Dirty Tank- Clean Tank

chicagophil

chicagophil

New member
So I want to have a mixed reef, can i have SPS LPS and Softies And anemones in the same tank? i honestly want my softies to thrive the most. Do people keep their tanks a little dirty? i am considering going barebottom, since it would be easier to keep food out of the sand/under things, etc. I will be running Dual MP40s, on a lower setting, to get alot of motion in my little piece of the Ocean.


Dirty, clean, --- Low nutrient?

I could go BB and have sand in my Sump, right?
 
I have a perfectly healthy mixed tank. My challenge keeping softies is that they don't appreciate the high intensity light that is needed for sps so I end up tucking them into shaded areas.

It's just my opinion but I don't subscribe to the theory that softies do better in dirty water. I think a lot of people say this becasue softies can tolerate dirty water whereas sps can't. Then the assumption is made that softies "like" dirty water when I believe they just tolerate it. Is there dirty water in nature? I've had softies in both ULNS and also in dirty water with up to 40ppm NO3 and in my personal experience they much preferred my ULNS. (I could be wrong...just my $0.02)

IMHO, if you're going to keep sps then you want the low nutrient system otherwise they will not thrive and keep nice colors. Afterall, who would want a bunch of brown sticks :)
 
We keep a full mixed reef.

I agree with Eric, we experience problems with our SPS when the water gets dirty, and experience problems with softies when nutrients get depleted, specifically strontium.

I don't think that dirty water is beneficial for anything though.
 
I think it's a misnomer when people ask about "dirty water". I understand what Phil is asking and it's not like he or I are attempting to keep visibly dirty water. For me, I would imagine that if you skimmed heavy, sps would thrive; the cleaner the better for sps. For lps and softies, I would imagine lighter skimming would benefit them from a feeding aspect, maybe?

I just think that whenever someone says "dirty water", people assume we're letting the coral sit in their muck till we can't see through the water, lol...
 
Well, that's not excatly what I envision :lol: As I said, I could be wrong, mabe they really do like dirty water better. My softies do well in both so I know its possible to keep them both healthy at the same time.

jayjigga said:
I just think that whenever someone says "dirty water", people assume we're letting the coral sit in their muck till we can't see through the water, lol...
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Do people normally run carbon with their softie tanks? seriously i just want to make my tank the most, clear, moving, flowing, sexy tank out there. Softies grow at a rate that i appreciate :fast:.
 
I recently learned that my skimmer really was cleaning my water, even though to my OCD eyes my water appeared dirty. I was wondering why my SPS didn't look too hot. I thought a couple pieces were dead and the others dying...and to a certain degree, they were.

I was feeding the tank with my turkey baster and decided to spray a little of the cloudy food water at a couple of my SPS corals. 10 minutes later, I saw these worm-like things waving out of the SPS. They were sticking out 7-10 times the length of the polyps when they were healthy and just dropped into my tank. I swear I thought they were worms. I fed them again this way the next couple days and got the same reaction. My purple stylo sprung back out like normal minus a small patch and my mill and red planet polyps can now be seen waving around a little again. Even my chalices were engorged with mouths wide open pulling in huge pieces of krill. I was so excited and happy.

I figured that my SWC 120 was polishing my 45 total gallon system. I think I will need to turn my skimmer on either half the day or just target feed everything in my tank. I thought SPS would catch whatever is in the water. I guess my skimmer was doing it's job...a bit too well.
 
chicagophil said:
Do people normally run carbon with their softie tanks? seriously i just want to make my tank the most, clear, moving, flowing, sexy tank out there. Softies grow at a rate that i appreciate :fast:.
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I think that with a leather/toadstool, it's beneficial to run carbon because of what they can release. I don't know if most softies can be as angry as a toadstool, so I'm not sure if it's as beneficial. I wouldn't run it just for that beautiful goldie of yours...
 
chicagophil said:
Do people normally run carbon with their softie tanks? seriously i just want to make my tank the most, clear, moving, flowing, sexy tank out there. Softies grow at a rate that i appreciate :fast:.
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Carbon obviously filters out bad chemicals but it also gives your water a crystal clear look. When new visitors (non-reefers) come by house they always comment on how clear my tank water looks. I've had 2 separate people tell me they thought it was a big flatscreen tv becasue it looked so clear. I can't say if most softie tanks run carbon, but I like what it does, so I would. heck, I'm running carbon in my FOWLR so I can see my fishes better :)
 
chgoblknazn said:
I recently learned that my skimmer really was cleaning my water, even though to my OCD eyes my water appeared dirty. I was wondering why my SPS didn't look too hot. I thought a couple pieces were dead and the others dying...and to a certain degree, they were.

I was feeding the tank with my turkey baster and decided to spray a little of the cloudy food water at a couple of my SPS corals. 10 minutes later, I saw these worm-like things waving out of the SPS. They were sticking out 7-10 times the length of the polyps when they were healthy and just dropped into my tank. I swear I thought they were worms. I fed them again this way the next couple days and got the same reaction. My purple stylo sprung back out like normal minus a small patch and my mill and red planet polyps can now be seen waving around a little again. Even my chalices were engorged with mouths wide open pulling in huge pieces of krill. I was so excited and happy.

I figured that my SWC 120 was polishing my 45 total gallon system. I think I will need to turn my skimmer on either half the day or just target feed everything in my tank. I thought SPS would catch whatever is in the water. I guess my skimmer was doing it's job...a bit too well.
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Hey Walt, I would leave that skimmer running 24/7. Anything bigger than a cyclopeeze is probably not going to do anything for a sps, they can't catch anything in the water unless it is very tiny. There are certainly many thriving ULNS systems out there that do not feed their sps. A skimmer that is doing its job should never be a reason that your corals are unhappy. If you think they are unhappy, don't turn of your skimmer.
 
Thanks for the input. I'll continue target feeding with an hour of no pump action. They have responded quite well to that. The skimmate is like coffee by week's end. And stinks like booty.

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chgoblknazn said:
Thanks for the input. I'll continue target feeding with an hour of no pump action. They have responded quite well to that. The skimmate is like coffee by week's end. And stinks like booty.

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I know I said never, but I turn mine off for a few hours sometimes when I feed.

I have a SWC 160 in my 75G office tank and it has a pretty big collection cup as you know. Yesterday the skimmate cup was over half full...and it spilled. stunk up the whole house...:painkiller:
 
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