[ldrhawke]

I rebuilt my 2 year old tank about 6 months ago because I was having a hair algae control problem. I was also having difficulty keeping nutrients low enough to have any real success with SPS.


There are several major changes in equipment and approach that I made that I am very pleased with. The photos speak for themselves about if it improved my reef keeping system.

I am not giving any single modification or change credit for the improvments and new ease in keeping my system.

1. Changed out my DSB and went BB. Installed a 1/2' thick black acrylic bottom. (see wrasse photo)
2. Modified and greatly improved my skimmer performance.
3. Added a bag filter system that all my tank over flow goes through. I change out a hand full of polyester floss I put into the bags every couple of days as it becomes full of detrius.
4. I dose 2ml of vodka into the bags daily
5. Every 4 hours for 20 minutes a large capacity recirculation pump turns on and mixes all the waste off of the bottom so it overflows into the filter bags. For about a minute while the pump is running automatically an air stone is turned on which puts fine bubbles into the pump inlet.

This makes for a brief period of white foam froth through out the tank, like a heavy wave action would do. The bubbles attach themselves to the stirred up waste and float it to the top to be overflowed. Also, I was pleasently surprised to see what the bubbles did to the SPS, alot of the SPS slime is removed by the bubbles and floats over the top. ( I have a heavy fish load...15 fish in a 50 gal tank)

A few controversial things.

I am sure I will get both positive and negative comments. It has been in place for 6 moths and the tank and coral growth has never been better. Some of my SPS have nearly doubled in size in three months, and the color is great. I had a new blue Acro tort arrive dark brown last week and it turned blue in a week. I no longer have algae problems, the live rock is now covered with coraline, and the tank bottom is always clean. I simply make 20% water changes every two weeks, and unless I see a sign of stress, I no longer do any water analysis testing.

[ldrhawke]

Before anyone asks about skimmer modification.......

[ldrhawke]

sorry for double post

[Reefland]

That is a very nice looking tank. I like the BB approach in a small tank where cleaning the bottom is possible without having to spend lots of time. We are BB in our 75 and it was a nice change to not have to owrry about sand storms with 40X turnover rate.

[Samper]

I agree, this is an awesome looking tank, house and skimmer .

Barebottom is nice.. More and more people are going to it and I'll admit I have no problems with a barebottom as far as algaes go or the general happiness of my corals. I will add that I've never used a sandbed until recently so I have nothing to compare BB to. It's in a small 5g and I don't think it'll be functional but I just wanted to try one out.

I don't think it's an issue that you don't test your water unless you see a problem. I'll admit to not testing very often. I think It's all part of what you like about the hobby. Some people test all the time and are on top of every little number and some don't. I've seen very nice systems from both worlds.

The mods you mentioned all sound pretty sweet to me. I'd really like to see a picture of #5 in your list.

I've read about the use of Vodka but can't understand it fully. Could you perhaps explain the benefit and your observations from using it?

[ldrhawke]

Originally Posted by Samper

...........
The mods you mentioned all sound pretty sweet to me. I'd really like to see a picture of #5 in your list.

I've read about the use of Vodka but can't understand it fully. Could you perhaps explain the benefit and your observations from using it?

I'll see if I can snap a few photos to help you visualize #5 better later.

Vodka dosing has been around for awhile, mainly in Europe, and is still controversial; but isn't everything in reef keeping. The principle is simple. When you have excess nitrogen and phopshate in you tank, by adding a clean carbon source like Vodka, the bacteria growth is stimulated and uses up the nitrogen and phosphate. The bacteria in the water column is skimmed out by using a good skimmer, and the nitrogen and phopshate is removed. Does it work.yes......look below. This is a graph for nitrate and phopshate reduction while dozing vodka.




What is the risk. Well actually a lot of over the counter reef tank chemicals and additives sold to reduce nitrates and phosphates, and also encourage bacteria growth in a new tank; are basically sugar or ethanol alcohol (vodka).

There is a real risk of using too much and causing a bacteria bloom, just as if something died in the tank, causing a depletion of oxygen and the damage that it could cause. But, over dozing almost anything, even SG or temp swings, can cause problems in a reef tank.

I use 1ml Vodka / 25 G of tank capacity per day and have never had a problem. The bacteria bloom is almost immediate. Within a few hours in a dirty tank you will see a slight white bacteria film formed on the tank walls. My tang loves to eat the bacteria off the walls. I would start with half the dose and work up full dose over a week. If the tank clouds slightly reduce or skip dosing.

I've using it my system for over a year, primarily to keep SPS, and firmly believe it helps in keeping nitrates and phopshates low. It is a common way to increase bacteria in waste water treatment plants. I don't see any risk, as long as you don't trip and dump the whole bottle in.

While your dosing, dose yourself with a shot and your tank will look better even quicker........

[ldrhawke]

My clowns after getting high on Vodka......... :slap:

[saltjunkie]

nice pics.. and the vodka think, is very interesting.....

[ldrhawke]

Originally Posted by Samper

I agree, this is an awesome looking tank, house and skimmer .
.................... I'd really like to see a picture of #5 in your list.
...............?

I just posted this on another list:

As all SPS reef keepers have experienced when doing a water change, I noticed how the change and bubbles occuring during a water change often caused SPS slime to collect bubbles and sluff off and float to the top of the tank and over the overflow. I made the following changes to take advantage of this as a method to more effectively remove SPS slime. The slime is basically SPS waste, and I assumed more frequent and positive removal of slime would only benefit SPS growth and propagation. Much like high and random water flow does.

In addition to my normal over flow system and circulation. I installed a 3000gph recirculating pump, which gives nearly 60 water changes an hour. It appeared continuous operation was too high a flow rate so I set it up to cycle. I noticed everytime it started up it would throw out air bubbles and some of the bubbles attached to the SPS slime, causing the slime to float off the SPS.

I experimented and injected air bubbles into the pump return, which caused the tank to turn white with air bubbles. The air bubbles floated away a lot of SPS slime. I have automated it now to act similar to what happens in a tidial wave action on a reef.

Every 4 hours the heavy recirculation comes on for 20 minutes. The tank is briskly stirred up from the increased flow. I have a bare bottom so the heavy flow picks a lot of fish waste off the bottom and puts it into suspension. Next, automatically an air pump is turned on for a minute and injects air into the recirculation system.

The brief heavy foam is probably similar to what some coral may see from breaking waves. During this 20 minute period and lot of SPS slime is removed, as well as waste off the bottom that gets air bubbles attached to it and floats it to the surface and over the overflow. Obviously, the timing and frequency can be changed. I look at the resultant action and cleaning to simply be closer duplicating what a lot of coral see on a reef.

I have been doing this for 6 months and only see positive results from doing it. I added a bag filter to remove the increased waste load daily that over flows the tank. After you see all the waste that collects in the filter bag, it is easy to understand how this may help to remove a lot on N & P waste and help to maintain low nutrient levels. It does a great job of removing SPS slime and reduces the need for continous heavy random flow. In addition, it will save on the power bill.

Food for thought.....comments.


Periodic heavy flow and air injection

[vtec si]

WOW, awsome sps tank! More pic's, more pic's, more pic's!

Keep up the good work!

Martin

[Samper]

I reworked my aquascape today and in doing so disturbed some of my sps and they slimed up a bit. I taped an airline hose to my turkey baster, turned on an air pump and stuck the end of the hose right into the inlet of one of my powerheads.....I had billions of micro bubbles within seconds. Within a minute they were clinging to the slime and within 5 minutes was physically pulling the slime off. My skimmer definately is working right now pulling that junk out.

Here's some pics during the process. Will get some more after everything clears up. Mine is pretty ghetto but I'm gonna incorporate this into my system when I figure out exactly how. ldrhawke....good idea for sure.

[Samper]

I don't wanna hijack your thread but I've been using the air/slime removal system for a while now. I'm just curious what exactly this slime is composed of? Are the bubbles stressing them? Is this slime a bad sign? I think not since there would be bubbles from waves breaking on the reef but don't know for sure. I wonder if removing more slime than the corals have grown used to means that they need to feed more...polyp extension seems to be better during both day and night after starting this. I'm not gonna go extreme and automate it right now cause it's an easy thing to do but I am gonna keep doing it once daily. If I miss a day no big deal I don't think. Could someone explain what's going on in a scientific manner to me plz?