Chris88's Tank

Congratulations to Chris88 for being selected as Canreef Featured Tank for Fall 2012! (Thank you Chris for sharing your system details with us!) Please click on the thumbnails to view the pictures larger.

Introduction

I have to be honest; I was a little bit shocked and extremely honored to have the chance to share my tank with other hobbyist on Canreef. I can still remember being inspired by many other Canreef Featured aquariums going back as far as six years ago. There has been a lot of amazing tanks since then and I am not sure how my tank ranks up against theirs as it is still in its youth stage. Regardless, I truly hope that my tank will inspire someone as the tanks in the past inspired me.

My 93 gallon cube which is dominated with sps and zoanthid corals is proof that the K.I.S.S method works, and that knowledge is always more effective then technology or following the next gimmick or trend.

Background

My real name is Chris Henneberry (Chris88) and I am a 29 year old high school teacher. I have a B.Sc Kinesiology and B.Ed. I first started the hobby when I was given a fish bowl with a few tetras. It was a present from a now ex-girlfriend who thought it would be a nice gift for me when I was in my first year of my B.Ed. To be honest I didn't really pay much attention to it at first, but a few days I started to take care of the fish and my addictive inquisitive personality took over. I wanted to know what kind of fish they were, where they were from, and I wanted to buy more fish from other places around the world. Like most, I ended up buying a larger tank, and then transitioned from tetras, to South American cichlids, and to African cichlids. After two years I found myself with 6 tanks and breeding cichlids. I quickly got bored and wanted to try something more challenging. It was at this point six years ago I started my saltwater reef hobby.

History in the hobby:

In the beginning:

When I moved to Fort McMurray to teach I was very excited to start a new tank. I still remember my last stop driving across Canada was at Big AL's in Edmonton. I picked up a 50g tank, sump, stand, and all the equipment needed. I used this tank for about six months before I had to move. It was at this point that I ran into my first devastating experience in the hobby. While me and my friend where moving the tank into his car to transport it to its new location, we caught the drilled overflow pipe on his door and cracked the back of the tank. I instantly felt nothing, pure nothingness. I just said "I am screwed" and then proceeded to give all of my live stock away. I kept the equipment and stand and decided to take a break for a few months. When I was ready again, I had a friend pick up another 50g tank for me and I started over. This time i had my tank set up for two years and it was great. I was learning at a fast rate and progressing through the softy, lps, and then sps path that many of us take. Now it came time to move again. I had a game plan this time and I wasn't going to mess up the move like I did last time, or so I thought.

Perseverance:

When it came time to move my tank I had everything planned to the very last detail. The move was going to be fast and efficient and I was going to be careful not to break anything. The problem this time around wasn't a broken tank. It was a disturbed sand bed and the release of hydrogen sulfide pockets! I lost the majority of my sps, and some of zoanthids and lps corals. I decided to start over from what was left and I slowly built it back up to the point where I felt it was "completed". I say completed in quotations because no tank is ever completed or done. What I mean was that the tank was completely full and it was at a point where all I was doing was making frags and selling or giving them away to local reefers. I had massive colonies of sps, and the tank was on auto pilot. I used to have a thread going for this tank on Canreef and I was very happy with it.

A new home and a new tank:

As time went on it became the right time in my life to buy my first home. I was excited, I didn't have to rent anymore or worry about moving around a tank. This allowed me the opportunity to get a bigger tank and take the hobby a step further. I went to Big Al's in Edmonton where everything started for me. I purchased my current 93g cube, stand, and lighting. I decided to use the sump from my 50g setup and bought most of the other equipment needed from Jl aquatics and other canreef sponsored vendors.

I was a about a month away from moving into my new house and I thought I would take the time to give the 50g reef one last good cleaning before I would move all of the live stock to the new 93g cube. It was at this point in time where one of the worst days of my life occurred. After cleaning the tank which included siphoning the majority of the sand bed, I went into my room to work on something. A few hours past and finally my girlfriend came home. She came in my room and said "Chris, why is your tank so white?". I said "What do you mean, I just did a big water change, it's clean!" I went out to check on the tank and my heart dropped. The tank was all white and smelled horrible. I started to panic, I couldn't understand what happened. I begin to do water changes and skimming wet. I also put in a ton of carbon and did everything I could. I didn't know what the damage was because I couldn't really see in the tank. Time passed and it became late, I had to work in the morning so I hoped for the best and went to sleep. When I woke up I knew it was over. The smell was eerily similar to the hydrogen sulfide accident I had two years back. I was so shocked and upset that I didn't even want to do any more maintenance. I ended up calling in sick for work and I went back to sleep. Finally after a few days of pulling out dead fish, snails, and massive coral skeleton, some of which couldn't even fit into buckets, the tank started to clear. There wasn't much left except zoanthid rocks that I had been growing for years. I honestly would have thrown in the towel this time but I already purchased everything for the 93g.

93 Cube and learning from mistakes:

When I moved into my new house the first thing to be set up was the new 93g cube. Everything went smoothly except I didn't measure my return pump line properly and it ended up blocking part of my sump which limited my space for the skimmer. It's not a big deal but it does cause some annoyances with sump maintenance. I used all of the rock from my old tank and added a new sand bed and I was on my way.

System Stats:

The systems total volume is 93g plus around 25g in the sump depending on the water level which fluctuates about an inch. The tank has a traditional built in overflow with only one return line. Water overflows down into the sump where it is filtered with the use of poly-fiber pads which remove a lot of detritus and uneaten food. I clean these pads every 3 or 4 days and the stuff they pull out is just plain nasty. After the water passes through the pads it is skimmed with a bubble magus BM150 Pro and passes through one more sponge filter which polishes the water and removes micro bubbles.

Equipment: K.I.S.S

I try hard to keep everything simple. In my experience the less automation you have the less mistakes can happen. I have a brand new ATO sitting in the box because I am scared the float switch might mess up. Nothing is automated in my tank except the lights. I prefer a hand on basic approach to reef keeping.

Tank: 93g cube 30L X 30W X 24T
Skimmer: Bubble magus BM150 Pro
Lighting: EcoTech Radion LED with upgraded TIR lenses & 2x 24inch Hagen double T5HO (2x ATI aqua blue & 2x ATI actinic)
Flow: 2X Hydro Koralia evo 1400GPH
Return Pump: Rio Hyper flow 26HF 1600gph
RO: installed by Culligan water
Temperature control: 1X 300W jager (Eheim)

Parameters:

Calcium: 440ppm
Alkalinity: 9dKh
Magnesium: 1400ppm
Salinity: 1.026
Temperature: 76-79 °F
Nitrate: I Don't test
Phosphate: I Don't test

Natural Methodology: (This is where things get interesting!)

As I have stated a few times already I prefer to use a simple, less is more approach to reef keeping. I rely on a strong understanding of biology, which I have accumulated from my undergraduate degree, and countless hours spent researching the hobby. I have tried a lot of different ways to run my tank and I have narrowed them down to what works for me. I will try and focus more on what I do differently, so that I am not being boring or repetitive to past featured tanks.

First of all I do not do water changes; at least not in the traditional sense. I have gone over a year without doing a water change on past tanks and I am going on 5 months now on this tank without a water change. I just want to be clear for a second. I am not promoting not doing water changes, all I am saying is that I do not do them and its works for me. However, I do skim very wet and accumulate about 1g / 4lt of skimmate per day. This in and of itself is a form of water change, but on a much smaller scale then someone may be used to. I have to add a small amount of salt into my top of water to keep up with what's being skimmed out. This approach along with my modified carbon dosing regimen keeps my water in a very low nutrient state, sometimes too low.

Carbon dosing:

I have found that carbon dosing is a very powerful tool to keep nutrients low. It works so well that I have to be very careful not to overdo it. I use vinegar that I saturate with kalk. I find this neutralizes the acidic vinegar and adds balanced calcium and alkalinity. I add approximately 3ml twice a week to the tank. I watch the tank closely for signs of overdosing. Some signs to look for are as follows.

White tips on sps aka burnt tips
A white film on the glass instead of the normal green film
Pale coral colors
Absolutely no signs of algae

In addition to the vinegar solution I dose Brightwells microbactor which helps diversify the bacteria in my system. I think any popular bacteria product could work in this situation. It helps to deter one bacterial strain from taking over and reduces the chances of cynobacteria which can be a side effect from carbon dosing. This strategy has allowed me to get away with not doing water changes and allows me to over feed my tank which helps with coral growth and fish health. I find that it also helps to feed amino acids and a fine particle coral food when you have created a low nutrient system. If not, corals can become pale and starve.

Tank supplementation:

In light of the fact that I do not do water changes I have to focus on what I dose. Since the uptake in a sps tank is very high I have to replace what is being taken out. Over the years I have come up with a solution to my massive calcium and alkalinity demand. I make up a homemade two part solution using Kent turbo calcium and baked baking soda.

In one 1g jug I add 3oz of Kent turbo calcium with RO water. Mix fast as it heats up the water.
In another 1g jug I add 4oz of baked baking soda with RO water. Baking it at 400f for 1 our help increase the pH.

I have to dose this two part solution based on the growth rate in my tank. I begin dosing small amounts each day and test at the end of the week. If the calcium or alkalinty increases above 440cal and 9dkh I reduce the amount I dose and try and find a balance. If the calcium or alkalinty is to low I make a one time correction and increase the rate I dose. After a couple of weeks you will find a sweet spot and can get away with testing parameters once every 10 days. It is very important to keep the parameters stable for sps health and growth. This approach is simple and most of all cheap. In my experience using this method I have seen an increased growth rate in my sps corals.

Other than calcium and alkalinity I dose magnesium in the form of magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. I stick with a pretty traditional approach to dosing it and aim to keep it around 1400ppm. In combination with dosing the big three I also dose strontium, iodine, potassium, and iron. I have to dose these because I do not do enough water changes to replenish what's being removed by the corals. I have also found that when carbon doing, it is important to dose potassium because the bacteria use it in their growth and reproduction.

Maintenance:

Empty skimmer collection jug daily
Clean glass daily
Dose homemade two part daily
Feed the fish two times a day a mix of flake, pellets and frozen.
Clean aquarium filter pads every 4 days
Dose strontium, magnesium, iron, potassium, and trace elements once a week
Carbon dosing 3ml twice per week
Test cal and alk once per week
Add amino acids, zeovit phols xtra, coral frenzy and zeovit coral vitalizer sporadically
Clean skimmer every 2 weeks
No water changes!

Livestock:

I have never really been into learning the scientific names of my fish, corals, and inverts. I try to focus on learning their Genus name instead of their species name. Here is a rough list of my tank inhabitants.

SPS Corals:

(10) Different species of Acropora
(3) Different species of Stylophora
(5) Different species of Seriatopora
(4) Different species of Montipora

Softies:

(20) Different species of zoanthids and palythoas
(3) Different species of mushrooms
(2) Different anemones that always hide in weird places

Fish: Some are over 5 years old

(2) Cinnamon clownfish
(2) 4 stripe damselfish
(2) 3 stripe damselfish
(1) Blue devil damselfish
(1) Lemon peel angle (the reason for my lack of polyp extension!)
(1) Coral beauty
(1) Powder blue tang
(1) Bicolour blenny
(1) Dragonet
(1) Male lyretail anthia

Inverts:

(15) Cerith snails
(10) Nassarius snails
(10) Margarita snails
(3) Astera snails
(10) asst. Hermit crabs
(3) Peppermint shrimp
(2) Cleaner shrimp

Acknowledgments:

I just want to start by thanking Canreef for the opportunity to share my tank and story with everyone. There is a lot of work that goes into running the Featured Tank section and I don't think they get enough recognition. I also want to thank all of the great fish and hobby stores that have sold me quality products over the years. Lastly, I want to thank fellow reefers for being so friendly and helpful. Your passion for the hobby keeps me going and keeps the hobby growing.