Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Corals and Coral Reefs - by Eric Borneman / My tanks (in multiple parts) / Latest Posts

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:40:21 GMT

Dang it - I responded to these and they didn't post.

I am off to D.C. tomorrow and will make every effort to update this next week when I get back.

No, I don't use actinic supplements on that tank. Not that I am against it or that it might not light up more fluorescence, but I like the light in my tank to look like the reef.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

porthios — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:04:34 GMT

'I need to start a live food constant drip...and plan to start some copepod cultures (I found the holy grail of culture animals from a colleague in Brest, France)'

did you ever get around to either? or have any thoughts you can share on their implementation?

and a humble bump requesting..

'In the final installment, I will write about "the next tank," or what my ideal tank will be when we eventually move on from here.'

we know you're busy. just wanted to let you know we're very interested .

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

sltloser — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:06:37 GMT

oops sorry , i just saw the cool delux, but still wondering about actinic supplementation...unless i missed that to haha

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

sltloser — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:01:43 GMT

Hey eric i started looking at the sunmaster lights, and was wondering which one you use on your tanks? Do you not need any actinic supplementation with them? thanks!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

reefdiculous — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:43 GMT

Wow. This all is very impressive. The pictures of your tank are just, incredible. I do agree, creating something like you have is so much more fulfilling and rewarding. To take something that works so perfectly, in harmony with so many different aspect, and recreate it; that is understated in itself.

Can you give me more information on your high wattage growing lights? What you did to waterproof them? And/or prep them for your tank?

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:27:07 GMT

Well, good observation. There are far fewer fish than I have had thanks to Hurricane Ike which I described after we got power back up - lost all tangs, Anthias, and Chromis. But, even when there were many more fish, they still hid well and are rarely in any shots. The visible ones were always the Chromis and the Anthias and flashes of tangs, but they were all lost. I did replace some only very recently - first fish replacements in a very long time and it was hard to bring myself to do it. The Banggai's were and always have been in-tank breeds and survivors - we usually get about 3-5 survivors per brood. I think we lost these, though. The urchin kept crawling over a Montastraea colony that kept extending sweepers as the urchin moved over it. I pushed it several times as the tentacles were moving in and out between the spines and the fish would have been toast if they got hit, and they are no longer in the urchin. They might be in the anemones in the back of the tank but if they are alive we won't see them except by chance or when they get larger and start to move around during feeding time.

Yes, that is the 1000W Sunmaster Cool Deluxe and yes the color is very accurate. Most of the public aquariums I know are using them now, too, in either 400 or 1000W fixtures. Love them and only replace every 2-3 years! The one you see is at the three year mark now. Only downside of the single fixture is in taking photos - the parabolic reflector makes it hard to shoot from the top and the sides get hit with overexposure in the center of whole tank shots.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

UrbanSage — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:09:14 GMT

Beautiful.
Are the fish hiding or do you not have that many?
Were the bengai cardinals hatched in the system?

Is the tank lit only by SunMaster Cool Deluxe bulbs in the picture?
You mentioned how you like the bulbs in a different thread. If the pictures show a close accurate picture of the light I think they will be my next bulb attempt.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

charlesr1958 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:58:13 GMT

Perfect examples of what to strive for! Thanks for sharing and for the inspiration. I need bigger tank(s)...

Chuck

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:23:30 GMT

the other two

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:22:12 GMT

I know it's delayed, and I am about to leave the country, but since I halfway cleaned the glass a few minutes ago, here are a few shots - one of the seagrass tank, one of a Montipora encrusting the back glass, one of my new babies found just tonight, and two from the top of the tank - one of the lights is already off, so I'll get some more recent ones when I get back as well as post the ones of tanks past.

One difference from past shots of these tanks, you'll notice, is the loss of the Acropora from the seagrass tank and the now dominance of Pocillopora since most of the Acropora in the main tank was also lost during Hurricane Ike. But, all things considered and being without power for a week, I think it's still ok.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:03:04 GMT

Yes, I do, and have pulled and scanned non-digital photos of my earliest tanks. I promised that in this thread and will get to it. I have a lot of other priorities for at least the next few days, though.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

sltloser — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:16:46 GMT

Thanks for the clarification on the full circle, do you have any recent pictures of your tank and or equipment we could see. I would be interested in seeing what ballasts,reflectors, etc. you have been using (sorry if i'm leading the thread away from it's original purpose, let me know if i am)

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:58:38 GMT

By almost full circle, I mean we have and are experimenting with other technologies but find that something from earlier trials might wind up being better. I think there is a lot of room for efficiency improvement with lighting and a definite need to be able to vary the intensity of the photoperiod, but of what is currently available, I think using 10K and actinic is more effective, economical, cost effective and efficient for coral growth and exciting fluorescence than using bluish bulbs.

You bring up a very important point. The reflector is so critical and also a major part of the reason I think some of the other bulb choices don't work as well. Measuring PAR with LED's, narrow T5 reflectors and DE bulbs really lets one see the difference. On a friend's tank, we ramped PAR up from under 200 to over 800 by using Lumenarc's instead of bare single ended bulbs with no reflector in a shiny white painted hood.

Sanjay Joshi and others have covered this topic in such exquisite depth and with such good work it seems redundant for me to cover it. The single ended, mounted horizontally, with Lumenarc reflectors and the right bulb/ballast combination seems to provide the most bang possible and is certainly enough to keep the most light demanding species in the ocean alive and well.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

sltloser — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:41:48 GMT

What do you mean by full circle, like each type of lighting all on one tank? Another question that popped into my head is what seems to work best DE metal halides w/ pendant, or the single ended w/ pendent? it doesn't seem like hoods work very well or at least in my experience, mine is so so, but i would rather have a pendent for better par distribution. (correct me if i'm wrong) Thanks!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Mon, 25 May 2009 13:53:07 GMT

Oddly enough, yes. We began with fluorescents, moved to VHO fluorescent, then metal halide, then power compact, then high "K" metal halide, then T5, then LED and having used them all, I think almost full circle to 10K plus actinic (not blue or high K) is the best for getting PAR and fluorescence and efficiency.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

sltloser — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:48:31 GMT

Hey eric i noticed that you said 20k aren't the way, what do you think is the best bulb for our corals? I personally have liked the 10k with actinic suplementation. Thanks again!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:18:56 GMT

Well, you have the natural photoperiod and variance almost licked, and Chuck has the biodiversity almost licked. We are getting there as a hobby with water flow but is finite it it's capacity to be replicated in some habitats. We have the potential to get the light issue finished (and 20K bulbs aren't the way) and you are close. It's going to be food that is the magic bullet and no one is anywhere close on that yet, but trials have begun and progress has been made.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Reefski — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:30:22 GMT

Eric Borneman (4/9/2009)

Carl and Chuck are already halfway there so I am a few steps behind, but I'll catch you both!

Eric-

i will never catch you, you are so far ahead already.

what is the other half for Chuck and I? differnt halfs? if we combined our tanks would we have a whole system?

i like the idea of a 1000 watt lamp over my tank on a light rail. i need to find one with a small footprint reflector so it doesn't block the sun when it is not on.

fantastic read. i have sent numerous folks to read your various stickies.

i await the "future tank" installment so i can use those ideas in my present system.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

jtremblay — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:28:54 GMT

I'm scared witless of losing my photos and videos -- I'm now in the habit of picking up a thumb drive every few months and dumping all the photos onto the drive and putting it into the safety deposit box. The videos go on an external HD that's kept tucked away in a closet so I'm not tempted to do something stupid with it.

Speaking of brittleness ... there's a a maricultured acropora in the kids' 20 that's recently taken off since I removed the skimmer, put on a big refugium, and have a peristaltic pump adding borax in the middle of the night to help with pH and alk. The original growth on the coral is about .75cm across, but the new growth is about .25cm across and 3 or 4 cm tall. I'm pretty sure I'd need bone shears for the original growth, but the new growth looks like I could easily snap it. The flow in this tank is pretty good -- this particular coral sits at the outflow of a HoB refugium (lots of food) with a controllable Nano Stream (set to pulse between MoveSandAround flow and something more gentle). But still ... it looks spindly.

At some point, I should probably figure out how to get a dump going in this tank, but I'm currently enjoying my version of the simplicity tank, and my kids are happy as long as their clowns eat CyclopEeze out of their fingers. They haven't had any luck teaching the royal gramma that trick

Fascinating thread, Eric

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:05:11 GMT

>>If you missed anything it might be letting us know the size of the tank. With the daily dosing you make it sound like an enormous system.<<

It's around 700 gallons, total.

>>Also, I just replaced the sugar fine sand in my display with the coarser <2mm aragonite, I finally after a year and a half gave up on balancing high flow with sand staying where I want it. How do you manage? By the sound of it you have quite a bit of turbulent flow in your system. Is it that when a sand bed is as "healthy" as yours, it isn't as loose?(that's not the right word for it).<<

Well, I started with the CaribSea special grade sand because the finer sands weren't available. I never tossed that, but over time and as the tanks increased in number and size, I started using more fine grain sands. Together with some rubble, old broken coral frags, empty snail shells, and all the other sediments that form over time, its a mixed grade. I try to keep coarser sand in the reef and fine grained in the seagrass, but there is settlement and stratification based on shape, density and size. In the main display, the sands do shift and I want them to do so, but over time it gets hard because the corals grow and impede flow. In the seagrass tank I try to avoid shifting sands and keep the water flow up in the water column. The refugium sand is all but level (fine grained) and the surge tank is one big shift with coarse grained heavier sands (to prevent it getting in the water column and surged out) that move a lot, sometimes exposing the bottom of the tank and at other times covering it evenly. Basically, I still have all the sand I have ever purchased except for that given away to other hobbyists as "seed sand" and the first Jaubert was in 1994, so that sand is 15 years old. This is why I kind of cough at the notion that sand inevitably becomes a nutrient trap.

As for stabilization, if I keep sand relatively still, so many things grow in it and there is so much life in it, the fauna itself sort of holds it together and stabilizes them. Seagrass rhizomes, tube worms, sponges, larger buried rubble, etc.

As far as the shifting in the display, you learn which areas shift more than others and I try to avoid putting corals in areas that get buried, or use corals that tolerate periodic burial. Still, sometimes the sand shifts enough to kill the lower part of a colony that has encrusted low on a rock near the sand, and when the sands shift again, the coral has partly bleached or died, but then it regrows or something else comes along and takes advantage of the exposed space, and I don't mind that. I find it natural and the events of competition and partial mortality, to me, make it look more like a reef and less like a collection of specimens. Right now, I do have to get in action because my rose bulbs tips are multiplying and have gotten huge and are partly killing a lot of coral and I just am reluctant to take the time to go through what I know I have to to get them out of there. I've lost numerous colonies already, entirely, and that I don't like. That is unnatural in that I have to intervene to keep things somewhat balanced in cases like this - or like when the Acropora started shading out the seagrass.

Does full tank pictures of the system prior to the 4-18-06 event?

Yes, I do, but for some reason I wasn't ever very diligent about taking photos during that period unless something really interesting was happening. I also lost a lot of photos (including, most disturbingly, my pets and my family photos) during a backup. Like an idiot, I walked away from the computer during the transfer and I had two warning screens that "some of the items did not copy" and all I did was look and saw folders and thought, "oh those made it and they were the important ones" and I did a total disk wipe and fresh reinstall only to find empty folders on my backup. Of course, this included my wedding photos....not good!

I have some that were in presentations, some that were in articles, some that were still there, so give me a bit and I will post photos of all of them, even if they may not be the shots I would have once shown. And, of course, some may be in the thousands of "DSCN_____" that I have never gone back to open and rename but hope to one day when I have a free week with nothing to do but organize files!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

UrbanSage — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:02:59 GMT

Eric Borneman (4/9/2009)Am I missing anything?

I am beginning to think it is everyone else who is missing something
If you missed anything it might be letting us know the size of the tank. With the daily dosing you make it sound like an enormous system.

Also, I just replaced the sugar fine sand in my display with the coarser <2mm aragonite, I finally after a year and a half gave up on balancing high flow with sand staying where I want it. How do you manage? By the sound of it you have quite a bit of turbulent flow in your system. Is it that when a sand bed is as "healthy" as yours, it isn't as loose? (that's not the right word for it).

Does full tank pictures of the system prior to the 4-18-06 event? Which I am very sorry to hear about, what a loss.

Thanks again for sharing.
Nick

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:46:46 GMT

Good questions:

>>I have a couple of questions that are probably answered somewhere on the forum but I haven't ran across them. Do you attribute the rapid growth of your corals mainly to the increased lighting? I know you supplemented to keep up with demand but what made things grow so rapidly in the first place? Could you post what your water parameters were? Did you notice the corals were brittle due to the rapid growth?<<

No, they were already growing fast and I attribute it to the food, the water flow, the light, the high pH and the high alkalinity. The 1000W just allowed the PAR to punch down farther in the water allowing higher PAR at the bottom of the tank. We calculated around 50 pounds of reef growth a year, and that makes sense given the thickness and weight of the coralline crusts (some were over 1" thick) and the corals removed (the one I referred to was about 30 pounds itself).

Water parameters:
pH: 8.3-8.4 at night, 8.4-8.6 by day
alkalinity: kept to at least 4.0meq/l but dropped every day
calcium: 450, but dropped every day
magnesium, kept at 1400 but required replenishment and at one point found it too low to even mention here. I think I discussed it in a previous thread.
nitrogen and phosphorus: unmeasurable
salinity: 35-37 psu (ppt)
temperature: 80ish (winter) to 86(ish) in summer
PAR - from 1100 at surface to 450-800 at bottom of main tank (glitter lines) and 250-400 at bottom of tank corners, 1300 at surface and 550-750 at bottom of seagrass tank (lumenarcs sit directly on top of tank with 400W Iwasaki 6500) and pretty well distributed.
Water flow - immense - 30 gallon surge every 60-90 seconds and four Tunze streams in display; water flow variable in seagrass tank - no additional flow other than display spillover when Thalassia present, added two Tunze 6060's afterwards.

Am I missing anything?

On the brittleness; yes, the fast growing corals were brittle, but I have yet to see an aquarium coral of those types not brittle to the point of being unidentifiable. The water flow caused some in the surge to remain much more robust and dense - moreso than most aquarium corals I look at for identification, but still fragile compared to their wild counterparts. Others were similar to what I see in others' tanks. Definitely not more brittle by any means, but a far cry from wild colonies.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

RyanNi — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:30:09 GMT

Great read Eric! Thanks for writing all of this down. I have a couple of questions that are probably answered somewhere on the forum but I haven't ran across them. Do you attribute the rapid growth of your corals mainly to the increased lighting? I know you supplemented to keep up with demand but what made things grow so rapidly in the first place? Could you post what your water parameters were? Did you notice the corals were brittle due to the rapid growth? I'm sorry for all the questions but I'm very intrigued. I'm also very sorry you lost that tank. Thank you for staying with the "hobby" and teaching all of us so much!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:56:43 GMT

In 2000, I went to Australia and I had only been on the ground a few days when I got a call from my tankwatcher that the air conditioner in the house quit and "my corals turned white and then green."

The overheating bleached and killed most of the corals which of course killed the snails, and the seagrass. Fortunately, the fish lived as did scraps of most of the corals. The seagrass replacement was going to be a problem. A year later, the tank was recovering but was in essence a lot of fish and rock and some small corals starting to grow again. I left the seagrass tank mostly empty, planning to eventually replace the seagrass, though it would be until Chuck sent me Halophila before this happened. In the interim, the corals grew rapidly and by 2004, I was out of space in the big tank and was putting fragments in the seagrass tank. I had previously used 3x400W metal halides over the big tank and 2x400w metal halides over the seagrass tank, but I grew weary of bulb failures, bulb types and bulb replacements and the giant hood that was on a manual ratcheting winch. Instead, I got a large Lumenarc and started using a 1000W Sunmaster Cool Deluxe bulb. I cut the wattage, bulb replacement, and got better penetration and more PAR in the tank. It was amazing. Now, Acropora at the bottom of the tank were wildly colored and growth increased more. Between the two tanks, by 2006, we were adding 2-3 dry cups of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate a day, and cleaning powerheads and pumps of calcifying species at least biweekly. The tank was growing at a rate I had never experience before.

By this time, we also had set up many culture tanks for coral breeding work and one culture tank got devoted to the many fragments coming out of the display. I could not plant seagrass if I wanted to for there was no room. Nothing but corals corals corals. As it turns out, the corals do an excellent job of absorbing dissolved nutrients at that level, and I still had the refugium and around 2002, I had stopped doing water changes. The system volume was too great, and the water quality and animals doing too well. Water testing indicated everything was as it should be as well, for what I could test. I was not using a skimmer except when I went out of town as a safety precaution. I had begun to use ozone when the skimmer was on for water clarity, and also used carbon extensively (free flow in bags in the sump).

I still used the surge though by this time I had switched to the Tunze powerheads that just made things that much better in terms of water flow. Wideflow powerheads are one of the best recent developments in the hobby, in my opinion, and I had used or tried various ways to accomplish the same to supplement the surge before they were commercially available. Maxijet's and closed loops with eductors just weren't doing it for the large water volume, and the pipes of the closed loop became essentially a 6 month replacement item from the decrease in flow from the huge calcification going on. I literally just threw them away and replaced them until I tired of that and wideflows were available. At that point, I capped the closed loop and never looked back.

Some might ask, why the calcium chloride and sodium carbonate? Well, I had two twin tower calcium reactors on the tank and a huge CO2 bottle and a crazy drip rate. I found the amount of calcium and alkalinity they provided to the system was basically a supplement, and it would have taken something like six foot reactors to keep up. The constant cleaning of the pumps and lines, the adjustments of drip rate, and the fact they couldn't keep up (plus reducing the pH) was something that jut no longer served a purpose, and I pulled them in 2004 or 2005. We were using straight carbonate to keep the pH up around 8.4-8.6 and we knew the daily calcium and alkalinity drop, so simply adding our known amount each day was cheap, fast, easy and effective. The carbonate alone, of course, caused more abiotic precipitation of carbonate on the impellers, but they had to be cleaned so often anyway, it was just part of the routine and I saw the results in the coral growth.

Then, you can all read what happened on 4-18-06 in a thread here, a day that will live in infamy for me and the day I almost left the hobby. My wife pulled out an Acropora colony that was from her waist to her chin with a base as big as her thigh. We cried a lot. I cried while giving talks that year. Not a fun time.

But, now I had a bare tank again and was able to repopulate quickly since the culture systems had so many corals growing in them from frags of that tank and I had a tank for seagrass again. Chuck sent me Halophila, and now I have my seagrass tank again with the reef next to it. The only issue I have had was that the staghorns I put to grow on the seagrass quickly filled the tank, shaded the seagrass, and the tank became coral dominated again. Halophila, unlike Thalassia, does not grow tall, so it needs a different component. While it was really cool to have that much Acropora, and led to my keeping of the orangespot (harlequin) filefish discussed in threads here. Though the methods I had learned allowed the tank to be quite spectacular - if not once again different in composition, having lost several really stunning species that were not in culture to the 2006 event and my near refusal to add more corals (recognizing spatial constraints and growth rates), I would only add three of four more that were captive propagated over the interim years. I also took in a lot of corals and fish from aquarists leaving the hobby but most went into the culture systems as there was little room for them in the display, or they just didn't belong there.

And then Hurricane Ike came last year. Most of the Acropora died as well as most of my fish, some of which were 17 years old. Amazingly, most of the other corals made it, so though my tank is still depauperate in fish, it allowed the recovery of the Acropora shaded Halophila which I am actually happy about, and now I have a tank dominated, for once in the past nine years, by things other than Acropora and Montipora and I have to say I like that a lot. I do miss my filefish though, and Matt Pedersen's success in breeding them makes me believe I may have to add some more Acropora so that I can pursue his achievement (and I love these fish and found their behavior too wonderful to be without). I need some fish to replace the Hurricane Ike fatalities, but am waiting for either captive bred or sustainably collected before I purchase them, and while the opportunity has presented itself, my travels this year have been crushing and I want to make sure I will be around for awhile once they are purchased. The calcium and alkalinity demand are lower - about 1 cup every other day of both (dry), magnesium depletion has increased (but see earlier shots of the coralline growth in refugium and surge), and the tank is dominated by Psammacora, Porites, Pocillopora, Heliopora, Stylophora and Seriatopora with lots of other species, including slower growing corals, too, but these are not purchased but remnants or things already on the live rock that are recovering. There is a lovely Catalaphyllia grown from a half inch piece provided by Adam Cesnales many years ago, and some really nice Echinopora that needs better placement but is still doing fine. We have settled on a mix of carbonate and bicarbonate now that is from 60/40 to 80/20 carbonate to bicarbonate to have a happy medium between pump maintenance and acceptable pH and growth. Still no water changes, no skimmer except when ozone is added, still use carbon, and still feed a lot though I need to start a live food constant drip (love the idea by Santa Monica in the general forum) and plan to start some copepod cultures (I found the holy grail of culture animals from a colleague in Brest, France)

You all know the rest of the story from my words here. In the final installment, I will write about "the next tank," or what my ideal tank will be when we eventually move on from here. Carl and Chuck are already halfway there so I am a few steps behind, but I'll catch you both!

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

troypt — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:37:59 GMT

Not to be impatient. But here is the after April 6th bump.

Troy

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Misfitkid — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:39:51 GMT

I just wanted to say I believe this is one of the most interesting things I have read. I have been trying to diversify my system using seperate biotopes (refugium, cryptic zone, seagrass/mangrove pool for my breeding banggai's), and this article has already helped greatly. Looking forward to hearing the rest.

Thank you.

-Brandon

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 06:17:38 GMT

I know, I know. I have to review a paper and have a major grant due and bump this for me again on April 6. Thanks for your patience.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

porthios — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:38:55 GMT

bumping a sticky

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

dallasg — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:35:44 GMT

cant wait for the update

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:10:41 GMT

I don't have all that. These are all separate examples. Later today I'll update the current main display and my current culture systems and finish off with what I would perceive to be my ideal tank design that I will do next time I move and set up a new tank.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Doug G — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:01:54 GMT

Doug G (2/8/2009)

Thanks. Lots to digest.

My question: If a simple ecosystem based tank (deep live sand, live rock, plenty of circulation, herbivores, water changes and/or Ca addition) works, then why add any more complication?

I guess I am wondering, what would bring you to add the algae turf scrubber, refugiums, connected ecosystems, etc.? Is there a limitation to the simplest set-up?

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Simon Garratt — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:00:21 GMT

Absolutely fascinating accounts Eric.

I always love reading the exploits of those who try to get closer to nature and work with it, rather than trying to better it..

Looking forward to reading more.

kind regards

Simon.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

UrbanSage — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:28:41 GMT

Eric,

Thanks for the great story of your tanks.
This thread will be added to my list of links being sent around when new reefers wants to rush their tanks.

The first thread I usually throw at people is your "The Building of a Reef (tank)" pinned in this forum. I think it summarizes what everyone thinks makes sense once they actually read through it. These threads are great.

Nick

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Doug G — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 11:33:37 GMT

Thanks. Lots to digest.

My question: If a simple ecosystem based tank (deep live sand, live rock, plenty of circulation, herbivores, water changes and/or Ca addition) works, then why add any more complication?

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

dallasg — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:52:29 GMT

[quote]Bob the (reef) Builder (1/16/2009)

Wow, thank you so much for this fascinating history of your tanks and your thoughts and also the other pioneers that inspired you.

I must read it again slower this time and see how some of the ideas can be incorporated into my system.[/quote]

i agree whole heartedly, i will read this again and let it all sink in

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:41:40 GMT

Thanks - I will find the time to continue this and bring it to the present in the hopefully near future.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Bob the (reef) Builder — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:12:23 GMT

Wow, thank you so much for this fascinating history of your tanks and your thoughts and also the other pioneers that inspired you.

I must read it again slower this time and see how some of the ideas can be incorporated into my system.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:00:11 GMT

Part 3 – My First ATS tank and the current use of that ATS unit.

In 1997, Morgan sent me a small ATS unit with a hang-on refugium that I ran for four years. I still use it on my current 75 gallon puffer tank set up seven years ago.

I again bought a 40-gallon breeder since I had become fond of that tank size. I liked tanks that were shallower and deeper as they allowed better water flow and more natural aquascaping. One of the things I learned was that the really beautiful macroalgae tended to get grazed in the tank, and I was constantly replacing them, and the HOB refugium was a perfect place for them. In this tank, I used slightly coarser sand for the DSB in the tank with finer sand in the HOB refugium. The rockword was very sparse with only about 50% of the bottom covered. I added numerous soft corals and stony corals, and lots of fish. One of the claims of ATS was that you could feed more and maintain water quality, so I pushed it intentionally to see what it could do. I added Anthias to an otherwise heavy fish load of blennies, wrasses, gobies, a tang, and a pair of breeding clownfish. The tank cycled quickly and I used a seeded turf screen that was lit with 2x26 watt white PC and the tank was lit with a 175w MH (10K). No water flow other than the single Maxi-Jet that flowed from a surface overflow box into the ATS that sat on the back edge of the tank. The dump tray would provide all the water flow.

The tank ran without issue, health wise. There were some notable aspects that bear comment. The first was with a Scott’s velvet wrasse and the second with an Anampses wrasse – both difficult species. The Scott’s wrasse arrived barely alive and days afterward I found it in the refugium, laying on the bottom, barely raising its head and eating from the copious mysids and amphipods. It would jump back into the display an hide, then jump back in the refugium to eat and rest. After a few weeks, the fish was healthy and I had to screen the refugium because the fish was now decimating the refugium population simply because it was easy to eat. The Anampses arrived alive and looking well as they often do, but also often fail to survive. This fish began picking immediately and lived for two years before I found it on the floor having jumped.

In terms of the ATS, it needed design work but worked as described with some caveats. The turf screen was supposed to go through successions, like tanks go through algal successions. This tank never went through algal successions, but the screen started out getting covered in cyanobacteria for what seemed like a longer time than it was supposed to. Then, Derbesia took over for a long time. The method calls for scraping the screen regularly since amphipods colonize the turfs heavily and were supposed to be detrimental to turf development and I weekly rinsed thousands down the sink as I scraped. It took a year before I started losing the Derbesia and seeing various other green and red “stiff” turfs that Morgan said were the desirable climax species that would require less and less scraping (they didn’t grow long and were supposedly very productive). This did indeed happen. Two years into the tank, the impeller on the powerhead split and the turf screen dried out. I had to get another starter screen, and it never developed as nicely, but it still worked.

I was able to keep the decorative macroalgae alive in the refugium. All the corals lived, as did the fish (with the exception of the Anampses that jumped, and one Anthias and the Scott’s wrasse jumped at year 3). I fed live foods and my various food mixes. It is true that the ATS handled nitrates and phosphates, but I did have periodic cyanobacteria issues. This was frustrating, and one of the things I noticed at Inland Aquatics was that their home aquarium ATS units, while functional, only dumped at a low rate. The water flow during the dump was really nice, but then the water was all but still while the tray refilled. The design of the overflow box did not allow for a more powerful powerhead so it limited my ability to increase the dump rate. I felt the tank as a whole needed more water flow, and that the cyanobacteria was showing up as a result of this.
I never got hair algae from the screen growing in the tank as others in the hobby swore would happen (usually those who had never had an ATS but were just repeating things they had heard). The tank water did get yellow, but over a long time frame, the same as any other tank without carbon or ozone use would. I did not see that it was more pronounced by using the ATS and since the screen was scraped and rinsed regularly, I didn’t have chlorophyll added from the turfs being scraped while in place on the tank. Notably, the sponge growth and filter feeding polychaete growth in this tank was exceptional, possible better than the other natural systems I was running, but I can’t say that corals and fish were growing faster or healthier than in the other systems I was running. Basically, it worked, required little maintenance other than cleaning the glass and scraping the screen. No water changes. The big issue for me was water flow.

When the turf screen was replaced at two years, I decided that the essential claims and design of the ATS as a standalone worked and decided to address what I saw as weaknesses. I added some powerheads to increase water flow, and the cyanobacteria issue disappeared. I also started saving my amphipods during scrapings and putting them back in the tank and worried less about removing them all, scraping less often. I used constant carbon to keep the water clear instead of occasionally once the water started yellowing. These actions helped in my view but also had downsides. As mentioned, the turf screen did not develop into the stiff turfs as it did before. I also had added more traumatic impellors to the water column, and sampling the water column did show a difference and there were fewer mysids in the main tank, though still plenty in the refugium. Sponge growth was actually lower though still good, although I can’t say why. Interestingly, this tank survived the 2001 air-conditioner failure with only some bleached corals that all recovered. No losses at all. Although I kept this tank up for a short while longer, I had at the time 17 tanks in the house and was about to start grad school, and decided to combine tanks to lower the ridiculous amount of work it took to maintain them all.

So, I took the ATS tank down and did not use it again until dealing with chronic nitrate and phosphate problems in my 75-gallon puffer tank that was running only a skimmer and needed frequent water changes. As it happens, putting the ATS on that tank helped a lot and although periodic water changes are still needed, I go 6-12 months between water changes now. Obviously, the ATS helped a lot more than the skimmer was doing. The ATS unit is also designed for a 40-50 gallon tank in terms of screen size and so is undersized for the tank. If it was the right size, I would probably not have to do water changes at all.

Now that it is on that tank, I never got a seed screen. I let turfs grow naturally, and really the only thing that grows is Derbesia. It gets long and holds a lot of water and traps a lot of sediment. It is loaded with amphipods and I scrape the screen only when the weight of the algae stops the tray from resetting after a dump (about once every six weeks). I remove a huge weight of hair algae from the screen, dry it and feed it to the tangs in my main display. Perhaps the other turfs and more dedicated maintenance would help make it more productive, but at this point I don’t really care. It keeps my workload down to rare water changes and scraping every month or two for five minutes. The only thing that needs to be done regularly is scrape the glass and feed the fish and top off the water I use kalkwasser since the corals are mostly gorgonians, soft corals and zoanthids that I no longer want in my main tank or that I periodically remove to get them out of my main tank. This tank is lit with less than 100 watts of PC to slow the growth of the soft corals and zoanthids.

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

charlesr1958 — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:43:39 GMT

"To me, I was always impressed by the vast meadows of seagrasses and their proximity to coral reefs. I was also reading about the connectivity of coral reefs and other habitat types (open ocean, seagrass meadows, mangroves, lagoons and atolls) and how they all functioned in the bigger picture."

Can I ever relate to that! Good timing on your posting this information because as soon as I try a few more herbivores with this red algae in my refugium, the entire system is coming down to have all the tanks drilled while increasing the refugium size and building a truly dedicated ATS vice the little sump I have now. Everything is going to be geared towards keeping as much diversity and live food production as possible. At the same time, I'm going to ramp up my phytoplankton production and allow extra containers or tanks for copepod cultures for dosing the system as well. That and the display tank is going to be my attempt to recreate a fore-reef/wall biotope. I plan to take a shallow (8 inches) and somewhat narrow aquarium and elevate it at the back of the display tank as a sandbed for seagrass which will then be hidden with live rock which will extend towards the middle of the tank to end as a somewhat vertical wall for placement of a few coral species with the intention to keep those species that host various commensal shrimp. Hard to describe but its all in my head... This next system has to be its own ecosystem with little imput from me.

Thanks Eric, I'm really excited about this thread!

Chuck

RE: My tanks (in multiple parts)

Eric Borneman — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:46:39 GMT

Part Two: My main display

I actually conceived my main system design out of my head, despite having known and met Walter Adey prior to designing it. The Smithsonian exhibit was something I never got to see personally until after Adey was gone and it was planned to be dismantled, and it wasn't until I began writing my book that I actually got a copy of the actual paper for Adey's original design. As it turns out, my plan and thoughts were not novel and I had basically re-invented what Adey had thought of twenty years before.

To me, I was always impressed by the vast meadows of seagrasses and their proximity to coral reefs. I was also reading about the connectivity of coral reefs and other habitat types (open ocean, seagrass meadows, mangroves, lagoons and atolls) and how they all functioned in the bigger picture.

Based on the connectivity and nutrient dynamics of many reefs, I decided I wanted to have a reef tank where the production of the corals (detritus and other sediments) and fishes were trapped or left to settle in a seagrass tank. This is what happened in the wild, mainly or in many areas, and so I had a 120 gallon reef tank that overflowed into a 75 gallon seagrass tank. I soon outgrew that and changed it to a 320 gallon reef that overflowed into a 120 gallon seagrass tank. Initially, I had the reef tank, more or less designed like the Jaubert with a deep sand bed (no plenum) and lots of sand between multiple large bommies. As an aside, the original bare-bottomed Berlin tank received a DSB within a year of establishing the Jaubert tank, and I never had nitrate or phosphate issues again. The seagrass tank was a deep sand bed that I left maturing with live rock and live sand - mostly fine sands with some coarse and some rubble mixed in – for almost eight months. No seagrasses yet, and the rock was seed stock for the sand to be removed once I got the seagrasses. Then, I had this seagrass tank overflow into a 55 gallon sump which I piled full of rock, and actually had some exposed above the sump water level. The sump was lit and though there was a skimmer attached, it was not turned on (emergency only). The exposed rock was home to intertidal snails (I had periwinkles, Nerites, and a sally lightfoot crab), and, eventually, corallines and turf algae. I kept this area half with sand, and half without (near the pump intake using screened eggcrate as a dividing wall. The main pump flowed up and split, throttled back by a valve into a 40 gallon refugium stocked with rubble (for copepod habitat and other demersal zooplankton), multiple types of decorative macroalgae, and no flow other than that flowing from the main pump and a deep fine-grain only sand bed. The other half of the pump output went into a 40 gallon surge tank that was like a reef crest or intertidal without corals (strong water flow rushing into this tank from the pump). I had a sand bed, but lots of rock, buried into and it sat on the tank bottom coming out of the sand. This acted as a secondary refugium and a secondary intertidal area. So with each surge, the water level rose and fell. The major design flaw, I think, was that the sump, refugium and surge were stacked on shelves and the refugium was lower than the surge. I needed the height for the surge tank, so the refugium production went back into the sump and had to pass again through the pump and get into the surge. Ideally, I wanted the total flow to go massively but slowly into a larger refugium and then rush into to surge and then into the reef so the refugium production (live) was flushed on the reef, and the reef production (mucus and waste) then settled in the seagrass tank. In any case, it was essentially five habitats in one.

The problem was the seagrass. I made arrangements to get some Thalassia sent to me from a collector, but they shipped individual plants in a bag of water like a fish, without really any stolons, and bare root. I planted them, and they slowly died. Then, I made a collecting trip and did the same thing, but was more careful in my collection and took rhizomes and plants. I planted these in the tank, and they survived longer, but died. Then, I read more about Thalassia. They are of course found prolifically in stinky anaerobic muck and they are symbiotic with mycorhizae and other microbes around their roots that allow for nutrient uptake. So, I went collecting again, and collected plants with intact roots and gobs full of mucky stinky sediments. When I planted them, I had to shunt water flow around the seagrass tank because that mud and the hydrogen sulfide would have killed all the corals. So, I dug holes in my sand bed, planted the seagrass (Thalassia, Syringodium and Halodule), poured the muck around the dug holes like potting soil, and stuck an iron-rich fertilizer tablet (for freshwater planted tanks) near the base of each plant. I waited several days for the water to clear and the fine muds to settle, and then shut off flow to the reef and let the seagrass tank go through the rest of the systems. This seeded the refugium, and then I turned on the skimmer to get rid of and oxidize residual H2S and anaerobic bacteria in the water, and, after two days, put the reef tank back online and turned off the skimmer.

Voila. The plants thrived and grew, and I put small amounts of live rock in the seagrass to serve as more habitat for some corallimorphs, and stuck gorgonians and free-living, seagrass-dwelling corals amongst the plants. I added some bottom dwelling gobies and pistol shrimp and some green Chromis and mandarins. I had several small cultured Strombus gigas crawling around. Spiking the tank with that seagrass muck gave me plankton that was literally crawling up the walls in the refugium and seagrass tank. It was insane. I also seeded with a lot of epiphtyes from the seagrass blades that grew elsewhere in the sump and refugium and surge, as well as sponges. That was, I think, the magic moment of the introduction of insane amounts of biodiversity - the seagrass mud. Of course, some things waxed and waned over the years, some interesting critters were outcompeted over time, but I maintained really high diversity and kept it alive by feeding stupid amounts of food (my food recipe) and grew my own phytoplankton (5 types) that fed into the refugium. No skimming and the only downside I could see was the single traumatic-flow centrifugal main pump. I looked at non-traumatic recirculation pumps but they were very, very expensive. That would have been better, but there was always a lot of life and the pump really doesn't kill that much (this has been shown by Shimek and others). Most of the life stayed in the habitats and not in the water column. I had these huge balls of copepods, and the sand beds writhed with all manner of worms. At night, you couldn't find a square centimeter that didn't have appendages sticking out and waving. The corals thrived, and despite the huge influx of food day and night, there was enough uptake, I imagine through all the small life, the sand, the seagrass, the refugium, that it naturally limited itself with N and P and I could never measure dissolved nutrients even with low-range Hach test kits. And, of course, I continued with the no water change routine. And so this miraculous thing existed for over four years - almost five, before that air-conditioning related crash.

Lighting, FWIW, was 2 x 400W 6500K over the seagrass tank and, at the time 3 x 400 watt bulbs over the main tank (usually 10K, but I played around with 20K, 6500K combinations) and 4 x 110W VHO actinics. I used a 175W bulb over the refugium (played with sodium and mercury bulbs), and various types of fluorescents/PC's over the sump and surge. There were no powerheads in the seagrass tank, and eventually a couple of large Rio's (wide flow pumps weren't around) in the main tank as corals grew in too much for area of the tank not covered by the surge but this was only in the last year or so of the tank. I hated doing that.

More to follow….