The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Blueface]

While some of you know my tank is not a reef given my fish choice, since photos are on here, thought this would be the place to update.
After 15 years in the hobby and half of that in the business of designing, setting up and maintaining saltwater tanks, I regret to say mine has seen its last days with me.
Fish will be gone today, sold, and a couple gifted to my son.
Tank being picked up in the next few days, also sold.
After many multi level epidurals, my back can no longer handle those heavy bleached corals for cleaning.
Next, will sell those corals also and probably get more than for the rest of the stuff given how rare they now are.
On to my new hobby of shooting things.


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I was just thinking about you, Carlos, and wondering what was up with your tank. I have thought about dismantling my setup many times. It looks like more trouble than maintaining it.
I hope you get feeling better.

[shilala]

Sorry to hear you're wrapping it up, Carlos. It'd be nice to see you downsize. That's a huge mess you have to work on.

Personally, I'm moving full steam ahead.
I just got done installing my new RODI system. I'm going to add a cleaner/softener to the whole house, so it'll even get better shortly.

Here's pics in phases...
This one you can see my old dual home/reef system. I totally reworked it so that it's now just a salt bath. The two tanks are for drinking water at the sink. Our incoming water is around 450tds. It's gross. The new home/reef brings that down to about 70 at the special spigot at the sink. It should come down even further when I get the whole house conditioner in.



Here's the new Hurricane? dual home/reef. It does a nice job. Once again, it struggles with how awful our water is, but that'll soon be corrected.



I put a 25 gallon holding tank in for my zero tds water for my reef tank. I have a 90 gallon reef. I figure if I do a few water changes this month and next, I'll get the water down to a level of clean I'm happy with.
I had it real good but the filters puked on my old RODI system and I hadn't tested the water, so I was topping off for a long time with 200tds water. It made a mess. Again.



Here's the new Whirlpool conditioner for the whole house. I'll tie it in right after the lawn sprinklers come off, it should make an enormous difference in my reef water-making ability and clean up all our sinks and stuff. The calcium carbonate here is off the map. I'm super excited about getting this right.
I gathered all the rest of my material today, I should have it in by tomorrow evening.

[shilala]

I just checked to see when I got the Harlequin Shrimps. That was just back in December. They have totally cleaned the tank of astrea stars. I'm talking complete genocide. So much so that I'm going to have to get them a chocolate chip star now and again to feast on so they'll stop sitting and staring at me.

The RO extravaganza has been done and the softener installed. It still makes RO water very slowly, but fast enough for me to take care of water changes properly, and to give me all that water (25 gallons) when I need it.

Tomorrow we're going up north to a Frag Swap, I can't wait to see what we come home with.

[shilala]

Oh, one more thing...
My hermit crabs keep eating my clams. I've fed them a blue maxima and crocea so far. My plan is to eradicate them next. I'll pick them and set a food trap and just be rid of them.
Is there any reason whatsoever that I should keep the little assholes in my tank? I have a couple shrimp that clean and a deep bed of worms and copepods, I just can't think of a reason to keep them. I've just had them so long that I think they need to be in there.

[Jefft72]

I am not a fan of hermits myself. Clean up crew consists of a various snails for me (astrea, nassarius, etc) along with whatever soup of critters are in there (bristle worms, etc).

Hermits are fun to look at, but too destructive.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Jefft72

I am not a fan of hermits myself. Clean up crew consists of a various snails for me (astrea, nassarius, etc) along with whatever soup of critters are in there (bristle worms, etc).

Hermits are fun to look at, but too destructive.

The hermits ate every single snail in the tank, too. I'll have to find some reef-safe snails that will work once I get rid of these hermits.

[Jefft72]

Reef safe snails:
-Nassarius (burrow in the sand, and come out to feed)
-astrea (move around on glass and rocks eatting algae)
-Turbo (large, and sometimes bullish if coral that is not secured gets in their way, but they will mow down hair algae)
-cerith (similar to the astrea in behavior, but has a different shaped shell, smaller and usually cheaper).

I like a large quantity of snails. I don't have near enough currently, but I would try to do 1 per gallon with a mix to whatever ones you choose. You can usually check the online vendors to get better prices for a variety pack. Good luck with the hermit extraction. Feeding them croceas would be an expensive diet

[sevans105]

Hi guys, I've been reading through this thread with a lot of interest lately. 1 of my friends has a 75 gallon live rock tank that he has severely neglected. he is giving it to me but I'm wondering what sort of things I need to do to start it up correctly. it has all the filtration system skimmers lights everything, she has just let it get over grown with some sort of green algae. there are also a few fish in it, nothing special, a blue damsel and two tomato clowns. From what I've read I need to take things out and scrub them with a wire brush, rinse them in new clean water, and then slowly incorporate the new water into the tank. any other suggestions?

[shilala]

The green algae grows when the water is too fertile. So does brown algae and all the other crap. She was probably topping off with tap water.
To do the reef thing, you absolutely have to have a source of zero tds (total dissolved solids) water, Scotty. That means it's completely pure. Then there's nothing for the algae to grow on.
I get lazy and don't test my water from my unit and I can tell the filters are shot as soon as algae blooms. Some amount is acceptable, but not much.

I don't think I'd start scrubbing anything. Move the tank, make new water (even if you have to buy distilled by the gallon at Target), and get a Tang. Tangs love eating that algae, they'll clean it right up, but slowly. That's what you want.
If you start scrubbing the rock you'll do more damage than good.

You'll probably need new lightbulbs, too. Depends on what kind of fixture she has. Just clean the filters and skimmers and do proper maintenance.
The new, clean water will likely starve the green algae and make it break down and sluff off slowly. The Tang would keep up with that and you won't have a big nasty bioload for the filters and tank and water to take care of.

After the initial setup, you'll need to change about 1/3 of the water once a month.
Then start reading your brains out. It only took me 15 years to get from a saltwater rock/fish tank to a successful reef.
Reef tanks need specialized equipment that I didn't have quite right (lights and wavemakers, mainly). Once everything is right, it's easy. About as hard as taking care of a cat.

[Jefft72]

Scott, if the tank is overwhelmed with algae due to neglect then it might be best to break it down completely and try to start fresh. I would try to sell the fish back to a local fish shop. "Cooking" the rock would come next and is a process meant to kill all the nuisance algae that has collected. Basically, you put all the rock into a rubber maid container (multiple if necessary) and fill with new saltwater. Then you put a pump in there for circulation and perhaps a bubble stone. Some folks will run a skimmer as well. Weekly water changes will be done during the process and after several weeks of this you will have sparkling new rock that is clean and clear.

During that time you can also scrape all the surfaces of the tank so that the glass is clear again and clean along with cleaning any equipment that also might need it. Vinegar baths do wonders for reef equipment that is encrusted with algae.

It sounds like a lot of work I realize, but if you start a reef/saltwater/freshwater tank with algae then it will be a constant battle and you will not enjoy it. You may very well encounter algae once you get the tank setup anyway. Algae is a way of life it seems.

Good luck with it if you decide to take the plunge.

[shilala]

I'm with ya, Jeff. I was just doing the cook and trying to save the rock as best as possible. I've had no problems controlling algae with good water. I watch diatom blooms and algae to let me know where my water is at. It's not very good right now.
I'm sure it's way more than acceptable to anyone in the world but me, but I like a super-clean tank and I'm crazy anal about it.
The clowns and damsel shouldn't have any problem with the new water, but Scotty could isolate them in a bucket with a bubbler. Personally I'd toss them in, they're tough.
I'd definately clean the tank and filters and skimmers before I reuse them. I keep a five gallon bucket of white vinegar with a lid on it and run a powerhead in there when I'm cleaning stuff. It works wonders.

My hermits only eat things that are dieing anyway. I have had a dozen snails for more than a year and had a crocea that survived about five years with a bunch of hermit crabs.
Algae will die off if you get all the nutrients out of the water. Starve it down. Cleaning, filtering, water changes, live stripping by growing algae in the refugium and throwing it away, etc. The removing the rocks and scrubbing helps by taking away material from the nutrient cycle.

[sevans105]

Thanks guys! I think I'll do the cook process. I've had a salt fish tank in the past and I'm with Scott...I like a clean tank. I think I may convert another smaller tank I have that is currently empty into a holding tank for the fish while I cook and clean. I live in the middle of no where and the closest store is an hour away so the buy back deal is kinda rough. Besides, they are kinda cute. Lots of work ahead of me but I'm kind of excited. I'll keep you guys posted on my successes/failures.

Thanks again

[shilala]

Originally Posted by sevans105

Thanks guys! I think I'll do the cook process. I've had a salt fish tank in the past and I'm with Scott...I like a clean tank. I think I may convert another smaller tank I have that is currently empty into a holding tank for the fish while I cook and clean. I live in the middle of no where and the closest store is an hour away so the buy back deal is kinda rough. Besides, they are kinda cute. Lots of work ahead of me but I'm kind of excited. I'll keep you guys posted on my successes/failures.

Thanks again

You have a plan, Scotty. You can use your friend's water for the temp tank. Just don't use it for the new tank. You can't (or shouldn't) use the cook water in your new tank, either. You're gonna be making a lot of water, for sure. Tons.
Before you leap, consider using all her stuff the way it stands and do water changes and a tang. It'll be a lot cheaper but it'll take longer.
Just cleaning the tank will be a huge step forward, and in a few months the water will be right. You can probably remove another ton of crap by hand, stuff that's not stuck so well.
If you work backwards on this stuff, starving it like Lance said, and using a critter to do the cleanup, it just works better.
Reason being, as the algae breaks down, and the water gets better and better, it'll work twice as hard to scrub the water for food, eventually locking everything up that's available.
Soon you'll have none.
I approach everything in the tank from a biolevel, using what's in there to fix what's wrong. If that doesn't work, I add a critter to fix what's wrong.
If you don't fix the whole cycle, the algae just comes back. I learned that by fighting with brown hair for years. (The answer to that was too much light and I put my lights on timers.)
If you work backwards, once the problem is gone you'll know it's gone for good because of good husbandry. If it comes back, and it probably will if you don't get to the root of the problem, then you haven't really learned anything.
Time and patience in reefkeeping is even tougher than in cigars. Really.

[Jefft72]

All good advice Scott. You have a lot more experience in the marine tank world than I do so I was definitely looking forward to your take on Scott's situation.

I just replaced the filters and DI in my system. My tank currently has more bubble algae than I am happy with and my halide bulbs need to be replaced (the algae outbreak may be a mixture of bad topoff and the bad bulbs).

The wife and I have discussed shutting the tank down. I want to build a LED setup to grow SPS in the 150g system.......unfortunately that's not a cheap project. Cheaper than buying off the shelf, but still an investment. Plus with 4 kids under the age of 5 any free time......what free time The biggest factor is simply putting more money into it to get it where I want it to be. I have halide ballasts that are bad and need to be replaced/repaired. Weekly maintenance really isn't that big of a deal, like you stated above. Refill topoff container, clean glass, monthly water changes.

I am still flip flopping over the decision to shut it down. Hopefully I can find a way to keep it.

[shilala]

I run a 500-550 watt 8-tube t5 hood over my 75 gallon, Jeff.
Granted, it was expensive at the outset, but I've had it for a lot of years now and aside from changing bulbs now and again, it works great.
I did all the homework on LED lighting less than a year ago. I decided against it. It just simply is not ready for marine application yet. You can make it go, but it costs a fortune, is very focused, and looks like sh1t.
In five years, I honestly think it'll be a no-brainer that it's the way to go, but after all the reading and hearing guy's experiences, it's real clear it's left them wanting.

I found one piece of bubble algae in my tank the other day. I dislodged it and lost it. It'll show up later as a big goofy looking thing and I'll pick it out. I have a few aiptasia or mojanos in there, too. I can't seem to zap the little bastids so I turned some rock to make them more accessible. Now a couple things fell and I have to go diving and glue them down. I'll wait a bit cause I want to see what I find Saturday at the frag swap. I'll probably have to do a bunch of remodeling. I need a few more pieces of rock, too.

[Jefft72]

I hear you on the T5 setup. That's what was over my last tank. I still have the IC ballasts and may well ditch the big halide fixture and put T5s over the tank. I have an IC 660 and 430, which may be enough to cover the tank sufficiently.

I have family over last weekend and they were all asking me what the pretty pearlescent green balls were.......I had to tell them that they were not desirable at all.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Jefft72

I hear you on the T5 setup. That's what was over my last tank. I still have the IC ballasts and may well ditch the big halide fixture and put T5s over the tank. I have an IC 660 and 430, which may be enough to cover the tank sufficiently.

I have family over last weekend and they were all asking me what the pretty pearlescent green balls were.......I had to tell them that they were not desirable at all.

We have Family Day here every couple weeks and there are always at least five people firmly set in front of the tank. I give class a few times a year and show everyone how the corals eat and stuff. They love it.
Bubble sure is pretty. If you get hardcore about cutting them loose, they'll go to the top, find moving water, and open up into big, goofy looking rubbery taco bowls (in time). It makes them real easy to pick out.

I don't know how many lamps that 660 will drive, but between the two you should have plenty of ass. You gonna build the hood?

[Jefft72]

There is a hood on the tank currently, but the previous owner cut out the top for the halide fixture to fit into. The fixture currently has legs that rest on the inner edge of the hood and sticks out the top. If I were to retrofit the T5s then I would probably fill the hole so that the whole deal could hinge open again like it was designed to do. Fans would need to be added to the hood though for proper ventilation.

I think I may have talked myself into keeping the tank. The wife only asked, "how much will it cost me?" I told her, "practically nothing once I sell the halide fixture and ballasts to offset the cost of new T5 bulbs and endcaps." It's a free upgrade.....sort of.