The NPS garden; my NPS coral/macroalgae tank (with pictures!)

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! I just ordered a sun coral and a white scroll algae from ebay, so I thought it would be a good time to start officially journaling my progress with my NPS tank. Here are the current and planned specs;

 

Filtration; Aquaclear 20 (100 GPH) with activated carbon, Sun sun internal filter (650 GPH) no media, planned Aquafuge2 small refugium (2.6 gallon, unsure about GPH, filled with macroalgae and live sand). 

Nutrient export: Macroalgae, 2 x 40% water changes weekly

Light: ABI Par 38 tuna blue bulb, 23 watts (generic reef pro light on refugium...it adds 120 par at 14 inches below the water level)

Macroalgae (tank): Caulerpa sp (something feathery), White scroll algae

Corals (Tank): Sun coral, black sun coral, Red tree gorgonian (in a cave to prevent algae overgrowth), Leptogorgonia purple sea fan

Other inverts: Hermit crabs, snails, Bam bam (the pistol shrimp), elephant ear sponge (in a cave to prevent algae overgrowth), fan worm?

Fish: Little Dude (the royal gramma), maybe some sort of cardinalfish?

Refugium life; Caulerpa prolifera, Gracilaria sp, copepods, rotifers?

Feeding regime: Going to start with seachem phytoplankton and zooplankton twice a day for the filter feeders, and frozen food daily for the sun corals and fish. Will eventually replace the phytoplankton with live phytoplankton mix, and the zooplankton with reef roids. Will also broadcast some live phyto into the tank water before bed.

 

And here's a picture of the tank!

 

 

And here are pictures of my plans. The first one is for the main tank, the second one is for the refugium;

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy following along! Don't hesitate to give your thoughts on my tank 🙂 PS...this will probably take a few months to get fully set up...the refugium and the live phytoplankton are expensive to initially procure (though they are high quality and last a while). I will post pictures at least once a week.

[banasophia]

Great rockscape, and I love your plans. I was thinking that kind of caulerpa is one that can really spread and may be hard to control, but I’m not sure if that’s the type...

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

1 minute ago, banasophia said:

Great rockscape, and I love your plans. I was thinking that kind of caulerpa is one that can really spread and may be hard to control, but I’m not sure if that’s the type...

That's exactly what I want 🙂 a little nutrient sucking demon to manage the high amount of nutrients NPS corals inevitably produce.

[Subsea]

Three good options of Caulerpa in your sandbed:  Paspoides, Prolifera, and Racemosa.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Just now, Subsea said:

Three good options of Caulerpa in your sandbed:  Paspoides, Prolifera, and Racemosa.

OK! Thanks. I think the 'paspaloides' I mentioned is the same as the paspoides you mentioned.

[Subsea]

2 hours ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

OK! Thanks. I think the 'paspaloides' I mentioned is the same as the paspoides you mentioned.

No doubt that my spelling can go amuck.

 

https://www.marineplantbook.com/marinebookpaspaloides.htm

[Subsea]

Conceptually, you are doing fine.  With respect to placement of your return pump, the devil is in the details not to overflow your sump if electricity fails or more likely, sump pump fails due to snail in line.

[Wonderboy]

This will be fun to watch - solid feeding routine - looking forward to updates.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

45 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

This will be fun to watch - solid feeding routine - looking forward to updates.

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, Subsea said:

Conceptually, you are doing fine.  With respect to placement of your return pump, the devil is in the details not to overflow your sump if electricity fails or more likely, sump pump fails due to snail in line.

The aquifuge 2 I am planning on using only has a pump in the main tank - the outflow is gravity fed. If it gets blocked by a snail, I don't think it will overflow.

[Subsea]

8 minutes ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Thanks!

 

The aquifuge 2 I am planning on using only has a pump in the main tank - the outflow is gravity fed. If it gets blocked by a snail, I don't think it will overflow.

Wrong.  With a gravity flow back from your refugium, pump in display has complete volume of display at 10G to pump into 2.5G  HOB refugium.  It will overflow if return is blocked.  Locate in-tank pump at high enough level so that pump suction runs dry before overflowing smaller refugium.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

OHHHH! Now I understand. Yes, I will see to it to do that.

[Cannedfish]

If you have some NPS questions, you should check out @TheRope he is building a pretty unique and cool NPS pico with a cryptic refugium. His IG is @fools_reef. He’s a great person to ask some questions of. 

[Cannedfish]

Double post. 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

3 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

If you have some NPS questions, you should check out @TheRope he is building a pretty unique and cool NPS pico with a cryptic refugium. His IG is @fools_reef. He’s a great person to ask some questions of. 

Thanks! I will go do that.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

I got a feather duster today for the tank 🙂 after an acclimation period of 2 hours, I put it in the tank. Here's a picture each of the feather duster and the tank;

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Tried target feeding the feather duster, and it hid...hope it gets some of the food anyway from the water column

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! I have made some revisions to my plans...I did some research and found that most successful NPS setups have much beefier filtration than mine. Therefore, over the next few months, I will be steadily boosting the filtration this tank possesses. Here is the current plan;

 

Filtration; Aquaclear 20 (100 GPH) filled with seachem matrix (for denitrification), Sun sun internal filter (650 GPH) with no media, planned Aquafuge2 small refugium (2.6 gallon, unsure about GPH, filled with miracle mud, live rock, a sponge or two, and activated carbon). 

Nutrient export: Macroalgae, 2 x 40% water changes weekly, denitrifying bacteria in the matrix (which will be rinsed in saltwater weekly to prevent detritus buildup)

Light: Uncertain...since this tank does not have ANY photosynthetic corals that could possibly brown out, may go for a 6500k light over the main tank, like this; https://www.ebay.com/itm/Freshwater-Aquarium-LED-Light-Bar-ReefBar-Pro-6500K-White-Planted-3W-Bridgelux/272357251334?var=571242679472

Macroalgae (tank): Caulerpa sp , White scroll algae, Ulva sp? (There WILL be a third macroalgae, just not necessarily Ulva sp)

Corals (Tank): Sun coral, Dendrophylia, Red tree gorgonian? (in a cave to prevent algae overgrowth), Leptogorgonia purple sea fan

Other inverts: Hermit crabs, snails, Bam bam (the pistol shrimp), fan worm (practice for filter feeding NPS corals)

Fish: Little Dude (the royal gramma), possibly no others?

Refugium life; Sponge or two, copepods, bristle worms

Feeding regime: Going to start with seachem phytoplankton and zooplankton twice a day for the filter feeders, and frozen food daily for the sun corals and fish. Will eventually replace the phytoplankton with live phytoplankton mix, and the zooplankton with reef roids. Will also broadcast 20ml of the live phyto into the tank water before bed.

 

Here is a tentative purchasing schedule;

November: Seachem matrix, Water distiller, HOB refugium? (otherwise macroalgae)

December: Activated carbon, Live phytoplankton, copepods, macroalgae?

January: More NPS corals, Reef roids

 

Side note...I understand that many sponges feed heavily on bacteria, so can I target feed the sponge or sponges with Biospira? Or is that the wrong type of bacteria?

[Subsea]

Not all sponges are the same with 50K known species.  Some eat bacteria.   Cryptic sponges fed on dissolved organic carbon which then produces food for coral, maybe NPS.  I would stay away from activated carbon if you plan on cryptic sponges.  Since I converted macro refugium into cryptic refugium, I have not used GAC in one year.

 

Also, with respect to rinsing bioballs of detritus,  you are thinking SPS  reef tank.  Detritus is the beginning of the food chain with respect to micro inverts.  IMO, live  food recycled with the “microbial loop” will maintain your NPS.

 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_loop

The microbial loop describes a trophic pathway in the marine microbial food web where dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is returned to higher trophic levels via its incorporation into bacterial biomass, and then coupled with the classic food chain formed by phytoplankton-zooplankton-nekton. The term microbial loop was coined by Farooq Azam and Tom Fenchel et al.^[1] to include the role played by bacteria in the carbon and nutrient cycles of the marine environment.

In general, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is introduced into the ocean environment from bacterial lysis, the leakage or exudation of fixed carbon from phytoplankton (e.g., mucilaginous exopolymer from diatoms), sudden cell senescence, sloppy feeding by zooplankton, the excretion of waste products by aquatic animals, or the breakdown or dissolution of organic particles from terrestrial plants and soils (Van den Meersche et al. 2004). Bacteria in the microbial loop decompose this particulate detritus to utilize this energy-rich matter for growth. Since more than 95% of organic matter in marine ecosystems consists of polymeric, high molecular weight (HMW) compounds (e.g., protein, polysaccharides, lipids), only a small portion of total dissolved organic matter (DOM) is readily utilizable to most marine organisms at higher trophic levels. This means that dissolved organic carbon is not available directly to most marine organisms; marine bacteria introduce this organic carbon into the food web, resulting in additional energy becoming available to higher trophic levels. Recently the term "microbial food web" has been substituted for the term "microbial loop

[Subsea]

17 hours ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

Tried target feeding the feather duster, and it hid...hope it gets some of the food anyway from the water column

Nice picture of your feather duster.  I am not sure how dusters sense motion, but they do.   I have noticed the feathers withdraw when a large tang swam near by.

 

I have been fortunate with my use of substrate as the largest source of live food for an assortment of filter feeders.  When I feed the tank, I am not just feeding the fish, I am feeding the system.  I use the sand-bed as an incubator of spawning micro inverts, each with its specific size spawn that are selectively harvested by differrent  size mouths.  Detritus is part of that food chain.  When I stirred up detritus in substrate, Sea Apple went into warp feeding mode.  High nutrient systems require many more janitors to maintain the garden.  Cerith Snails and Bristle Worms are two excellent detrivores that will maintain substrate and feed larvae to water column.  

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

6 hours ago, Subsea said:

Nice picture of your feather duster.  I am not sure how dusters sense motion, but they do.   I have noticed the feathers withdraw when a large tang swam near by.

 

I have been fortunate with my use of substrate as the largest source of live food for an assortment of filter feeders.  When I feed the tank, I am not just feeding the fish, I am feeding the system.  I use the sand-bed as an incubator of spawning micro inverts, each with its specific size spawn that are selectively harvested by differrent  size mouths.  Detritus is part of that food chain.  When I stirred up detritus in substrate, Sea Apple went into warp feeding mode.  High nutrient systems require many more janitors to maintain the garden.  Cerith Snails and Bristle Worms are two excellent detrivores that will maintain substrate and feed larvae to water column.  

Thanks for all the help thus far...I will refrain from rinsing the matrix if it encourages the microverts  I need to feed the corals. Side note...the worm has been named Harrison 🙂

[Daniel91]

We shall call him Harrison The Hairy

[Tamberav]

Nice start, I really feel like you are overthinking everything... it's sun corals not carnation corals. I love the idea of the macro. I wish I had a spot to put it in my SPS tank 😛 Always loved to use it as export. 

 

Get a glass scraper!!!

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Just now, Tamberav said:

Nice start, I really feel like you are overthinking everything... it's sun corals not carnation corals.

 

Get a glass scraper!!!

Not planning on carnation corals (too hard!) but am planning on some NPS gorgonians, so the little details matter. I am going to scrape the tank next time I do a water change.

[Tamberav]

Those NPS gorgs I mentioned are pretty ez.

 

I think the hardest part is they don't seem to be able to deal with algae trying to grow on them. You could just start with your original plan and see how it goes.

 

All these new ideas every 6 hours make my head spin.

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

I apologize...I think a lot. A lot of ideas flow through this head of mine...graduated 9th in my class for a reason 🤣

 

Anyhow, I am prepared to deal with the light sensitivity of my livestock. The sun coral, dendro, and Leptogorgonia are light tolerant and will be out in the open (the latter grows within 40 feet of the surface, so it has to have defenses against algae). The red tree gorgonian will be in a dark cave to prohibit algae overgrowing it (you can see stuff flowing quickly through either of the available caves). The sponge or sponges will be in an unlit cryptic refugium.