Newbie to Prop System ?'s

[2006]

Assume a stand alone bare bottom system with chemical filtration and protein skimming.

1. Is live rock, sand bed, refugium or some additional form of biological filtration necessary?

2. Are algae eating (clean up) crews typically employed?

3. What is the purpose of using raised eggcrate?

[Python73]

1. Is live rock, sand bed, refugium or some additional form of biological filtration necessary?

You said "chemical filtration." Assuming you mean carbon? Polyfilters? You'll need something to do the biological filtration. Doesn't really matter what you use short term. Live rock or sand beds are typical whether local or remote, but you could use bioballs or some other high surface area material. You don't want to do this, but you COULD. There's a reason everyone uses liverock. Refugiums are not filters. They are not necessary for what you are trying to do, but would also help with things like algae blooms if the refugium is set up correctly.


2. Are algae eating (clean up) crews typically employed?

In general, yes. Mostly snails and tangs of some variety. Depending on the setup and what else you are doing to control algae.


3. What is the purpose of using raised eggcrate?

Several purposes. To hold the corals away from the substrate. To place the corals closer to the surface and therefore light. To have a convenient place for plugs and discs. To create easier water flow by allowing flow below and above the frags.

HTH.

S !

[fatrip]

well said python, i would stress using some sort of bio filtration. LR is the easyest to maintain. And a Remote Deep Sand Bed is the easyest to implicate into a system threw just a simple 5 gallon bucket.

[2006]

Thanks for the replies. One other question. How often if at all do you feed your prop systems?

[fatrip]

well i have my prop tank hooked to my main system at the moment so it get feed when the tank gets it. lol...but i dont feed sps cprals dorectly i just let them feed them selves. Some softies like rics, and yumas i feed once in a while and the LPS depending on sp. i feed daily.

[Python73]

Let me answer that with a question. What is the result of feeding? More importantly, what result are you after? This is how you should think about your captive reef systems. Too many people say "what happens if I?" when what they really mean to say is, "I want to accomplish this."

Applying that, in a prop system your intention is fast growth. Secondary intention is to keep your water quality high. Feeding is counter to water quality in closed systems. Some corals respond to feeding, others don't. Well... let me be more precise. Most if not all corals can eat. But the partical size and offering you'd be typically presenting makes the prior statement apply. Read up on the corals you are trying to grow. If they are aggressive feeders, say... duncanopsammia, then feed them. Otherwise skip it.

HTH.

S !

[2006]

Thanks again for the replies.

I am trying to achieve relatively fast growth and agree that every coral deserves it's own due diligence on my part.

I have been out of the hobby for a few years and it seems that T5 lighting, testing for Mg and the abundance of aquarists feeding their corals are biggest changes since I've been gone.

I never fed any of my corals in the past and they did fine but I wasn't overly concerned with growth rates at the time.