Changes to the hobby -less skimming, No GFO

[nobleER]

Hi everyone,

Getting back into things after 9 years bla, bla, bla...

Back then, I had a 90 Gal and ran carbon and GFO In phosban reactors, did 10% water changes weekly, added iodine, strontium, used 2 part (BRS), and used turbo Cal when needed. I was very happy with the results. Also, Vodka dosing was popular then, Zeovit was big for some, etc.

So now I'm seeing that things have changed a little. Although I'm confident in my reef knowledge, I'm always open to learning something new.

So here's my question- What are you doing with your mixed LPS/SPS setups? I'm all eyes . Shoot!

 

[Paulie 069]

What’s a GFO

 

[amado]

Vodka dosing is still popular. I always run carbon and GFO but in moderation lol. 2 part is tried and true. I am also a believer of water changes.

 

[MadReefer]

I dose 2 part, mag and occasionally iodine.
Doing monthly 10g water changes.

 

[nobleER]

What’s a GFO

Granular Ferric Oxide

 

[Mark_C]

Keeping a fairly successful nano (40g) with hammers and torches, montis, acros from stags to disney, mixed zoas.
Feeding (moderate corals with 6 fish and cuc) - 1/2 cube frozen in 5ml Red Sea AB+ Coral Nutrition 1x per day, small pinch of Reef Roids every few days
Protein skim
10% wc weekly
2 part dosing (Seachem Reef Fusion 1&2 as I have it, will eventually switch to homemade ca and alk, or possibly BRS, which is still a standard)
Overflow runs into media tray with filter fiber and bag of carbon to reduce odors
Small removable reactor if I need to additional gfo, phosban, etc...
Seachem Prime on hand if Nitrites/ates get out of control
Vibrant on hand in case of algae outbreak
Red Sea ABC Skeletal Elements on hand for an occasional dose if I miss a wc

Not much has changed husbandry wise outside the products of preference, and, of course expensive hardware if you'd like to automate.

 

[Mark_C]

What’s a GFO

Same as a Piecost

 

[ericrodriguez]

Here is a mixed 45 gallons
5 different hammer
1 to torch
1 optospawm
2 different gonis
1 Duncan
1 trumpet
8 different sps
Like 4 or five different mushrooms
Like 7 or 8 different Zoanthids maybe more.
4 different chalices
2 leather
Some clovers
2 different acan
1 galaxea
And 6 fish.
I 15% wc every 20 day if I’m not busy.
i dose polyp lab one every day And a canister filter for 100 gallons full with matrix nitrate stay 5ppm at all times

 

[DangerDave]

I don’t think that much has changed, maybe some new options are now available for you, but same ideas still work. For my maintenance I’m running 3 cups of high capacity gfo (rowaphos right now) changed weekly. (This is growing old and expensive and I’m about to start lanthanum chloride dosing instead) I’m running a 13x10 algae scrubber screen with 18 watts of leds per side @ about 2.5 inch spacing and 2-300gph flow scraped weekly.

For alk/calc - Calcium reactor, 4 gallons of kalk through a stirrer daily, and a trident and dos keeping everything level with 2 part. Mostly just alk gets dosed.

The kalk and be a C02 scrubber keep the PH where I want it. This is due to my tank rooms situation and prolly not needed elsewhere.

Running klir7 rollers, only because I hated cleaning 7x32 socks every two days.

I think this is the bulk of my maintenance that I can think of. Good luck, I look forward to seeing a new build thread!

Dave

 

[nobleER]

I don’t think that much has changed, maybe some new options are now available for you, but same ideas still work. For my maintenance I’m running 3 cups of high capacity gfo (rowaphos right now) changed weekly. (This is growing old and expensive and I’m about to start lanthanum chloride dosing instead) I’m running a 13x10 algae scrubber screen with 18 watts of leds per side @ about 2.5 inch spacing and 2-300gph flow scraped weekly.

For alk/calc - Calcium reactor, 4 gallons of kalk through a stirrer daily, and a trident and dos keeping everything level with 2 part. Mostly just alk gets dosed.

The kalk and be a C02 scrubber keep the PH where I want it. This is due to my tank rooms situation and prolly not needed elsewhere.

Running klir7 rollers, only because I hated cleaning 7x32 socks every two days.

I thin this is the bulk of my maintenance that I can think of. Good luck, I look forward to seeing a new build thread!

Dave

Interesting, thanks Dave!

 

[ericrodriguez]

Guys I think would nice some pictures along with the comments!!!!

 

[DEL]

this WAS my tank before all the corals perished when i moved them to another room. all i did was auto water changes about 1g a day through the DOS and apex, auto dosing of a few mls a day of ESV 2 part through an eshopps dual doser. I had 2 kessil 360s and 4 T5 on an aquatic hybrid fixture. SPS grew like crazy as you can see all the encrusting stuff. kept it simple yet automated. oh I also ran carbon and GFO but hardly changed out the media. skimmer was on sometimes not all the time.

 

[nobleER]

this WAS my tank before all the corals perished when i moved them to another room. all i did was auto water changes about 1g a day through the DOS and apex, auto dosing of a few mls a day of ESV 2 part through an eshopps dual doser. I had 2 kessil 360s and 4 T5 on an aquatic hybrid fixture. SPS grew like crazy as you can see all the encrusting stuff. kept it simple yet automated. oh I also ran carbon and GFO but hardly changed out the media. skimmer was on sometimes not all the time.

 

[nobleER]

Cool. Thanks for posting!

 

[DangerDave]

Interesting, thanks Dave!

Almost forgot, also a curve 9 skimmer running 24x7 skimming somewhat wet.