Doc's mainly non photosynthetic tank.

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The tank has been running for 4 years but about 6 month ago I moved all the SPS and LPS on and decided to go down a route that interested me more.

So my tank went from this
IMG_20210216_122332.jpg
IMG_20210216_122309.jpg


To this, within the space of a few hours one afternoon
IMG20200909155115.jpg


The tank was looking like a dead coral reef now, all the corals went to a LFS.

I wasn't going to leave the aquascape like this though and I decided I wanted something a little different to the norm, I decided on a bit of a rock tower on the left hand side
IMG20201006191237.jpg
IMG20201005184316.jpg


Apart from the fish, hermit crabs and a few snails the only other things to stay were a sun coral, flame scallop, pink spiney cucumber and 2 pom pom crabs

The tank has been running for about 5 month now, here in the UK it's a bit of a struggle to get hold of anything NPS but I've managed to get hold of a few things.

This is the system now
IMG20210223203040.jpg
IMG20210223203222.jpg
IMG20210223203051.jpg
IMG20210223203022.jpg
IMG20210222204133.jpg
IMG20210222204117.jpg


The stock list as of today is

CURRENT FISH LIST
Watchman goby
Mandarin
2 royal gramma
Crab eye goby
Fire fish

CRITTERS AND OTHERS
Snails.

hermit crabs.

2 pom pom crabs.

Orange frilly sponge (Axinella sp).

Red tree sponge (Amphimedon compressa).

Tunicate.

Flame scallop.

Pink spiny cucumber.

5 Pacific oysters.

CORALS
Yellow finger gorgonian (Diodogorgia Nodulifera).

Unknown gorgonian (Leptogorgia chilensis maybe).

Yellow sea ribbon gorgonian (Pterogorgia citrina)

Golden polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)

Purple polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)

Chili coral (Nephthyigorgia sp.)

Sun coral (Tubastraea).

Green sun coral (Tubastraea)

Christmas tree coral (Sphaerella).

I'll update with more details shortly of how the system runs and stuff that I've learned along the way do far.

I'm hoping by starting this thread I can get help and advice to improve on my chances of keeping some of these animals healthy
 
Last edited:

najer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
20,453
Reaction score
144,448
Location
Humble, England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
The tank has been running for 4 years but about 6 month ago I moved all the SPS and LPS on and decided to go down a route that interested me more.

So my tank went from this
IMG_20210216_122332.jpg
IMG_20210216_122309.jpg


To this, within the space of a few hours one afternoon
IMG20200909155115.jpg


The tank was looking like a dead coral reef now, all the corals went to a LFS.

I wasn't going to leave the aquascape like this though and I decided I wanted something a little different to the norm, I decided on a bit of a rock tower on the left hand side
IMG20201006191237.jpg
IMG20201005184316.jpg


Apart from the fish, hermit crabs and a few snails the only other things to stay were a sun coral, flame scallop, pink spiney cucumber and 2 pom pom crabs

The tank has been running for about 5 month now, here in the UK it's a bit of a struggle to get hold of anything NPS but I've managed to get hold of a few things.

This is the system now
IMG20210223203040.jpg
IMG20210223203222.jpg
IMG20210223203051.jpg
IMG20210223203022.jpg
IMG20210222204133.jpg
IMG20210222204117.jpg


The stock list as of today is

CURRENT FISH LIST
Watchman goby
Mandarin
2 royal gramma
Crab eye goby
Fire fish

CRITTERS AND OTHERS
Snails.

hermit crabs.

2 pom pom crabs.

Orange frilly sponge (Axinella sp).

Red tree sponge (Amphimedon compressa).

Tunicate.

Flame scallop.

Pink spiny cucumber.

5 Pacific oysters.

CORALS
Yellow finger gorgonian (Diodogorgia Nodulifera).

Unknown gorgonian (Leptogorgia chilensis maybe).

Yellow sea ribbon gorgonian (Pterogorgia citrina)

Golden polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)

Purple polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)

Chili coral (Nephthyigorgia sp.)

Sun coral (Tubastraea).

Green sun coral (Tubastraea)

Christmas tree coral (Sphaerella).

I'll update with more details shortly of how the system runs and stuff that I've learned along the way do far.

I'm hoping by starting this thread I can get help and advice to improve on my chances of keeping some of these animals healthy

Very nice, I lost most of my nps in a big nutrient spike, tank looks great, how much do you feed?
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Very nice, I lost most of my nps in a big nutrient spike, tank looks great, how much do you feed?
That's a shame, do you know what caused the spike?

The foods that go into the tank on the doser are easyreef phytoplankton, I'm currently dosing 5ml a day, I'm adding 2ml of easyreef sps food a day too, it's soon going to be joined by red sea ab+

Frozen food is mainly what I feed, roughly 5-6 cubes a day, it's made up of.
Lobster eggs
Copepods
Rotifers
Cyclops
Microplankton
Red plankton
Green plankton
Chopped mussels
Coral food
Filter feeder food (it's made up of lots of different things, it seems to be very small particles)

I feed the sun coral mysis and fish eggs for 3 days Inna row and then I miss 2 days.

Powdered food is reefroids and DD clam food, I target feed a small amount of reefroids daily and the clam food gets broadcast fed occasionally.
I've got some aqua forest powder food on the way so I'll be trying this.

I've got 5 Pacific oysters which I think help with the filtration, apparently they give off bacteria as a by product so again I hope this helps the coral and sponges feed.

My main approach is high flow in the DT but my return pump is turned right down, plan being that the food spends more time in suspension in the DT to hopefully get eaten rather than going over the weir into the sump, when it does go over the weir I've got filter floss that I change every other day.

I've got an oversized skimmer and a small refugium, I wish I could have a bigger one but I can't, I've also got a small aqua medic reactor that I run rowaphos in, I go through roughly 1L of rowa a month

Phosphate is my biggest issue, trying to keep that under control is a pain
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Some photos of what's currently in the tank

Yellow finger gorgonian (Diodogorgia Nodulifera).
IMG20210205103849.jpg
IMG20210205104037.jpg
IMG20210205104015.jpg


Unknown gorgonian (Leptogorgia chilensis maybe).

IMG20210112161229.jpg


Yellow sea ribbon gorgonian (Pterogorgia citrina)
IMG20210221154401.jpg
IMG20210228194659.jpg


Golden polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)

IMG20210222192322.jpg
IMG20210222201208.jpg


Purple polyp gorgonian (Menella sp.)
IMG20210222201040.jpg
IMG20210222192442.jpg


Sun coral (Tubastraea).
And one of its many babies
IMG20201229192119.jpg
IMG20210212182903.jpg
IMG20210211111849.jpg


Christmas tree coral (Sphaerella).
IMG20210221195158.jpg
IMG20210222204610.jpg


Chili coral (Nephthyigorgia sp.)
IMG20210223132405.jpg
IMG20210212193431.jpg


Tunicate
IMG20210205202724.jpg
IMG20210205202804.jpg


Orange frilly sponge (Axinella sp).
IMG20201221191543.jpg
IMG20201221191611.jpg
IMG20201221191100.jpg


Red tree sponge (Amphimedon compressa).
IMG20210218123710.jpg


Flame scallop
IMG20200930145929.jpg
IMG20200930145934.jpg
IMG20200930150002.jpg
 

dennis romano

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
1,174
Reaction score
2,016
Location
bloomingdale
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I also have a NPS tank. I have found that the less that I do to it, the better animals thrive. There's no dosing or water tests. Sorry, I am lazy, old school. There is no protein skimmer. My filter floss gets changed twice a year. Again, old school belief that it is a bed for beneficial bacteria to live. Some of my gorgs and a ball sponge are over five years old and one red tree is over a year. My blue octocoral and hairy mushrooms are twenty years old. Sun corals and Dendros get fed almost every day. It may sound crazy, but every day, I stir the gravel so that there is a cloud of detritus. The sponges do well with this microfood and look ragged if I don't do it for a few days. Any fine dust must be blown off them. The dust blocks their feeding. If a piece of sponge breaks off, place in high flow. It will become a new resident. I see that you feed different size foods. That is good. Different gorgs have different size polyps, therefore different size foods.
IMG_1287.jpg
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I also have a NPS tank. I have found that the less that I do to it, the better animals thrive. There's no dosing or water tests. Sorry, I am lazy, old school. There is no protein skimmer. My filter floss gets changed twice a year. Again, old school belief that it is a bed for beneficial bacteria to live. Some of my gorgs and a ball sponge are over five years old and one red tree is over a year. My blue octocoral and hairy mushrooms are twenty years old. Sun corals and Dendros get fed almost every day. It may sound crazy, but every day, I stir the gravel so that there is a cloud of detritus. The sponges do well with this microfood and look ragged if I don't do it for a few days. Any fine dust must be blown off them. The dust blocks their feeding. If a piece of sponge breaks off, place in high flow. It will become a new resident. I see that you feed different size foods. That is good. Different gorgs have different size polyps, therefore different size foods.
IMG_1287.jpg
Oh wow fantastic, I did knock my skimmer off for a day but I lost my nerve and turned it back on ;Facepalm

I do blast my sponges a bit, I'll do this more regularly from now on.

I blast the rocks and sand often, I also stir up the refugium often.

I always wonder if the sponges, Pacific oysters, tunicate and flame scallop could do the filtering for me, I'm going to add a few more oysters as these seem to of helped a bit.

i like the lazy way and that's how I ran it when it was SPS and LPS but now I find myself in a constant state of worry about if things are dying or not :)
 

dennis romano

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
1,174
Reaction score
2,016
Location
bloomingdale
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
When I feed this tank, I tend to cloud the water with food. About a half hour after I feed, the water is crystal clear. Even when I clean the algae off of the front glass, they go into feeding mode. Right against the front glass, in the middle of my tank is a fist size spiny oyster. He alone is better than most filters. Don't worry about things dying. I purchased two elephant ear sponges that came in poor shape. Most material of both died after a few days. Each had about a quarter living material. I give those two living pieces extra food and they seem to have responded. Branches sometimes fall off of my three red trees. Again, give the piece a little love and it responds. Really love your Christmas tree coral. They are hard to find here in the States. Have you tried large feather dusters or Cerianthus anemones? They both add movement and are easy to care for. Best of luck with you tank.
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A large feather duster is on my list of things to get, along with a Coco worm, maybe you would call the Coco worm something different I'm not sure.

Carianthus anemone sounds interesting but how much light do they need, although my tank looks bright and well lit the power of my LED are only on 1%

I do need to stop worrying about things dying I know that much :)

I did notice the spiney oyster, I've been on the look out for one but I've never seen one available over here before
 

najer

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 9, 2016
Messages
20,453
Reaction score
144,448
Location
Humble, England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
That's a shame, do you know what caused the spike?

I put my nutrients through the roof due to a faulty test kit at my lfs and because it looked like my phos was dropping like a stone I fed loads.
Unfortunately I harvested about half my caulerpa the day before as my kit showed a steady fall and I couldn't replace it as it became tang and fox face food in my big tank.
I picked up a red and gold manella a few weeks ago which is doing great in the big tank.

DSC_0008 (1024x659).jpg
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Very nice that.

Shame about the nutrient spike though, a nutrient spike is something I'm concerned about
 

DxMarinefish

GazuntaiReef
View Badges
Joined
May 18, 2019
Messages
383
Reaction score
769
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Welcome to R2R.

Love your setup.

I also have a Red tree sponge in my mixed reef and its doing well.

Following.
 
Last edited:

dennis romano

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
1,174
Reaction score
2,016
Location
bloomingdale
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Coco worms will work. There is one in front of the large feather duster. The anemones need no light. They grab mysis and brine shrimp with their tentacles.
 
OP
OP
Craigdoc

Craigdoc

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 6, 2019
Messages
88
Reaction score
186
Location
England
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Coco worms will work. There is one in front of the large feather duster. The anemones need no light. They grab mysis and brine shrimp with their tentacles.
I'll have to keep an eye out for one of them anemones, do they go for a walk about often or do they tend to keep still?
 

dennis romano

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 11, 2020
Messages
1,174
Reaction score
2,016
Location
bloomingdale
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
They form a mud tube just like feather dusters, so once you place them, they stay. If you have a fine grain, deep substrate, they will bury into it so that only the crown is exposed. They come in array of colors from purple to orange. You can see one of mine in the front, to the far right, with the long tentacles.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 64 36.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.9%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
Back
Top