Ecosystem – There are many pathways to a successful Reef Aquarium. Every successful aquarist has their own idea or philosophy on the best way to maintain a Reef Tank. My philosophy is quite simple really. I prefer to let the organisms within the aquarium do most of the work. What do I mean by that? Well a Reef Tank, especially a mature one, is very much like a small ecosystem. If the right organisms are introduced into the aquarium and given enough time, they will all work together to form a symbiotic relationship that benefits the aquarium as a whole. Here’s a simplified example. Fish eat, digest and metabolize their food. They then release what remains into the water column as waste. Some of this waste is consumed by bacteria and converted to other compounds, both of which feed other substances like sponges, algae, plankton, corals etc. Some of the waste is less processed and and will further break down into detritus. Copepods, amphipods, polychaete worms, crabs, snails etc will feed on the algae and detritus. Fish will then eat the algae, copepods, amphipods, worms and the cycle starts over. It’s a little more complicated that that if you want to have a nice variety of fish and corals. But you get my point.
Stability – It’s very important in this hobby to be patient and maintain stability above all. Stability is probably The most important thing with SPS corals. Knee jerk reactions to issues that arise, more often than not, cause more harm than they solve. Make any and all changes slowly and give it time for your changes to take affect. For instance, you may notice during your weekly testing that your alkalinity dropped 2DKH. Weather it dropped over night or took a week, the last thing you want to do is raise it back 2DKH all at once. Take your time and raise it back into range over the next few days. The same goes for salinity, temperature etc.
Bacteria – Rock structures form the foundation or base needed for coral colonies to grow. When it comes to rock structures in reef tanks, live rock is king. Live rock is typically ocean rock or fossilized ocean rock that has been added back to the ocean where it hosts diverse micro and macro lifeforms both on the surface and inside the rock. You’ll get all kinds of bacteria, coraline algae and micro organisms that just can’t be replicated with store bought products. This bacteria and micro organisms will pay dividends for years while your tank naturally matures. Unfortunately, unless you live near the coast, shipping live rock can be expensive. Especially if you have a large tank. If I lived near the Florida coast, I’d use 100% live rock. But I’m in the Midwest and and my tanks are large. So I shoot for about 1/4 to 1/3 of the rock in the tank to be Live Rock. I’ve been using live rock almost as long as I have been in the hobby. Some of the live rock in my tanks today date back to the early 1990s. Here is some Florida live rock I purchased in 2020 for my 150 SPS dominant reef. You can see that it’s full of algae, sponges, coraline, corals and most important, bacteria.
Quarantine – I quarantine everything “Live” that goes into my tanks for a minimum of 6 weeks and up to 10 weeks. Fish, invertebrates, corals and yes, live rock. This is mainly to avoid introducing fish parasites into the aquarium which I go to great lengths to prevent. But with live rock, it also allows me to observe the rock over a long period of time for unwanted critters like Gorilla Crabs & Mantis Shrimp, and things like large sponges & bivalves which eventually die off and pollute the tank. I quarantine the live rock in large plastic storage bins with good water flow and proper lighting. Some people like to quarantine their rock in the dark. It’s my opinion that the lighting is important so the rock goes through normal progression acclimating to aquarium conditions. If you leave it in the dark for weeks or months, then suddenly add it to your reef with and reintroduce lighting, your beautiful expensive live rock will soon be covered with algae. I also add whatever “dead” rock I will be using and a layer of sand in the storage bin with the live rock so bacteria and other life forms from the live rock can migrate over to the dead rock and sand. There will be some die off for the first few days or weeks. I monitor ammonia daily and address that with water changes. Once ammonia is no longer detectable, I’ll do small water changes about every other week with the same salt water I will be using in the aquarium. Since there are no fish in quarantine, I like to add a food source for the organisms living in/on the rock. Phytoplankton or coral food work well for this. On my last batch I used Red Sea AB+ dosed twice weekly. Six to ten weeks later, I add all the rock to the aquarium and create open structures using glue, epoxy and aquascaping mortar. The open structures are important for good water flow once the corals fill in the aquarium. Plus they add nice swimming spaces for the fish.
Filtration – My primary filtration is natural biological filtration which relies heavily on bacteria living in and on the rock, sand and rock rubble in the sump. This bacteria breaks down the nutrients into compounds that are less harmful to the fish & invertebrates and that are more easily used up by corals. Basically corals need SOME nutrients. There’s different opinions on just how much but If you let the nutrients drop too low, the corals will not thrive. If you let them drop to zero, they will stress and in many cases bleach, peal, and die. My approach to nutrients is heavy in heavy out. What that means is I feed a lot and I remove a lot. By doing this, there is always ample nutrients in the water column to keep the corals happy (heavy in) but the nutrients are removed quickly so as not to fuel algae outbreaks (heavy out). The heavy in is easy. I feed the fish three times a day frozen food and once a day they get pellets from an automatic feeder. The heavy out is a little more complicated. There are many ways to remove nutrients from a reef tank and everyone has a preference. You can replace low micron filter socks/pads often, use P04 or N03 absorbents or binders, do frequent water changes or blow off the rocks and stir the sand with a canister filter, use aggressive skimming, use an algae scrubber or reactor, run a refugium and more. I use Carbon Dosing for my nutrient removal. By adding a carbon source to the aquarium, I am adding part of the food source that the bacteria consume. The other part is the nutrients. The more carbon I add, the more nutrients the bacteria are able to consume. A good protein skimmer is required when carbon dosing. I use DC Tunze Skimmers on all my tanks. I am able to increase or decrease the skimmer as needed depending on the nutrient load. If i notice my nutrients creeping upward out of my comfort zone, I usually turn up the skimmer. Increasing or decreasing the skimmer capacity is as easy as turning a knob on the pump controller. Because of the efficiency of carbon dosing, I rarely have issues with high nutrients. More often than not my nutrients tend to creep downward. I’ve found that just increasing the auto feeder timer (controlled by my Apex) is the most efficient way to increase nutrients. I do keep mechanical filtration in place in the form of a filter roller or filter socks/filter pads.
Tropic Marin All For Reef (AFR) – I use AFR as my primary calcium, alkalinity and magnesium supplement. It has the added bonus of also containing the primary trace elements. It only takes up one dosing pump head but could be just as easily dosed by hand daily. It’s a little tricky getting your levels dialed in the first few weeks but after that it’s rock solid. The two down sides to AFR is you are not able to increase or decrease the individual elements and to a lesser extent cost. That being said, I test alkalinity twice weekly and calcium & magnesium monthly and all three readings are in range 90+% of the time. I get an ICP test every three months to monitor trace elements and my ICP analysis is always in the mid 90 percentile. My tank does use a little more iodine, manganese and potassium than what AFR supplies which I add by hand weekly with ATI elements. As far as cost, it’s definitely not as cheap as most two or three part supplements but really your only talking about an extra $10 a month on my 150 gallon SPS Reef Tank.
Carbon Dosing – I use Tropic Marin Bacto Balance as my carbon source for carbon dosing. It’s not very expensive and does a great job. I add it to the sump with my Red Sea Reef Doser and dose every morning. I’ve used vodka & Vinegar in the past as a carbon source which worked just fine but the Bacto Balance is pretty potent, not expensive and also contains some trace elements. I get about three months out of a $15 bottle of Bacto Balance. Over time certain bacteria strains can slowly out compete and take over. To keep a good variety of healthy bacteria strains, I add bacteria to the tank monthly. Over the years I have used Tunze Care Bacter, Dr. Tim’s Eco-Balance, Aqua Forest Pro Bio S, Prodibio Bio DIgest & Korallen-Zucht ZEObak. All are quality bacteria sources and work well for carbon dosing.
Kalkwasser – I’m a big believer in Kalkwasser. There’s just something about it. Tanks that utilize Kalkwasser always seem to look better than tanks that don’t. I run an Avast Marine Kalkwasser Reactor in the sump. This helps offset AFR consumption but the main benefit is that it keeps the pH from dropping too low at night. I slow drip it during lights off hours controlled by my Apex. My pH rises to 8.3 during the day and drops to 8.1 at night. I get about two months out of two cups of ESV kalkwasser at which time I clean the unit and add new Kalkwasser. I’ve absolutely noticed better coral growth and coloration running higher pH.
Korallen-Zucht Flatworm Stop – I’m also a believer in Flatworm Stop. When I first started my 150 Lagoon Reef, I decided to try the full Zeovit System. I got good results running full Zeovit but ended up going back to my preferred methods after about a year. One thing that came from running Zeovit though was that it exposed me to Flatworm Stop. After I quit running Zeovit, I still had a few months of the Flatworm Stop left so I kept dosing it. When I stopped using it my corals just weren’t looking quite as good. Less polyp extension and encrusting for the most part. I confirmed from my ICP tests that my iodine levels were higher when using Flatworm Stop so I started dosing iodide. I still wasn’t getting the results I was looking for. I talked to some other hobbyists who swear by Flatworm Stop and I started dosing it again. The corals responded positively so now it is part of my daily routine. I dose 2/3 the recommended dosage with my Red Sea Reef Doser.
Conclusion – The key to success in this hobby is to have patience. Nothing good is going to happen quickly when it comes to your aquarium. Keeping a reef aquarium can be very intimidating at first. But it really can be as easy or as challenging as you make it. Do your research, come up with good a plan, stick to that plan and most of all, be patient.