Looking to step up my game

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

So my 20g long tank is a year old now and has been going great. Currently it is mostly LPS with one ORA Green Birdsnest SPS coral. The tank has a massive sump for its size (sump holds 10-15g of watter) and runs a skimz sn123 skimmer (also oversized). Im gonna be adding more SPS and since all the critters and coral are thriving and happy I am ready to step it up a notch. I want to boost growth and prep for more SPS, and possibly fewer water changes. I will be adding a second Kessil a360we to my tank in addition to the current one (overkill yes i know) and plan to also do the following. I want to get a biopellet reactor going to help reduce WC in conjunction with the skimmer, I want to get the refugium in my sump going (empty currently), and I plan to mix Kalkwasser into my ATO and add a Milwakee PH controller as a fail safe. Im looking for advice and feedback, does all of this sound like a good idea?

Thanks!

clsanchez77 · Jul 11, 2017

Sounds good to me, I just will provide one caution. As you change your tank over to be more SPS suitable, you may or may not have some LPS that wont take kindly to those changes. It is hard to predict who will acclimate and who won't. It is wrong to generalize all corals as LPS is easier than SPS...but some reefers with a lot of experience will tell you mixed tanks are harder than dedicated LPS/SPS tanks. So absolutely make your changes, but make them slowly and observe your corals. Once you note a coral is not taking to the changes, perhaps consider trading it in for one of the new corals you want.

Same on that biopellet reactor, ramping those pellets up slowly so you don't crash the DO levels in your tank. I love kalkwasser, what pH are you running currently? I can tell when I am losing saturation on my kalkwasser because my pH will fall very rapidly. You will find it will save you money on 2-part as well once you get into more SPS.

Btw, I run a mostly LPS tank and I am looking to add a few SPS in the high spots where LPS corals are bleaching. I have been looking at the ORA Birdnest corals as well, has your done well?

Oh, in this hobby, the term "overkill" need not apply :D

So congrats and good luck!

Centerline · Jul 11, 2017

Evan West said:
So my 20g long tank is a year old now and has been going great. Currently it is mostly LPS with one ORA Green Birdsnest SPS coral. The tank has a massive sump for its size (sump holds 10-15g of watter) and runs a skimz sn123 skimmer (also oversized). Im gonna be adding more SPS and since all the critters and coral are thriving and happy I am ready to step it up a notch. I want to boost growth and prep for more SPS, and possibly fewer water changes. I will be adding a second Kessil a360we to my tank in addition to the current one (overkill yes i know) and plan to also do the following. I want to get a biopellet reactor going to help reduce WC in conjunction with the skimmer, I want to get the refugium in my sump going (empty currently), and I plan to mix Kalkwasser into my ATO and add a Milwakee PH controller as a fail safe. Im looking for advice and feedback, does all of this sound like a good idea?

Thanks!

Kalk and a controller are a great idea but I would skip the pellet reactor. Frequent, small water changes on small reef tanks really help with the overall vitality and if you have 30 gallons of water to deal with its trivial to do a 10% water change once a week. Personally I believe that P04 is a much more serious concern than N03 and that would be my primary focus. If you find you must have a pellet reactor be very mindful of how much media you use. You can very quickly strip a tank of N03 with one of those and without it your tank will suffer.

spiraling · Jul 11, 2017

IMO water changes do more than remove things (like skimmer and biopellets). They add a lot of elements like alk and calcium, and trace elements, as well as removing things we don't test for. You will probably want to start monitoring alk, ca, mg, and possibly others if you go heavier with sps. Keep an eye on your tank and if you see more algae or problems with coral don't be afraid to start back with more frequent WCs

clsanchez77 · Jul 11, 2017

Centerline said:
Frequent, small water changes on small reef tanks really help with the overall vitality and if you have 30 gallons of water to deal with its trivial to do a 10% water change once a week.

I forgot to add to my post that I do a daily 1% water change. I have a 2nd ATO reservoir that I premix 10 gallons of salt water to, and I perform a 4 liter water change each day with 2 dosing pumps. So instead of doing the manual water change, I just top off the reservoir weekly. Now if I could just remember to vacuum that sand bed more often...

siggy · Jul 11, 2017

With all the great hardware you may want to jump to a larger tank, i hear the talk of a tank sale at petco or petsmart @ $1 per gallon

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

siggy said:
With all the great hardware you may want to jump to a larger tank, i hear the talk of a tank sale at petco or petsmart @ $1 per gallon

Would love to but cant, Im lucky my college lets me have the 20g lol

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

spiraling said:
IMO water changes do more than remove things (like skimmer and biopellets). They add a lot of elements like alk and calcium, and trace elements, as well as removing things we don't test for. You will probably want to start monitoring alk, ca, mg, and possibly others if you go heavier with sps. Keep an eye on your tank and if you see more algae or problems with coral don't be afraid to start back with more frequent WCs

Not looking to totally get rid of them, I would just like to see if i can get away with a 5g change every other week but need a way to help keep NO3 down so I figured a smalllll amout of bio pellets would help with that.

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

clsanchez77 said:
Sounds good to me, I just will provide one caution. As you change your tank over to be more SPS suitable, you may or may not have some LPS that wont take kindly to those changes. It is hard to predict who will acclimate and who won't. It is wrong to generalize all corals as LPS is easier than SPS...but some reefers with a lot of experience will tell you mixed tanks are harder than dedicated LPS/SPS tanks. So absolutely make your changes, but make them slowly and observe your corals. Once you note a coral is not taking to the changes, perhaps consider trading it in for one of the new corals you want.

Same on that biopellet reactor, ramping those pellets up slowly so you don't crash the DO levels in your tank. I love kalkwasser, what pH are you running currently? I can tell when I am losing saturation on my kalkwasser because my pH will fall very rapidly. You will find it will save you money on 2-part as well once you get into more SPS.

Btw, I run a mostly LPS tank and I am looking to add a few SPS in the high spots where LPS corals are bleaching. I have been looking at the ORA Birdnest corals as well, has your done well?

Oh, in this hobby, the term "overkill" need not apply :D

So congrats and good luck!

PH is lower than I want, its 7.8-8 depending on the day and if i have a window open or not. Part of why Kalk sounds like a good idea in addition to helping keep alk and calc up

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

Centerline said:
Kalk and a controller are a great idea but I would skip the pellet reactor. Frequent, small water changes on small reef tanks really help with the overall vitality and if you have 30 gallons of water to deal with its trivial to do a 10% water change once a week. Personally I believe that P04 is a much more serious concern than N03 and that would be my primary focus. If you find you must have a pellet reactor be very mindful of how much media you use. You can very quickly strip a tank of N03 with one of those and without it your tank will suffer.

Would you reccomend GFO to help keep PO4 down then? MY skimmer is way oversized so I have just relied on it so far and its done a fine job at it.

siggy · Jul 11, 2017

Evan West said:
Would love to but cant, Im lucky my college lets me have the 20g lol

WTG! My daughter is at state and is always hitting me up, cant imagine a reef tank on top of that.

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

siggy said:
WTG! My daughter is at state and is always hitting me up, cant imagine a reef tank on top of that.

Not sure if your talking money wise or time wise......either way im nuts!! This is my stress relieif and what i spend my time doing. Also disclamer this is all my own money none of momy and daddys money lol (not saying your implying that at all), I am an engeneering student and have worked very hard to work my way into a very good job for a student Intern and I work 6 months out of the year and go to school the other 6 (its how my school works) so thats how i can afford to do this.

Centerline · Jul 11, 2017

Evan West said:
Would you reccomend GFO to help keep PO4 down then? MY skimmer is way oversized so I have just relied on it so far and its done a fine job at it.

I would recommend becoming a water change expert first and then GFO if you still need it ;) GFO will certainly do the trick but it wont replenish trace elements or remove all of the funk that all the living things in the tank create.

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

Centerline said:
I would recommend becoming a water change expert first and then GFO if you still need it ;) GFO will certainly do the trick but it wont replenish trace elements or remove all of the funk that all the living things in the tank create.

Lol I do one or more 5g WC a week right now, thats why I wanna cut back on them I am tired of buckets!! Oh well tho...still might try it in a cheap DIY reactor and see how it goes, I feel like if I can just cut the WC I need to do in half its worth it. I would still need and gladly do the WC to remove "funk" as you say, I just dont wanna do so many just to keep NO3 in check.

Centerline · Jul 11, 2017

Evan West said:
Lol I do one or more 5g WC a week right now, thats why i wanna cut back on them i am tired of buckets!! oh well tho...

Do you have water in your dorm room? Maybe a RODI unit plumbed in and hidden in a sink cabinet would be a good investment - I'm not a fan of carrying buckets of water around at all ;)

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

Centerline said:
Do you have water in your dorm room? Maybe a RODI unit plumbed in and hidden in a sink cabinet would be a good investment - I'm not a fan of carrying buckets of water around at all ;)

I live in Campus apartments so yes I have various places to hook RO into. Couldnt do a plumbed in thing unfortunatly tho, thank is too far from the faucets.

siggy · Jul 11, 2017

you can get a fine thread adaptor to the sink faucet in your dorm room bath to attach rodi. And just shower at the gym hall and turn your tub into a reef tank ,
just think of the excitement ;Wacky John Belushi would be proud !

Evan West · Jul 11, 2017

siggy said:
you can get a fine thread adaptor to the sink faucet in your dorm room bath to attach rodi. And just shower at the gym hall and turn your tub into a reef tank ,
just think of the excitement ;Wacky John Belushi would be proud !

Lol yeah my roomates would be trilled too