The Tap Water Reef Tank

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to "show off" a tank I have been maintaining for the last 6 months. It is one of those "how in the heck does this tank look like this" tanks, based on the system and maintenance. It's just been cleaned, and I took it with a phone camera, so excuse the quality of the image.

A quick run down of the system and inhabitants:

100 gallons
All WCs done with tap water and Instant Ocean salt. 10 gallons biweekly.
Top off with RO/DI water. About 2-3 gallons a week.
Ca/Alk supplied by B-Ionic, weekly doses of about a cup.
No refugium.
A single pump for water return and flow, a Rio something that does about 600 gph.
2 96W PC lights. One actinic one 10000K.
AquaC EV skimmer
No feeding besides flake for the fish.

The impressive parts:
The frogspawn on the left side of the photo has grown to its current size, about the size of a dinner plate, over the last 4 years from a single head.
Same with the bubble coral, just to the right of it.
The tank has a Linckia sp. star that has been there at least 3 years.
Obviously coralline algae grows just fine.
I might scrape the algae off the glass once a month, and it's usually coralline algae.

 

[Anonymous]

What are your tap water readings?
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[Sugar Magnolia]

Tap water reports http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html

Pretty amazing tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I just had a test on my tap water. 350 TDS. I highly doubt you could run a clean tank with my tap water.
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[Anonymous]

I just had a test on my tap water. 350 TDS. I highly doubt you could run a clean tank with my tap water.

I think you could use it just fine. Most the tds is calcium carbonate, magnesium, and plant food. the parts per billion of nasties like copper would be removed by plant life.

 

[Anonymous]

My tap water TDS is 550 on a good day. And it smells like farts. No way in heck it's going in my reef.

My parents used rain water for years and years and had a very lovely reef with it. They collected it from the roof, but got new shingles that had copper in them, so had to abandon that idea.

 

[Anonymous]

Rob_Reef_Keeper wrote:
I just had a test on my tap water. 350 TDS. I highly doubt you could run a clean tank with my tap water.



I think you could use it just fine. Most the tds is calcium carbonate, magnesium, and plant food. the parts per billion of nasties like copper would be removed by plant life.

Hence the words "Clean Tank"

Or should I rephrase - Green plantlife/algae free.
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[Anonymous]

Looking good, Matt!!

 

[Anonymous]

The tap water in my town has a TDS of about 500-600. I know a lot of that is calcium and carbonate (hence the coralline growth) but I know there is also arsenic, selenium, nitrate and phosphate.

There is a low fish load in the tank, and not a trace of macroalgae anywhere in the system. It boggles my mind how this tank looks as good as it does. My gut tells me the very regular water changes are helping.

I'm going to be tossing in a few SPS frags to see how they do. My guess is not too good, but we'll see.

 

[Anonymous]

Here is the water report from my town.

http://www.city.davis.ca.us/pw/water/WaterQuality.cfm

 

[Anonymous]

The tap water in my town has a TDS of about 500-600. I know a lot of that is calcium and carbonate (hence the coralline growth) but I know there is also arsenic, selenium, nitrate and phosphate.

There is a low fish load in the tank, and not a trace of macroalgae anywhere in the system. It boggles my mind how this tank looks as good as it does. My gut tells me the very regular water changes are helping.

I'm going to be tossing in a few SPS frags to see how they do. My guess is not too good, but we'll see.

I think you just had enough calcium carbonate to favor the corraline is all.

The corraline and other plant life is consuming the nutirents and the arsenic, copper and selenium as well. But the bad stuff is at the parts per billion level.

no magic no voodoo. just the way plant life works. Water changes slow but not prevent the buildups. Nutirents come more from the fish anyway. Heavier fish load then you just need more plant life. And the corraline may get behind and the green would show up. But right now the plant life is keeping up.

Just the way it works. All your tap is doing is reducing the need for dosing and increasing the plant life growth. Just like anywhere.

 

[Anonymous]

There's no "plant life" in the tank Bob, besides the coralline algae, and perhaps the zooxanthellae in the corals if you want to call that plant life. I somehow doubt the little bits of coralline and coral growth are exporting all that nutrient input. Especially since I'm not harvesting or removing coralline from the system.

The corraline and other plant life is consuming the nutirents and the arsenic, copper and selenium as well. But the bad stuff is at the parts per billion level.

Do you think it's possible those are being removed by the huge skimmer?

 

[Anonymous]

Of course matt.

And the nutrients being created by the bioload are being reduced by the skimmer export. But not all.

And some of the nasties may be in the skimmate as well. but not all.

but your experience is similiar to mine even with a different setup. After a few months, with macros, I did start getting a hard corraline algae build up. Same on the FW only a very light calcius algae. On the reef I do use oyster shells to help calcium but the same basic experiences.

So the skimmer may reduce nutrients but the effect would be just less plant growth. In your case allowing corraline to take care of the rest.

 

[Anonymous]

but your experience is similiar to mine even with a different setup. After a few months, with macros, I did start getting a hard corraline algae build up. Same on the FW only a very light calcius algae. On the reef I do use oyster shells to help calcium but the same basic experiences.

Bob - What do your "Plants", have to do with coraline?
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[Anonymous]

but your experience is similiar to mine even with a different setup. After a few months, with macros, I did start getting a hard corraline algae build up. Same on the FW only a very light calcius algae. On the reef I do use oyster shells to help calcium but the same basic experiences.

Bob - What do your "Plants", have to do with coraline?

My Fw plants have nothing to do with my saltwater corraline. but I do get a light hard algae that builds up to a thin layer that I scrape off every 6 months or so. So even with a different environment the same basic thing is happening.

In my 55g the increase in calcium did result in slow corraline growth. Just like with the Fw hard algaes. the increase in calcium came with I started using oyster shells as filter media with 5x water flow. And the nightly ph drop probably helped also. Plus not doing water changes also. That way the calcium carbonate can build up to where something like corraline starts consuming it. I also have a halimeda growing. And of course a couple sprigs of montipora digata.

 

[Len]

You think CaCO3 builds up in healthy reef tanks without external input?! I can't pump in enough Ca to keep up with the demand of my tank. "Sprigs" of M.digital quickly grow to basketball size colonies ... or at least they should.

 

[Anonymous]

or removing coralline from the system.

The corraline and other plant life is consuming the nutirents and the arsenic, copper and selenium as well. But the bad stuff is at the parts per billion level.

Do you think it's possible those are being removed by the huge skimmer?

It's possible that your Skimmer is removing copper, tin, zinc, etc. but I'm more inclined to believe it's being adsorbed onto rocks and substrate. If it's the skimmer then all is well, if my guess is correct then the system will have a slow buildup of problems over the next several years like short lived snails, slow growing corals and a general "failure to thrive" of the inverts.

 

[Anonymous]

In my 55g the increase in calcium did result in slow corraline growth.

You have never had any significant coralline growth so how can you say it was slowed by an increase in Calcium?

 

[Anonymous]

You think CaCO3 builds up in healthy reef tanks without external input?!

nope. which is why I don't do water changes, feed the fish, use tap water, and have 5x water flow through calcium carbonate. It just builds up to 400ppm ca then levels out. So I guess you are correct. Even with my external inputs the calcium does not build up. Not past 450ppm or so at least.

I can't pump in enough Ca to keep up with the demand of my tank. "Sprigs" of M.digital quickly grow to basketball size colonies ... or at least they should.

My system just takes what it needs. And things do grow. But I'll just bet you won't consider that healthy

But still fish and corals have lived in the tank for over two years.

 

[Len]

Surviving two years isn't anything noteworthy.

I can only judge by the evidence presented before me, but you are correct: I don't consider your tank healthy. If you can prove me photos demonstrating to the contrary, I am open to change my mind. Growth sequence photos would be a nice touch.