Skimmerless since 1997

[Timfish]

Hi Tim I have one question.
Are you using natural light to light your reef?
I didn't notice any lights hanging in the video you posted in top down thread.

Hey, the system does get sunlight filtered through bronze tinted windows mid morning. Depending on time of year it varies from about half an hour in the winter to 2 hours in the summer. PAR from sunlight is about 500 at the surface. But I designed and built custom ~250 watt LED fixtures using 16° optics and mounted them in the ceiling under the balcony. PAR from the LEDs at the surface is roughly ~450 PAR @ ~5'. (Care has to be taken the lights aren't turned on when the tank is getting sunlight.) You can see the reflection from the fixtures in the surface of the tank and I've got a video showing their location on my youtube channel.

 

[LRT]

Awesome. I still need to read through and check out the videos. All the way around super brilliant and beautiful reef man.

 

[Timfish]

Video of system before it's moved twice next week to replace carpet and wall paper. Quite a lot has happened since last video. Notably during Covid many animals (but not all) started doing poorly. Long story short Lysol over spray was getting into the system. Actinodiscus mushrooms that had been in the system almost since it's inception were all lost as well as Fungia plate corals, a Tridacna squamosa, all the baby and one adult Turkey Wing Clams and Purple Stylo. Corals that suffered but were not completely lost were pulsing Xenia, Green/Orange Zoas and Pagoda Coral. Unfazed were the fish (thankfully), all the Aquilonastra starfish as well as the Green Brittlestar and Sea Cucumber, Palau Green Finger and red chalice and blushing star coral.

 

[Timfish]

Catching a Green Brittle Star that's been in this system since winter of 97-98

Green Brittle Star @ 25+ years

Catching the green brittle star that's been in the skimmerless system started in 1997. It was added winter of 97-98 and was roughly half the size it is now....

youtube.com

 

[Timfish]

Well, this sucks! Accidentally killed a baby calm when moving this system. Only consolation is this is confirmation of a 2nd species successfully spawning in this system.

 

[Timfish]

A quick video a few days after the first move.

 

[Timfish]

Quick video of this 25 year old system about 20 hours after the 2nd move in 8 days. Each move took about 4 hours with 3 people. Only loss was one damsel, presumably it got stuck in some of the rock at some point. Some of the sand that's been in this system since the tank was swapped out in 2007 was rinsed in clean aged saltwater and reused and some new live sand was added. Fish are eating and interacting normally and corals have all opened up.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Quick video of this 25 year old system about 20 hours after the 2nd move in 8 days. Each move took about 4 hours with 3 people. Only loss was one damsel, presumably it got stuck in some of the rock at some point. Some of the sand that's been in this system since the tank was swapped out in 2007 was rinsed in clean aged saltwater and reused and some new live sand was added. Fish are eating and interacting normally and corals have all opened up.

Tank looks great!

 

[Timfish]

Tank looks great!

Thank you! Yeah, some of the animals have been in there since the 90's. The Purple Tang was rehomed to this system in 2015 but it was purchased in 1995.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thank you! Yeah, some of the animals have been in there since the 90's. The Purple Tang was rehomed to this system in 2015 but it was purchased in 1995.

That's crazy you have had a tank going that long, and especially have had some animals there for that long too. All I can say is well done on the up keep of your tank

 

[TokenReefer]

Tank looks like it's been there forever...after each move! Great job. . Makes me feel good because I want to move this year; it can be done! How did you move the rock? Did you keep it in place somehow?

 

[Timfish]

Tank looks like it's been there forever...after each move! Great job. . Makes me feel good because I want to move this year; it can be done! How did you move the rock? Did you keep it in place somehow?

Thank you! Lots of buckets and trashcans. All the water, rock and sand was removed. A couple days before the first move about 2 gallons of the sand was removed, rinsed in clean aged saltwater and kept with 10 gallons of aquarium water and a small carbon filter for a 3 days then added back to the system along with new live sand after the first move. This sand was left in the system during the second move. All the old sand left after emptying the system for the first move was tossed.

Here's some of the other considerations in a kinda bullet form.
- Always do ~10% water change but use as much of the old water as possible during the move, toss the worst when refilling the system.
-Use buckets over trashcans as much as possible, buckets are easier and safer to move and stack.
-Spread livestock between buckets as much as possible.
-Treat any rock with sponges the same as rock with attached corals.
-Use wet towels to cover corals attached to glass and in trash cans that can;t be completely submerged due to weight and/or size (a big rock and 20-30 gallons of water can be a challenge to move even with a furniture dolly) . This only works for a few hours, if more then a few hours they need to be completely submerged to keep microorganisms and biofilms from drying out and adding to potential ammonia spikes.
-Consider a hydraulic lift cart, even for smaller tanks it minimizes having to carry it.

Here's some pics

 

[TokenReefer]

What a task, and to do it twice in such short order. May I ask why twice? I mean the task is daunting enough once

I'm not ready yet (for a little while at least) but I'll keep these in mind. I'll keep some (rinsed) sand to retain bio, etc but toss the rest. What's the though behind spreading livestock among many buckets? When I moved apts (just down the hall) I had them all in one bucket with a bubbler...is it an oxygen thing?

Great tips. I may snowball a move into a tank upgrade; we'll see. Gotta wait for warmer weather either way. I'd be very stressed doing something like this in the dead of winter, trying to maintain temperatures.

 

[Wiskey]

Very interesting dialog on Phosphate, and great Reef tank! I used to be crazy about P04, now I always want to see it over 0.08 and think that 0.1 is better. It makes me think that maybe I should experiment with just a little higher and see how the coral do. Congrats on the successful move!

Subscribed!
Whiskey

 

[Timfish]

What a task, and to do it twice in such short order. May I ask why twice? I mean the task is daunting enough once

I'm not ready yet (for a little while at least) but I'll keep these in mind. I'll keep some (rinsed) sand to retain bio, etc but toss the rest. What's the though behind spreading livestock among many buckets? When I moved apts (just down the hall) I had them all in one bucket with a bubbler...is it an oxygen thing?

Great tips. I may snowball a move into a tank upgrade; we'll see. Gotta wait for warmer weather either way. I'd be very stressed doing something like this in the dead of winter, trying to maintain temperatures.

Couple reasons for spreading livestock around. In the case of fish it reduces the oxygen demand (bubblers help) and it reduces stress if a fish gets spastic and there may be fish that may not get along as well in a bucket as they do in a tank. Specifically in this system the Purple is 7"+ and both Naso's are pushing 9" or more, one per bucket seemed the safest to me. In the case of corals some can slime really well and another coral may have issues.

Remodeling, had to move it from one room to another. Then as soon as the first room was done we had to move it back so the second room could be done. The Tilers were literally waiting on us to get it moved out of the 2nd room so they cuold start pulling up the old tile.

 

[Timfish]

Very interesting dialog on Phosphate, and great Reef tank! I used to be crazy about P04, now I always want to see it over 0.08 and think that 0.1 is better. It makes me think that maybe I should experiment with just a little higher and see how the coral do. Congrats on the successful move!

Subscribed!
Whiskey

Thank you!

Way back in the mid 90s when I started my maintnenace business and doing a lot of cold calls the best tanks were the ones that got consistant maintenance including water changes. Equipment was irrelevant. Systems that had consistant maintenance also had the fewest algae issues, irregardless of what their PO4 number was. Now we have research showing PO4 really isn't the monster it was made out to be. FWIW here's a generic answer I use that's a little shorter than some of my previous posts on this thread. "I'm happy keeping PO4 between .03 mg/l and .5 mg/l"

 

[Timfish]

Here's a video I finally posted on how I clean sand. I like to use as much as I can from an old system after cleaning this way but htere's an obvious advantage in labor to using new live sand. FWIW I don't have anything against using some dry sand but it more work to flush all the dust out of it than using live sand or cleaning old aquarium sand IMO.

 

[Timfish]

Just a short video update of my skimmerless system started in 1997, Green Brittle Star has been in this system since winter '97. Purple Tang. purchased mid '90s ('95?), rehomed fall 2015. Yellow Tang, purchased 2002, rehomed fall 2015. Blonde Naso and standard Naso purchased 2013, rehomed 2016.