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| 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.
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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?
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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.
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Eric Borneman
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cant wait for the update 
To not dream, is like not living!
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bumping a sticky 
-jason
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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.
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Eric Borneman
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| 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
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| Not to be impatient. But here is the after April 6th bump. Troy
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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!
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Eric Borneman
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| 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!
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