Thank you!
REEF OF THE MONTH - March 2023: Dragon Lee's NPS Paradise
- Thread starter Daniel@R2R
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Thanks so much!
I will update the details in the following post.
Just brine shrimp.15-20g eggs everytime.
This picture shows that it is full of brine shrimp.
biophilia
Well-Known Member
It will be interesting to see how this system does long-term on artemia naups alone. I maintain quite a few NPS tanks at a large public aquarium and some of these corals we have been unable to maintain for more than 6 months to a year despite having a very robust live foods program and large and continuous daily feedings (multiple species of live phytoplankton, live rotifers, multiple species of live copepods, artemia, and a diverse range of concentrated phyto and zooplankton, powdered coral foods, etc).
biophilia
Well-Known Member
Are you rinsing the brine shrimp or adding the hatch water as well? My initial thought with some of these corals with really tiny polyps is perhaps they are consuming bacterioplankton from the brine shrimp hatch water. I know of one public aquarium that adds brine shrimp hatch water to their NPS autofeeder recipes for this purpose...
My thoughts exactly. I've assisted with the same. Many of these species are highly unlikely, if not impossible to be maintained feeding nauplii alone.
T
Thank you very much.
A new pic for you.Hope you love it.
Your so welcome!!!! This photo doesn't look real its too beautiful! You should get copy rights for it seriously, or can I use it as my phone wallpaper ?
Introduction
It's a great honor for my tank to be selected as the ROTM. Thanks to Daniel and the rest of Team R2R.
I'm Jiageng Li. I live in a seaside city. Maybe it's because I'm a Pisces, but I liked everything about aquariums ever since I was a kid. In 2016, I had my first saltwater tank which was a 183-gallon FOT (Fish Only Tank). In 2021, I decided to set up a NPS tank because I was amazed by an orange Gorgonian in my friend's studio.
I set up a 30 gallon-tank at the beginning for to test. As I bought more and more, the tank was upgraded to 105 gallons. After a while, the tank was completely filled. At last, I put all NPS into one 155-gallon tank.
In my opinion, flow is the most important factor for NPS corals.They need stronger flow than LPS, and even stronger than SPS. The second most important factor is feeding. I only feed brine shrimp. As for the lights, at least 2 hours daily because I always sit in front of the tank and stare into space for a long time. In fact, light does not have much effect on NPS growth.
System Profile
- Display tank: 100*82*65cm (L39" × W32" × H25")
- Glass or Acrylic: Glass
- Display Tank Volume: 130 Gallons
- Sump: 35"×15"×15"
- Protein skimmer: Ae CL HAGENPT8208 37W
- Return pump: 5000L
- Water circulation: MAXSPECT XF 330
- Lighting (display): Zetlight Q6-90
- Heating/cooling: Air conditioner, JBL heating and TK1000 cooling
- Additional equipment: ATS
Water Circulation: Water is circulated at a rate of 8x per hour.
Water Parameters:
- Temp: 21℃-24℃ （68℉-75℉）
- pH: 7.6-7.8
- Alk: 7-8kh
- Specific gravity: 1.022-1.024
- NO3: 25-50
- PO4: 0.3-0.5
What salt mix do you use? HAIBAO SOLID SEAWATER
What kind of rock did you start with? MARCO ROCKS
What is your substrate? Blue Greasure Sand
What and how do you dose for the big 3 (alk/cal/mag)? I just change water and manually dosing alk.
Are you dosing anything else for your reef health (carbon dosing, aminos, etc.)? There's been no need for additional dosing.
Lighting Summary and Objectives: White light 2-4 hours everyday only for viewing pleasure. NPS do not require lighting for growth.
I do run the light on my ATS: for 16 hours daily.
Filtration and Water Quality Summary and Objectives: The goal is to keep PO4 below 0.6. As mentioned above, an ATS is run for 16 hours each day to help keep phosphate levels within the target range.
What is your maintenance routine?
- Daily: Clean glass, feed the tank, check pumps and equipment，
- Weekly: Fill ro reservoir, empty skimmer, clean ATS, hatch brine shrimp
What is the most difficult part of keeping an NPS tank?
Perseverance. Because NPS need regular feeding and water changes.
What do you think would surprise most people about keeping an NPS tank if they tried it?
You would be surprised that NPS corals can adapt to such poor water quality. They are stronger than SPS and LPS...even better than fish.
All corals in this tank are different varieties of NPS corals.
Fish Inhabitants:
- 10 Banggai Cardinalfishes
- 1 Spotbreast angelfish
- 2 bluestreak cleaner wrasse
- 2 Pseudanthias pleurotaenia
- 1 Parachaetodon ocellaris.
Other Invertebrates:
Fish and Coral Feeding:
- 20 gold ring cowrie
- 1 cleaner shrimp
Fish: HIKARI mysis shrimp 3 cubes of frozen food every other day
Coral: Brine shrimp 30grams weekly,15g everytime. I will gradually increase it to 200 grams.
Photo of the tank at feeding time
How did you decide what to keep in your tank?
I just follow my heart.
Any fish, invert, or coral you will NEVER keep?
I would never keep a sea apple.
What do you love most about the hobby?
I love that I can always satisfy my curiosity because there is always something interesting to be discovered.
How long have you been doing this?
8 years
Who was responsible for getting you into the hobby？It's me.
If you could have any tank, what size would it be and why?
I'd like to have a 80"×40"×30". Gorgonians grow so fast, and I want to collect more and more different corals. Such a large tank would allow for a large coral collection.
Here's a photo record showing the growth of a coral in this tank
Favorite fish? Spotbreast angelfish (F）
Favorite coral? The blue gorgonian.
What tips would you give to other reefers considering an NPS tank?
You might start with a 15-gallon tank to familiarize yourself with the flow and feeding. There's no need for a skimmer or light.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Siro3, Dr. Li and Cheung. It's because of all of you guys' support that I can set up such an NPS tank.
I will share my experience and hope more and more friends to join in the NPSER.
Absolutely Stunning and so deserving of reef of the month. Wow!
I’m so glade you won. I reefed 20 yrs ago. The technology today made me buy a used ATO 40gl with the intention of Seahorses eventually. Study Gorgoniums and now have a few ps and struggling a bit. First brought home it was covered in string algae 2 months in and no cycle. So some knowledge and new studying and from what you are saying I’m running to clean PO4: 0. NO3: 16. But all the perimeters are lower. Temp, PH, KH, SG.
Where NO3 and PO4 is lower. It also looks like I need to take my skimmer of line until I am ready for seahorses possibly a year or so out.
You have thought me so much with your win.
Hale Gorgonium Hero! So so STUNNING
I’m so glade you won. I reefed 20 yrs ago. The technology today made me buy a used ATO 40gl with the intention of Seahorses eventually. Study Gorgoniums and now have a few ps and struggling a bit. First brought home it was covered in string algae 2 months in and no cycle. So some knowledge and new studying and from what you are saying I’m running to clean PO4: 0. NO3: 16. But all the perimeters are lower. Temp, PH, KH, SG.
Where NO3 and PO4 is lower. It also looks like I need to take my skimmer of line until I am ready for seahorses possibly a year or so out.
You have thought me so much with your win.
Hale Gorgonium Hero! So so STUNNING
These 2 fishes came to my tank in August 25th.
They went back to the Pacific in January.
Do you have easy access to these specimens?
You mentioned you lived in a costal city.
Many of these species of NPS corals are very challenging for hobbyists to get elsewhere.
Along the topic of feeding, are you adding the brine shrimp hatch water to your system or just the brine shrimp?
What's the oldest colony you have?
Brine shrimp.The oldest one is about 15 months.
Hi AcroNem,
No other foods.15-20g brine shrimp eggs everytime.Twice weekly.
Hi AcroNem,
I live in a costal city.I bought the NPS from the fisherman and the aquarium shop.The oldest NPS in my tank is an orange Grog in the following pictures.
I washed the brine shrimp twice and put them into the tank.The hatch water can't be put into the system.
biophilia
Well-Known Member
Brine shrimp.The oldest one is about 15 months.
Interesting. I was under the impression that these animals can't easily capture brine shrimp or copepods because they contain very few nematocyts compared to most other octocorals. Katarina Fabricius did gut content analysis of them years ago and found they mostly consumed phytoplankton and a small amount of bivalve/gastropod larvae which are much weaker swimmers than brine shrimp.
At 15 months, you're up there in terms of the longest I've heard of them surviving in aquariums. I'm assuming they were in a different system since they don't appear to be in photos of this same tank you posted in early January...
I've been seeing a trend on Instagram and other social media apps in the last few months of people packing tanks full of freshly-collected NPS corals without understanding their complex feeding requirements and encouraging large audiences of new reefers to do the same, so I'm just making sure people reading this thread are aware that many of these corals are effectively impossible to keep alive in home aquariums with the resources that 99.99% of hobbyists have at their disposal.
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