I've been 'keeping' corals for around 25 years now (though the early years were more about killing coral than anything else) and I've come up with a farming system that works great for my sps. I wanted to share my system and the thought process that created it with the club and encourage others to think analytically about their farming systems. I also want everyone to feel totally free to copy exactly what I'm doing or adapt any parts of my system for their own use. I strongly believe that we all benefit from a free exchange of information and techniques. Also, as you'll see throughout this post, I'm seeking the lowest impact, cheapest method of achieving the goals. That's just how I am.
I believe that culturing or farming anything is about removing the growth limiting factors and letting the animal or plant do the rest. So what are the 'enemies' of sps in captivity?
Inappropriate (inconsistent) lighting/ flow/ water chemistry/ food. These are the basics of sps reefing and frankly, I believe that a well thought out approach and a system designed to meet these needs can guarantee success for anyone wanting to grow these corals. Let's take them one at a time and I'll walk you through how these priorities dictated my design.
Lighting: I have a bit of background in theater lighting and one thing I learned is that the quality of the reflector used has a huge impact on the amount of light delivered. Bulbs aren't cheap and neither is electricity (even if you get it 'free' like I do, the planet is still paying for its use) so it only makes sense to use the most efficient lighting gear possible. I personally like MH lighting and for the last decade or so I've favored the Lumenarc L-3 reflector. It's highly efficient, has great spread, and is made locally by Pacific Garden Supply in San Rafael. Appropriate lighting also refers to the actual amount of light (wattage) that you're hitting the corals with. Needless to say, different corals come from different depths and require different levels of lighting. Personally I run a 175w on one side of my tank and a 250w on the other so I can choose from as many different light levels as possible. And I replace my bulbs every 9-10 months because if I wait longer I see a definite change in coral growth and color.
Flow: This is a biggie. The flow that a reefcrest acro wants would rip most LPS right out of their skeletons. The flow that a blasto wants wouldn't strip the mucous off an acro post feeding and it would smother. Sure there probably is a 'compromise' but then that's not ideal for either coral. I have to say that until I had personally experienced the way water flows on a reef, I didn't understand the level of water movement involved. Currently I have an Eheim 1250 ( or was it a 1202, can't remember)as a return from my sump and I have 2 K-7's (3100 gph) and 2 K-5's (1900 gph) for circulation in my 165 gal tank(72"x24"x20"). This provides adequate flow but in all honesty, it still doesn't approach what I experienced in Tonga. Another aspect that people forget is that flow in the main water column is quickly lost once that water hits a rough surface. Live rock, sand and especially acros themselves are all great at breaking up and slowing down currents in the water and actually this is just what those branching acro skeletons have evolved to do. My answer to this problem has been to make everything as smooth and round as possible for my culture system. I only use clear acrylic for racks and all eggrate is permanently banned from being used as racks. And because the average frag plugs used are very unfriendly to flow, I grow corals on 3/16" diam acrylic rods. Also, this allows me to keep the corals away from the racks which has 3 distinct benefits. First, it gets the growing coral up into higher flow zones away from the surface of the rack. Second, it keeps the coral from creating a slow flow zone on the rack around the base which can allow detritus to build up and piss off the coral. And last, it keeps the flat part of the rack open for the snails to get in between the frags and do my cleaning for me!
Water Chemistry/ Quality: Let's be honest, a closed system can never maintain the same quality of water that a wild reef gets. There's nothing like 2, 100% water changes a day (tides) to maintain water quality so we do the best we can in captivity. I personally do a 20% water change (that's 20% of estimated total system volume, not just the display tank) weekly and some weeks I throw an extra one in just because. I run a skimmer designed for a 300 gallon system on my system (roughly 200 gallons) and I keep carbon around just in case.
Food: Ok, just look at an sps for a second. Every polyp is a mouth. Those structures are there for a reason. Can you raise most sps on light alone? Probably but why ignore the obvious? I've tried many, many different plankton foods and the 2 I like best are rotifers and Cyclopeeze. I feed about a 1/2 tsp of freeze dried Cyclopeeze every other night and that's in addition to the daily feeding of seaweed and frozen brine. If I had my choice (and I soon will!) I'd feed primarily live rotifers as this got the absolute best growth rates I've ever seen in my corals. A good alternative would be one of the preseved rotifer products like the stuff by Reef Nutrition.
I'll put some pics up now but would love to hear peoples thoughts cause everything I do is a work in progress. Thx-Jim
I believe that culturing or farming anything is about removing the growth limiting factors and letting the animal or plant do the rest. So what are the 'enemies' of sps in captivity?
Inappropriate (inconsistent) lighting/ flow/ water chemistry/ food. These are the basics of sps reefing and frankly, I believe that a well thought out approach and a system designed to meet these needs can guarantee success for anyone wanting to grow these corals. Let's take them one at a time and I'll walk you through how these priorities dictated my design.
Lighting: I have a bit of background in theater lighting and one thing I learned is that the quality of the reflector used has a huge impact on the amount of light delivered. Bulbs aren't cheap and neither is electricity (even if you get it 'free' like I do, the planet is still paying for its use) so it only makes sense to use the most efficient lighting gear possible. I personally like MH lighting and for the last decade or so I've favored the Lumenarc L-3 reflector. It's highly efficient, has great spread, and is made locally by Pacific Garden Supply in San Rafael. Appropriate lighting also refers to the actual amount of light (wattage) that you're hitting the corals with. Needless to say, different corals come from different depths and require different levels of lighting. Personally I run a 175w on one side of my tank and a 250w on the other so I can choose from as many different light levels as possible. And I replace my bulbs every 9-10 months because if I wait longer I see a definite change in coral growth and color.
Flow: This is a biggie. The flow that a reefcrest acro wants would rip most LPS right out of their skeletons. The flow that a blasto wants wouldn't strip the mucous off an acro post feeding and it would smother. Sure there probably is a 'compromise' but then that's not ideal for either coral. I have to say that until I had personally experienced the way water flows on a reef, I didn't understand the level of water movement involved. Currently I have an Eheim 1250 ( or was it a 1202, can't remember)as a return from my sump and I have 2 K-7's (3100 gph) and 2 K-5's (1900 gph) for circulation in my 165 gal tank(72"x24"x20"). This provides adequate flow but in all honesty, it still doesn't approach what I experienced in Tonga. Another aspect that people forget is that flow in the main water column is quickly lost once that water hits a rough surface. Live rock, sand and especially acros themselves are all great at breaking up and slowing down currents in the water and actually this is just what those branching acro skeletons have evolved to do. My answer to this problem has been to make everything as smooth and round as possible for my culture system. I only use clear acrylic for racks and all eggrate is permanently banned from being used as racks. And because the average frag plugs used are very unfriendly to flow, I grow corals on 3/16" diam acrylic rods. Also, this allows me to keep the corals away from the racks which has 3 distinct benefits. First, it gets the growing coral up into higher flow zones away from the surface of the rack. Second, it keeps the coral from creating a slow flow zone on the rack around the base which can allow detritus to build up and piss off the coral. And last, it keeps the flat part of the rack open for the snails to get in between the frags and do my cleaning for me!
Water Chemistry/ Quality: Let's be honest, a closed system can never maintain the same quality of water that a wild reef gets. There's nothing like 2, 100% water changes a day (tides) to maintain water quality so we do the best we can in captivity. I personally do a 20% water change (that's 20% of estimated total system volume, not just the display tank) weekly and some weeks I throw an extra one in just because. I run a skimmer designed for a 300 gallon system on my system (roughly 200 gallons) and I keep carbon around just in case.
Food: Ok, just look at an sps for a second. Every polyp is a mouth. Those structures are there for a reason. Can you raise most sps on light alone? Probably but why ignore the obvious? I've tried many, many different plankton foods and the 2 I like best are rotifers and Cyclopeeze. I feed about a 1/2 tsp of freeze dried Cyclopeeze every other night and that's in addition to the daily feeding of seaweed and frozen brine. If I had my choice (and I soon will!) I'd feed primarily live rotifers as this got the absolute best growth rates I've ever seen in my corals. A good alternative would be one of the preseved rotifer products like the stuff by Reef Nutrition.
I'll put some pics up now but would love to hear peoples thoughts cause everything I do is a work in progress. Thx-Jim