Reef Hobbyist Magazine Q2 2021

SECOND QUARTER 2021 I VOLUME 15

MACROALGAE TANKS

REEFERS DIVE: THE MED

WWC GRAFTED MONTI CAP LEVI'S DEEPWATER NPS REEF

FEATURES 6

REEFERS DIVE: THE MED Richard Aspinall is a gardener and freelance writer on subjects from travel to scuba diving. The Mediterranean is rarely listed as a world-class dive destination, but in this article, Richard shows that it’s all about knowing where to go.

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A SCUBA DIVER'S NANO NOOK Cory Campbell, aka SaltyTanks, is a scuba enthusiast from Southern California with 4 years of reefkeeping experience. Sometimes, divers’ reef tanks bring striking aesthetics into sharp focus. Join Cory on a tour of his inspired creation.

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CORAL SPOTLIGHT: GRAFTED MONTI CAP Juan Gabriel Grajales, owner of REEF3.0 in Mexico City, has specialized in growing SPS corals for almost 9 years. In this piece, Juan shares his secrets for success with this iconic coral and its incredible origin story.

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ON THE COVER

© 2021 Reef Hobbyist Magazine. All rights reserved.

ANNOUNCEMENTS •

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Cover image by author

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JAKARTA REEF Herry Ludywidjaja lives in Jakarta, Indonesia, has been a photography buff for 36 years, and has been keeping reef tanks for 8 years.

Herry believes nothing good comes if you rush, and this lovely reef is a testament to his patience.

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LEVI'S DEEPWATER REEF Levi Peterson is an 18-year-old hobbyist who is passionate about oddball marine life and currently resides in Constantine, MI. Nonphotosynthetic corals are colorful and unique but tricky to keep. Levi shares his NPS-dedicated reef and detailed knowledge on how to succeed with these beautiful corals.

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GUS'S PEACEKEEPER REEF Jason Wilson is originally from Melbourne, Australia, and has been working in Los Angeles for 12 years as a visual effects artist. Jason believes laziness and reefing do not coexist, and the great results of this approach are displayed here.

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MACROALGAE TANKS

Dennis (Tigahboy) is a macroalgae fanatic who has kept saltwater tanks since 2004 and currently resides in Seattle, WA. It may be surprising to many, but Dennis shows that keeping a marine planted tank can be just as rewarding (and colorful) as keeping a coral reef tank.

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SECOND QUARTER 2021 | Volume 15

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RICHARD ASPINALL

Reefers Dive:

THE MED F

or many travelers with scuba diving on their minds, the Mediterranean is not necessarily first on their list for a week of adventure. Culture, food, and history maybe, but diving in the Med is not as highly regarded across the world as I think it ought to be.

I’ve spent a lot of time on boats with people from the UK, Europe, and the US, and very few of them have ever had more than a handful of dives around the Mediterranean. Usually when they do, it is while they’ve been on a shore-based holiday and they’ve taken a day or two out for a quick immersion with a dive center just down the road from their hotel.

I’d suggest this means that the Med, within some diving communities, has been overlooked. Admittedly, there are some divers with more niche interests that make the Med their chief destination. The wrecks of Malta are a significant draw, for example, and challenging

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deep wrecks requiring specialist equipment and training, such as HMHS Britannic in the Aegean, attract deep-diving aficionados.

Obviously, those who live here know better, and I’m going to start with a region that for many French and Spanish divers is their favorite location, even if many of my fellow UK divers would struggle to find it on a map (yet could wax lyrical about sites thousands of miles away).

The Catalan region of Spain is historically fascinating, with its own language and culture. It also offers some of the finest diving in the northern Mediterranean. The most well-known dive spot is the Medes Islands, a collection of rocks a few miles off the shore of L’Estartit and its river valley.

Diving here is a very slick operation. Some of the boats even have a one-way system on deck to get people kitted up and in the

The Medes Islands give their name to a national park that covers much of the seabed and a series of wetlands surrounding an estuary.

water as quickly as possible and then back to shore for the next bunch. It’s very different from some of the laid-back diving on offer elsewhere. It needs to be, though; hundreds of dives are made here every day.

Underwater, the Medes are simply stunning. Here are some of the finest gorgonian growths I have ever seen. The rich, nutrient-laden waters from the estuary maintain a stunning ecosystem dominated

by Paramuricea clavata, a stunning chrome-yellow and red morph.

A bright dive light with a very wide beam is essential for this dive, as the water is somewhat murky, and without a light, gray is the overwhelming color. Fish life is exceptional, with large, almost tame groupers and scorpionfish liberally sprinkled around.

Moving slightly west and following the Catalan coast south and around the Costa Brava off Girona is a superb selection of shipwrecks. Again, diving here is excellent with professional guides and dive center owners, supported by a strong local association of dive centers. When I dived here, I was required to show a fitness certificate. If you don’t have one from your own doctor or a medical professional, a certificate can be organized in a local medical center for a reasonable fee.

While the wrecks here are not necessarily historically important, they are rich in life and represent a superb range of Mediterranean ecosystems in one handy location. Sunlit shallow decks are full of algae and small blennies, while deeper holds, companionways, and engine rooms are, in effect, caves and support shoals of Anthias anthias, normally seen deeper down.

More info: Association of diving centers in Costa Brava (submarinismocostabrava.com) Carry on south round the Spanish Coast and you’ll wash up in the Balearic Islands. The three largest and best known are Minorca, Majorca, and Ibiza, and all three are busy with holiday makers, so diving is easily had though not always that good. Many dive centers will cater to people having a so-called try dive on holiday, so venturing into deeper waters or those around offshore islands might not be possible.

For me, the best diving in the Balearics is located off Formentera, a small island to the south of the party island of Ibiza. The cleaner waters of Formentera are known for their seagrass meadows and represent some of the finest growths of Posidonia oceanica in the world. Sea grass is very important for its role in locking up carbon in its root masses, stabilizing sediment, and, of course, providing a nursery ground for many fish species.

Seagrass beds are, as you’d imagine, in the shallower waters where there’s sufficient sun to maintain these remarkable plants.

As they grow, their fleshy roots provide a complex habitat for sponges, tube worms, coralline algae, and countless other small organisms.

Over time, this all forms into reefs of marine peat rich in organic matter, some of which predates the last ice age. Studies taking core samples of sediment through these layers show trace levels of metals washed into the Med that can be dated to identify Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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developing technologies from the very first metal smelting to the rise of the Roman Empire.

In deeper waters, the soft limestone rock supports corallinealgae-rich reefs as colorful as any tropical ones, with sponges, gorgonians, and cup corals in great numbers. Octopuses, cardinalfish, and groupers are common in overhangs and the small caves you find in these limestone regions.

More info: Scuba Diving Formentera (formenteranatural.com) Heading due east for several hundred miles will, with luck, fetch you up on the westernmost coast of Sardinia. My favorite location is on the north of the island, where a series of small islands in the Maddalena Archipelago stretch into the Strait of Bonifacio, which divides Sardinia from the mainland.

Longstriped Blenny (Parablennius rouxi)

This rocky and dramatic region satisfies my love of macro photography, and after taking a few wide-angle shots, I realized the life here was best chronicled up close. Shallow areas were rich in Posidonia sp. once more. But between the boulders, I found countless small blennies and triplefins, even multiple seahorses. Among the dahlia anemones, you can find small commensal shrimps. This was also a fine spot to shoot some of the Med’s most attractive fish such as Coris julis, one of the most spectacular fish in the whole of the Mediterranean basin.

On deeper sites and where the currents run between the islands and rocky outcrops, gorgonia-rich habitats take over once more, and rich clarets and purples are the norm.

Or at least they ought to be. Every few years, the water temperatures rise too high during the warm season, and that elevated temperature reaches deeper. When this happens, the gorgonians die off, leaving their ghostly skeletons behind.

Anecdotal evidence suggests the gorgonians are still okay at depth—in the 50-meter range—but I can’t confirm this.

Long-snouted Seahorse (Hippocampus ramulosus). Seahorses are remarkably hard to find. This one took six of us over an hour to find, even though we knew roughly where it was, as it had been spotted the day before.

Flabellina affinis

Cratena peregrina

I did spend much of my time nagging the dive guide to find nudibranchs. These colorful bags of gloop can get underwater photographers very excited, and this region seemed rich with many of the more common species such as the violet Flabellina affinis and the very elegant Cratena peregrina that are easily found roaming the rocks looking to graze on hydrozoan polyps.

More info: Nautilus Dive Center (divesardegna.com) My favorite region in the Med would have to be the Greek islands, with perhaps a personal preference for the mainly calm waters of the Aegean. Diving in Greece is much easier than it once was. The authorities, understandably keen to protect their marine archaeology, limited diving considerably.

The new generation of dive centers that have sprung up in recent decades have replaced many of the older and very laid-back dive operations, where multiple strong coffees and cigarettes had to be consumed for what felt like hours before you ever got in the water. I kind of miss those days.

Anemones such as this Cribrinopsis crassa often host Periclimenes shrimps, this one likely P. aegylios.

Tripterygion melanurus minor

As you can imagine, shipwrecks around a nation with so many islands are quite common, but few locations in the world have diveable wrecks that date so far back. Just about every dive center will be able to take you to see a few amphorae from a broken-up vessel over a thousand years old, but the very best has to be the Peristera wreck close to Alonissos in the Sporades.

Sunk somewhere around the fifth century BCE, this ship contained an estimated 4,000 amphorae. Today, the wood has rotted away entirely, but the amphorae still rest in the position in which they were loaded into the hold.

The Cyclades are also great for marine life, and the national park around part of Alonissos recognizes their value. It was here that I enjoyed one of the very best dives I’ve ever had, which I think shows just what the Med can offer.

The guide and I decided to go for a deeper dive. We didn’t have any holiday divers with us, so we could push the envelope a little and head into the 40-meter range. Due to unusually strong winds,

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Sea fans at Alonissos

we headed for a site where no one, to his knowledge, had dived before, but fishermen suggested there were gorgonians.

Dropping into the autumn-warm waters revealed nothing new until we hit the top of a drop-off that disappeared into the gloom.

Naturally, that’s where we headed, and with dive lights blazing, the reef took our breath away. Shoals of anthias and bright red cardinals darted in and out of lace corals and yellow, white, and deep-purple gorgonians.

For once, I was entirely glad I had a wide-angle lens fitted and shot away. As we dropped further and the light faded, the gorgonians really started to impress, with purple and white dominating in the increasingly lush growths. It was the current, of course, feeding all these animals, and it was getting stronger as we descended.

The face of the drop-off was receiving nutrient-rich waters from the deep. We hit our bottom mark in the 40-odd-meter range, and sweeping our lights over the reef wall, we took in the splendor of a reef richer than many I’d seen in the tropics. Life from across the spectrum of marine invertebrates was everywhere, from Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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This image and the one below show one of the richest environments I’ve seen in the Med. The view is ruined a touch by discarded fishing gear. The shoals of anthias remind me of a shallow Red Sea reef crest.

nudibranchs to sea stars to hydroids. At this depth, though, dives don’t last long, and we had to ascend back to the shallows and the swaying Posidonia to clear our bodies of excess nitrogen before we could surface.

Back on the boat, I did what photographers should never do and cracked my camera’s waterproof housing on the boat deck while swapping my lens. I needed to shoot this location in macro too. I had to fly home soon, and this was to be my last dive.

As you can see, the site—I’m told it will be called Richard’s Wall—didn’t disappoint, and these are just a small selection of the shots I took. This truly was an excellent example of what Mediterranean diving could be.

On the plane home via Zakynthos (I like islands you can’t fly to directly; they have a little more character and are often quieter), I found myself wondering how many Mediterranean sites are as good as that wall. On many Greek islands, diving is still in its infancy, so few areas are fully explored, especially at depth. I think most holiday divers will enjoy a quick pootle round a rock to see an octopus or a moray eel, but sites like this may be far more common than anyone suspects.

The complex coastline of Greece and its culture, stretching back into prehistory, make it perhaps the best country to visit for diving, in my opinion. Greece seems to have it all, with harborside taverns completing the deal for me. If you’re thinking of a trip to the Mediterranean and diving is on your agenda, then you could do far worse than starting here.

More info: National Marine Park of Alonissos (alonissos.gr)

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CORY CAMPBELL

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A SCUBA DIVER’S NANO NOOK

rowing up beachside as a Southern California native, the ocean has fascinated me for as long as I can remember.

After high school (20 years ago), I indulged my underwater fascination and became PADI scuba certified on the reef-rich island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. I’ve been privileged since then to swim among magnificent coral seascapes in over a dozen countries around the world.

a 6-gallon JBJ all-in-one tank stocked to the brim with soft corals and a quintessential clownfish pair. I froze in my tracks, feeling a nostalgic euphoria, like somehow this place—this local fish store— had transported me to a remote reef nook somewhere far away in the tropics. I hunched over, pressed my face to the glass, and observed that glorious little aquarium for a long while with an earto-ear smile. I knew I needed a reef tank of my own.

I stumbled into the reefing hobby 4 years ago during a local fish store visit with my wife and daughter. At the store’s entrance stood

I started this build by conceptualizing the aquascape before I ever thought about specific tanks and equipment. My favorite reefscapes

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Little Star, the Sexy Shrimp

PJ, the Pajama Cardinal

in nature tend to have prominent vertical features like pinnacles, pillars, and bommie islands with contrasting highlights and shadows. It can be magical to swim low and look up at their textures and shapes dramatically displayed by the sun’s concentrated beams of light.

I envisioned an aquascape with two profound vertical structures composed next to each other in a way that evokes a feeling of anticipation and movement. This would be much like what Michelangelo created between the fingertips of God and Adam in his famous fresco, The Creation of Adam. There would be intentional separation between two distinct forms, a pillar and bonsai bommie, driven toward each other by an undeniable force.

This tank, which was established in July 2018 as my second tank, would need to be about 30–55 gallons, given my spatial living constraints. Innovative Marine’s NUVO Fusion 40 had ideal dimensions to give my vertical vision just the right amount of headroom and negative space. And to get the dramatic and directional light effect, I would need to commit to a concentrated light source, so I went with EcoTech’s single-puck Radion LED. Also, the single-puck-LED concept made sense from the standpoint of more reliably predicting coral growth paths and patterns.

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Blue-eyed Blondes with ruffled skirts

Scrambled Eggs (top) and Gobstoppers (bottom)

SPECIFICATIONS Display: Innovative Marine NUVO Fusion 40 (24" × 20" × 19") Lighting: EcoTech Radion XR15w G4 Return Pump: Innovative Marine MightyJet (538 gallons per hour) Circulation: IceCap 1K Gyre, (2) Innovative Marine Spin Stream nozzles Skimmer: AquaMaxx HOB 1.5 Auto Top Off: Tunze Osmolator 3155 Heater: ViaAqua 200-watt titanium, controlled by Inkbird ITC-308 Filtration: Innovative Marine Custom Caddy, filter floss, CerMedia MarinePure biofilter balls, Seachem PhosGuard, activated carbon Dosing: ATI Essentials Pro, manually Testing: Hanna Instruments Checkers (alkalinity, phosphate ultralow, salinity/temperature) I love all types of corals, fish, and livestock, so I don’t have preferential feelings toward certain types, other than the fact that the clownfish is my spirit animal. No joke, all of my memorable dives involve a charismatic clownfish, most notably, one I met while clinging to the seafloor of Fiji’s Beqa Lagoon. I was hyperventilating from the sight of big bull sharks feeding on tuna fish heads just over my head, when a little clownfish swam up within a foot of my face mask. It paused long enough for me to forget about the sharks shredding heads and then suddenly darted at me. It attacked my face! The irony forced a deep underwater chuckle out of me, and now clownfish will forever be part of my reefkeeping interests.

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Nemo and Merlyn with Detlef the cleaner shrimp

FISH & INVERTEBRATES

SMALL-POLYP STONY CORALS

- Ocellaris Clownfish pair “Nemo” and “Merlyn” - Yellowtail Damsel “Cupcake” - Pajama Cardinalfish “PJ” - cleaner shrimp “Detlef” - Sexy Shrimp “Little Star” - Trochus sp., Nassarius sp., Cerithidium sp., - bristleworms

- Red Dragon Acropora - green Staghorn Acropora - Kung Pao Montipora - orange Pavona maldivensis - Bubblegum Montipora - purple Stylophora sp.

- green Birdsnest - red Montipora setosa - green Anacropora sp.

- purple/green Acropora sp.

SOFT CORALS - Japanese toadstool - zoanthids - Palythoa spp.

- clove polyps - gorgonian

The beauty of a 40-gallon all-in-one tank is that water changes are simply one 5-gallon bucket, and I can do most of my maintenance while keeping my eyes on the main display. With the tank in the center of the living room, I can carry out maintenance with my family gathered round.

LARGE-POLYP STONY CORALS MAINTENANCE - Duncan - Pagoda Cup - golden Leptastrea - golden Psammocora - JF Outer Space Psammocora - JF Raja Rampage Chalice - Space Invader Pectinia - Blastomussa merleti - Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris - Meteor Shower Cyphastrea - purple/green branching Hammer - browned-out Favia sp.

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Feeding: (daily) frozen Hikari mysis and spirulina brine shrimp, Reef Nutrition Phyto-Feast and Oyster Feast, Brightwell CoralAmino; (weekly) Polyp Lab Reef-Roids Dosing: (twice daily) manual dosing ATI Essentials Pro 2-part Cleaning: (approximately every 3 days) scrape display glass and acrylic backdrop, turkey baste sandbed and aquascape, clean skimmer cup, replace filter floss; (every 3–6 months) deep clean pumps and probes Aquascaping: (as needed) frag and move corals to avoid corals touching or shading each other Water Changes: (weekly) 5 gallons using Red Sea Coral Pro

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Jack-O-Lantern Leptoseris

Testing: (once or twice weekly) salinity, temperature, alkalinity, phosphate I only test these four parameters, as I believe they are the most critical. Since I perform weekly water changes and dose ATI Essentials Pro, I have appropriate ratios of major and trace elements. I trust that the other untested parameters are where they should be as long as I can maintain stability for these four benchmark parameters and the tank looks happy, though I should do an ICP analysis.

WATER PARAMETERS Specific Gravity: 1.025–1.026 Temperature: 79° F

Alkalinity: 8.0–8.4 dKH Phosphate: 0.04–0.08 ppm

The greatest challenge with this tank has always been PAR issues and shading in a vertically oriented scape with a single-puck LED system. I intentionally designed this build to promote the aesthetic of shadows, but I believe the majority of corals would prefer growing in a more broadly lit environment.

On the bright side (pun intended), I plan to eventually smother this tank with a canopy of lighting from all directions as a fun way to try something new and see how this tank will change. R See more of this tank at Nano-Reef.com (SaltyTanks) and on Instagram (SaltyTanks_).

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CORAL SPOTLIGHT:

GRAFTED MONTI CAP JUAN GABRIEL GRAJALES 22

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bout 5 years ago, a friend of mine bought several frags from a store in Florida called World Wide Corals. After a few weeks of planning and several customs procedures, the pieces arrived here in Mexico.

My friend asked me if he could keep the frags in my aquarium temporarily since his aquarium was not in a condition to receive them, so I took the corals and kept them in my aquarium for several weeks.

Among the frags that arrived was the famous WWC OG Grafted Montipora Cap. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with the striking red-green combination. I told my friend that I had to keep the coral, so he proposed cutting it in half so that we could each have a frag.

After several months, it really started to grow, and it never stopped growing. A year passed, and the frag became a colony the size of the palm of my hand. I eventually decided to sell it due to a lack of space but not before fragging a piece to keep. I continued to grow that frag, and to this day, the grafted Montipora Cap has tripled its size again and is beautiful.

This coral likes moderate current and a light intensity of about 200 PAR. It consumes a lot of alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. Below are my tank parameters that allowed the coral to flourish: Salinity: 35 ppt Alkalinity: 7–8 dKH

Calcium: 380–450 ppm Magnesium: 1,250–1,350 ppm

Broadcast feeding was done three times per week with Aquaforest ABEV and Polyp Lab Reef-Roids.

Given my love for this coral, I was especially happy to learn its origin story from World Wide Corals: “World Wide Corals received some fragments way back in 2011 of a standard red Montipora Cap from the 12,000-gallon reef tank in the Manta ride area at SeaWorld. After receiving the corals, Victor (one of the owners of WWC) noticed that one of the fragments had a small spot of green in it. He cut away the red on one side of the fragment to expose the green spot to an edge so that it could grow outward. The green spot of color was technically trapped by all the red. It is theorized that the Montipora became infected with some fluorescent protein from a Pocillopora that had been spawning in the SeaWorld reef. Exposing the green allowed it to grow more rapidly, and we were eventually able to isolate the green from the red once it reached the size of a small colony. WWC then fragmented the green and red cap in equal parts and glued them all back together like a checkerboard. The colors then began to grow side by side and even marbled into each other. It took a couple of years, but WWC was able to produce fragments of this Montipora in good numbers.” - WWC R Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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DENNIS (TIGAHBOY)

A New Trend in Reefkeeping:

MACROALGAE TANKS

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acroalgae has largely served a utilitarian role in saltwater aquariums, oftentimes tucked away out of sight, in the aquarium stand or filtration chamber behind the tank. It might be hidden in a refugium or algae reactor/scrubber, purely to serve as filtration for a main display tank filled with coral and fish. And even in those cases, the macroalgae utilized for such purposes have largely been limited to Chaetomorpha species, hair algae, or turf algae, none of which are particularly visually appealing.

also struggled to compete or gain any material traction among saltwater hobbyists as a whole. Given the general lack of interest in keeping macroalgae, there is also very little incentive for local fish stores to source, grow, and sell macroalgae. For those hobbyists

For many aquarists, macroalgae are also largely viewed as pests to be avoided at all costs. Valonia (bubble algae) is one example of a macroalgae genus that is a scourge for many reef hobbyists.

People go to great lengths to remove them from their display tanks or avoid them altogether by starting off a tank with dry rock. Other macroalgae, such as Caulerpa species, have also been highly stigmatized over the years due to fears that they will go sexual—the sudden release of spores en masse in response to some deficiency in its environment (more on that later).

In a hobby filled with an amazing diversity of colorful, exotic corals with a virtually unlimited number of trendy names, macroalgae has

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A Masked Goby (Coryphopterus personatus) in my first macroalgae tank

Blue Scroll, Laurencia iridescens, Rhipocephalus phoenix, Galaxaura sp., and branching coralline

Gracilaria hayi and a Yellow Sea Whip

who have been keeping macroalgae over the years, many resorted to sourcing them from the refugium section of local fish stores or receiving them as hitchhikers on their live rock.

Macroalgae has never experienced mainstream appeal or attention in this hobby, but that is about to change.

While the proposition that macroalgae alone could make a display-worthy aquarium is probably still unimaginable to many, there are a small but growing number of aquarists who are starting to give macroalgae their long-deserved time to shine. This has been fueled by hobbyists on social media who have grown to appreciate macroalgae as a unique alternative to traditional coral-dominant aquariums. Macroalgae display tanks, or marine planted tanks, are starting to find their place in this hobby as an emerging subcategory of saltwater aquariums. The growth in this niche of the hobby is also attributed to freshwater plantedtank hobbyists who have jumped into the salty side of the hobby and keep macroalgae because they prefer the look of marine planted tanks over traditional reef tanks.

A macroalgae display tank is a fairly recent concept for me as well. I started keeping coral reef tanks back in 2004 and have kept all types of corals and reef inhabitants over the years. But my experience with macroalgae was limited to Chaetomorpha species, and I too Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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Macroalgae can provide a comfortable environment for saltwater fish.

One of the three species of Botryocladia that I have in my macroalgae tanks

avoided Caulerpa species and other macroalgae at all costs. I even cured my live rock in complete darkness over an extended period of time before adding it to my tank.

But I have always been drawn to freshwater planted tanks and their unique aesthetics. Freshwater hobbyists have done an amazing job of creating stunning works of art with hardscape elements and aquatic plants. I wanted to create that same aesthetic and look but with macroalgae in a saltwater aquarium.

Over the past year, I have set up several macroalgae tanks, each with its own unique look and feel. My first macroalgae display tank was a 9-gallon all-in-one tank (UNS 45A), which is still running. The tank was established with maricultured live rock from Florida and includes mostly red macroalgae (Gracilaria hayi). In this tank, I also have Caulerpa prolifera to add a nice green element and a carpet of blue Hypnea pannosa. This tank was a proof of concept for me that I could keep macroalgae as the primary inhabitants of a tank without the need to focus on coral. From there, I went on to set up a 1-gallon pico (UNS 16C) with just carpeting Halimeda opuntia, a 10-gallon lagoon-style tank (UNS 60S) with 20 different species of macroalgae, and my most recent 5-gallon tank (UNS 5N) with 15 different species. I also set up a grow-out tank for the trimmings from my various macroalgae display tanks.

When I first started researching how to keep macroalgae, I realized how little information was out there on macroalgae husbandry. You can find an unlimited number of resources about keeping saltwater fish or corals online and in print publications, but information on

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keeping macroalgae is very scarce. I have read most of what little macroalgae care information is available online, but I have largely informed my own macroalgae-keeping practices by chatting with other macroalgae keepers and, of course, my own trial and error.

My recommendation for lighting a macroalgae tank is to use full-spectrum (6,500 K) lighting, which is what I use for all my macroalgae tanks. This type of lighting is used more regularly in freshwater planted tanks, so there are more lighting options to choose from on the freshwater side of the hobby. But in reality, macroalgae can handle a wide variety of lighting, and some, such as Dragon’s Breath, look even better under actinics. Just note, some red macroalgae will actually look better with less lighting intensity. Filtration is another area where macroalgae-dominant tanks differ from traditional reef tanks, in that less is oftentimes more. Unlike in coral reef tanks, protein skimmers, additional refugiums/ algae scrubbers, and phosphate removers are unnecessary and will only deplete the tank of nutrients that macroalgae need to thrive.

My most recent 5-gallon macroalgae tank with over a dozen species of macroalgae

I rely heavily on biological filtration from my live rock and biomedia for all my macroalgae tanks.

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Sargassum sp. with air bladders that provide buoyancy

Caulerpa paspaloides (Palm Tree Caulerpa)

I typically run a filter with only filter floss for mechanical filtration as well. Of course, you will need a heater to keep the temperature stable and a wave maker/powerhead of your choice for circulation, just like any other reef tank. But compared to traditional reef tanks, the equipment list for a macroalgae tank is comparatively simple.

In addition, while macroalgae are not technically plants, they still have similar needs in terms of nutrient demands and will even utilize bicarbonate in salt water as a carbon source for photosynthesis.

The nutrients macroalgae require to thrive are nitrates, phosphates, iodine, iron, potassium, and other trace elements. For calcified macroalgae, such as Halimeda species, calcium will be used to a greater extent, so it will be important to dose calcium for those types of macroalgae. While some will recommend using tap water or overfeeding fish in the tank to satisfy nutrient demands, I dose nitrates, phosphates, and fertilizer daily to ensure that my macroalgae have sufficient nutrients to thrive. I specifically use Brightwell Aquatics NeoNitro (nitrates), NeoPhos (phosphates), and ChaetoGro (other trace elements such as iron and potassium, among others). Weekly water changes also help to ensure that other minor elements not found in my dosing solutions are replenished. I dose calcium daily for my calcified macroalgae.

Keeping up with macroalgae’s nutrient demands is probably the most overlooked aspect of keeping macroalgae. Whatever method you use, I strongly recommend regular testing to ensure that you

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Full-spectrum lighting not only benefits macroalgae growth but highlights their vivid colors.

Blue Hypnea pannosa

have at least detectable levels of nitrates and phosphates in your tank (and of course adjust dosing as necessary to maintain those levels). Testing for other elements such as iron and iodine would also be beneficial to ensure a thriving macroalgae tank.

Another difference from keeping a more traditional coral reef tank is the need to frequently and regularly trim your marine plants.

Macroalgae grow much faster than corals and require constant pruning to prevent them from taking over the tank. Overgrown macroalgae will also impede circulation in the tank and consume more nutrients as they grow, and increased consumption of nutrients without the appropriate upward adjustment of nutrient dosing may cause macroalgae to go sexual.

Macroalgae going sexual is probably the most feared aspect of keeping macroalgae for many reef hobbyists. While Caulerpa species are the most likely to go sexual, all macroalgae are capable of doing it. This is a survival mechanism in response to insufficient nutrients, lighting, or other deficiencies in their habitat, where the macroalgae release all of their spores in hopes of regrowing elsewhere. The main issue with macroalgae going sexual is that such an event results in the sudden release of all of the nutrients and whatever other impurities the macro removed from the water, which will result in a nutrient spike. There will also be an increase in respiration, which will result in fluctuations in carbon dioxide and Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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Regular and frequent trimming is necessary when maintaining a macroalgae display (my second macroalgae tank shown here).

pH. However, I do not think such an occurrence is as catastrophic as many believe, and it can be mitigated by doing the following as soon as it happens: remove all translucent/dying macroalgae, do a big water change (the more you can manage, the better), and then run activated carbon for at least 24 hours. As long as you act fast, much of the detrimental effect of such an event can be minimized.

My final pitch for a macroalgae display tank is sustainability. Given the fast growth of macroalgae and the ease with which they can be harvested from the wild (and ultimately aquacultured), I believe keeping macroalgae to be a more sustainable form of reefkeeping than a coral-dominated tank. Although collection and sale of macroalgae are very limited now, with an increased interest in

A Tanaka's Pygmy Wrasse (Wetmorella tanakai) in my macroalgae lagoon tank

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macroalgae displays, collecting and aquaculturing will become more commonplace. If done responsibly, macroalgae tanks could be a more ecologically friendly alternative to traditional reef tanks.

Moreover, we have really only scratched the surface with respect to the types of macroalgae available in the hobby. Macroalgae can be found in a variety of remarkable shapes and colors, with a full range of green, red, yellow, and even blue. It may be surprising to many, but keeping a marine planted tank can be just as rewarding (and colorful) as keeping a coral reef tank. Why not give this new form of reefkeeping a try?

If you have any questions about keeping macroalgae, please feel free to reach out to me via Instagram (tigahboy.h2o) or on Reef2Reef.com or Nano-Reef.com (Tigahboy). R

Macroalgae provides ideal cover for inverts (a pair of Sexy Shrimp shown here).

HERRY LUDYWIDJAJA

I

Jakarta Reef

started my first aquarium in 1985, and it was a freshwater tank.

I kept fresh water until 1992 and then had to pause when my family moved to another town. During that time, I had already developed an interest in saltwater fish because they looked so colorful. However, all I heard about keeping saltwater fish back then was that it was very challenging, hence I never had the courage to try. After a 20-year break from aquariums, in 2013, I decided to finally start a saltwater tank. My first saltwater tank was a 15-gallon large-polyp stony (LPS) coral tank with a canister filter. In 2014, the tank was upgraded to a 250-gallon tank. I considered it a bold move, jumping from a nano to a big tank. However, I believe the bigger the tank, the easier it is to maintain stable water parameters.

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SPECIFICATIONS Tank: 60" × 24" × 27" Sump: 48" × 20" × 20" Skimmer: Super Reef Octopus SRO 3000 Return Pump: EcoTech Vectra L1 Wave Maker: (2) Neptune WAV, Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105, Reef Octopus Octo Pulse 4 Biomedia: Seachem Matrix Calcium Reactor: Vertex RX6D with crushed coral media and Two Little Fishies ReMag Chiller: 1 hp

Acropora hyacinthus

Lighting: Aquatic Life hybrid fixture with (4) 54-watt T5s ((2) Blue Plus and (2) actinic bulbs), (2) EcoTech Radion XR30 Pro G4, EcoTech Radion XR15 Pro G4 WATER PARAMETERS Specific Gravity: 1.025 Water Temperature: 75–79° F Nitrate: 2–5 ppm Phosphate: 0.03–0.06 ppm

Calcium: 350 ppm Alkalinity: 7 dKH Magnesium: 1,300 ppm Potassium: 420 ppm

MAINTENANCE Daily: vinegar carbon dosing (20 mL) Monthly: 10–20 percent water change with Aquaforest Reef Salt Quarterly: clean return pump, wave maker, and skimmer pump using citric acid FEEDING - Aquaforest Amino Mix and Vitality every other day, Build and Energy on the other days - liquid rotifers every 3 days - live phytoplankton every 3 days - live rotifers weekly - fish are fed nori, pellets, and frozen food 2–3 times daily and live brine shrimp occasionally Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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Synchiropus stellatus

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Acropora suharsonoi (Acanthurus xanthopterus) Yellowfin Surgeonfish

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Acropora valida

FISH - Hippo Tang (aberrant) - Yellow Belly Hippo Tang - Purple Tang - Achilles Tang - Powder Blue Tang - Blotched Anthias

- Bimaculatus Anthias - Moorish Idol - Emperor Angel (juvenile) - Bellus Angel (male) - Green Chromis - Yellowtail Chromis

CORALS - Acropora millepora - A. tenuis - A. valida - A. formosa - A. natalensis - A. hyacinthus - A. microclados - A. subglabra - A. jacquelineae - A. suharsonoi

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- A. efflorescens - Montipora capricornis - M. digitata - M. setosa - Anacropora sp.

- Goniopora spp.

- Bernardpora sp.

- Plerogyra sinuosa - Euphyllia sp.

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In 2015, I learned a valuable lesson the hard way. I didn’t quarantine new fish at the time, so I got velvet. It wiped out all my fish in 3 days.

Since then, I do strict quarantine for all new fish for at least 6 weeks.

For me, the biggest challenge of keeping a reef tank is being patient.

I learned nothing good comes if you rush. Also, it’s important to keep your hands out of the water, especially in a newly set-up tank.

My future plan is to tear down the 250-gallon tank and replace it with a 48" × 35" × 20" peninsula tank. A peninsula tank has been on my wish list for quite a long time. Having a tank with a height greater than 20 inches makes it difficult to reach the bottom of the tank during regular maintenance. I’ve learned that when you keep everything simple, you’ll be more interested in doing regular maintenance and less time is required.

To have a successful saltwater tank, you need to have knowledge of water chemistry, know how to develop a mature filtration system, and keep everything as simple as possible. That’s my favorite part of this hobby: the endless challenges involved in simply keeping the tank healthy. R

Achilles Tang

Aberrant Hippo Tang

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LEVI PETERSON

L E V I’ S DEEPWATER R EE F M

y passion for aquatic animals started at a very early age. My family always had an aquarium in the house ever since I was born. For the most part, they kept fairly simple freshwater aquariums with a variety of fish and some plants. The whole family enjoyed them, but I personally became very interested and asked for a larger tank for myself a few years back. I am 18 years old now, and I have grown from one freshwater tank to a total of nine aquariums in the house. Most of them are saltwater aquariums, and my favorite aquarium is most definitely my non-photosynthetic (NPS) reef.

MY NPS REEF I have always enjoyed keeping oddball corals and fish in my aquariums since I started keeping saltwater creatures a couple years back. But my first NPS coral was purchased at Reef-APalooza Chicago in 2019. That first NPS coral was a Diodogorgia nodulifera, which is more commonly known as a Red Sea Rod. After I realized how challenging that coral was to keep (compared to my other corals), I decided to set up a 29-gallon, NPS-dedicated

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aquarium. I enjoyed keeping NPS corals so much that I continued to acquire more, and I quickly ran out of room in that tank. I then reset my 75-gallon tank and turned it into a full-blown deep-water NPS reef. This tank has been up and running for just over a year now.

NPS CORAL CARE Caring for all these corals and meeting all their needs can be quite challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. I am blessed to have many avenues of help as I continue my journey through the world of NPS corals. Reef Nutrition is one of my sponsors, and they help me out tremendously by providing a lot of the food that these corals need. I am also privileged to have some good chats with the one and only Julian Sprung, and he helps me with the identification of certain species in my aquarium that are not so common. I also get a lot of tips from a good friend and supporter, Chris Meckley, who runs ACI Aquaculture out of Plant City, Florida. He has guided me and helped me on numerous occasions when I had questions or concerns.

Menella sp.

The corals in this tank eat a wide variety of different foods. I feed Reef Nutrition’s Roti-Feast, Oyster Feast, Phyto-Feast, R.O.E., Beta Brine, Mysis Feast, and various sizes of TDO Chroma Boost. Most of the soft corals, including the Dendronephthya sp., Scleronephthya sp., and Chili Corals, all enjoy Roti-Feast, Oyster Feast, and Phyto-Feast. Most of my gorgonians enjoy the same foods except for the larger-polyp gorgonians that also enjoy the smaller pellets of TDO and R.O.E. I recommend broadcast feeding for all the softies, octocorals, black corals, and hydrocorals. When it comes to the large-polyp NPS corals like Tubastraea species, I prefer to target feed Beta Brine and Mysis Feast, as well as TDO pellets.

OTHER FACTORS Attention to feeding is not the only consideration for helping NPS corals thrive in an aquarium. Careful placement of the different corals throughout the tank and pristine water parameters are both key factors in successful NPS keeping. When I receive or purchase a new NPS coral, I always like to know where in the wild it came from, and I usually use Google to see where and how it might have grown. My tank gets weekly water changes to help keep the parameters stable, and I also keep carbon in the sump and use media from Orca Aquacultural Laboratories. Their media has played a significant role in keeping my water parameters in line despite heavy daily feedings. My NPS tank parameters are relatively stable, with nitrates at 10 ppm, phosphates at 0.05–0.10 ppm, nitrites at 0 ppm, Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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Left side of the tank

ammonia at 0 ppm, and pH at 8.3. Maintaining ideal parameters in an NPS tank plays a huge factor in keeping these corals alive, healthy, and thriving.

LIGHTING With NPS tanks, lighting is a significant consideration. Most NPS corals are found in places with little to no light penetration, and these corals are easily smothered by nuisance algae. This is often a big obstacle to many reefers who have attempted an NPS tank. I use two LED box lights and have them on the lowest setting when I am viewing the tank or taking pictures. Other than that, the lights are only on for a couple of hours per day. That being the case, the tank’s pH can drop considerably since no algae or corals are photosynthesizing in the aquarium. My answer to this was to set up an LED light over my sump that generally stays on 24/7. Growing macroalgae in a refugium can help tremendously in keeping the pH from fluctuating.

RISKS Receiving NPS corals can also come with risks. Just about all NPS corals are collected from the wild. Because of this, they may have parasites, bacteria, or other unwanted hitchhikers that could potentially wipe out your tank. Dipping is a must when adding new NPS corals—or any coral, for that matter—to a tank. I first use Julian Sprung’s ReVive. Over the next few days, if the coral is not opening, I use a number of other dips to help kill off any unwanted pest or bacteria that may have made it past the first dip.

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Cirrhipathes sp.

Acalycigorgia sp.

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Polycarpa sp.

Tubastraea sp.

Cirrhipathes sp.

Scleronephthya sp.

MY CURRENT SCAPE AND SETUP My current NPS setup features a two-island aquascape. The reason I did two islands instead of one is to allow for a consistent flow throughout the tank and prevent dead spots. Furthermore, I think it is important to blend the rockwork to make it all look like one solid structure as it would be in the ocean. Some of my current gorgonians extend out and occupy a lot of the upper water column, making it easy for me to use the rest of the rockwork to mount softies and other NPS corals that will not grow as tall or as fast as my large gorgonians. I also scaped the islands with lots of caves and a few crevices to help create upwelling currents in certain areas, allowing some of the soft corals to be mounted horizontally in the water column.

NPS CORALS FOR BEGINNERS When starting up an NPS system, there are a couple of corals I would recommend. I do not, however, recommend starting an NPS system as your first reef or saltwater tank due to its special requirements and difficult nature. The first coral I would recommend for a beginner in the NPS world is some species of Tubastraea.

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They are relatively hardy and eat larger foods like brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and certain pellets.

Another coral I would recommend for your first or second NPS coral is a Chili Coral. Chili Corals are one of the easiest NPS softies to keep in captivity. I have been blessed to have them spawn in my aquarium. They have relatively large polyps but still enjoy some smaller-particle foods, including rotifers, copepods, and phytoplankton.

The third coral I would recommend adding after you’ve kept a couple NPS corals for a while would be some species of a largepolyp NPS gorgonian. The reason I say large-polyp gorgonians is simply because they are easier to feed since they enjoy food particles that are a bit larger, like many species of zooplankton and phytoplankton. Sadly, many NPS-coral diets are still unknown, so keeping those NPS corals is always a risk.

Another thing to remember when purchasing an NPS coral is to make sure that it is a heathy specimen. There are many factors that go into making sure the specimen you are purchasing is healthy. It should exhibit open polyps, show no obvious discolored “bruises,”

Right side of the tank

and have no rips or tears. Examine it carefully and thoroughly before purchase.

MY FAVORITE NPS CORALS Many people ask me what my favorite NPS corals are. I like all my corals, but I have a couple that I like a bit more than the rest.

My favorite corals I currently keep are Distichopora species. I have a blue one and a bright orange one. These two are my favorite simply because they are some of the hardest organisms to keep alive in captivity. So far, I have noticed that my orange colony has grown almost a half inch since I first added it to my tank. My second favorite would be my carnation corals. I have a few different species, including Dendronephthya species. I love my carnation corals because of their bright colors. Carnation corals can come in practically every color of the rainbow. My third favorite is my Stereotelesto corallina. I collected this specimen myself, and for the longest time, I could not identify it. Thanks to Julian Sprung, we figured out what species it is.

reefers take on small-polyp stony (SPS) corals when they are looking for a challenge, but I chose the not-so-common route. Although I feel that my journey has just begun in the world of NPS corals, I have learned so much along the way. Every single day, there is something new I see or hear about, whether it’s noticing that my coral spawned or finding an NPS coral I haven’t heard of before. I believe there is so much more to look forward to in the field of NPS corals, as many of them are likely yet to be discovered. I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for me and my NPS tank.

CONCLUSION Over the last year and a half of keeping NPS corals, I have realized how blessed I am. I would not have quite a few of these corals if it weren’t for Chris Meckley of ACI Aquaculture and also my current workplace, Divine Aquatic Supply, in Elkhart, Indiana. The owner of this store, Gary Wager, has helped me tremendously on my journey through the NPS world. Keeping these corals is challenging but also very rewarding at the same time. R

WHY NPS? I started keeping NPS corals because I was fascinated with their odd looks and coloration but also desired a challenge. Most current

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Social Media: Instagram (nps_reefer) & YouTube (NPS Reefer) Sponsors: Reef Nutrition, Addictive Reef Keeping, ACI Aquaculture, Orca Aquacultural Laboratories, Pixel Perfect Graphics

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Gus’s

JASON WILSON

Peacekeeper Reef

I

’m originally from Melbourne, Australia, and I’m a visual effects artist for film and TV in Hollywood. I caught the fishkeeping bug about 7 years ago, and it grew from fresh water to reefing pretty quickly. My first coral tank was a 12-gallon nano, which I had for less than a year. I then upgraded to a 50-gallon cube and now keep a 300-gallon reef.

I started Peacekeeper Reef 3 years ago, in February 2018. Since I was no longer a novice reefer at that point, I wanted to plan everything perfectly for this tank. My objective was to create a full-looking reef scene that felt harmonious. I wanted the corals to grow into each other, creating natural-looking shapes. The result would tie the tank together and give the fish a sense of security too. Creating a safe environment also meant selecting species that would live together peacefully. I knew I wanted a mixed reef with Acropora and other similar small-polyp stony (SPS) corals at the top, cascading down with Montipora and large Euphyllia, and

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finishing with leather corals featured on the sand. I don’t chase any specific corals. I just choose what I like and what’s within my reefing budget. To me, corals are part of the environment. And while I adore them, I have a hard time retaining some of the marketing names they are given.

I started this reef with stock from my previous tank, and a few local coral sellers have graciously provided the rest in exchange for money.

Two stores I trust are Unique Corals and Golden State Corals, both in the San Fernando Valley of Southern California. I’ve never had an issue with coral health or pests from either place. Finding a good vendor you can trust is important. The intent of this aquascape was to have many swim-throughs and places for fish to feel secure.

This is why the aquascape doesn’t touch the back wall, leaving a second long corridor for swimming. The aquascape is made from 200 pounds of Pukani dry rock, which was cured for 4 months in tubs before the tank arrived. The tank was then cycled for 2 weeks

Gus, the Vlamingii Tang (Naso vlamingii)

without fish using Dr. Tim’s method. After daily testing, I was finally able to transfer the animals from the old tank into the new one.

Everything went very smoothly, without the loss of any fish or coral.

However, the tank went through a brutal ugly stage for about 6 to 8 months. The hair algae was nuts. All the fish were quarantined and treated for parasites. And while I don’t quarantine corals, I do remove all frag plugs and dip. I also inspect corals under a bright light and magnifying glass to remove anything that looks suspect.

METHOD Since there are so many philosophies on reefkeeping, it’s difficult to know which one to choose. So I made a habit of asking reefers with

Lavender Tang

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a 40-watt UV sterilizer opposite the displaylight schedule.

FEEDING The tank is fed six times per day. Early morning, the corals get a large pinch of Benepet’s Benereef, broadcast by the return pump. The fish get frozen mysis or brine shrimp at the same time. The autofeeder drops a small number of mixed pellets three times per day. A sheet of nori is fed midafternoon. A larger feeding of various frozen foods is given in the evening. I defrost the food in the tank water and strain it before adding it to the tank.

NUTRIENT EXPORT AND MAINTENANCE Blue Throat Triggerfish (Xanthichthys auromarginatus) and Bonsai Acropora

killer tanks questions about how they run their reefs. Using popular responses, I developed my own method. It may not be the best method, but it has been working great for me.

LIGHT SCHEDULE The lights ramp up starting at 11:30 a.m. and ramp down starting at 11:30 p.m. The OceanRevive’s blues ramp from 10 percent to 80 percent through the day, and the whites are permanently set at 10 percent. The refugium light is a cheap hydroponic light that runs 20 hours per day, with 4 hours off in the middle of the display’s photoperiod. I also run

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Exporting nutrients in balance with the added food is important. I start with a strict testing schedule. My Neptune Trident tests alkalinity four times per day and tests calcium and magnesium twice per day. I manually test alkalinity once a week as a backup and test phosphate and nitrate twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays. This gives me the ability to adjust the amount I feed while maintaining accurate levels. I run an

Rhodactis sp.

underpowered granular ferric oxide (GFO) reactor that just slows the rise of phosphate, and I maintain it with Brightwell Phosphat-E. ICP testing is done twice a year. I also run a refugium with macroalgae and remove at least a pound of algae per week. Along with dosing a small amount of Nopox, I add Prodibio bacteria to the tank once per week. It’s amazing how much this has improved the health of the tank and its ability to process nitrates. Filter socks are changed twice per week.

Superman Rhodactis

end of the tank) and a large Jebao pump (low at the back of the tank) pushing flow across the back of the aquascape. Two EcoTech MP10s push flow from the back of the tank forward, and an AquaIllumination Nero 5 at one end pushes flow along the front of the aquascape. Also, there are flow-randomizer/multiplier nozzles on the return lines. These pumps are all positioned carefully to reduce flow to sensitive corals and provide maximum flow to the ones that need it. For now, it’s working well, but it changes as the tank does.

Saturday is maintenance day. A 20-percent water change is done to replenish trace elements and meet the tank’s need for magnesium.

This also helps with nutrient export. I clean the sandbed and rocks by turning the pumps up and blowing them with a turkey baster.

This blows detritus into the water column so it can be pulled out via the filter socks while leaving the microfauna intact. I also use microbubble scrubbing between 1:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. every day. This dramatically increases the skimmer’s efficiency and keeps pH above 8.0 during the night.

SPECIFICATIONS Tank: custom-built Crystal Dynamics Aquariums, 300 gallons Overflow: Synergy Shadow Sump: 50-gallon Synergy, dual filter socks Protein Skimmer: Coral Box Cloud C9 Return Pump: Reef Octopus VarioS-8 Water Movement: (2) Maxspect Gyre XF 350, (2) EcoTech MP10, AquaIllumination Nero 5, flow-randomizer nozzles, Jebao pump Battery Backup: EcoTech Heaters: (2) 300-watt Eheim Jager Chiller: AquaEuro USA Apex 1/10 hp UV: 40-watt Pentair Aquatic FLOW Flow is something I have spent a lot of time optimizing. I’ve lost colonies due to flow restriction and have had damage due to excessive flow. I have two Maxspect Gyre XF 350s (one at either Reef Hobbyist Magazine

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Toxic Green Acropora (center) and Strawberry Shortcake Acropora (bottom)

LIGHTING I built the lighting canopy and used heavy-duty TV mounts to hang it on the wall. This gives me the ability to push it out of the way for maintenance. It is further supported by two steel cables when fully extended. I have two Reef Brite actinic strips and four modified OceanRevive T247s. This is a good light that is inexpensive because it lacks features. I solved this issue by

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Stylophora sp.

making them fully WiFi programmable by installing the Bluefish light controller.

AUTOMATION Controller: Neptune Apex Water Testing: Neptune Trident Dosers: Neptune Dos, (2) four-channel Jebao dosing pump

4-year-old Pacific Sailfin Tang

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DOSING

CORALS

Nopox: 10 mL per day Red Sea’s Color Program: 5 mL each per day Brightwell Phosphat-E: 3 mL per day BRS 2-Part: 300 mL of calcium chloride and soda ash per day Prodibio Bacteria: 1 vial per week hw-Marinemix Reef Salt: as needed

I’m not a trophy collector with corals at all. I have some favorites, like Strawberry Shortcake, Fox Flame, and the long-tentacle toadstool leather. But I actually get a lot of joy just seeing all the corals I have thrive. I have two large Frogspawn corals that I grew from one or two heads up to about 50 heads each. It’s amazing to have a variety of large, healthy colonies.

FISH

PARAMETERS

- (5) Lyretail Anthias - (4) Chromis sp.

- (2) Clarkii Clownfish - Blue Jaw Triggerfish (male) - Harlequin Tuskfish (Aussie) - Yellow-eyed Tang - Vlamingii Tang - Lavender Tang - Flame Hawkfish - Whipfin Fairy Wrasse - Hawaiian Christmas Wrasse - Lawnmower Blenny - Coral Beauty Angelfish - Sailfin Tang - Mandarin Dragonet - Foxface Rabbitfish - Copperband Butterflyfish - Yellow Watchman Goby - Marine Betta

Specific Gravity: 1.025 pH: 8.0–8.2 Alkalinity: 8.5 dKH Calcium: 440 ppm Nitrate: 10 ppm Phosphate: 0.05 ppm Magnesium: 1,370 ppm

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Reefing is a passion hobby for me. It’s challenging and requires a commitment of time. I have a strict routine, and if something needs doing, I do it right away. Laziness and reefing do not coexist. Testing often and making changes slowly are key, in my opinion. These days, keeping everything stable is the most important thing for me. If I had to give any advice, it would be to not take advice from random people online. Find a few experienced reefers who have a setup you love, and see if you can direct your questions to them. Or at least never take advice without seeing someone’s setup. Everyone is an expert on Facebook, but results often speak for themselves. Then make sure you do your own research on top of that. R

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