The WWC Method to Reef Keeping! - The BRS/WWC System Ep5 | BRStv

[Syntax1235]

What brand of salt does WWC use?

 

[vetteguy53081]

What brand of salt does WWC use?

Morton.
Jk but good question

 

[randyBRS]

What brand of salt does WWC use?

In earlier episodes where we interviewed Josh, he said that they have used Instant Ocean and now primarily Brightwell NeoMarine.

 

[Ross Petersen]

I am really stoked about this new series, but also a little frustrated and confused at the same time. My head is kinda spinning, and I am also a little sad that you may be changing the BRS160 over to this method. Because I would have liked to see what the long-term performance of Triton looked like in years 2, 3, etc.

This is not meant as criticism, I am just making some observations here.

I was following closely with the ULM and Triton and was totally on board with it. But this WWC idea is a bit of a departure from that in both obvious and some subtle ways. But I get it, you have to keep producing interesting content.

It is good that you come right out in the video and say that some of the things they do are really impractical in a home environment, unless you are retired I guess.

- Feeding every hour - those fish eat better than I do, I half expected Gordon Ramsay to show up in the video. That quality and frequency is clearly at a pro or public aquarium level. I would really like to see a "next best thing" procedure that maybe combines an automatic feeder (and e.g. needing dry foods) plus manual feeding once or twice a day with frozen foods. Something someone with kids and a full time job would have a chance at pulling off. Likely you guys at BRS are already one step ahead of me on this and will be getting to that. Unless someone has really perfected feeding liquid/frozen foods from a doser located in a college refrigerator. I think another factor in feeding so much protein is that those fish are basically in a whirlpool here... ;-) It's the fish equivalent of a treadmill.

- Lighting - I think you danced around it as much as you could, but you need a light meter (rent or buy), especially if you are going LED. I am debating if it is a good idea to have one running continuous like the Neptune, or a manual one. I could see some benefit in being able to detect an issue with lighting before you see it's effects on the inhabitants. But there might also be benefit in the higher-end units. The Seneye might be a good compromise since it can do par/per/ and so forth, and could be used both on an instantaneous or continuous basis. My tank is a 135G (72x18x24) and I am using a pair of Kessil AP700's. It's arguably more light than I need (but I can just turn them down) but I am thinking I will enclose my tank with a canopy and reflectors so that I direct all the light into the tank rather than into the room, this should offer more diffusion / less shadowing (although I like the shimmer). And I can also add the lenses. I'm trying not to add T5's if I can help it, even if I have to add more smaller LED's around the AP700's.

- Filtration - there really is nothing special here, it really could be called an old-school method but with military-grade scheduling. That is fine with me. They are also doing water changes of course, and a calcium reactor, which is what allows them to use carbon and such that would otherwise deplete some elements. My take away is that it is really looking to me that a calcium reactor is going to be cheaper, easier, and more reliable / ULM than dosing, and going a step further, even getting a DaStaco. The other thing moving me in this direction is the cost and availability issues with Triton, even with the cost of a DaStaco and of course you could still use "other methods". Lastly, I think this method screams for an automatic water changing system, I am surprised WWC isn't already using one. Not only would it offer even higher stability (which is almost their #1 concern), but I think the cost benefit analysis might compare favorably to paid staff doing water changes.... especially if they maybe had some kind of large centralized system.

I would say the most important thing I learned from this video is your bit on coral skill levels. Mixed reef actually being the most difficult, even more so than SPS only. I doubt many people think about that when they start getting into reef tanks, makes allot of sense. People like variety, but sticking with one thing and getting it right first is a really good idea. You should cut that out of the video and make a mini-series just on that topic (with more detail into specific coral types in each category), and then make it a sticky on the top of every forum. I for one think learning about all the different coral types and their needs is the biggest challenge of all here.

So, I am going to try and cherry pick the best ideas from Triton, WWC, and a few others and see what I can do with it. Leaning toward the most ULM elements of each.

-JCL

P.S. - what if you had a refugium with a sand bed (as in a large one) and used that with a bare bottom tank to get the best of both worlds? Then you can effortlessly keep the sand clean and get the benefits it clearly offers, while maintaining the hurricane in the tank. I am thinking of taking ABS and gluing sand to it myself. Although I think I might have some pretty frustrated goby's that way.

Love this last bit about cherry-picking the good bits from each world. I'm contemplating a mixed reef tank with a very small amount of course sand so I can still maintain ~high flow, a roller filter capturing 70% of the drain flow, skimmer (for gas exchange really), possibly a green chamber of sorts (algae turf scrubber or refugium with some ceramic media), and a 2-part dosing system. I'm new in the game so will wait on reactors and such. Although a UV sterilizer seems like a handy thing to be able to turn on if a tang-gang is around. Any critical thoughts on this approach? Too much with the refugium in there?! Thanks, Ross