Tank Maintenance/Husbandry

[izib]

With all of the talk of coral coloration, lights, feeding, etc. I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on this. Not to mention I'm looking to place a large order of supplies and any advice would be great!

I'll start it off-
How large is your tank?
How often/how much do you do water changes?
What do you test for?
Do you dose anything?
Do you use any type of filter?
What type of lighting and how long are they on?
How often do you change your bulbs?
How often and what do you feed?
What type of flow?
What type of tank do you have?
Are you happy with your coral color?
Are you happy with your coral growth?
How often do you clean your glass?
Anything else?

My answers (I promise I'm trying to get better!)
How large is your tank?
- 90gal with 75gal sump
How often/how much do you do water changes?
- monthlish I do 12 gallons (planning to do about 20 gallons weekly)
What do you test for?
-ph and temp automated, occasionally calcium, no3/4, phosphate, Alk
Do you dose anything?
- Not really (debating this now), I do have a CA reactor running 24/7
Do you use any type of filter?
- Skimmer and sponge with occasional carbon
What type of lighting and how long are they on?
- 2 250watt Ushio 10k mh (10 hours a day) and 2 VHO actinic (12 hours a day). I am changing to the XM 10k bulbs
How often do you change your bulbs?
- I replace with mhs yearly and the VHO when it starts to look bad (3ish years).
How often and what do you feed?
- Every other day, frozen mysis, sometimes with garlic. seaweed when I remember
What type of flow?
- 600gph return, 2 korlia 4s, 3 mj 1200s
What type of tank do you have?
- SPS, LPS, Soft
Are you happy with your coral color?
- No, everything looks washed out.
Are you happy with your coral growth?
- Yes and no. SPS are growing very well, Softies seem to be stagnant.
How often do you clean your glass?
- weekly but it really needs cleaned every 2 days
Anything else?
- I left out my params as I'm not home.

 

[dannybradley]

I'm too busy making other people's tanks perfect to have one of my own running.
-Mine was a 75 gallon with 20 gallon sumps and two skimmers.
-20%-30% biweekly, unless larger is needed.
-pH, KH, NH3, NO2, NO3, PO4, SG, temp, Mg, and Ca routinly.
-I dose depending on the need of the tank. Seachem Reef Complete, Iodide, Magnesium, and buffers are the main lines.
-I run application specific filters as needed, but every tank is different. I'm heavy biological and mechanical. I run Seachem Matrix carbon and Purigen for water clarity as needed.
-I was running two 250w Hamilton 10ks SE halides, 2 110w VHO 440 actinics, and one 20w actinic NO for nightlighting.
-Halides every 8-12 months, VHOs every 6 months, PCs and T5s every 12 months.
-Several times a day, overyday, every other day, not on weekends.. it depends on where the tank is and what the stock is.
-I like heavier system pump flow to reduce the need for powerheads. I max out my overflows and target dead spots with Koralias or Tunzes.
-Mine was SPS, LPS, and softies.
-Very happy with the color.
-I was until I moved the tank 3 times.
-I clean the glass when the snails don't.

 

[jetchris]

good idea izib !

90g and 24g

20g water change on the 90 and 5g water change on the 24g once every 2 weeks

test for nitrated once a month

pool calcium and alkalinty buffer
octopus dnw200 , filter sock , fuge
MH 9 hrs a day
feed 1 a day brine or pellets , and nori

iwaki return pump 800g ph and 2 ea nano streams
dont know who makes the tank ?? not aga
yes
yes
once a week