WAMAS Tank of the Month
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Aquatic life has fascinated me ever since childhood. My parents let me keep freshwater aquariums (as long as they remained within the confines of my small bedroom), but reef aquariums always seemed out of reach due to the expense. In fulfillment of this childhood dream, one of my first purchases after graduating college was a small reef aquaria. Since then, I’ve maintained several marine/reef aquaria, but none were particularly successful until now.
As a central aspect of my reefkeeping philosophy, I have a strong commitment to supporting captive-bred marine life. Everything in my aquarium has been captive propagated with the exception of a few snails and crabs. Years ago, I myself used to breed a rare species of seahorse, H. fuscus otherwise colloquially known as the “Sea Pony”, and found that venture to be one of the most rewarding experiences within the hobby. I hope to continue with similar breeding efforts in the future. The main display itself is a TruAqua rimless high-clarity 12 gallon long aquarium, but it is currently plumbed into a larger overall system with a 20 gallon long frag tank and a 20 gallon long sump. The frag tank and sump reside within a modified closet space abutting the main display. The main display is positioned as a peninsula-style tank dividing the dining room from the living room. This aquarium has gone through several major evolutions since inception. It was first set up in August 2016 as a freshwater planted tank. After enjoying the freshwater side of the hobby and breeding innumerable German Blue Rams from this tank, I reimagined the tank as a reef in January 2018. As part of this transition, I built a cabinet to house a 10 gallon sump within the frame of the existing stand. This design worked well, but it was difficult to maintain due to the very cramped quarters within the cabinet and sump. To facilitate maintenance and provide more space for frags, I began work converting the hall closet into a nano-sized fish room. To protect against possible water damage, I installed a shower pan liner and a removable raised deck for the flooring. I then built shelving to support the water storage, frag tank, and sump. This so-called “fish closet” has been the single greatest contributor toward my success with this aquarium thus far. The frag tank has a special section devoted to dwarf seahorses. It consists of a small 1 gallon glass cube with feed line off the return and a mesh covered hole in the bottom. The idea behind this design is to keep the seahorses safe with a high density of live Artemia nauplii while continually flushing the container with filtered water. Water flow in the main display is handled single Current USA eFlux 1050 gph pump typically running around a constant 60-70%. The frag tank currently has two Current USA eFlux 660 gph pumps running continuously at 100% power, but these will likely be replaced with the 1050 gph pumps in the future. While these pumps are not the most reliable, they have a fairly high output for their diminutive size which is critical in nano-sized aquaria. The main display tank is illuminated by two 36” Current USA Orbit IC fixtures along with a 24” 21LED reefbar. All of the fixtures are run at 100% power on all channels. Although these fixtures are not particularly bright, their low-profile design and quiet passive cooling met the aesthetic needs for the main display. Given that the main display is only ~9” deep, the light intensity is still quite high. To support interchangeability in the event of fixture failures, the frag tank is also illuminated with two 36” Current USA Orbit IC fixtures along with a 36” Aquael Leddy strip light (that I won in a WAMAS meeting raffle!). Filtration approaches have changed a number of times as the nutrient demand of my tank have shifted over time. Currently, the corals themselves seem to consume much of the available nutrients and filtration is mainly provided by an IceCap K1-100 protein skimmer. I have some Codium sp. growing in the sump under relatively low illumination, but I do not believe it is contributing substantial nutrient reduction. I also made a thin basket that fits between my sump baffles that I sporadically fill with small amounts of activated carbon. The water flowing over the top of the baffle passes through the carbon before entering the return section of the sump. I have previously used a DIY algae scrubber when the tank was somewhat less mature and was suffering from algae outbreaks. The algae scrubber worked flawlessly and really helped control the growth of hair algae in the display. Eventually, I had to discontinue use of the algae scrubber because low nutrient availability seemed to be negatively affecting the health of corals while possibly triggering dinoflagellate outbreaks. I have found that my tank’s ecosystem seems to be the healthiest when it is able to grow a small amount of hair algae that is easily controlled via occasional manual removal from spots not otherwise accessible by urchins. Given my background in chemistry, you might expect that I would delve deeply into various aspects of chemical testing and supplementation, but I keep my approach to additives very simple. Weekly water changes are performed with standard Instant Ocean salt mix and I only supplement calcium chloride and sodium carbonate via two Kamoer X1 dosing pumps. I only regularly test for alkalinity (2x-3x/week) and calcium (2x/month). In the past, I have also occasionally tested for magnesium, nitrate, and phosphate, but rarely have these tests garnered actionable information, so I dropped them from my routine. This tank is dominated by various small-polyped stony corals, but there are a few large-polyped corals (Euphyllia ancora, Acanthastrea sp., and Favia sp.) and couple soft corals (zoanthids and gogonians) positioned where the flow is lower. I like to maintain a high density of fish, but try to focus on species that exhibit a relatively “site-attached” lifestyle in the wild, i.e. clownfish, blennies, etc. I have found that such fish tend to do better in small aquaria. My feeding routine is quite simple. The dwarf seahorses are fed twice daily with either newly-hatched Artemia or Selcon-enriched day-old Artemia. The rest of the fish are fed with Piscine Energetic’s frozen mysis shrimp. I have experimented with other foods, but often seem to suffer algae outbreaks with other feeds. The main challenge has been space. With only 8” of width inside the tank, corals constantly encroach on each other and the glass. I typically let the corals grow until I can no longer reasonably clean the glass (which I rarely do anyway) and then I conduct a heavy pruning session to populate the frag tank. All sorts of different algae have plagued this aquarium at one time or another, but the coral growth is so dense in the main display now that there is very little area in which it can gain a foothold. Currently, algae growth in the frag tank is the biggest issue. I don’t actually have any major plans for the main display. There is no room to add any new corals or fish, so I’ll likely just keep pruning frags as necessary. I’d like to propagate some new corals in the frag tank and perhaps use the frag tank to attempt breeding some fish, shrimp, and/or urchins. Although I’ve had larger aquariums in the past, I really enjoy maintaining nano-sized reefs due to their relatively low cost, ease of maintenance, and the speed with which they mature. As originally designed, this system was somewhat challenging to maintain, but over time the design has been adapted to facilitate maintenance and meet the evolving demands of the livestock as they matured. After two and a half years, it seems to have reached a statis. Barring some catastrophe, I hope to continue maintaining this system for years to come. |
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