Sps Nano Tank

[Elliott89]

Taken with my new Sony F717 that i got for Christmas :) B)

Thanks

Elliott

[Twistedpro]

looks good, how long have you had your tank up and running? how much flow do you have in the tank? I am thinking of adding some SPS to my nano which mainly has LPS in now!! What are your plans for the future?

[Elliott89]

Tank has been running 3 weeks everything was tranfered over from my old AM Chromis

Best give you a tank spec

150 Watt 13K Aquamedic oceanlight Halide

1X MJ1200
1x Aquamedic PH 1000
1x Juwel 400 powerhead

Juwel filer packed with polyfilter,Nitrate Sponge and carbon

loads of Liverock

Soon to add

Another MJ1200
Some Sand
Ratz kalk stirrer
Sander piccolo skimmer

Thanks

Elliott

[KeithM]

Elliot, it looks like you have another algae problem there. What measures are you taking to combat this? IMHO you should sort that out ASAP. You dont want it to take over your tank again.

Sorry, Cant help but feel that you are rushing things. Slow it down...

[5061litres]

Keith... the rock in elliots tank is the rock from all the previous tanks.
He will be adding a skimmer shortly and will also be getting a bigger better clean up crew.

At the moment he's doin everything the right way. as i've told him before.' take it slowly, these things take time'.

tony.

[Deanobeano]

that tank looks bigger than your aqua medic chromis :o


deano

[chronic2005]

Good luck with it mate :thumbsup:

[stevew@reefdreams]

Elliot

Please excuse my ignorance.... but you sold your previous tank because you had to move house. Then you replace it with a similiar size new tank and the same stock, I'm just confused as to the advantage?

Steve.

[Elliott89]

Hi Steve

Although the tank is longer than the chromis is is much smaller in terms of gallonage which means that it be less of a hassle to take down if we do decide to move some time next year

This tank is much less complexed than my last setup was and is desiged to make the hobby much simpler for me for the time being

hope this answers your question

Elliott

[Alpha]

Elliot, best wishes with the tank mate, but SPS are anything but simple. I have a 250G nano in which softies thrive, but I have a poor track record with SPS. I have a beast of a skimmer, a caulerpa based sump, MH lighting and decent water quality but with SPS care, your aiming at the high end of the marine reef market on a bit of a budget mate.

Best of luck, but please take this as it is intended (advice only) you dont seem to be looking to learn slowly. I have been keeping marines over 20 years with FO setups and more recently (the last 5 years) into reefs, but I dont feel qualified yet (in terms of husbandry) to move into SPS. My first and last hard coral (turbinaria) gave up on me, so im still learning the ropes with fish and softies till I get my UR diploma. Dont feel the need to rush mate. my 7 x 3 x 2 lookgs great with fish and softies. LEave the SPS and special need stock till were both a bit more experienced.

Cheers

Alpha :D

[trythechi]

The advice I have read is not to put in SPS when there is and hair algae.

Suggest the standard advice:

- big clean up crew for that size tank;
5% water change every day with RO/DI and No3 PO4 free salt (Easy on a Nano)
No sand until the LR has stopped shedding;
Low feeding
Decent protean skimmer
Rowa sponge

What are the CA/Alk/MG values? There look to be nine SPS frags in there - not cheap - so worth the effort to look after then well:)

HTH

SImon

[Elliott89]

Hi there thank you all for the feedback :thumbsup:

Unfortunatly i have been plagued with hair algae in every set-up ive owned
and i have also kept SPS in these set-ups with a fair amount of sucess

All the parameters are good which is the most important in an SPS set-up

Calcium 400
Magnesium 1370
Alk 10
phosphate 0
nitrate 0


For clean-up crew i have 30 red leg hermits and 2 blue legs hermits 1 Tuxedo Urchin 1 Serpent Star and a Boxer Shrimp

Tomorrow Tony 5061litres is kindly giving me a load of Dove snails so that'll help alot to

As for feeding no food is ever put in the tank as there are no fish :)

Im gettin a Protein Skimmer very soon,an air driven sander piccolo

Thanks

Elliott

[zimreef]

Nice tank Elliott :thumbsup:

[chronic2005]

I believe Elliot meant to say that he does add a slight bit of food or so he did on his old setup.

His sps look fine, and sure he has a algea problem but as long as he stay's on top of it what's the problem? He knew that the tank was going to eba challange when we started it and i personally think that he would not have attempted it without knowing that animal's well being's were being cared for.

Several people have posted the same thing, and he all ready know's so why not give him some "oh, that's nice" comments, i like it (i even like the hair algea) so other peep's must do also.

As for people saying he is inexperianced, i believe that is far from the truth. I think Elliot has been keeping sps coral for going on a year if not 2. Now although that may not be along time to soem of you, i personally have learn't all i can from a book and to further my knowlage i must attempt new thing's. This is priciesely what Elliot is trying to do.

Hope everything goes well :thumbsup:

:thanx:

[phil-uk]

I agree chronic, I have learnt so much in such a short time(books/UR) Some of my friends who have been keeping corals for over 5 years do not have the knowledge i have. So keep it up elliot and good luck mate.

Phil :thumbsup:

[Mikey]

OK guys, drop this one and get back to the tank please :)

[chronic2005]

Sorry Mikey :bow:

[simon garratt]

His sps look fine, and sure he has a algea problem but as long as he stay's on top of it what's the problem?


Appologies Chronic but how do you know what is or isnt a healthy growing example of SPS.........Youve never kept any so your hardly the right person to offer correct appraisal in this instance. Peaple should only 'advise' on what they actually know about........false encoragement or missleading information can be just as dangerouse as simple bad information. No offence intended just a clarification. :)



Elliot.

Looking at your readings id say your on top of the main bulk of issues. If your readings are accurate re Po4 and No3 then you should start to see a downturn in the algae within a fairly short period. One critter that may help iradicate it is a sea hair which will plough through it quite quick. but if you do go down this rout then its worth having an alternate home pre arranged in advance to pass it onto (fellow reefer with hair algae probs) as they do require quite alot and wont do very well in a system once there is no macro algae to keep them happy.

As for the SPS/ algae issue. Its cirtainly worth while getting rid of the algae if you want long term success with SPS. for a couple of reasons.

1. Stray strands of algae drifting round the tank (inevitable) will get stuck on branches causing irritation, consequential exess sliming and possible damage not only to the affected coral but also to those nearby as they receive the slime which is laden with stinging cells.

2. Any damaged colony will have a very hard time healing over with hair algae present as the algae spores settle on the exposed coral skelleton and grow before the coral can heal over the wound. This then leads to further problems as the algaes root structure gets under the surrounding tissue and spreads. (secondary boring green algae infestation can follow)


To be honest though, it looks like your putting the time and effort in, so my best wishes to you and hopes for success.



Regards


Si. :)

[Warrington-guy]

I Like it.

[chronic2005]

Hey Simon

I have never kept a lionfish before yet i know alot about them, this is same scenario with me and sps. I do not know for a fact that his sps are healthy i said they look it and they do.

Im not trying to offer Elliot misleading advice me orginal post was just abit of support which isn't telling him what not to do and that he ha sproblem's, as i think he is getting enough of that. Don't you agree?

:thumbsup:

[Elliott89]

Thanks for the positive reply Si


I think the skimmer may improve the situation to as this will remove any excess
nutrients from the water therefore the algae will have no food to live off of :)

and as i said im getting a load of snails tomorrow from Tony which will help get rid of the stuff :)

Im a bit short of cash at the moment so the only skimmer i can afford at the moment is a small airdriven one but im sure it will be better than nothing at all

So until i can afford a decent skimmer i will just do twice weekly water changes

Thanks

Elliott

[Alpha]

for the first 4 years of my marines, I used a picolo from Sanders and I still think their the dogs danglies. They pull out a load of crap from a small tank. Keep on top of the airstones as they slowly rot and only use the wooden ones as they produce a finer mist of bubbles and it will work wonders

Alpha

[Elliott89]

:thumbsup: cool thats the skimmer i ordered

[simon garratt]

Hi elliot.


As long as the stocking is kept at a minimum whilst the system is being (effectively)underskimmed, then i cant see it being a problem myself. If anything this underskimming might actually help the corals by not removing possible live food, so its swings and roundabouts as long as you understand the limitations of what your trying to atchieve.

make sure you acclimatise the snails really slowly (in exess of 6 hrs by drip if possible) and youll have a much lower mortality rate than many people do who acclimatize within say half an hour..

Your quite right on the water changes. these will help. but only if your sure of your scource water.

I didnt catch a comment, but are you using rowphos at all? even if its just in a bag, its better than none at all as this will help drive Po4 levels below the 0.03ppm threashold that SPS really appreciate..


regards

Si. :)


Chronic. Like i said, my comment was not meant as offensive. simply a clarification of when an opinion which could be derived as advcice is warrented. (as in your SPS / Algae comment which i felt obligated to correct based on experience). Encoragement is nice. but not blind encoragement. As for never having but still knowing alot about.........Ill agree to dissagree where SPS are concerned. :)

[bigray]

hi there elliot are going down the route of no fish again or untill you get a bigger skimmer and have you thought about adding a tunze stream like the last setup

[Elliott89]

Yep Fishless until i can get a bigger skimmer :( then i will have a couple of smallish fish

I think i probably have enough flow in this tank

im gonna add another MJ1200

So then i will have

x2 MJ1200
x1 AM 1000
X1 Juwel 400

Should be enough

Thanks

Elliott

[Reef runt]

any up-dates? :P

[Elliott89]

Yes im planning a few New things for it actually! :D

I have recently added a Sander Piccolo skimmer (the water clarity has imporved a lot since adding a skimmer)

I finally got round to plumbing in the kalk stirrer :)

Another thing im gonna do is remove the sponges from my Juwel filter box and turn it into a Cryptic zone area (a blacked out refugium)

http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=56665

More info on that in the link

I have also since removed all that algae covered LR as Tony (5061 litres) kindly gave me some nice mature corraline encrusted LR some two weeks ago,no green algae has grown since :dance:

I also added a Stunning Purple Reef Lobster which is the star of my tank :wub:

Piccies to follow tomorrow

Thanks
Elliott

[djb1971]

Nice one Elliot :thumbsup:

See you decided to go down the skimmer route. Takes a hugh pair of balls to leave it off :P

[Elliott89]

Yep i seriously dont know how i managed without a skimmer,the water clarity has
improved so much and my SPS look 10 times better for it

Thanks

Elliott

[djb1971]

Oh yes.....forgot to add,

Also glad to see you have a bare bottom :blush:

keep us informed :thumbsup:

[Elliott89]

Yeah i had to keep telling myself not to add sand :blush:

With BB you seem to have much less detritus in the tank as flow from the powerheads ensures that any detritus particles are removed by the skimmer or
filter before they have a chance to settle....

I strongly believe BB is the way to go with SPS but for it to work you definatly need good flow and a skimmer also regular syphoning of the base helps keeps things spotless :)

Thanks

Elliott