Protein skimmer?

[Brandon8521]

I would never link a predator or FOWLR tank to a reef tank. Like you said yourself your going to have alot of nitrate aswell as phosphate issues and unless you have a softy reef your asking for trouble. Take a look on craigslist and check your local reef clubs/forums for a cheap used skimmer and save the worries.

[RTR]

Obviously, since I do a lot of them, I am one of the folk who think that combos of tanks are, as you asked, far more stable than independent tanks.. With SW combos I am even pickier about QT long-term before things get moved into a system though. The stability of the larger volume of water is a non-trivial to huge advantage for me. Puffers on a reef are risky not just for their wasteful eating habits and large biomass and waste output, but for the fact that they can and even may be likely to eat, or taste frequently, macroalgaes and whatever coral you have paid the most for - that is not something to thrill the keeper! But with separate but constant-flow linked tanks, the puff can be housed in its own tank, solitary or with other fish depending on the particular puffer(s) and fish, and have the reef segregated in a tank of its own. Ditto for a live rock refugium (another linked tank) and/or a DSB or plenum or macroalgae refugium - whatever you want to use to maximize water quality throughout the system. It really is our best technique for protecting living things that are either display or workers in situations where they are free from harm from undesirable interactions with other critters. This is the best we can do to mimic the functions of a reef without the obvious downsides of limited space in captivity. it is not perfect by any means. And yes, certainly disease/parasites/etc. or metabolic upsets can be carried throughout the system -which is why we have to be so neurotic about long and closely watched QT before anything gets added to a developing system. But after that, the issues are mostly just routine maintenance (cleaning skimmers for example - a chore that I hate myself, but I know how much difference they make in the water quality - the output junk is revolting). Coral reefs in the wild are not closed systems - they have good water flow in and out - if nothing else, tides guarantee that. We are just copying some of the many functions of various parts of the wild situation - the showy reef, the back-reef with algae or seagrasses, the mature older rock structures (live rock for us) on which the living reef is based. Our skimmers are in part mimicking the wave action on exposed reef shelves at low tide and the effects of waves on adjacent shores - separating out certain things from the water.

We cannot successfully house a real reef environment on a small scale, but we can link component tanks which together provide some of the basic functions of the real reef in the wild, while at the same time protecting the integrity of the diverse components. That is really tricky and hard to achieve in a single tank set-up.

HTH

[RTR]

One thing that I omitted from the long post above - the timing. This is not a short-term project. It is going to take some years to complete (which is handy, because is not cheap either). When basically set with all components in place and operating, its life is basically open-ended. One benefit of multiple linked tanks is that if one component needs a re-set, that can be isolated from the linked set-up for re-do, or just duplicated with a newer (improved hopefully) component linked in before the old one is broken down. It does in that sense tremendously aid long-term care. That is no small thing to me. Nobody wants to disturb a successful reef or macroalge tank if they can avoid it.

[Brandon8521]

I can understand connecting a refugium to a reef since thats what is normally done but a predator tank? Reefs are a very low nutrient environment to begin with so why would it be benificial in any way to connect the two?

[RTR]

Refugia can serve many purposes, but in the cases you mention, both aims are the same - to minimize nutrients. In our semi-closed systems, excess nutrients are the enemy. Reefs are effectively low soluble nutrient environments. It is a given that all semi-closed captive systems are eutrophic - i.e., polluted with excess nutrients. That will destroy a reef nicely before it can really establish well, but long-term it has the same effect on captive predators. Just because the inverts are hypersensitive does not mean that predators are not equally damaged long-term. I very strongly suspect that is the basic reason why my fish live so long. In so far as is possible, I operate all my tanks in the same manner - just as clean as I can get them realistically. If that requires me to have two or three tanks to keep one predator, so be it. My tank for the T. mbu had three veggie filters - and needed more, much more or larger or both.

Why should folks think that fish from a reef can live in conditions that the other local inhabitants cannot withstand? That is a logical inconsistency to me. All of our wet pets logically should live spans far greater than they generally achieve in the wild - they are sheltered from disease and damage and storm if we do it right and should also be well-nourished. I kind of think that if we know how to do it right, that is what we should do as far as we can.

[SaltNewB]

Wow!!! Great info!!! Thanks!! I'm going to do it all the way around I think it will be better just have to keep a close eye on it! The best part is that the reef tank is my foot board on my king bed it fits perfectly. So I should be Abe to keep a reel close eye on it

[RTR]

LOL! I am jealous. I am tall, and although we have a very large bed, I would be afraid of kicking the tank. My wife would not be thrilled w/middle of the night SW splashes.

I keep telling folks that it is not possible to over-filter tanks. It really isn't. You have to be aware of current, but excessive filtration is a straw man. It burns easily. You really have to work to get to anything near real reef levels. Plus it is fun to try...

[SaltNewB]

Hahaha yea I don't think she would be to happy about it either. I originally worried about kicking the tank and thought about it and said to myself there is several hundred pounds sitting there. I would like to think I'm strong but kick it over in my sleep hahaha I might have to take some steroids to do it in my sleep lol!

[RTR]

I don't even want to think about toppling over any SW tank. Just enough of a blow to make a shock wave is enough to scare me. And I have put a foot through the side of an overflow tank (sitting on the floor of the tank room) with just house slipper/moccasins on). And that was FW in a room with a sealed floor. It was definitely the biggest mess I have made.