Man if you weren't so far away I would take you up on this offer - I am going to re-aquascape my 190 this winter sometime and would love to have a zoo bottom - Elvis the Idol would love it too!

Big idea!



Ever seen those Japanese SPS tanks, that have very little LR and mostly you just see the corals?

I was thinking about keeping only about 60 lbs of LR in my display, putting the other 120 lbs in my sump, and letting my tank show off mostly the corals.

Within 2 or 3 years it will be filled with corals anyways. If I don't put the LR in my sump I will have some SPS growing out of the water in about 1 year.




What are your thought?

Think it's a great idea. Far better to have low rockwork in the main display and let the corals have room to grow in.

I was under the understanding that japanese tanks were very low tech. and coral was disposed and replaced as needed, like a flower vase (flowers look wilted go buy new flowers).

Japanese tanks also have specific lighting focused on specific corals to highlight certain colors.

Mine won't have that.

But it gives you an idea.

I could grow my own LR!

I think you have a great idea, I prefer tanks with minimal rock work also. You should have a hundred pounds or so in say 2015. :mrgreen:

3 lbs a month = 36 lbs a year so I would say a lot more then that.:biggrin:

Yeah, I was thinking, 3 lbs per month of Coral growth should mean that you could remove "X" amount of LR in a month without impacting the system. I wonder if your system would work with 60 lbs LR in the display, 300 lbs of SPS and Clams, and "Frags only" in the sump. Does Coral reduce nutrients as well as LR does?

Coral uses nutrients, so that is always good.

LR is your bio filter though, and corals do not do that.

Suppose I should update this thread too.

I am awaiting an Ozotech 260 mg/hr ozonizer and air dryer.

So I guess my old Red Sea 200 mg/hr and 500 mg/hr air dryer will be for sale shortly. (PM for a real steal on a used product, not the best quality by any means, but it works if you just want to try it out for a while for cheap).

The Ozotec unit creates a real minimum of 260 g/hr and has replaceable parts, and is easy to take apart to clean. I got an awesome deal from SWC on the unit (still well over $500 taxes in).

I am also getting an automated air dryer, cool eh?

I am sick and tired of baking beads, and I refuse to do it anymore. Unfortunately the real nice auto air-dryers cost $800+. They have two dryers packed into a single unit, and switch between units when one is being automatically recharged. I am not that rich, so I opted for a $400 dryer that uses a timer to recharge the beads.

I will post pics and explanations when I get it.