March is the time of year when I need to think about ordering a replacement metal halide bulb for my aquarium (~$75). Getting ready for that, I took a look at my Sunpod fixture ($300), and noticed that the bolts holding the glass shield in place had corroded quite a bit. There was a little salt creep edging in under it. Additionally, only 2 of the 12 LED moonlights still work.
Needless to say, I've been shopping around for a new fixture, although not seriously. The 30" length of my tank makes it nearly impossible to find a fixture with mounting legs. Sunpods no longer appear to be in production. A hanging fixture would be quite the hassle in a rental apartment, and I think it wouldn't hide the equipment on the rear of the tank as well.
So I started looking at LED fixtures. People have been having success with them on the forums. There are some interesting options available now. I'm looking at two in particular:
Eco-Lamps' KR92-30 fixture. ($1510 direct from Eco-Lamps).
The Eco-Lamps fixture was compared to a 250 watt halide, a six bulb T5 unit and a legacy LED fixture by Advanced Aquarist. The light output is impressive, rivaled only by the low energy use. It is pretty easy to do some napkin math around bulb and electricity costs of a metal halide lamp to "justify" the purchase of an LED unit. Someone should offer a tax break around this purchase.
I'm looking around for data on the Aqua Illumination fixture. The design and controller features are certainly more attactive than the Eco-Lamps model, and I like how it can be expanded with additional modules if I ever move to a larger tank. But it all comes down to light output.
As a follow up to a post in April, I recently converted the Aquaclear filter into an algae tumbler. Stocked with a small amount of live rock rubble and a large ball of Chaetomorpha algae, lit by a 15 watt compact fluorescent light. After adding this Algae on Thursday, testing for nitrates has indicated that the algae is effective: test results dropped to <5ppm from 20ppm last weekend.
If this continues to be successful, I'm going to look into a smaller LED light source for a more streamlined look. The current fixture splashes some of the warmer yellow colored light into the tank.
Another issue I've been dealing with is dropping pH, which has dropped below 8 at least twice in the past month. I've responded by adding Seachem Reef Buffer every other day, and increasing my testing. I've been considering adding a pH probe to my controller to make monitoring easier.
Just came in my email. A little cheesy and does absolutely nothing to tell me about the features, but it sure caught my interest. I'm really hoping this turns out to be something useful for the sumpless reef keeper!
Reef Builders appears to be on an enviable field trip to Live Aquaria's coral facility in Wisconsin. Having grown up around various aquaculture initiatives that my dad was involved with, I've got an appreciative eye for the fish lab. And you don't get much more high tech than Live Aquaria's coral setup.
Like the smart bloggers that they are, the trip has been broken up into a half-dozen bite sized posts. Here are my favorites:
I have made some small progress against the cyanobacteria, primarily through manual removal. And by manual, I mean scrubbing things with a tooth brush. The scarlet hermit crabs added recently showed absolutely no interest in consuming cyano, so I think we can safely say they are not to be considered an effective solution for those dealing with this problem. The snails that I added are doing well for the most part. Upon their introduction to the tank, Boris made his first appearance in months, immediately slaughtering a turbo snail and taking over the new, larger shell. Several other hermits followed suit.
Suffice to say, I could not rely on this half-assed janitorial crew to solve my problems. I half expect them to unionize and demand four day work weeks in the near future.
Although nitrates continue to test at or close to zero, my working assumption is that the algae is consuming these nutrients prior to testing. The rampant algae scrubbing I have been performing on a daily basis has led to a detritus build up that my filter capacity is simply not equipped to deal with. Regular turkey basting of all surfaces results in a cloud of debris, but my skimmer is not readily capable of dealing with the volume, especially in the larger form of snail poop and dead algae.
Water changes can be effective at removing debris, but I am hesitant to perform more than a small change each week. This is simply not enough turn over to remove all detritus from the tank. As such, I've decided to increase mechanical filtration.
The H.O.T. Magnum from Marineland is an interesting filter, specifically designed for powerful mechanical filtration in a temporary capacity. With standard filter pads, the detritus is trapped in the filter, and presumably broken down for bacteria to consume. I want to avoid a situation where mass amounts of organic material is broken down within the tank, as that would presumably create a rise in nitrates and dissolved matter, fueling algae growth.
The trick is to get this stuff out of the tank quickly. The Magnum filter includes a micron-sized filter core, surrounded by a larger filter pad. It is frequently used to polish the water of multiple aquariums, and is designed to be quickly and easily setup on the side of a tank for temporary filtration. My hope is that a daily ritual of scrubbing algae and basting the rock to suspend organic matter and waste, combined with this filter for quickly removing it, will get my tank back to a pristine state in a hurry.
Like everything else in my tank as of late, the Vortech MP20 is growing itself a fine outer layer of green algae in addition to the usual assortment of encrusting worms. Today I took it apart for a warm water and vinegar dip to loosen some of this stuff. For a refresher course on disassembly (actually very easy), I stopped by the EcoTech website.
I was pleased to see that at some point in the recent past, like Seachem, they entrusted their web presence to a competent design and development team. Great work on the site guys, and great job to EcoTech Marine for realizing how important the web is to emerging companies in this hobby. And bonus points for utilizing video in such a compelling way. Check out this wave:
Over the preceding two months I've noticed the nitrate levels in my reef tank creeping up from unmeasurable to 20ppm. I blame this squarely on a Glassbox post about fish being fed enough; worried that I was compelling my fish to be "coralexic", my tank has since become an all you can eat Chinese buffet. I believe the elevated nitrate level is responsible for some of my corals browning out. Also I've noticed a few strands of dreaded hair algae appearing within the tank, as well as increased diatoms on the glass of the tank.
My plan is to keep up with my weekly 5% water changes, and also to introduce a new form of nutrient export. If anyone has advice on the choices below, please volunteer your expertise in the comments. Also if you'd like to sign up to come over and do some of the water changes, please feel free.
Option 1: Convert Aquaclear filter into an algae scrubber
Originally I bought this filter with intent of modifying it into a refugium, filled with live rock rubble and chaeto. Since, I've been running a small amount of rubble and two bags of carbon. This option would involve adding a small light above the filter, installing a grate over the exit, and filling the filter with chaeto algae to remove nitrates.
Pros: cheap, fun project with existing equipment Cons: reduced volume of carbon, not enough volume for a useful quantity of algae
Option 2: Hang-on refugium
Although a real sump is out of the question for this tank, there are out of the box options for hang on refugiums. This would perform roughly the same function as a modified Aquaclear filter, but with a lot more volume. These things always struck me as somewhat gimmicky though. I would run mostly chaeto within the refuge, along with some sort of sand bed and live rock rubble.
Pros: More volume, greater biodiversity, out of the box solution Cons: Expensive, unsure of their effectiveness, possibility of flooding?
Option 3: Another solution? Larger skimmer to cut the problem off at the source? Less feeding? Better sand bed maintenance? Some sort of addition clean up crew? All of the above? Let me know what you think.
My shiny new Tunze nano skimmer arrived today. I'll share a few initial impressions, and write a more lengthy review once its been running for a week or so. Needless to say, I am thrilled to be getting rid of my finicky and flood-prone Coralife skimmer, and the tank already looks better.
Compare the giant, ugly hanging pump and return box:
To this small rectangle that practically disappears into my black background (right hand corner):
Some initial impressions:
Dead silent: my old skimmer made the living room sound like an aquaculture lab. Now all I can hear is the fans in my lighting fixture.
Easy installation: attach it to the side of the tank with a magnet, plug it in and adjust the air intake. Done.
Tiny footprint: I had to move my light fixture forward about an inch from where I normally keep it to accomodate the collection cup, but otherwise this unit is tiny and unobtrusive. Huge upgrade from what I had before.
When I created the initial equipment list for my reef aquarium, it was based entirely on research with zero real world experience. Parsing the forums and books, and with the previous knowledge from my planted tank days that buying the right equipment the first time was the most economical method, I put together a set of gadgets and equipment that I thought would be a good setup.
I got a few things right, primarily the lighting. My Coralife 65 skimmer however has always been a disappointment. It is finicky about water levels, prone to overflowing, and making me nervous to leave it running while out of the house. It is incredibly loud, aesthetically displeasing, and the performance is at best mediocre.
This evening while playing some video games, I heard a small dripping. For some reason, the vent in the output pipe was bubbling water instead of venting air, causing a slow drip down the side of the tank and onto the floor. Clutching a recently acquired Amazon gift card in my hand, I just placed an order for a Tunze Nanoskimmer which I hope will solve all these problems.
The Tunze Nanoskimmer is: - Reportedly quiet - A small, square footprint within the tank - A respect and well-known manufacturer - Entirely contained inside the tank, so that overflows would at worst return to the aquarium
I will report with setup and operation details when it arrives. In the meantime, if anyone wants to buy a very used Coralife 65 skimmer, I'll pay you to haul it away.
A little over a year ago, on my first trip to San Francisco, I stumbled into a temporary aquarium space for the California Academy of Sciences. They had an enormous, two-story coral reef setup, along with an aquaculture facility for propagating more corals. Talking with the staff informed me that the tank was a test to see if coral could be grown in captivity at extreme depths, and the propagation facility was for growing out colonies to populate a much larger tank that would be located in their permanent building, scheduled to open late in 2008.
Being out there for business this week, I took advantage of a few spare hours to get over and check out the finished tank. Unfortunately there wasn't much stocked in the form of corals yet. I'm not sure if they are adding species in slowly or what. There was an enormously large and diverse population of fish however, along with some other innovations. A large sand bed with a full grown mangrove tree was attached to the aquarium. A walled off section for sharks and rays, as well as a shallow lagoon area was also attached to the tank. The reef tank is impressive in size and ambition, but as all reef keepers know, it will take several years to reach it's true potential.
The california coast tank was also quite large, and featured an enormous wave box. From what was visible, it appeared to work on the same principal as the systems common to home aquarium. But check out the size of these waves:
My favorite section of the aquarium was the staff picks. Here small aquariums and terrariums were set into a wall, featuring a favorite species or biotope of each staff member. There was an incredible reef tank here, with a coral wall built along the left hand side leaving dramatic open space through most of the tank. Very cool.
Below are some photos I snapped, and there are a few more to be found on my Flickr account.
My favorite tank design:
Primary viewing window for the reef (there are several others):
Some of the reef lighting. There was another tier of lights above this, as well as natural sun lighting through the roof:
As noted earlier, I recently purchased a Reef Keeper II controller to help automate some functions within my tank. Last night it arrived and I got it hooked up. Initially I had some concerns about how so much functionality could be programmed using only a two line LCD screen and three buttons, but I have to say that I was very impressed with the intuitive nature of the Reef Keeper menu system. I had all my channels programmed and running in less than ten minutes. Having accurate temperature readings to the decimal point, and seeing it stay within a one degree range is also very nice.
Here is the mess of timers and power strips I ripped out of the stand:
And below is a shot of the finished install. I screwed the controllers and power strip into the stand, and did some cursory organization of the wires. As my equipment wiring is likely to change in the near future with the addition of a new light, I held off on permanently organizing the wires, but its a drastic improvement over what was in the stand before.
Current channel settings 1. Heater, off at 78.5F 2. Aquaclear Filter, always on, off during feeding mode 3. Vortech, always on (has its own controller) 4. Metal Halide, 3:30pm to 11:30pm, emergency off if temp exceeds 84F 5. Cooling Fans, on at 80.5F 6. Protein skimmer, always on, off during feeding mode 7. Unused 8. Moonlights, on at 11:00pm, off at 4:00pm
Reef Builders was having a contest to win a new light fixture; entry was as simple as leaving a comment on their blog. Shockingly, I actually won! This is great because:
1. I never win anything. 2. I had been thinking about getting this fixture anyway.
This is essentially the same light as my Sunpod, featuring a 150 watt metal halide, but with the addition of two actinic power compact bulbs for extra color and a more emphasized dawn/dusk effect. Additionally, with the hanging setup I will have more control over how high off the surface the light sits.
This should go very well with my new controller. What a great start to the new year!
Over the past few years I've learned about one of the secret joys of adulthood: the self-given Christmas present. This year I picked up a Canon G10 to replace my aging and broken Powershot (early results of learning its manual controls shown above). I also decided to get something I'd been looking at for awhile, the Reef Keeper 2 controller from Digital Aquatics.
Of course, as soon as I ordered it Reef Builders put up a post about the new Reefkeeper Lite controller coming out sometime this spring. I've been working with computers long enough to know that what meets your needs now is always more important than what might be coming out in the near future, but still funny.
The one problem I'm looking to solve with this controller is my fluctuating temperature. Living in an apartment without a thermostat can be frustrating with a reef aquarium. One would generally not expect to have problems with water going over 80F in New England during the winter, but radiators and smaller rooms can put you in a tough spot. With this controller, I will be able to activate a fan to begin cooling when water temps exceed 80F, and turn off the metal halide lighting if it goes over 83F. Hopefully it will also maintain more precise control over the heater as well.
I'm not exactly sure what other features will be of immediate use to me. The ability to quickly turn off filtration devices for feeding will be nice. I'll have to explore the possibilities when it arrives.
The first day of fall, and my first post in awhile. I have some topics from the summer I'd like to write about at length, including the loss of a few coral specimens, the acquisition of several new ones, and some changes to the equipment in the tank. These are summarized below and will be discussed in future posts, but first some new photos:
As mentioned earlier, this summer we moved to a new apartment in Harvard Square. Moving a reef tank is a challenge, and doing it during July does not help, but things came off without a hitch. I will attribute that to careful planning and a lot of luck. Here is the tank in our new living room:
I also recently switched from my Koralia 3 powerhead to a Vortech MP20, after reading many good things. I can vouch for all the positive reviews about this unit:
And some new corals:
Summer Loses I had a few coral losses related to one event this summer. We were in LA for a long weekend, and I did not leave the cooling fans running on my tank because of the rapid evaporation they cause. It had been as of late and didn't seem necessary. Apparently it was not so cool that particular weekend, and my corals suffered. I lost all but one polyp of my green zoas, and two of my fastest growing SPS colonies.
As a result of this, I'm currently planning on investing in a controller that will be able to accurately monitor the water temperature and turn the fan and heater on as appropriate, in addition to shutting down the metal halides as an emergency last step. At this point I am looking at the Reef Keeper II as the best option.
Changes in Equipment As mentioned above, I have moved to a Vortech MP20 to provide water flow. The corals and fish have become much more active with the improved water circulation, and the undertow has kept detritus from accumulating in places on the rock where it previously did.
Additionally, I've decided to stop my experiment with Zeovit. Because my tank is so sparsely stalked and has never had an issue with excess nutrients, it seemed unnecessary and potentially harmful to be running a powerful filtration option. I have switched my power filter back to running two bags of carbon and some live rock rubble.
New Species I've added several new animals to the tank over the summer. I have become quite interested in the large polyp stony corals and will be looking to get some more in the near future. • A pair of tank-bred clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris • Two peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni • Neon green trumpet coral, Caulastrea curvata • Brown and green candy cane coral, Caulastrea furcata • Yellow cup coral, Turbinaria peltata • Short tentacled plate coral, Fungia repanda
After a month of running zeovit filtration and supplements in my tank, I can finally remove myself from their exceptional marketing photos and take a look at what benefit it had provided for my tank. Given that my system and corals are still very young, its hard to draw any conclusive evidence. Further complicating the matter is that my tank has been quite healthy and algae-free since inception, and maintains a very low bioload (still only one fish). That said, I've noticed some nice coloration from all SPS species, especially my birdsnest which has taken a very bright pink coloration. Good polyp extension all around.
One thing the good people selling zeovit systems will impress upon you is that a special reactor is useful for running the filtration media. Giving the rocks a shake every day loosens the mulm that collects within the media, letting it drift into the system and feed the corals. I've found that for smaller tanks, running this media within a simple hang on filter, the Hagen Aquaclear, works just as well. This filter has a nice media basket with convenient handles at the top above the water surface. You can easily remove the top and give these a good shake to release a great cloud of organic filth for your corals to feast upon.
I've found the Aquaclear to be a great all-purpose filter. Currently I have a bag of activated carbon and a bag of liverock rubble running, with the rest of the space filled with approximately 1/3 liter of zeovit medium.
I've started reading yet another (RSS is a wonderful technology) online aquarium magazine, www.advancedaquarist.com. Informative and well researched articles from smart people is a great counterpoint to some of the things you read on internet forums.
Being a gadget lover, I'm always drawn to posts about reef keeping technology. The controllable Vortech pump should be a familiar item to anyone involved in keeping coral, but unless you've seen one in person its hard to understand just how powerful the pump is, and how minutely the controller allows you to tinker with water flow. Check out this article about defining waves in general, and making them with the Vortech.
Moving a tank is no different than moving the rest of your household: success requires careful planning, execution, and having the necessary materials on hand before begining. In July we will be facing this challenge when moving to a (fantastic) new apartment. Fortunately we have a month of overlap between leases, so a full day can be devoted directly to moving the tank without distraction.
Have freshly mixed saltwater on hand, both at the packing point and the destination. You'll want clean water to bag up your livestock in, and clean water to fill the new tank. Moving liverock and disturbing a sand bed will put a lot of detritus in the water, and you don't want things to sit in bags while your RO unit slowly makes new water. Stock up on supplies. Trash cans for moving water. Big tubs for your liverock, submerged. Bags for livestock, and coolers for them to be placed in. Towels, filling supplies, and everything else you might imagine you need. Making a trip to the store for extra containers while your reef is half packed will not be helpful, so get more than you'll need at the start.
I wanted to provide a quick update on my reef aquarium. For the most part things are doing well, and I feel like the tank has established a good rhythm. Water quality has been great, the firefish has been quite healthy, and a plethora of small invertebrates has been emerging from the live rock.
Coral Growth Of the ten coral specimens I've introduced to date, eight are doing great and showing good signs of growth. The Acropora millepora and tabling Acropora in particular have shown exceptional encrusting growth lately. The pink birds nest, Stylophora pistillata, has also been growing very fast.
Two species not doing well. The Pavona maldivensis has been pale and showing no sign of growth since within a few weeks of being introduced. I keep hoping it will come back, but it is seeming less likely with each passing week. More concerning is the recent demise of the Pocillopora damicornis. For the first month, this was my healthiest looking coral. Great color and polyp extension, and very obvious growth. One day it just started going down hill for no apparent reason, showing bleaching around the base which has since spread up into the branches. Some of the polyps still look healthy and extend to feed, but I fear there isn't much time left for this colony.
Flow Adjustments I decided that running two Koralia 3 pumps, 850 gallons per house each, was too much for this tank. Corals demonstrated stressed behavior in the powerful current. I have since cut back to running just one, with a Koralia Nano on the opposite side to keep detritus off the bottom of the aquarium. This seems to be working out well so far.
Zeovit Possibly suckered in by the great marketing photos on Zeovit USA, I've started to implement their system on my tank. Zeovit is a mineral that has been commonly used for filtration in commercial aquatic systems prior to becoming a trendy brand in the reef hobby. The pore density of zeovit makes it exceptionally good at filtering out ammonia, preempting the nitrogen cycle before it can occur. By removing the ammonia early in the cycle, bacteria never get a chance to convert it into nitrite, which eventually becomes nitrate.
Because of the sheer effectiveness of its ammonia removal, it is suggested that the reef keeper dose colonies of bacteria and bacteria food to keep the tank in a natural state. Conveniently, the provider of zeovit also makes these products. You can read more from the source in this PDF guide to the Zeovit filtration system.
To start, I've begun with ZEOBak bacteria solution, and the ZEOFood7 bacteria and coral food. I will slowly introduce the zeovite filtration material this coming week. There are a number of other supplements and foods in this product line that I have read good things about. Although too early to make any sort of useful evaluation, I've noticed the tank water appearing quite a bit clearer since the dosing start. Algae formation on the glass also appears to have been reduced quite noticeably. I like to pretend that the corals are beginning to color up and appear healthier as well, but that could just as easily be attributed to their finally becoming acclimated to the tank.
