTS!

 

[jessezm]

The set up
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[jessezm]

Canopy lift (2X 400lb linear actuators and 4X heavy duty rail slides)
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[tsciarini]

<<insert annoying post in the middle of all the pictures>>

 

[jessezm]

Plumbing...
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