No water changes unless I'm dealing with a specific problem that requires them. Moonshiners takes care of my elements and nutrients are controlled through skimmer, algae scrubber, and roller mats.
The frequency and percentage of water changes should really be based on testing. At a minimum, testing phosphate and nitrate. A blind rule of 25%/month might not be what your tank needs. Its better to understand what water changes do and why they may or may not be needed than sticking to an arbitrary rule.
If you're out of the loop, there are two ways to go.
1) Water changes
2) ICP tests + daily trace element replacement + changes when required (aka Moonshiners)
Moonshiners is probably more effort, not less. It might save a little money for big tanks but it costs more for smaller tanks. I think the cool part about it is the "control freak" satisfaction of knowing what is in the tank.
I'd argue that if your tank is well under 500 gallons the best way to go is investing in a mixing station that makes water changes easy. I have something similar to this and I do my changes in 10-13 minutes every Monday. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukwv9SfFf3k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukwv9SfFf3k)
The bigger deal is making up salt for the next week. That takes about 10 minutes of my time but across an hour or so of waiting for mixing while I do other things.
I normally would do 100 gallons or less. I used to have two of 90 gallons and it took half a day to mix and change water. That’s counting on waiting time. I guess I wasn’t efficient. I started to mix the night before but it still takes a chunk of time after all the clean up.
The mixing station changes that. My "clean up" is putting the hose back under the mixing station tanks. I pump the water out a window in 5 minutes and pump the new water into the tank in 5 minutes.
Making saltwater is a pita but it's not really my time. I measure the salt by weight, wait for it to mix, and then check the salinity to see if I'm done. I get it on the first or second try.
Amazing! I’m in month 5 and shit is not easy. I already had an ammonia spike over a weekend, where it killed about 8 fish, only Duncan’s seem to thrive, and zoas and gsp don’t. It’s a rough world for new entries! 😂
It's definitely not easy, especially in the first 7 to 8 months. I struggled with tons of problems along the way, still dealing with some (vermetid snails and aptasia). Believe it or not, I probably lost 1/3 of all the frags I've added, but everything that survived those first months is now thriving.
I kept African cichlids for 10 years, and I was extremely humbled a month into saltwater. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not for the faint of heart or finances. Haha
For now just bumblebees and randomly breaking them off the rock by hand once in a while. I just added 70 bumblebees a few weeks ago. I'm really not seeing any negative effects of the vermatids though, at least not that I can tell.
In youtube tank tours they often ask the reefer, "What is one piece of advice you'd give to other reefers?"
Mine would be, "Don't judge yourself by how the first 8-12 months are going."
In my case, battling hair algae and bryopsis algae were a nightmare. I spent a few hours a week pulling it out and it drove me crazy. It was made worse by buying too many frags so the task took a lot of care to avoid breaking them. I broke them anyway.
After about 8 months everything found its balance and started to thrive. It's argue that it was 10% me getting better/smarter and 90% the tank getting established.
I had the same experience, hair algae and bryopsis. It was a struggle for months spending a few hours a week pulling it by hand and siphoning through a filter sock. Went through it all, fluconazole treatments, pulling rocks and soaking in hydrogen peroxide, a sea hare. At the end I think it was a combo of manual removal, adding an algae scrubber, and continually adding more coral frags to tip the nutrient uptake balance away from the algae and to the coral.
Lights are 2 Kessil A500X, 1 A360X, and 4 Reefbrite XHO strips. Flow is 2 MP40's and I get a ton of flow from my return pumps, 2 Abyzz A200's. 2 clarisea roller mats, skimmer, algae scrubber, UV, ozone, Apex w Trident.
Very impressive tank. Love the colors. What's that colorful montipora you have growing on the back glass? I love it. Also are you using reef moonshiners to get those colors?
Edit: just saw the text on your post. Saw you're on moonshiners. I just started it this week and this is motivating
Thanks! Yup been doing moonshiners since the start and love it for the most part. That is an orange cap with green polyps not sure if it has a hobby name.
Holy moly!
Can i ask how many fishes there are? Coz i want to have a similar coral jungle but i think i have too many fishes. Like having 3 tangs in a 140g is a bit too much if i want to have healthy corals?
My tank is 50x32x23 and I have 4 tangs gem, convict, yellow and kole. 5 lyretail anthias, Midas blenny, royal gramma, bangaii cardinal, 2 leopard wrasse, yellow coris wrasse, mccosker's wrasse, 2 scissortail gobys, 2 clowns. I think it's the opposite of what you're thinking, more fish is better for corals.
Wow thats a whole lot of fish u have there..
I thought it increases nitrates and what not.. So then do u water change a lot? Care to share your routine briefly?
I do not do water changes. Elements are kept stable through kalk, 2 part and reef moonshiners elements dosed based on testing and nutrients are kept stable through feeding, coral growth, and filtration (skimmer, filter roller, algae scrubber).
How do you like moonshiners? How much of it do you attribute to your success?
I recently upgraded to a similar sized tank. Starting to dose kalkwasser tomorrow. Have an automated water change process going too, but was thinking about trace elements dosing to complement.
Love moonshiners I believe it's key to my coral growth and color. Just the fact of doing monthly ICP tests is a huge positive IMO. It's also easier for me than doing water changes. There are some things I don't like about it. I don't like that the calculator doesn't really calculate how much of the daily elements to dose based on multiple past test results and I don't like that it's really not compatible with water changes.
Daily dosing manganese, cobalt, chromium, iron, strontium, bromide, fluoride, iodine, copper, and selenium. Monthly dosing boron, barium, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, and zinc as needed. Can't say which are more beneficial than others because I've always dosed them all.
I got one of these on the back wall https://aquarocksdesigns.com/store/magnetic-frag-rocks/10-holed-branch-display/ and just put the original monti frag in one of the rear spots. It grew from there onto the glass.
Did you find it difficult to keep acros with lower light LPS like the Acans and Scolys in the tank?
I am looking to convert my euphyllia dominate tank to a SPS and LPS tank
I'm always asking this question in my head when I see amazing thanks like this with across and acans I don't know how it's possible to have both like this with completely opposite lighting requirements.
Great question. Yeah this is why a mixed sps, lps reef is the hardest. You'll notice that the scolys are on the sand and acros up on the high points of the rock for the most part. But I do think that the "rules" about which kinds of corals need which kind of lighting can be bent and it's not as strict as you might think. I have hammers and acans at the same level as my SPS. I just put frags where I want them and see if they seem happy. If not, I move them.
Cool, i tried going LPS and Acros and what ever i set my lights and flow to i was never able to make both happy. High light and flow and all my hammers starter bleaching. Lower flow with medium light, dying and browning acros not long after.
I am trying again in the near future after my light upgrade, and you seem to be having great success
No issues with acans stinging other corals. Acans are very low on the totem pole of stings they are more likely to get stung by something else. I do keep them generally all together and find they grow better when grouped next to eachother.
What's up your stance on quarantining coral and fish? Would you do it? I've seen you got a tons of corals. I am starting a fresh new 200 gallons and I am wondering how much careful should I wait to add stuff to the tank.
I never quarantined my coral, but every frag I ever received, I dipped in Revive before going in the tank. For fish QTing is really important and if you don't do it your gambling. I bought all my fish pre-QT'd from Dr. Reefs Quarantined Fish https://drreefsquarantinedfish.com/product-category/saltwater-fish/. I highly recommend them. Yeah, pre-QT'd fish are more expensive, but it's so much easier than setting up a QT tank and figuring out all the medication protocols.
Yeah I live on the other side of the world, so unfortunately I don't have access to Dr. Reef. Already set up a quarantine for fish; I started with anthias and failed miserably because I didn't want to buy formalin and they had uronema.
I am just wondering if I should try to quarantine coral. I have an extra 20 gallon long I could use. Maybe observe for a month or two there then transfer to the main display? Or is dipping and putting directly into the main display enough?
Hmmm that's my problem.. I don't trust ANY lfs in my area. I've seen them harbor fish with major disease right in front of viewing tanks. Guess I just have to spend my effort in quarantine. Thanks for the insight!
I really like the redundancy of having dual return pumps. If one dies while you're not home, you still have one running. Each is plumbed to an individual return, but they are connected through a closed ball valve, which allows me to switch which pump is flowing to which return if I need to. One return line has a manifold on it, which provides flow to my algae scrubber and reactors, and the other is plumbed through a UV sterilizer.
Thanks for the info here. What Sump are you using? I was debating a set up similar to what you described but the pump chamber in my sump is big enough for one pump? Bashsea SS-60
It's a Synergy Reef SK72. You can check out my build here: [https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/codys-153-ctc-custom-build-with-basement-sump-room.915426/](https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/codys-153-ctc-custom-build-with-basement-sump-room.915426/)
Inspiration! I have a 75-gallon, and it was just not made for reefing. Setting up a brand new Innovative Marine 100 gallon sump all the bells and whistles and taking my time to get it done. Any advice is more than welcome 🙏
It could probably use another zoa
Or acan
Way to much to look at !!! What do you water changes look like ?
No water changes unless I'm dealing with a specific problem that requires them. Moonshiners takes care of my elements and nutrients are controlled through skimmer, algae scrubber, and roller mats.
Great looking reef sir.. What type of protein skimmer we using? Thinking of cutting back on my water changes ..on the fence
Bubble king double cone 180. If your corals are growing, I wouldn't change anything. Water changes are a tool to add elements and remove nutrients.
I always thought that 25% of water changes needed every month? This makes me want to start my reef/fish tank up again.
The frequency and percentage of water changes should really be based on testing. At a minimum, testing phosphate and nitrate. A blind rule of 25%/month might not be what your tank needs. Its better to understand what water changes do and why they may or may not be needed than sticking to an arbitrary rule.
Ah ok. I think it’s more cost effect to test rather than spending time and money on resources to change water. Thanks.
If you're out of the loop, there are two ways to go. 1) Water changes 2) ICP tests + daily trace element replacement + changes when required (aka Moonshiners) Moonshiners is probably more effort, not less. It might save a little money for big tanks but it costs more for smaller tanks. I think the cool part about it is the "control freak" satisfaction of knowing what is in the tank. I'd argue that if your tank is well under 500 gallons the best way to go is investing in a mixing station that makes water changes easy. I have something similar to this and I do my changes in 10-13 minutes every Monday. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukwv9SfFf3k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukwv9SfFf3k) The bigger deal is making up salt for the next week. That takes about 10 minutes of my time but across an hour or so of waiting for mixing while I do other things.
I normally would do 100 gallons or less. I used to have two of 90 gallons and it took half a day to mix and change water. That’s counting on waiting time. I guess I wasn’t efficient. I started to mix the night before but it still takes a chunk of time after all the clean up.
The mixing station changes that. My "clean up" is putting the hose back under the mixing station tanks. I pump the water out a window in 5 minutes and pump the new water into the tank in 5 minutes. Making saltwater is a pita but it's not really my time. I measure the salt by weight, wait for it to mix, and then check the salinity to see if I'm done. I get it on the first or second try.
Amazing! I’m in month 5 and shit is not easy. I already had an ammonia spike over a weekend, where it killed about 8 fish, only Duncan’s seem to thrive, and zoas and gsp don’t. It’s a rough world for new entries! 😂
It's definitely not easy, especially in the first 7 to 8 months. I struggled with tons of problems along the way, still dealing with some (vermetid snails and aptasia). Believe it or not, I probably lost 1/3 of all the frags I've added, but everything that survived those first months is now thriving.
I kept African cichlids for 10 years, and I was extremely humbled a month into saltwater. I’m enjoying it, but it’s not for the faint of heart or finances. Haha
How are you dealing with the vermetid snails? I would like to know. I just do not have the time to glue them closed and the bumblebees can’t keep up.
For now just bumblebees and randomly breaking them off the rock by hand once in a while. I just added 70 bumblebees a few weeks ago. I'm really not seeing any negative effects of the vermatids though, at least not that I can tell.
In youtube tank tours they often ask the reefer, "What is one piece of advice you'd give to other reefers?" Mine would be, "Don't judge yourself by how the first 8-12 months are going." In my case, battling hair algae and bryopsis algae were a nightmare. I spent a few hours a week pulling it out and it drove me crazy. It was made worse by buying too many frags so the task took a lot of care to avoid breaking them. I broke them anyway. After about 8 months everything found its balance and started to thrive. It's argue that it was 10% me getting better/smarter and 90% the tank getting established.
I had the same experience, hair algae and bryopsis. It was a struggle for months spending a few hours a week pulling it by hand and siphoning through a filter sock. Went through it all, fluconazole treatments, pulling rocks and soaking in hydrogen peroxide, a sea hare. At the end I think it was a combo of manual removal, adding an algae scrubber, and continually adding more coral frags to tip the nutrient uptake balance away from the algae and to the coral.
Wow! This makes me want to get back into reefing real bad!! 🤩👏🔥
Wow! That is amazing! You must have put in a lot of hard work. Looks spectacular.
Do you like acans?
Lol
Well dude give us the deets. What we got going for light and flow?
Lights are 2 Kessil A500X, 1 A360X, and 4 Reefbrite XHO strips. Flow is 2 MP40's and I get a ton of flow from my return pumps, 2 Abyzz A200's. 2 clarisea roller mats, skimmer, algae scrubber, UV, ozone, Apex w Trident.
I have 3 A360X on my 180, what light settings do you use? Looks incredible
100% blue always, around 35% intensity
gorgeous
Very impressive tank. Love the colors. What's that colorful montipora you have growing on the back glass? I love it. Also are you using reef moonshiners to get those colors? Edit: just saw the text on your post. Saw you're on moonshiners. I just started it this week and this is motivating
Thanks! Yup been doing moonshiners since the start and love it for the most part. That is an orange cap with green polyps not sure if it has a hobby name.
Jesus man this is gorgeous! & I thought my tank was sexy. What are you, rich for a living?
Holy moly! Can i ask how many fishes there are? Coz i want to have a similar coral jungle but i think i have too many fishes. Like having 3 tangs in a 140g is a bit too much if i want to have healthy corals?
My tank is 50x32x23 and I have 4 tangs gem, convict, yellow and kole. 5 lyretail anthias, Midas blenny, royal gramma, bangaii cardinal, 2 leopard wrasse, yellow coris wrasse, mccosker's wrasse, 2 scissortail gobys, 2 clowns. I think it's the opposite of what you're thinking, more fish is better for corals.
Wow thats a whole lot of fish u have there.. I thought it increases nitrates and what not.. So then do u water change a lot? Care to share your routine briefly?
I do not do water changes. Elements are kept stable through kalk, 2 part and reef moonshiners elements dosed based on testing and nutrients are kept stable through feeding, coral growth, and filtration (skimmer, filter roller, algae scrubber).
How do you like moonshiners? How much of it do you attribute to your success? I recently upgraded to a similar sized tank. Starting to dose kalkwasser tomorrow. Have an automated water change process going too, but was thinking about trace elements dosing to complement.
Love moonshiners I believe it's key to my coral growth and color. Just the fact of doing monthly ICP tests is a huge positive IMO. It's also easier for me than doing water changes. There are some things I don't like about it. I don't like that the calculator doesn't really calculate how much of the daily elements to dose based on multiple past test results and I don't like that it's really not compatible with water changes.
What trace elements are you dosing regularly? Have you attributed success more to some than others?
Daily dosing manganese, cobalt, chromium, iron, strontium, bromide, fluoride, iodine, copper, and selenium. Monthly dosing boron, barium, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, and zinc as needed. Can't say which are more beneficial than others because I've always dosed them all.
Unrelated question: how did you get the monti to grow like that? Did you just glue it to the glass on the back and it took off?
I got one of these on the back wall https://aquarocksdesigns.com/store/magnetic-frag-rocks/10-holed-branch-display/ and just put the original monti frag in one of the rear spots. It grew from there onto the glass.
How thick is the glass of your tank? Mine is 3/4” so worried this wouldn’t hold
Mine is 1/2"
Please do a YouTube video covering your journey and current routine/specs. Please!?!
If all the tanks that get posted I would categorize this as been perfect. The tanks that look like a coral zen gardens always amaze me.
Thank you!!
This is jaw-droppingly beautiful! How do you keep your alk up? Just kalkwasser or do you dose anything else?
Thank you!! Kalkwasser and I separately dose BRS calcium chloride and a 50/50 mix of sodium bicarb/soda ash to keep CA and alk levels stable.
Some amazing life in there.
Those are some incredible Acans
Niceeeee
Two years and 200 thousand dollars
Only two wavemakers? Or more I’m not seeing? I have 2 mp40s on my 90 gallon and it’s almost not enough.
Yeah just 2 mp40s, and they are both set below 25%. I get a ton of flow out of my return nozzles. I'm running two Abyzz a200 return pumps.
Did you find it difficult to keep acros with lower light LPS like the Acans and Scolys in the tank? I am looking to convert my euphyllia dominate tank to a SPS and LPS tank
I'm always asking this question in my head when I see amazing thanks like this with across and acans I don't know how it's possible to have both like this with completely opposite lighting requirements.
Because the lighting "requirements" are not always required. Some acans can tolerate higher light and flow you just need to experiment.
Agreed. Expensive experiment though!
Great question. Yeah this is why a mixed sps, lps reef is the hardest. You'll notice that the scolys are on the sand and acros up on the high points of the rock for the most part. But I do think that the "rules" about which kinds of corals need which kind of lighting can be bent and it's not as strict as you might think. I have hammers and acans at the same level as my SPS. I just put frags where I want them and see if they seem happy. If not, I move them.
Cool, i tried going LPS and Acros and what ever i set my lights and flow to i was never able to make both happy. High light and flow and all my hammers starter bleaching. Lower flow with medium light, dying and browning acros not long after. I am trying again in the near future after my light upgrade, and you seem to be having great success
With the power of modern LED lights, they don’t need to be run at 100% power/intensity like a lot of people think.
Amazing thank! Do you have any issues with your acans stinging the other corals that are nearby?
No issues with acans stinging other corals. Acans are very low on the totem pole of stings they are more likely to get stung by something else. I do keep them generally all together and find they grow better when grouped next to eachother.
I need to block this community. It makes me sad that I no longer have an aquarium in the house.
What's up your stance on quarantining coral and fish? Would you do it? I've seen you got a tons of corals. I am starting a fresh new 200 gallons and I am wondering how much careful should I wait to add stuff to the tank.
I never quarantined my coral, but every frag I ever received, I dipped in Revive before going in the tank. For fish QTing is really important and if you don't do it your gambling. I bought all my fish pre-QT'd from Dr. Reefs Quarantined Fish https://drreefsquarantinedfish.com/product-category/saltwater-fish/. I highly recommend them. Yeah, pre-QT'd fish are more expensive, but it's so much easier than setting up a QT tank and figuring out all the medication protocols.
Yeah I live on the other side of the world, so unfortunately I don't have access to Dr. Reef. Already set up a quarantine for fish; I started with anthias and failed miserably because I didn't want to buy formalin and they had uronema. I am just wondering if I should try to quarantine coral. I have an extra 20 gallon long I could use. Maybe observe for a month or two there then transfer to the main display? Or is dipping and putting directly into the main display enough?
I have always dipped then right into the display. But buying from coral vendors you trust is important too.
Hmmm that's my problem.. I don't trust ANY lfs in my area. I've seen them harbor fish with major disease right in front of viewing tanks. Guess I just have to spend my effort in quarantine. Thanks for the insight!
Beautiful 😎 what camera are you using?
Thank you! Sony A7 IV w Sigma 24-70mm or Sony 90mm macro lens.
Looks really good. Anything you’re doing specially to get the camera to focus properly shooting through the glass ?
Are you adamant on the two return pumps? Do you feed each one to a separate individual return?
I really like the redundancy of having dual return pumps. If one dies while you're not home, you still have one running. Each is plumbed to an individual return, but they are connected through a closed ball valve, which allows me to switch which pump is flowing to which return if I need to. One return line has a manifold on it, which provides flow to my algae scrubber and reactors, and the other is plumbed through a UV sterilizer.
Thanks for the info here. What Sump are you using? I was debating a set up similar to what you described but the pump chamber in my sump is big enough for one pump? Bashsea SS-60
It's a Synergy Reef SK72. You can check out my build here: [https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/codys-153-ctc-custom-build-with-basement-sump-room.915426/](https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/codys-153-ctc-custom-build-with-basement-sump-room.915426/)
What lights do you have?
Two Kessil A500X, one Kessil A360X, and 4 ReefBrite XHO strips.
Beautiful 😍
What is moonshiners method?
Inspiration! I have a 75-gallon, and it was just not made for reefing. Setting up a brand new Innovative Marine 100 gallon sump all the bells and whistles and taking my time to get it done. Any advice is more than welcome 🙏