skimmerless tank with no water changes

[jared graves]

skimmerless here as well. no water changes except for sand siphoning. (10 gallons in a 300 system every month)

i dose no3. my ats cant grow algae either

I knew there were others! i will give you the sand siphoning i have to keep high flow to keep detritus off my sand bed.

 

[jared graves]

skimmerless here as well. no water changes except for sand siphoning. (10 gallons in a 300 system every month)

i dose no3. my ats cant grow algae either

Tank pics? im going to post some when my lights come on

 

[jared graves]

skimmerless here as well. no water changes except for sand siphoning. (10 gallons in a 300 system every month)

i dose no3. my ats cant grow algae either

How much live rock do you have?

 

[Russ265]

Tank pics? im going to post some when my lights come on

at work. also my system is fairly new so my sps frags havent had time to grow out yet. (takes some time to fill up a 265 which is part of the fun)

 

[Russ265]

How much live rock do you have?

180 lbs display
100 lbs sump first chamber, dsb in that chamber as well.

ats second chamber (wont grow algae yet)

i do have gfo that i will run for a couple hours on the weekend if po4 climbs above .04

here is a photo a few months ago when cycle completed. ill take a more recent shot when i get home.


gif uploader

 

[redfishbluefish]

with my levels at less then 2ppm phosphate they are great. I have two clowns, sixline wrass, sailfin blenny, 2 damsels, small yellow tang, and a large pajama cardinal.

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but 2 ppm phosphate is very very high. If you told me it was 0.02 ppm, than I'd say your OK.

I tried to start feeding once a day for a few weeks and it spiked my numbers ( nitrates 10-15, phosphates 4-5) i started getting cyno but moved feeding back to once every two days and its come back down nitrates 5 and phosphates less than 2. still needs to come down some but its on its way. maybe one day i can start feeding daily and not spike it

I'm very curious as to how those nitrates and phosphates were "exported" by simply reducing feeding in half. Are you using gfo, lanthanum chloride, nitrate absorbers, etc.? Under very select conditions you can get specific bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen, but I've never heard of it happening to any great extent within the DT. Something just seems fishy!

 

[jared graves]

Got a pic of your tank?

not everything is opened up since lights just came on

 

[Russ265]

not everything is opened up since lights just came on

my sps are smaller than yours based on the plug size but they are starting to grow fairly nice.

i have 2 tyree pink lemonades
strawberry shortcake
ora birdsnest
$500 efflo
joe's rainbow acro
goni
duncan
few zoos
galxea
alveopora

cant remember the rest

 

[jared graves]

I'm not sure where you are getting your information, but 2 ppm phosphate is very very high. If you told me it was 0.02 ppm, than I'd say your OK.




I'm very curious as to how those nitrates and phosphates were "exported" by simply reducing feeding in half. Are you using gfo, lanthanum chloride, nitrate absorbers, etc.? Under very select conditions you can get specific bacteria to convert nitrate to nitrogen, but I've never heard of it happening to any great extent within the DT. Something just seems fishy!

sorry .02 is what i meant to say all these numbers get confusing sometimes. no im not running any of that stuf just LOTS of live rock which is what is hosting bacteria that is removing nutrients

 

[jared graves]

how are your corals doing with this level of phosphate?
any info about what fish and how many you got?

.02 sorry not 2

 

[4FordFamily]

Hold on, that tank will work just fine with plastic corals and artificial fish! :eek: :D

Thanks ATM!

 

[4FordFamily]

I did this for a couple years even with a skimmer and my nitrate test showed 10-60 nitrates. I bought a new kit and it registered 180ppm! :eek:

No wonder my clams didn't survive and I was starting to lose some corals! I had a fuge but couldn't even keep macro algae alive toward the end!

It was amazing anything pulled through.

This was a very very established system.

I've since tripled my skimming capacity and do at least monthly large water changes (45 gallons on a 180+ 55 fuge)

Important to also note that I overstock my tanks. Probably even more now.

I am able to keep many more difficult fish than I used to though haha!

 

[jared graves]

I did this for a couple years even with a skimmer and my nitrate test showed 10-60 nitrates. I bought a new kit and it registered 180ppm! :eek:

No wonder my clams didn't survive and I was starting to lose some corals! I had a fuge but couldn't even keep macro algae alive toward the end!

It was amazing anything pulled through.

This was a very very established system.

I've since tripled my skimming capacity and do at least monthly large water changes (45 gallons on a 180+ 55 fuge)

how many pounds of live rock did you have? How many pounds of live sand? feeding scedual and how much?

 

[jared graves]

and i also forgot to mention the system is supporting little barnacles as well as oysters

 

[Russ265]

I did this for a couple years even with a skimmer and my nitrate test showed 10-60 nitrates. I bought a new kit and it registered 180ppm! :eek:

No wonder my clams didn't survive and I was starting to lose some corals! I had a fuge but couldn't even keep macro algae alive toward the end!

It was amazing anything pulled through.

This was a very very established system.

I've since tripled my skimming capacity and do at least monthly large water changes (45 gallons on a 180+ 55 fuge)

Important to also note that I overstock my tanks. Probably even more now.

I am able to keep many more difficult fish than I used to though haha!

my maxima clamps up when phosphates get to about .08.

i have 3 no3 kits.
red sea normal
api
red sea pro

all read the same

 

[jared graves]

my sps are smaller than yours based on the plug size but they are starting to grow fairly nice.

i have 2 tyree pink lemonades
strawberry shortcake
ora birdsnest
$500 efflo
joe's rainbow acro
goni
duncan
few zoos
galxea
alveopora

cant remember the rest

will be a nice looking collection when they grow out

 

[Russ265]

will be a nice looking collection when they grow out

im still looking for rommel's insane sunset milli. no one has it and im willing to pay $200 for a 1" frag.

 

[4FordFamily]

how many pounds of live rock did you have? How many pounds of live sand? feeding scedual and how much?

180 had 220 lbs or better in DT and another 40 in sump. 3.5" sand bed.

Fed maybe once per day as much as fish ate in 5 mins.

 

[Russ265]

180 had 220 lbs or better in DT and another 40 in sump. 3.5" sand bed.

Fed maybe once per day as much as fish ate in 5 mins.

IME, if you overstock, you gotta use a skimmer. Just too many inhabitants peeing and pooing in there for any natural filtration to keep up. Sucks that your kit was off that much. However, looking at our DT will tell us if something is awry a lot of the time.

I always use the API kits to cross-reference my other kits. API may not be accurate, but at least if they are in the ballpark with my RS pro kits, I know something isnt whack.

 

[4FordFamily]

Not my first rodeo, I always chock blocked my tanks full of as much rock as I could.

It's a double edged sword -

1) it meant less water volume so water could foul up faster
2) gave my fish less room to swim
3) hard to properly circulate that much rock even though I had probably more flow than I ever needed, dead spots were created by having so much rock.

Live rock is a great asset but like anything, it can be overdone.