Kevlow's Very Shallow Reef Tank

[kevlow]

Hello All,
I have been reading and following on R2R for a while and have commented a few times. I would like to start this thread documenting the ups and downs of my tank. I have been in the hobby about fourteen years now. I have had several different style and size tanks through the years and have enjoyed them all but I keep coming back to SPS.

Currently, I have a very unique display tank: 4' x 2' x 8". My wife bought it for me as a birthday present which she purchased from a coral vendor.

The shallow depth allows me great freedom to work and clean in the tank but is also forced me to think differently in terms of lighting and space.

My lighting is a 32" SB reef light. I replaced my two Radion XR30 G3 with two Par 30 bulb supplement because of spread issues. I was using wide angle lenses and had them 16 inches above the waterline to get coverage. This reduced my par and acros were not coloring properly. I was going to have to purchase another Radion to get the coverage and par that I wanted. It was easier to purchase one SB Reef Light for a fraction of the cost.

I cannot say enough good about the SB light. I am still at 16 inches with great spread and blending but now I top out at about 450 par instead of 275.

My shallow display holds about 35 gal of water and I keep about 30-35 more in the sump. With a lot of large pieces in only 70 gal of water, I find the system is very volatile and I must really work to maintain stability.

I try to maintain these parameters:
Alk 6.7-7.3
nitrate 5-10 [but colors look best around 20]
phostphate .03-.08 [ this proves to be difficult]

I water change 12 gal a week of ESV salt.
Dosing:
AF Comp 1,2,3 180/200 ml a day
NP Pro 5ml a day
Pro Bio S 3 drops a day
Acro Power .5ml a day

I feed a little Reed Roids and a squirt of Coral Smoothie each day as well as pellets, flakes, mysis , and Larry's Reef Frenzy for the fish.

I also keep 5 liters of Matrix in the sump.

Thank you to everyone who posts. I have learned most everything I know about reef keeping by reading threads on line and then through trial and error.

 

[kevlow]

 

[McMullen]

Well done! Is this a coral only system?

 

[kevlow]

I never buy anything larger then 1/2" - 1" frags. I would feel like I was cheating buying already gone out colonies. LOL. But only having 8" of water allows me to stay small and save money up front. I have to frag back pieces when they start becoming full colonies. Most of the frags that I get are small and cheap $5-$15 un named frags. Many are browned out and unidentifiable. I will not pay insane prices for pieces that will only morph when they go into your own system. I think there is a challenge to taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary. Husbandry will be more important then lineage.

 

[kevlow]

Well done! Is this a coral only system?

Good morning, thank you for viewing.
No, there are about nine fish total in the tank. 2 clowns, 2 pajama cards, 4 cromies, 1 foxface. Also 2 Peppermint shrimp and a lot of snails [trochus and turbos].
I have tried to introduce more fish but my grouchy tank bullies kill them or send them carpet surfing.

 

[McMullen]

I see, thanks! I was actually curious about the increased potential for "carpet surfing."

 

[kevlow]

I see, thanks! I was actually curious about the increased potential for "carpet surfing."

I must choose wisely when buying fish. I would love some anthias but I do not think they would stay in the tank. I try to pick less active territorial fish. But the problem is that less active fish are just targets for my cromies and clowns. I thought that some fire fish would do well. One was killed rather quickly and the other was repeatedly attacked until he jumped out of the tank. I would like more fish to increase the bio load but it appears that I am stuck with only what I have.

 

[kevlow]

 

[kevlow]

I want to share something that I have recently begun trying out. I have been purchasing 4" x 4" square marble rough cut tiles to use instead of frag plugs or live rock for mounting corals. With only 8" of water I must keep the base material as low as possible.

Acros that encrust a lot, quickly overgrow the frag plug. At first I thought this was cool looking when they overgrew onto the glass bare bottom. This proved to be a bigger problem. It became impossible to move the piece and warfare became difficult to manage.

So far I have not noticed any problematic reaction to having marble in the system. The coral seem to encrust very well. The tiles save me vertical space. The larger footprint allows room for the acro to encrust but still allows me the freedom to lift and move the piece when needed. The additional size reduces contact with other pieces when their branches grow out

The new issue I created appears to be choosing which coral gets the additional space of having the larger tile. The tiles are almost too big. I think 2-3" square would be better but I have not found these sizes.

The below pic is a 4" x 4" marble tile under a Pink Bird's Nest. Without a comparison it looks just like a regular square frag tile.

 

[Vincent100]

Very nice looking tank and beautiful corals

 

[kevlow]

Here is a problem that I created. Originally I thought this looked cool and natural. Now this Red Planet is spreading very aggressively on the glass floor. I love the piece even though it is considered a common sps. I think that a brightly colored RP is an eye catcher and a good center piece. I do not want to harm or disturb it but I will have to do something about it.


I will eventually try to do something; either scrape the bottom of the encrusting or try to gently lift and remount the piece on a marble tile.

 

[kevlow]

Very nice looking tank and beautiful corals

Thank you, and thank you for viewing and taking the time to post.
I hope to be able to keep it going in the right direction.

 

[kevlow]

I realize that I have posted this pic earlier but it is a good comparison of the different sizes of a normal frag tile and the new marble 4" x 4" tile. The Marble hass a piece that I call Perry's Planet. It has over grown the frag tile and is encrusting very well on the marble. Temporarily on the side is a standard frag tile with a light skinned with purple polyp acro just taking off. Eventually I will have to decide where to place the light skin piece and if it needs the larger tile.

 

[allrover75]

Hi, beautiful looking tank and corals. I'll be following for inspiration.

I notice you are using aquaforest products, and would like to ask a question. I have just built a new system, and want to move from using red sea products to AF. I have found documentation quite lacking, and their product naming confusing!

Am I right in thinking that AF NP Pro is an equivalent product to Red Sea Nopox? I.e. a carbon source, that enables more organics to be skimmed out. Do you have experience with nopox, and if so have you found np pro to be as good?

Also are you doing automated dosing of NP Pro using their diluted 2000ml bottle, and dosing the Pro Bio S manually as it has to be refrigerated? Or have you found a way round that?

Thanks for any help you can give. Regards, chris

 

[Preme]

How many gallons is this tank, sorry if I didn't catch it earlier.

 

[kevlow]

Hi, beautiful looking tank and corals. I'll be following for inspiration.

I notice you are using aquaforest products, and would like to ask a question. I have just built a new system, and want to move from using red sea products to AF. I have found documentation quite lacking, and their product naming confusing!

Am I right in thinking that AF NP Pro is an equivalent product to Red Sea Nopox? I.e. a carbon source, that enables more organics to be skimmed out. Do you have experience with nopox, and if so have you found np pro to be as good?

Also are you doing automated dosing of NP Pro using their diluted 2000ml bottle, and dosing the Pro Bio S manually as it has to be refrigerated? Or have you found a way round that?

Thanks for any help you can give. Regards, chris

Hi, and thank you for viewing. I am new to R2R and just getting started on my thread.
I have never used Nopox but I understand that they are both carbon sources. They may not be exactly the same material but serves the same purpose.
I use the big jug made for a Doser but dose by hand. I have almost gone through the full jug now. I will probably order the smaller dropper bottle when it is time to reorder.
I have found AF extremely easy to use and very forgiving. I do not use all the other products, only those that I listed. I believe in keeping it very simple. My opinion is that the Comp 123 covers all the other trace elements. I know other people get good results customizing their dosing but I have chosen to stay with the basic program.
In the sponsor section under AF, I believe Perry answers questions there. He was most helpful in getting me started and helping me understand the AF products. I will gladly share what I do but it is so simple that there is not much to explain. My problem is that I keep wanting tinker and modify but everything seems to work best when it is simple, stable , and boring. Lol.
I use the Pro Bio S as directed by hand from the refrigerator. I am a big believer in having a bacteria driven system. That is why I keep the Matrix in the sump. If I had more space I would have more. In the ocean the bacteria is off the charts. It is in the water column, rocks, and sand. We can never replicate this volume but it is good to have it in our system. I am amazed at how the bacteria (pro Bio S), carbon ( NP Pro), and Matrix work together so effectively.

Once again , Thanks for stopping by and looking.

 

[kevlow]

How many gallons is this tank, sorry if I didn't catch it earlier.

Hey Rex,
This has about 35 in the display and probably 35 in the sump. Corals are in top and bottom. It is a lot of life in a small volume of water. The amount of consumption makes for some stability issues. I would like to lose some of the big LPS and chalices to reduce the consumption. However, all the pieces that I want to lose are my wife's favorites.

 

[revhtree]

Great reef! Love it!

 

[kevlow]

Great reef! Love it!

Thank you, Rev. Thanks for stopping g by. And thank you for the forum.

 

[allrover75]

Hi, and thank you for viewing. I am new to R2R and just getting started on my thread.
I have never used Nopox but I understand that they are both carbon sources. They may not be exactly the same material but serves the same purpose.
I use the big jug made for a Doser but dose by hand. I have almost gone through the full jug now. I will probably order the smaller dropper bottle when it is time to reorder.
I have found AF extremely easy to use and very forgiving. I do not use all the other products, only those that I listed. I believe in keeping it very simple. My opinion is that the Comp 123 covers all the other trace elements. I know other people get good results customizing their dosing but I have chosen to stay with the basic program.
In the sponsor section under AF, I believe Perry answers questions there. He was most helpful in getting me started and helping me understand the AF products. I will gladly share what I do but it is so simple that there is not much to explain. My problem is that I keep wanting tinker and modify but everything seems to work best when it is simple, stable , and boring. Lol.
I use the Pro Bio S as directed by hand from the refrigerator. I am a big believer in having a bacteria driven system. That is why I keep the Matrix in the sump. If I had more space I would have more. In the ocean the bacteria is off the charts. It is in the water column, rocks, and sand. We can never replicate this volume but it is good to have it in our system. I am amazed at how the bacteria (pro Bio S), carbon ( NP Pro), and Matrix work together so effectively.

Once again , Thanks for stopping by and looking.

Hey,

I'm new to reef2reef too, came across it via Tapatalk recently. Thanks for the mention of the aquaforest thread on here, thats what i have been looking for. I've now subscribed to it, so should help massively.

So I'll be the same as yourself, just use the a,b,c bio s and np pro as instructed and see how things go. I have marinepure blocks in my sump rather than matrix, but presume it has the same purpose to provide surface area for the bacteria.

Once settled, I might try dropping the Bio S as I can't dose manually forever, and see what impact that has. Might ask the AF guys the question on their thread. Thanks for your help.