ATXacrofarmer 215-gallon SPS tank (2 Viewers)

[FarmerTy]

Hello Marshians,

Just wanted to start a thread on my tank and document. Here's a video of my current tank. I'll post another video of the old tank in a bit. The one unique characteristic of both tanks is that I employ no water changes.

Old video of my current 215-gallon tank. I'll update with another one soon. There have been some changes!

[video=youtube_share;1RTwwSU2HJY]http://youtu.be/1RTwwSU2HJY[/video]

Happy to be on here from afar (but not too far...Austin) and looking to contribute to the fun here! Seems like a nice forum!

-Ty

 

[FarmerTy]

My old 125-gallon tank:

[video=youtube_share;GD7QrXICias]http://youtu.be/GD7QrXICias[/video]

 

[FarmerTy]

Here's a current FTS. I ripped the old black background off. I'm thinking of going with a blue gradient starting with light blue towards the top and dark blue towards the bottom. Now to get a printer to pull what's out of my head and put it on plastic film!

 

[litebulbcw]

Wow looks awesome!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[FarmerTy]

Here's what I had brewing in the QT tank. No, they weren't all in there together like that. I just had to stick them in the 30 gallon for a bit while I swapped tubs. The other two achilles are for friends of mine.

[video=youtube_share;aHsNfHWbbyc]http://youtu.be/aHsNfHWbbyc[/video]

 

[FarmerTy]

Ever see dancing Colorado sunburst anemones?

[video=youtube_share;qvMx8SpA3qA]http://youtu.be/qvMx8SpA3qA[/video]

 

[Reefahholic]

Fantastic reef man. I think you have waaay too many Acro's. Just let me know when you're ready to thin out.

 

[Reefahholic]

Great to see you QT'ing fish man. I wish more people would do it. If you just do it, you save yourself money and headaches down the road.

 

[FarmerTy]

I totally forgot I shot this video back in October. So, more of a recent video. This was a couple months before I decided to take all my acros out of the tank and dip them prophylactically before putting them back in. I figured if I was going to glue them down permanently, I wanted to dip everything first one last time before I did that.

[video=youtube_share;eQvHpz-DCbU]http://youtu.be/eQvHpz-DCbU[/video]

I also took out all my fish to run the tank fallow so I could keep a powder blue tang. That blew up in my face though because today I saw some ich on my flame angel so I pretty much wasted 76 days of going fallow. I'm pretty sure it was because I missed one transfer by a couple of hours and the tomonts probably hatched and reattached before I caught it. I was using the tank transfer method (TTM) and it's a strict 72 hours or less to move fish. Oh well, live and learn. I sold my PBT that I had QT'ed because there was no way I was going to try again in an ich-maintained tank.

 

[Cody]

Glad you started a thread. There is definitely some insight to being successful without water changes with your your tank. Tell us though, what made you want ot go without water changes? What do you test? What do you dose?

BTW, be ready with a frag of that blue stag. I'll be back the first weekend of April and would love to get some from you!

 

[Reefahholic]

The power blues definitely seem very sensitive to ICH. If you do TTM correctly, you will not get ICH in your system unless it comes in on a snail shell or macro algae. That emperor angle is awesome. I really want one. Does he leave the coral alone.?

 

[KingBlingTx]

Awesome tanks! Thanks for sharing. I'm interested to hear details on your set-up, testing, etc..

 

[FarmerTy]

I'm not sure there was ever intent to not do water changes. I just listened to my tank and slowly I was able to go further between water changes until I was able to remove them entirely.

I consider myself a lazy reefer. Why do water changes at all if the two goals of water changes, nutrient reduction and replenishment of trace elements, can be achieved via other methods? Sure, I understand there are a myriad of elements that are not being replenished by the CaRX or amino acid dosing but whatever they may be, my old 125-gallon didn't require it for 3 years and my current 215-gallon hasn't required it yet either so far.

Am I delusional to think this might work forever? No, I feel like eventually there might be a trace element that will need to be added to the system... Something I can't test for and don't even realize the importance of until it is depleted... But until then, I'm pretty happy not doing water changes for a few more years.

For the interim, I added an annual Triton test to monitor trends over the year. If I am deficient in something or have an over abundance of something else, I'll do a water change or dose if I see any issues with the tank. Otherwise, I'm going to assume that the deficiency or over abundance isn't significant.

Got your blue stag frag sir whenever you pop back into town.

Tank is maintained with a large skimmer, CaRX, biopellets, GFO, and carbon. I dose aminos about 2x/week and feed my fish like there's no tomorrow. I don't use filter socks, vacuum the sand, or even vacuum out the sump ever.

I test personally with my Hanna Meters for alk and phosphate. I use Red Sea for everything else, Nitrate, Ca, Mg, Iodine, and Potassium.

 

[FarmerTy]

The power blues definitely seem very sensitive to ICH. If you do TTM correctly, you will not get ICH in your system unless it comes in on a snail shell or macro algae. That emperor angle is awesome. I really want one. Does he leave the coral alone.?

He will eat zoas like no other and will pick at some LPS. He'll leave euphyllias alone and only occasionally nips at my gonis. He will occasionally take a chunk out of my ORA Hawkins echinata and may nip an acro here or there but I have so many colonies and its so sporadic, it really doesn't do much damage at all. If you're getting a large angel, just expect to be making so concessions for keeping it.

 

[Reefahholic]

He will eat zoas like no other and will pick at some LPS. He'll leave euphyllias alone and only occasionally nips at my gonis. He will occasionally take a chunk out of my ORA Hawkins echinata and may nip an acro here or there but I have so many colonies and its so sporadic, it really doesn't do much damage at all. If you're getting a large angel, just expect to be making so concessions for keeping it.

He's a coral nipper huh. I figured that. All the fish I really like- I can't have any. SMH....sniff sniff...Regarding your tank and how the system is ran. You're basically running the system Triton style. The only thing you really need to do now is send tests off every 3 months or so and correct the red flagged errors. If a certain element is very low and Triton says is critical for good growth to mimic NSW, just buy that one element and fix one thing at a time. Obviously the tank is doing very well, but just think of how much better it will look the more you rid red flags and bring the water as close to NSW as possible. Starting with one element at a time and taking at your own pace. Or at least that's my plan. Then when I get it to as close to NSW as I can, I'm gonna sit back and let her thrive and try not to touch the tank other than maintain the system just like it's on cruise control.

 

[Reefahholic]

Can I buy a frag of that blue SPS from you?

 

[FarmerTy]

I know of the Triton method and it's not for me. I only use it to monitor annual trends. I prefer my method as it's worked well for me with much less maintenance and definitely much less cost.

 

[Reefahholic]

I know of the Triton method and it's not for me. I only use it to monitor annual trends. I prefer my method as it's worked well for me with much less maintenance and definitely much less cost.

Roger that.Can't hurt to go half Triton and add a few good elements that are depleted or missing every once in a blue moon though. Surely can't hurt!

 

[FarmerTy]

Can I buy a frag of that blue SPS from you?

I'm in Austin. If you are ever plan to be in the area, just PM me. If I ever head to Houston, I'll post a for sale thread with all my stuff I have available and can make one big frag selling trip out of it. Of course I'll pay for a membership at that point.

 

[Reefahholic]

I'm in Austin. If you are ever plan to be in the area, just PM me. If I ever head to Houston, I'll post a for sale thread with all my stuff I have available and can make one big frag selling trip out of it. Of course I'll pay for a membership at that point.

Sweet! I'll look forward to your visit!