Hello everybody, this is part II of my friend Nathan’s tank.
I hope you all enjoyed part I that I posted earlier which many of you noticed did not
have any commentary.
In this video I’ll spotlight the fish a little bit more but mainly give some overall
thoughts on the tank itself.
First off, this is the best I’ve seen this tank look.
If you dig a bit in this channel, you can see earlier videos from 2-3 years back and
how things have progressed to this point.
I think Nathan said it best when he described it as a frag tank that had gone wild.
There are plugs of various corals growing on every flat surface of the tank and of course
the huge colonies of Acropora and Montipora.
Some of them look like they are beach ball sized colonies.
Let’s first talk about the light which some of you had questions about.
The lighting used on this tank is really old by today’s standards.
There are four Aquaillumination Sol Blues overhead and a single Build My LED strip with
mostly Cyan colored LED’s.
I think people tend to fixate on the latest and greatest fixtures that come out every
year, but it goes to show that it is possible to get great results from just about any type
of lighting if you do a good job on every aspect the hobby.
I’ll be the first one to recommend metal halide and T5 for overall growth and color,
but tanks like this show there is no denying you can get great results with LED.
If you are shopping now for lights, just pick a fixture you like and focus on other things.
Picking the light is the easy part.
It all works!
Speaking of other things, there is a good amount of flow going through this system.
In addition to the return pump, this system uses a combination of Tunze powerheads, JeBao
powerheads which are essentially a Tunze knockoff, and the new Maxspect Gyre pumps.
I have not tried the Gyre pumps myself, but Nathan is a big fan of them and is phasing
out the other pumps in favor of the Gyre.
With regard to filtration, it’s a pretty straight forward system.
The tank has a protein skimmer, refugium, some chemical filters, and a biopellet reactor.
For the folks that are not familiar with a biopellet reactor, it is a tumbler that keeps
biopellets in suspension.
The pellets themselves are a carbon source for bacteria that bind up nitrates and phosphates.
The constant motion of pellets in the reactor scrubs off the bacterial film layer growing
on the pellets which are then skimmed out by the protein skimmer.
This is why it is common to see systems with biopellet reactors situating them very close
to the intake of the skimmer pump.
The bacteria that are not physically removed by the protein skimmer go back up to the display
tank and are a food source for the corals.
There is a lot of discussion now about the role of bacterial colonies and coral nutrition.
It’s something that I’ve dabbled with but seeing tanks like this makes me that much
more interested.
There are several ways to dose carbon into your system.
I tried vodka and didn’t have great results, so maybe I’ll give a reactor a try.
Moving on to the chemistry.
Water chemistry is maintained two ways, through 2-part calcium and alkalinity additives and
water changes.
The two part is added in via dosing pumps controlled by an Apex controller.
Nathan tests his water once a week to make sure those levels stay consistent.
Consistency of water chemistry is paramount.
Sometimes people fixate on specific numbers such as 420 calcium or 10 dkh, but in reality
as long as your water chemistry is in the range of natural salt water, you are good
provided that it remains consistent.
Maintaining that consistency is really the challenge here.
Let’s be honest, most people in the hobby don’t test their water that often to even
know whether their parameters are changing or not.
I know people are going to ask anyway so the parameters in this tank are calcium 410, alkalinity
8.2 to 8.8, magnesium 1300, specific gravity 1.024, and nitrates around 2 parts per million.
What tends to help with consistency is water changes!
One really cool thing Nathan set up in this build is a continuous water change system.
It is essentially two spectra pure liter meter dosing pumps that work in tandem to perform
the water change.
Multiple times a day, one pump extracts a small amount of water while the second pump
refills the same quantity from a large 55-gallon container of pre-made salt water.
If I recall correctly, it does 7 gallons a day.
Ok, that pretty much all I have to say on this tank.
I think it’s spectacular and Nathan did a great job with it.
I hope you enjoyed the video.
If you have any questions about it post it in the comments below.
Bye guys!