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So about 3 months ago I decided to try out a new approach my brother has been working on with his 210.
First let me give you a break down of the tank then what exactly im doing.
150gallon tank
40 gallon refugium
40 watt UV sterilizer
Stock List:
Fish:
2 mated true perc
maroon clown
yellow tang
sailfin tang
kole tang
4 damsels
bi-color angel
coral beauty
3 scooter blennys
inverts:
purple lobster
coral banded shrimp
condy anemone
maxima clam
croecea clam
2 pencil urchins
blue linckia
orange linckia
30-40 assorted hermits
40-50 assorted snails
corals:
large mushroom colony
kenya tree
star astria
digitatus
green slimer
cup
devils hand
Now here was the plan:
I nottice i need to replace almost 2 gallons of evaporated water each week. (which sounds a bit high to me) but the top of the tank sits under 800 watts of 20,000K so i guess a lot of evap. is expected.
Any who i've got 340 lbs or live rock and the sump has enough macro-algea to fill a dump truck. I got tired of keeping to have to fill a bucket with RO and re-fill the sump.
I set up an auto-top off and aqua doser. high flow.
At first using this system seemed scary to me and i did lose a clown fish, however i don't believe it had anything to do with the tank. There was a small nitrate spike at week 6 however it was taken care of in about 3 days. I have tested water params every 3 days since this experiement has started. At first the water params at the point of what would have been my water change started to go a little bit off, i did nothing and they took care of themselves. my water quality has not gone off the mark in about a month now.
I will let you guys know when exactly my water params do take an actual turn. Also believe it or not there is alot less algae then i had first expected. the snails and urchins seem to be taking care of the algea issue. and the high flow seems to keep anything from really STICKING.
First let me give you a break down of the tank then what exactly im doing.
150gallon tank
40 gallon refugium
40 watt UV sterilizer
Stock List:
Fish:
2 mated true perc
maroon clown
yellow tang
sailfin tang
kole tang
4 damsels
bi-color angel
coral beauty
3 scooter blennys
inverts:
purple lobster
coral banded shrimp
condy anemone
maxima clam
croecea clam
2 pencil urchins
blue linckia
orange linckia
30-40 assorted hermits
40-50 assorted snails
corals:
large mushroom colony
kenya tree
star astria
digitatus
green slimer
cup
devils hand
Now here was the plan:
I nottice i need to replace almost 2 gallons of evaporated water each week. (which sounds a bit high to me) but the top of the tank sits under 800 watts of 20,000K so i guess a lot of evap. is expected.
Any who i've got 340 lbs or live rock and the sump has enough macro-algea to fill a dump truck. I got tired of keeping to have to fill a bucket with RO and re-fill the sump.
I set up an auto-top off and aqua doser. high flow.
At first using this system seemed scary to me and i did lose a clown fish, however i don't believe it had anything to do with the tank. There was a small nitrate spike at week 6 however it was taken care of in about 3 days. I have tested water params every 3 days since this experiement has started. At first the water params at the point of what would have been my water change started to go a little bit off, i did nothing and they took care of themselves. my water quality has not gone off the mark in about a month now.
I will let you guys know when exactly my water params do take an actual turn. Also believe it or not there is alot less algae then i had first expected. the snails and urchins seem to be taking care of the algea issue. and the high flow seems to keep anything from really STICKING.