Chris' CAD Lights 45g Shallow : Another Re-Scape (Video)

[cnseekatz]

I want those wrasse's.... Do you ever get fishes at tongs? they're very tempting but I hear they die rather quickly. Maybe due to over packing their fish tanks

 

I actually get most of my fish at Tong's. You cannot beat their selection, and if you pay close attention, you can tell if they're healthy or not. They do deal with a lot of volume, but I find that most of their stuff always looks healthy. Of course there are always going to be casualties in that business, but I think they do a very good job.

 

That being said, be thorough. Ask them how long they've had the fish, ask to see it eat, watch it for a while. The folks there are usually very helpful. I got my Blue Star and my Potter's there, and they're healthy as horses. I would much rather get a fish from Tong than online, because I like to observe them first.

[ninjamyst]

hey, how's your leopard doing? does it spit sand everywhere?

[cnseekatz]

hey, how's your leopard doing? does it spit sand everywhere?

 

They're all doing great. They don't spit sand, but they do kick it up everywhere when the bury for their naps. I've had to move pretty much everything off the sandbed (frags, acans, etc.) because those are perfect targets for burrowing!

[ninjamyst]

 

They're all doing great. They don't spit sand, but they do kick it up everywhere when the bury for their naps. I've had to move pretty much everything off the sandbed (frags, acans, etc.) because those are perfect targets for burrowing!

damn it, I guess no leopard wrasse for me then. I have my beloved blasto colony on the sandbed and I don't have enough rocks to mount everything.

[cnseekatz]

damn it, I guess no leopard wrasse for me then. I have my beloved blasto colony on the sandbed and I don't have enough rocks to mount everything.

 

Since you mentioned "spitting sand" I've been watching them a little bit, and they still don't spit it, but they regularly burrow about half way in, thrash around, and then come back out, shooting sand everywhere and making the tank all cloudy!

 

I'm guessing that they're stirring the sand up so they can lift little micro-critters into the water to eat.

[gena]

Since you mentioned "spitting sand" I've been watching them a little bit, and they still don't spit it, but they regularly burrow about half way in, thrash around, and then come back out, shooting sand everywhere and making the tank all cloudy!

 

I'm guessing that they're stirring the sand up so they can lift little micro-critters into the water to eat.

This was my observation as well.

[cnseekatz]

I decided to do a water change the other day. It was the first water change I'd done (literally) in months. The decision came from some ugliness going on in my sump/refugium, not my display (which is actually quite clean). What started off as a simple water change quickly evolved into a deep cleaning of my sump/fuge, and ended up with lots of swearing, water on the floor, cloudy water and pissed off livestock. Which leads me to my topic of discussion...

 

I've been reading a lot about water changes, and how they may not be as vital as we're all taught.

 

Water changes obviously provide very valuable services to our tanks, mainly the exportation of bad stuff, and the importation of good stuff. The drawbacks are minimal, and possible complications are easily avoided. Make sure that the temp, salinity and pH match your existing system, and enjoy. Remove detritus, nitrates, phosphates, and other organic caca. Import calcium, regulate alkalinity, and bring in all kinds of other fun elements.

 

But what if (theoretically) you have other ways of removing unwanted organic materials via mechanical, chemical and/or natural filtration methods, and you dose your tank to provide those essential elements normally provided with synthetic salt mixtures? Does that eliminate, or at least reduce the need for regular water changes? Obviously, water changes are still the best course of action in case of many tank emergencies, and I'm not suggesting that that isn't the case, but are our bi-weekly/bi-monthly water changes mandatory?

 

I'm starting to think that they're not.

 

One of my favorite fish/coral shops is set up with big beautiful display tanks, and not the standard small frag-type displays. His livestock is top-notch, healthy and happy. I think he does 2-3 water changes a year. He feeds heavily, skims heavily, and doses. I would pay money to have my tanks look like his. Granted, he's dealing with a larger volume in his system and he has all day to tinker, but I think his methodology is sound. Here's a photo I took of monti-cap structure he created in an SPS system, that also houses one of the coolest Bali Green Slimer colonies ever!

 

 

I thought I would notice changes in my tank from changing my maintenance routine. I figured I'd see more or less growth and coloration, more or less pest-algae, more or less water clarity... but to be perfectly honest, I haven't really seen much difference at all. Which leads me to believe that if we're mindful of our tank's needs, and diligent in providing for certain things, we can dramatically reduce the number and frequency of water changes.

 

What are your thoughts? How often do you perform routine water changes? Am I crazy?

[Benny314]

Look into the triton method. There are other more basic ways of doing this just by dosing cal, alk and mag, but triton replaces lots of other elements.

[cnseekatz]

Orange Crush Acanthastrea Echinata.

 

One of these days I'll get a DSLR setup, but for now, I'm pretty impressed with the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S-6.

 

[jabeuy]

I did my first water change on my tank after 4 months. It didn't really need it either, and afterwards the tank looked the same. It has caulerpa eating up the nitrates and phosphates, and an underpowered skimmer pulling out literally black gunk. I dose 2 part and magnesium. The reason for the water change was for the "trace elements" I don't measure for.

 

So either I start keeping track of the trace elements and dose them (kind of like triton? Not really? Lol), or do some water changes maybe every other month.

 

The fish store I go to has a 400g system I've modeled my tank's filtration after (caulerpa, underpowered skimmer, passive carbon, manual 2 part dosing). That tank is amazing, healthy fish and large coral colonies. He hasn't done a water change since setting it up 4 years ago. Not much SPS though

[cnseekatz]

New tank video 2-15-16

 

[mallek]

really nice tank, love how its growing out

[sangheili]

Ah the water change topic... a literal 5 gallon bucket of worms.

 

The following assumes we are discussing an SPS tank with skimmer, refugium, and no nasty stuff being introduced (rust). It also assumes that your tanks filtration is self reliant and your mechanical/biological filtration prevents buildups of nitrate and phosphate.

 

Excuse my thought dump here but I will try to break it down somewhat basically. Keep in mind entire books could be (and have been) written about this stuff.

 

Thriving reefs require adequate levels of all the following (in general order of importance): Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Strontium, and Potassium. Those are the macro-level building blocks and will be consumed by corals to build their skeletons. Also important is Salinity, Boron, Bromine, and Sulphur, however corals do not really consume these elements, and they may be less important to growth however build ups of some can certainly cause stress and death (Bromine especially).

 

From species to species, certain corals will require or desire (to varying degrees) the following trace elements (in general order of importance): Manganese, Iodine, Zinc, Nickel, Vanadium, and a few others.

 

On the other end of the spectrum there are tons of heavy metals that are extremely toxic and even tiny amounts can kill things rather quickly: Copper, Chromium, Tin, Lead, Aluminum, etc.

 

Now assuming you have a method of managing the big three (alk/calc/mag) such as dosing or a calcium reactor, without any water changes you will eventually see depleted levels of Potassium, Strontium, and most of the other traces depending on which species of coral you have and also what your mechanical filtration removes (GFO/Carbon/Skimmer all remove different traces). Replacing these is not extremely difficult and many methods as well as products exist to replenish them. You can even DIY most of them (i.e. Dutch Synthetic Reefing).

 

However there are two basic challenges with running a water-change-less system. 1) How much of those more challenging elements do you dose/add back to the system and how do you test for them to make sure you aren't over doing it? 2) How do you prevent or detect toxicity from other contaminants such as rusting metals, rusting magnets, copper in foods, and other elements such as bromine?

 

Challenge number 1 is maybe not as dangerous considering over-dosing most trace elements will not lead to much harm, however how do you know how pure the trace element additives you're using are? For example, Kent's Tech-M includes a high level of Lithium, which for the most part is not toxic to reefs but it does cause many corals (especially zoanthids) to bleach and stress upon introduction. Lithium is also toxic to Bryopsis and a few other forms of algae (hence Tech-M dosing for Bryopsis). Adding your Brand X Trace Elements solution may over time, without your knowledge, be elevating something toxic in your tank. Most companies will not knowingly sell you something potentially toxic, but the fact is that impurities exist in the sources they use to create these products, and sources with lower levels of impurities are costlier (food grade, then lab grade, then analytical grade, if i recall correctly).

 

Challenge number 2 is the even harder one to avoid. Without some form of testing for toxic metals it is likely you won't see the effects until things start dying. This in my view is one of the great uses for the Triton testing, you can spot problems brewing before things get too bad.

 

Now, assuming you have designed your reef system to adequately remove nitrate/phosphate without water changes, you have avoided all possible hardware mistakes that may cause rust in the system (most commonly caused by magnets such as found in algae scrapers), you have a safe and pure method of replenishing all the macro and trace elements the corals need, then you can generally... safely... run a reef tank without water changes.

 

For me, I would never do it without the Triton testing as I have seen many times what elements can build up in the water and start to choke your corals. The knowledge the test results give you is extremely valuable. You can certainly run a tank without water changes without these tests, but its a little like driving your car with your eyes closed.

 

My 2 cents Now I should probably go to bed...

New tank video 2-15-16

 

Love that Choat's Wrasse. Man those things are pretty.

[cnseekatz]

Ah the water change topic... a literal 5 gallon bucket of worms.

 

I think that was a very well written analysis. I've read about the heavy metals that can build up over time. I don't think I would ever recommend NO water changes. Hopefully doing a deep cleaning every few months will allow for a significant reduction in those heavy metals, as well as the importation of the various trace elements that we don't traditionally dose. Plus, no matter how well you filter (mechanical, chemical or biological) you're always going to end up with detritus building up somewhere, and that will have to be manually removed at some point.

[ReefWeeds]

Love those wrasses

 

everything is looking great, Chris!!!!!

I do miss the "I went to the LFS for water" posts - but then I'm guessing you know that already

[cnseekatz]

really nice tank, love how its growing out

 

Thanks! There's not too much room left for new stuff, so I'm going to have to sit and let it grow!

Love those wrasses

 

everything is looking great, Chris!!!!!

I do miss the "I went to the LFS for water" posts - but then I'm guessing you know that already

 

Thanks Stella. I wish I had the chance for more random LFS pickups, but I'm running out of room!

[Rehype]

New tank video 2-15-16

 

 

 

Looks awesome man.....so much progress in a short amount of time.

[ninjamyst]

love all the zoas. so jealous. mine just never grow much. i am missing some kind of secret sauce for zoas

[vlangel]

The tank looks so nice, I love all the zoas! Nice fish too.

[cnseekatz]

Looks awesome man.....so much progress in a short amount of time.

 

Thank you sir! It feels like it's been a long time coming...

 

love all the zoas. so jealous. mine just never grow much. i am missing some kind of secret sauce for zoas

 

 

The tank looks so nice, I love all the zoas! Nice fish too.

 

Thanks guys. Ninja... the secret sauce isn't "sauce" so much as it's... well... poo!

[cnseekatz]

Went to the LFS for some water and came home with a new frag. It's just a cheap, basic Pink Birdsnest, but I love it.

 

Some Jason Fox Blood Shots starting to spread out on their plug. They started as 2 polyps!

 

Random mille is really coloring up nicely, and some PZ Gatorade zoos that are starting to replicate. Love these Gatorades, the green is super metallic!

 

[cnseekatz]

Hallucinations doing well. They've gone from 1 polyp to about 10. Interesting how much less awesome they look as they mature. I'm hoping that their babies will retain the bright colors as they get older.

 

[cnseekatz]

[gena]

Ummmm.....WOW! PZ Gatorades . I've never seen or heard of that morph before! What does PZ stand for?

[ReefWeeds]

Went to the LFS for some water and came home with a new frag. It's just a cheap, basic Pink Birdsnest, but I love it.

 

Some Jason Fox Blood Shots starting to spread out on their plug. They started as 2 polyps!

 

Random mille is really coloring up nicely, and some PZ Gatorade zoos that are starting to replicate. Love these Gatorades, the green is super metallic!

 

 

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!