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Tips to a healthy reef tank... lets share!


Clown79

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Lets all share our tips and tricks to maintaining a healthy reef.

 

There may be some great ideas that we could all utilize

 

Some great points are tips on Feeding routines/foods, water changes and your process, neat little things you may do that can help another.

 

 

 

 

 

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So my routine is:

 

 Fish Feeding

1 x day  5 times a week - New Life Spectrum Thera A pellets (enough that lasts 1 minute)

1 day mysis shrimp - I soak it and feed with a pipette

1 day Brine shrimp - same

 

Coral Feeding

Reef Roids - I mix in a  container of tank water and broadcast feed with all water movement off for 10mins

Vitalis LPS pellets - I spot feed these with a pipette to all my lps corals at the same time of reef roid feeding

 

I feed corals twice a week: once before my water change and one time during the week

 

Water changes

15% waterchanges on both my tanks every week

 

My regular routine is:

 

- Turn off all equipment except my light and broadcast feed the tank.

- I blast all my rocks and in between corals(gently in this area)  with a turkey baster to remove any food and detritus

- I use the turkey baster in hard to reach areas as well

- I then use my flipper mag to remove hard algae or coralline on the glass

- I use a tiny little brush to remove algae off my powerheads and filter intake

- I then proceed to vacuuming the sand bed and after that is done I siphon additional water out

- With my AIO I scrub my back chambers with a baby bottle brush and siphon out (every other week)

 

- I remove my filter basket and siphon the water out of there. This helps prevent any food, poop, and detritus from causing nutrient issues

 

- I replace my filter floss with a clean piece

- I rinse all media bags as well

- Fill my tank with newly made SW, replace filter basket and start everything up

 

- Test my salinity 

- Test all parameters

 

Mixing Saltwater

 

- I add water to the bucket, add powerhead and heater to the bucket and slowly add the salt in as I stir it.

- I test the salinity with a refractometer and allow the salt to mix 30 mins before use.

 

Regular Maintenance 

 

 - Daily top up with freshwater(making a mark in a discreet area to top up helps maintain proper sg)

 

- Replace filter floss with a new piece mid week

 

- stir sand bed every other day

- blast rocks with turkey baster every few days

- clean glass every other day with two little fishies mag scrubber

- test alk 2 more times in the week before the next water change

- test Nitrates in the middle of the week

 

- Dose Alk and Ca every other day

- Dose vit, aminos 1 time a week(small dose)

 

Monthly Maintenance

 

- clean powerhead

- clean return pump and return hose

- clean filter

- clean lighting fan (use compressed air to remove any dust)

 

 

Spot Treatments:

 

GHA

 If I encounter small tufts of gha on rocks I will pull it off with a tweezer and spot treat with small amounts of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

(I do this before my water change with all water movement off)

 

Aipstasia

 

I blast them with Aiptasia x, all water movement off for 15mins

 

 

Lighting Schedule

 

11am - 1pm ramp up

1pm - 8pm Peak lighting

8pm - 10pm ramp down

10pm - 3am Lunar lighting

3am - 11am blackout

 

 

Products/Equipment used

 

Ai Prime 

Seachem Tidal 55 filter

Eheim Jagger heater

Jebao SW2 wavemaker

 

Maxijet 600 for AIO return pump

Aquamaxx Nemolight on AIO

 

2 Little Fishies magnet cleaner

Flip Mag cleaner

 

Seachem Matrix or Kent Carbon (changed every 2 - 3 weeks)

Seachem Phosguard - use small amounts frequently and changed out as needed

Seachem Purigen - changed out when exhausted

Big Al's Aquarium Filter Floss bundle

 

Aquaforest Salt 

Distilled Water

 

ESV Bionic 2 part 

Aquavitro Fuel

Aiptasia X

Coral FX dip

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tips:

  • Don't constantly change your salt mix hoping to find the perfect salt.  There is something to be said about stability.
  • Observation is probably the best reefing tool.
  • It's easy to get caught up in product marketing.  Be wary of additives and supplements.  Your salt mix contains the necessary elements.  Dosing should consist of replenishing consumed alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium.
  • Falling behind on water changes can eventually bite you in the ass.  At first your tank might even respond favorably to missing a few water changes; however, it is better to be consistent with your weekly water change schedule.
  • Don't underestimate the importance of a good cleanup crew.
  • Know your parameters.  Testing only when you have problems doesn't tell you the whole story.  Plus, blooms can consume nutrients in your tank (masking the cause).
  • It's easier to maintain a healthy reef tank, than to correct problems due to neglect.
  • A quarantine tank is worth it.  And not just for fish.
  • Do as I say, not as I do.  I would be a better reefer if I always followed my own advice.
  • Like 14
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Alright,

60 gallon NPS:

1 water change per week. 20 gallons premixed from LFS. Tested before change.

On day of water change I add the following:

15ml of calcium 

15ml of strontium

I recently started to vacuum the sand bed and blast all the rockwork to dislodge detritus.

I take a brush and scrub wherever I have white slime breakouts.

I clean the glass with a flipper once a week.

Once a month I clean the bag of phosgaurd and replace the phosgaurd.

Twice a week I clean the skimmer cup.

I change filter floss once a month.. sometimes twice depending on how it looks.

I have euphyllia in my refugium illuminated by a kessil 360 along with macro algae and sand. 

Basically I use them as a barometer. If they look good then I don't worry.

i completely stopped testing at all. All I test is new water. My parameters are so off that nothing surprises me.

Feeding:

When I wake up I broadcast feed cyclopeze, rotifeast, and oyster feast. About a shot glass each. 

When I get home from work I repeat, only after 30 mins I turn off the power heads and start feeding the fish and NPSLPS corals mysis, kelp, ocean plankton.

I run a drip of live phyto during daylight ours.

And sometimes a rhizo or dendro will eat a fish.

 

5 gallon Fluval:

70% water change once a week.

scrape the glass before water change.

 

feeding: I feed Nemo mysis nightly.

 

seahorses: nothing, they feed on the pods I've been growing for a year.

 

probably going to start experimenting with reefroids but for now that's all I do.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Read through your post and realized I hadn't cleaned my 'sump' area or return lines since I resetup the tank a few months ago. 

 

I shut off the flow and scrubbed it, then siphoned it out. Mostly gray-white flakes.  I was thinking "hmm glad that stuffs gone". Then I took the return lines out and ran a bristle brush pipe cleaner through them. Now THAT was some pretty funky stuff built up in there. 

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1 hour ago, xthunt said:

Read through your post and realized I hadn't cleaned my 'sump' area or return lines since I resetup the tank a few months ago. 

 

I shut off the flow and scrubbed it, then siphoned it out. Mostly gray-white flakes.  I was thinking "hmm glad that stuffs gone". Then I took the return lines out and ran a bristle brush pipe cleaner through them. Now THAT was some pretty funky stuff built up in there. 

It's pretty nasty what grows in the return lines.?

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 19/08/2017 at 1:19 PM, Clown79 said:

GHA

 If I encounter small tufts of gha on rocks I will pull it off with a tweezer and spot treat with small amounts of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

(I do this before my water change with all water movement off)

Hey @Clown79 - peroxide in the tank? Like with a syringe? I'm battling some hair algae and I know I need to hit the cause but the symptom is driving me mad! 

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Yes. There are a few ways to do it. Some siphon the water down and treat. I've never done this method. 

 

If it's small amounts on my rock i treat it with 3% peroxide using my aiptasia x syringe. 

I do this when it's very small and I use only 1ml of peroxide for my 15g. 

 

I turn off all water movement, spot treat carefully not getting it on corals, do my water change.

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Some great advice from some earlier posts. I'd just like to add, Keep your damn hands outta there! Dunking your nasty mitts over and over ain't no good. Yeah your adjusting this or moving that or rescaping for the third time today, still no good. 

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1 hour ago, 1891BroJr said:

Some great advice from some earlier posts. I'd just like to add, Keep your damn hands outta there! Dunking your nasty mitts over and over ain't no good. Yeah your adjusting this or moving that or rescaping for the third time today, still no good. 

I agree.

 

Moving corals around too much can irritate them.

 

I usually only have my hands in the tank on water change day, besides spot feeding corals. I often wear gloves.

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2 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I agree.

 

Moving corals around too much can irritate them.

 

I usually only have my hands in the tank on water change day, besides spot feeding corals. I often wear gloves.

See, the pros say it's not that hard. 

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Thrassian Atoll

I am pretty sure I killed a cleaner shrimp with Bayer by not rinsing my corals well enough after a dip.  So definitely rinse them well in regular saltwater after you dip them.

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3 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I agree.

 

Moving corals around too much can irritate them.

 

I usually only have my hands in the tank on water change day, besides spot feeding corals. I often wear gloves.

Kinda hung up on the, "I often wear gloves."

Bold fashion statement. A regular Jackie O. 

I often wear pants. Damn obscenity laws. 

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I keep it simple:

 

My 12 Gallon long gets a 30% water change once a week.  

 

I feed fish once a day.  

 

Top off by hand daily and scrape the glass when needed.  

 

Thats all folks! :lol:

 

 

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10 hours ago, 1891BroJr said:

Some great advice from some earlier posts. I'd just like to add, Keep your damn hands outta there! Dunking your nasty mitts over and over ain't no good. Yeah your adjusting this or moving that or rescaping for the third time today, still no good. 

Invest in long handle tweezers, useful in nano or shallow tanks, for removing or moving small stuff.

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flatlandreefer

1) always double and triple check your tank salinity and water change salinity before doing a water change.  A sudden change in salinity can be detrimental to your corals especially sps, I learned this the hard way when I was in a hurry and ended up losing one of my favorite and biggest acros. 

 

2) when using led fixtures, always start at a lower intensity than you think your sps will need.  Gradually over a long period of time increase the intensity slowly and see how your corals react. I suffered poor growth and loss of color for a long time due to my light intensity being too bright because I was scared my sps would suffer from too little PAR, my tank is just now getting its color back.  It is much better to have too little PAR than way too much! Always adjust intensity and spectrum slowly no matter which way you are adjusting, up or down.

 

3) Be wary of nitrate and p04 test results, if you have algae and are still getting 0 readings you still have a nutrient problem the algae is most likely consuming nitrate/phos.  I find it is much easier to judge my nutrient parameters by simply knowing my tank and adjusting accordingly. 

 

4) A small gravel vac can be very handy in a nano tank and allows ample time to gravel vac in all the little areas underneath rocks and in corners before the water change bucket fills up, I dont even use my python anymore unless I need to change water fast. 

 

5)  Do everything slow and never panic.  Always be skeptical of anything new or any advice you receive unless it is from a very well known source.  Do your homework before taking any action and only do one thing at a time to try to solve an issue otherwise you wont know what actually solved the problem. 

 

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  • Christopher Marks changed the title to Tips to a healthy reef tank... lets share!
  • Christopher Marks pinned this topic

Here's what I do... 

   Weekly turn off return pump in my IM 20 fusion. Siphon 2 - 4 litre jugs out vacuuming the sand bed to remove detritus as I go. I then refill the tank with 2 fresh jugs which I mixed last week. I then mix the empty jugs for next week's change. 

I then replace the filter floss which I use in the media baskets. I don't dose anything as I don't have a lot of hard corals using up my calcium, alk. Etc.

I top up the water as it evaporates with RO water as needed. I also empty my protien skimmer reservoir as needed. 

I did testing for the first 2 yrs and am getting a bit lazy in that and everything was stable so I mostly ignore that because it did not change much and everything was stable and thriving... that's just me and my steup. Not sure if I would reccomend that. I feed flake food one day and mysis another. My corals feed on both of these whatever they catch.

I think stability requires a constant routine, a good salt mix will replenish trace elements in my system...( I only have one hard coral) zoas, paly's, mushrooms and leathers as well and 4 small fish.

My tanks has been up and running and evolving over the Past 3 yrs and previous tanks for over 10 yrs.

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Make sure your quarantine tank is stable enough to put something alive in it, I've crashed a quarantine tank and was out of water, the only thing I could do was put into the display and hope. I like to build up a robust enough filtration system that it can handle my shenanigans if I move some rocks around. A 10 gallon is hard to maintain for a newbie, but if you let it stabilize for 3 years and have way too much live rock and not a lot of livestock, it's a lot harder to mess it up too badly. I've also learned that being proactive is preferable to watching things die, so there's that. Good luck to newbie reefers!

 

'

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do as little as possible to keep the tank looking the way you want it and the corals healthy. :)  If your tank is healthy and the corals look like you want then never change regardless of what other people are doing because each tank is different and will settle into a unique routine that works for the tank and YOU.  If you hate doing maintenance but settle on a high maintenance routine eventually you will slack off and the tank will suffer because of the change. 

 

I haven't cleaned the sump in my 150 gallon since I set it up, I thought about it once but soon got over it.  

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I know this goes against what most folks want to do these days but I like using live rock.  Its true you run the risk of pests but the biodiversity can not be beat.  It does not necessarily need to come from the ocean but if it doesn't, the longer its been in a reef tank the better (it will pick up stuff from whatever has been added to it over the years).  All the rock in my seahorse tank is from 2004. I really believe that is why I have not fought any nightmare things like dinos in any of my tanks.

 

For me another thing I like is running carbon.  There is absolutely no question that it helps a tank sparkle and gives the water a crispness and its cheaper than low iron glass.

 

Lastly I like to do regular scheduled WCs.  For me it is good because I hate to do testing.  I can get away with not testing because I do not keep sps that are sensitive to alk swings.  I can still have most lps and softies and even a crocea clam did well in my tank.  WCs is the way I import nutrients and export nitrates, phosphates and other accumulated dissolved organics.

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  • 4 weeks later...

GAC always with small UV always.

 

Earlier, someone was asking about in tank spot treatment for GHA using syringe.  A toothbrush with hydrogen peroxide also works.  

 

Aprasua control with hydrogen peroxide toothbrush in tank works well also.

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  • 1 month later...
On 09/01/2018 at 3:02 PM, vlangel said:

I know this goes against what most folks want to do these days but I like using live rock.  Its true you run the risk of pests but the biodiversity can not be beat.  It does not necessarily need to come from the ocean but if it doesn't, the longer its been in a reef tank the better (it will pick up stuff from whatever has been added to it over the years).  All the rock in my seahorse tank is from 2004. I really believe that is why I have not fought any nightmare things like dinos in any of my tanks.

 

For me another thing I like is running carbon.  There is absolutely no question that it helps a tank sparkle and gives the water a crispness and its cheaper than low iron glass.

 

Lastly I like to do regular scheduled WCs.  For me it is good because I hate to do testing.  I can get away with not testing because I do not keep sps that are sensitive to alk swings.  I can still have most lps and softies and even a crocea clam did well in my tank.  WCs is the way I import nutrients and export nitrates, phosphates and other accumulated dissolved organics.

I love using liverock. Fast and simple cycle. You also get biodiversity in the tank.

 

I too always run gac -even just small amounts.

 

Nothing beats a schedule of weekly waterchanges. 

It can be relaxing and enjoyable. It's being hands on with your tank.

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