More equipment or more water changes?

First off sorry mods for posting this in general as it could qualify for water quality, equipment or probably many others.

So a little back story might help. To start with I have ran multiple FW tanks for 12-15 years now, and I have finally come to a realization within the last few. The least amount of equipment that I run in them and the more water changes (with low amounts of gravel and good gravel cleanings) the better the water quality. I have ran everything in them from sumps, cannisters, uv's, power filters, UG filters, and sponge filters (probably more that I'm missing). In the last year and a half or so, I have switched to sponge filters and more frequent/larger water changes. My water quality has never been better!

With all that probably unimportant information here is some more... I have had a 75gal. SW tank up for a year now, switched it to a full reef lets say around 4 months ago (wanted to go slow and learn more about SW). My current setup includes:

30gal. sump
mag 7 return
SWC 160? skimmer (the bigger one)
~10gal fuge (Cheato, light, 4-5 sandbed, very low flow)
Recently added 2 1050 hydor evo 2 750 hydor evo
jbj quad wavemaker
2 750 marinland pumps behind live rock
spin stream return nozzle
large filter sock (cleaned pretty often)
2 boost led 100w mu series
~140lbs rock

Just purchased the wavemaker and PH's (amazing btw!) to gear up for more sps and to keep down the build up of detritus in my rock. Currently, have some lps, mushrooms, rics, zoa's, chalice, a nem, and gsp. All of these are doing well, but the couple sps that I was trying have all but died out (guess I should pull them out ). I think the majority of the reason was visible buildup on them due to low flow.

With all this being said my nitrate has stayed rock solid at 20ppm (multiple tests used). I'm hoping that I will see a drop in this due to increased water movement and less detrite buildup. I have been pretty bad at my WC schedule with this tank (and WC's are on the low end of 10%, 1-2 a month or more). The reason behind this is that I am currently working 7 days a week, lots of OT, and dont have a good WC setup for SW and the mixing that is required. Surprisingly, calc, mag, and alk are staying pretty constant. Calcium almost always stays at 420, haven't tested mag or alk in a while, but have never seen much movement in them. I do dose 2 part on a rare occasion that calcium has dropped.

So, obviously I need to keep up with my water changes. I've planned on buying a couple 55 gal brutes and pumps to hook up to my RODI unit with the float valve. Put some wheels on these and I would think WC's would be much easier (Currently doing crappy bucket method). It's just SOO hard to spent that kinda money on trash cans for WC's when I have so many other aqua related projects going on lol. Any advice on the WC's would be helpful, however I do plan on doing this due to setting up my fish room with multiple FW and SW tanks.

With these other projects going on I would like to be 100% finished with reef equipment setup, and focus on the fish room/buying coral/watching it grow within the next month. All this being said I have seen some amazing posts (steve) about biopellets and many on here using gfo. I am still considering investing in biopellets especially, but I'm wondering If you guys think that I can find the same results with simply increasing WC's, general maintenance, and more aggressive skimming (currently only skimming a small amount of very dry per week).

The tank is currently doing great IMHO with its current inhabitants, this is why I'm thinking that I might be able to reach that same bliss that I have with FW with simple adjustment. With this said the first sps I tried died off, but I think mainly due to too low flow. Keep in mind that I am now wanting to gear up for a large amount of sps, and will only settle in the long run with perfection. Do you guys think that I can reach that with the current equipment list or do you think that more is needed. I'm looking for alot of opinions on this so please chime in no matter your thoughts on this. Are all the extreme experienced/amazing tank owners running high tech? Fell to post your experiences, post pics, high jack the thread with good arguments.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/general-reef-topics/sponge-filter-only-136977.html Considering trying FW setup for FO system (somewhat related, if your interested).

 

SPS need very pristine water conditions (clean) and very balanced parameters and proper lighting. I doubt your sps loss was due only to the lack of flow. More of a combination of poor water maintenance and lack of flow. Your on the right track with upping your flow.

You will get many differences of opinions when it comes to water changes. However IMO and IME there is nothing compared to them when it comes to replacing those much needed trace elements, and for removing excess nutrients.

Dilution is the solution to pollution!

 

I like that . I completely agree with your statements of the combination of both factors. So in your opinion you would say the key is more WC's? Possible to run this type of setup and have a thriving SPS dominate tank? What's your experiences with this? What do you run?

 

If I were going to set up a bigger tank my equipment would include a Calcium Reactor, ATO, dosing pump and a skimmer.

Can you have a beautiful successful SPS dominate tank without those items? IME you can and I have seen tanks without all the bells and whistles that are stunning. I have also seen wonderful tanks that rarely ever get a water change, personally I have never been able to pull that off but others definitely have.

Sound as though you have a busy life style currently so I would be inclined to make your tank as automated as possible.

In dealing with your current nitrates level I would have to consider the source. What are you feeding? How often? What is your bio-load?

Lastly your tank is very young, while stable it takes several months IMO to find the balance.

 

If not more water changes then at least heavy skimming, dosing for ca/alk/mag. My experience with keeping sps personally is minimal. My tank is set up for LPS/Softies. Higher in nutrients, skimmerless 1x 25% WC bi-weekly. Dosing 2part daily. My tank thrives under these conditions.
Having said this, I have kept a few sps in the past. They did well in the beginning. But I believe that between my clown goby's constantly perching in them, the higher nutrients, insufficient lighting were all contributing factors to their demise.

Nice post Corailline

 

Currently I feed the fish NLS pellets. The coral: phyto feast, roti feast all 3-4 times a week. Sometimes mysis or marine snow. My bioload is on the low/med range, and I feel I don't overfeed (something that I learned from years of FW).

I'm pretty convinced that the nitrate is due to my massive amount of rock, low flow (have found some pretty nasty crap under it), and lack of water changes. Around the time that I started the tank is when I REALLY got busy and hardly ever did a WC in the begining (reason for detritus build up early on), due to the PITA bucket method.

To be honest the more frequent WC's of my FW setups has been way less stressful and even less time consuming IMO. Prior to that I always tried to automate it as much as possible and it always seemed I was messing with equipment/doing just as many water changes if I wanted the BEST water quality I could have.

 

It is tough to keep parameters in check on water changes alone. IMO the keys are:

- Some type of calcium/alk/mag dosing. I use Brightwell Kalk +2, others use 2-part plus a mag supplement, others use a calcium reactor plus supplements.

- A very good skimmer.

- An ATO unit. This keeps your salinity constant as well as making your skimmer more efficient.

- Water changes for trace elements - shouldn't need to do it for nitrates if you've got a healthy reef, don't overfeed, have a good skimmer and have some chaeto or something similar. You can also dose trace elements, but you have to be careful there.

 

Nana I'm with you on the heavier skimming. My skimmer seems amazing when I have it dialed in, but seems to need adjusting frequently. This is something that I have stepped up recently (is quick), and I believe will be effective.

Bring on the comments I'm in the mood to nerd out on some reef stuff... in the country where everyone thinks I'm crazy to have an aquarium .

 

Parameters have always stayed almost spot on any time that I have checked them. I have dosed 2 part seachem I few times (Just cause I bought it and wanted to use it).

An Ato is also something that I have considered. However, I do keep on the water top offs. Would be easier and probably more stable with the ATO, but dont have much room under or behind the tank due to the the 30gal sump under the standard 75.

So in your opinion water changes shouldn't be used for nitrate reduction? Even without the addition of NP reducing reactors? Currently, have cheato which just started shooting up due to more appropriate lighting (will probably be helpful, not sure when to expect results with parameters though).

 

Yes skim wetter.

Are you have to dial the skimmer in more frequently because of evaporation?

LR can collect detritus, but improving your flow which you have done should help. Blow it around with a power head or turkey baster and letting the mechanical filter remove it helps.
IME have more LR is usually a big plus.

Do you have enough inverts that stir up the sand bed and get into the nooks and crannies?



@Nana: Thank you.