Kaos
04/15/2007, 06:27 PM
I have been trying to keep sw and reef tanks for 5 years now, and let me tell you it's been a very trying battle. I hardly ever had a problem keeping fish and inverts, it was the constant battle w/ algae that kept beating me up. Algae caused me to quite the hobby a few times only to be drawn back in after a few months (and selling off all my equipment) by the pic's of members tanks from this board and nano-reef.com.
After years of trials and tribulation I have finally gotten it right. I have a 10gal. nano reef that has been set up for 2.5 months and is doing so well I can't believe it. I feel I need to start a thread to help people that may be going through the same things I went through and need help. So this is what I have learned from my personal experiences:
1) Water quality is the biggest factor. Your tank water must be
within the limits to succeed. This also goes for your top-water.
The top-off water and the water that you use to mix up sw
should have a tds as close to 0 ppm as possible.
2) Good biological filtration is the next biggest factor. The best
biological filtration out there is ls and lr. Quality lr will help
things a whole lot also. I've had lr from my lfs that was very
sub-par (ie nothing growing on it, no visible coralline, etc.) and
this didn't do much for my tank. I had very little pods and my
tank had ha problems. The lr I have in my current tank has
tons of pods and bacteria bail me out when param's get out
whack. They do so well I don't have any snails or hermits. I
also have some Chaeto. in there to absorb any other nutrients
and to give the pods a place to hide and breed. I'd also steer
away from crushed coral substrate. Detritus gets in there and
is very difficult for cleaners to get to. Detritus is very good fuel
for algaes.
3) "Over skim". My past tanks had skimmers that were rated real
close to the tank size they were on. My current skimmer is
rated for 6x my water volume. This is my only mechanical
filtration on this tank. The water stays crystal clear. I've had
people ask me if there was water in the tank.
4) Keep the bio-load as low as possible. I have always pushed
the stocking limits on my tanks. I think this attributed to a
build up of nutrients that fueled my ha outbreaks. My current
tank is fishless. I not saying go that route but it works for
me. It also keeps daily mantenance down (feeding) and the
possibility of uneaten food turning to nutrients that fuel ha.
5) ATO's save allot of daily head aches. Just be redundant w/
your safeguards.
6) Create good, random flow. This will keep your lr clean from
detritus build up, which in turn will give algae one less thing
to feed on.
All of this stuff is nothing new and I have seen it preached constantly here. At times I was just too hard headed or too lazy to change what I thought would work. Keep in mind that this is not the "only way to set up a tank". This is just the fundamentals that have worked for me after years of trials and tribulations.
After years of trials and tribulation I have finally gotten it right. I have a 10gal. nano reef that has been set up for 2.5 months and is doing so well I can't believe it. I feel I need to start a thread to help people that may be going through the same things I went through and need help. So this is what I have learned from my personal experiences:
1) Water quality is the biggest factor. Your tank water must be
within the limits to succeed. This also goes for your top-water.
The top-off water and the water that you use to mix up sw
should have a tds as close to 0 ppm as possible.
2) Good biological filtration is the next biggest factor. The best
biological filtration out there is ls and lr. Quality lr will help
things a whole lot also. I've had lr from my lfs that was very
sub-par (ie nothing growing on it, no visible coralline, etc.) and
this didn't do much for my tank. I had very little pods and my
tank had ha problems. The lr I have in my current tank has
tons of pods and bacteria bail me out when param's get out
whack. They do so well I don't have any snails or hermits. I
also have some Chaeto. in there to absorb any other nutrients
and to give the pods a place to hide and breed. I'd also steer
away from crushed coral substrate. Detritus gets in there and
is very difficult for cleaners to get to. Detritus is very good fuel
for algaes.
3) "Over skim". My past tanks had skimmers that were rated real
close to the tank size they were on. My current skimmer is
rated for 6x my water volume. This is my only mechanical
filtration on this tank. The water stays crystal clear. I've had
people ask me if there was water in the tank.
4) Keep the bio-load as low as possible. I have always pushed
the stocking limits on my tanks. I think this attributed to a
build up of nutrients that fueled my ha outbreaks. My current
tank is fishless. I not saying go that route but it works for
me. It also keeps daily mantenance down (feeding) and the
possibility of uneaten food turning to nutrients that fuel ha.
5) ATO's save allot of daily head aches. Just be redundant w/
your safeguards.
6) Create good, random flow. This will keep your lr clean from
detritus build up, which in turn will give algae one less thing
to feed on.
All of this stuff is nothing new and I have seen it preached constantly here. At times I was just too hard headed or too lazy to change what I thought would work. Keep in mind that this is not the "only way to set up a tank". This is just the fundamentals that have worked for me after years of trials and tribulations.