37 gallon skimmerless reef at 1-1/2 years

[sneeyatch]

I guess a 37 is considered a nano seeing some posts about 40's and such, so I thought I would post some of my pics. It's been up and running for right around a year and a half - been skimmerless for almost the whole time (ran one for about 4 months).

full shot looking left
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/9494210-120017.jpg

full shot looking right
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/9494210-120016.jpg

left front
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/9494210-120003.jpg

right front
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/507/9494210-120002.jpg

[alexinfla]

That looks super nice, matured, natural...and all the other things I want my reef to be! ;0

[sunnysmom]

beautiful. Is that pulsing xenia in several places? How do you keep it from taking over your tank?

[sneeyatch]

thanks for the compliments! skimmerless is a tough way to go, but i enjoy the challenge. the xenia's only been in there since the end of july / august, and i've given away almost the same amount that's in there now.

[fakename]

I'm running a 37 gal setup as well......less mature than yours though. I'm wondering if you can tell us about the rest of the hardware you run, lights, flow etc., and about the skimmer free route.......what is your maintenance schedule like??
It's a beautiful tank and I'm sure we'd all love to hear more about it!

[sneeyatch]

sure thing

- my lighting consists of (2) coralife PC fixtures:
- the first one has (2) 65 watt bulbs - (1) 10,000 & (1) actinic
- the second has (1) 65 watt bulb - (1) 10,000
- flow is with (1) maxijet 1200 & (1) RIO 800 - both with Hydor flow rotators
- there is an Aquaclear 50 hang-on power filter that I use for mechanical filtration and running carbon
- approx 75 lbs live rock (Fiji & Carribean)
- approx 20 lbs crushed coral shallow bed
- i consider it to be heavily stocked with fish:
- (2) ocellaris clowns, (1) lawnmower blenny (1) 6 line wrasse
- corals and inverts:
- (3) BTA's
- (2) green Montipora Digitata
- (1) Montipora Capricornis
- (1) green Pavona
- (1) branching hammer
- (2) candy cane clusters
- (1) open brain (wesophyllia)
- (1) favia frag
- (1) Nepthea tree leather
- pom pom xenia all over the place
- tan and metallic green star polyps
- ricordea yuma
- various zoos and palythoa
- various mushrooms
- red & blue leg hermits
- all kinds of snails (mostly ceriths and nassarius)
- (1) peppermint shrimp
- (1) scarlet cleaner shrimp
- (1) emerald crab
- (1) flame scallop

my maintenance routine is pretty simple - i perform an 8 gallon water change weekly (about 22%) - since there is no cover, i clean the bottom of the light fixtures once every week or two. i just replaced the bulbs, which i do every 10 months. i change the carbon every two to three weeks due to no skimmer and heavily stocked tank. i feed once a day with frozen prime reef, and a small sheet of nori. no suppliments or additives to the water. no siphoning the crushed coral (the ceriths and nassarius snails take care of all that for me). algae does build up on the glass pretty quickly, but i scrape it off at night to allow the all of the LPS and others eat. there are no direct feedings to corals or anemones. they eat what the can catch.

ph is usually between 8.2 & 8.3
sg is always 1.025
temp varies between 77º & 80.5º
alk is "normal" (red sea test kit)
calcium varies between 420 & 435

i stopped testing for everything else. i pay attention to the way a lot of the corals react, and through experience watching and testing, i usually can figure out what's out of whack (usually po4).

Sorry for the long winded response - just wanted to get as much out there as i could.


:D

[Paladin]

Originally posted by sunnysmom
beautiful. Is that pulsing xenia in several places? How do you keep it from taking over your tank?
I have xenia like that in my nano, and it was quickly spreading, so I too had to take some out. But ever since I moved my rbta in the same area, the xenia have slowed down their propagation. Looks like the rbta keeps it in check.

[DDS4]

Perfect example of "less is more."

Great job.

[sneeyatch]

thank you all for the compliments!

i used to run a skimmer, but with the weekly water changes, and carbon, i was barely pulling skimmate. i figured what's the point? about 2 weeks after removing it, it appeared the corals started perking up more, and color became much more dramatic.

it hasn't been without it's difficulties and casualties, but so far, so good.

[ryantm]

nice, hope my tank looks that good after 1 1/2 years.