I am a fairly new reefer and I have binge watched many videos on your channel. I have learned a lot in the last 18 months but this has to be one of my favorites. You covered a lot of info in a very easy to understand and concise manner. I am currently struggling with my tank & have nicknamed it "the glass box of death" but it's videos like these that give me hope that MAYBE I can come out the other side and get that dream tank. Thank you
"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the NUVO EXT 200. Then once you get the BRS 4 FT. SPS FlOW Bundle, then you get the Acropora."
@@silurianreefgod9535 Or you do research, never give up, stay persistent and goal orientated. Start with a tank, and fill it out over time. That's how I started. I begun this hobby with no money and now, it's almost become a potential career path for me now.
I really love this series. I know you are supposed to pick someone and listen to them, but I listen to Randy. So I really like listening to who he listens to, and they bring up some interesting things that Randy doesn't see as much. I have learned so much from all this and I really feel like I'm going to have an easier go with my reef tank than I would have had without all these various BRS videos.
Number 5 is such a big thing for me. I use the same salt as WWC, the same lighting, I bring home corals from them, they go straight in my tank, and do amazing because there's so little stress
I have always wanted to build a isolation box but never did. Coincidentally, to be able to add a Moorish idol and a Powder Blue Tang... Is great that you did that a 👍👍👍👍
Love these guys. Thanks for all the great vids, although you guys show an awesome way to keep a reef with rodi water, you can also keep a ok tank with tap water. I myself have been running a tank with tap water for two years. I have listen to lots of you guy's advice and have put it to the test. Love the info. Thanks. You guys have paved the way to my success
I spent the last 8 years thinking I had a 40 gallon tank-it’s actually 24G. The water is 0-0 since I’ve been doing 5 gallon changes every 1-2 weeks. Tank is great. Nothing grows much. I’ve got plans now--to feed!!!!!
I feed 2-3 times a day little chunk of Rod's Herbivore blend frozen and put a few drops of Selcon on it, 1 sheet of nori. Had the same fish for 6 years now...
Hi , there is an intresting topic that you mentioned in the video, about feeding of the expert only, fishes, like sand siftings and copper band, plz explain more about them in your next video, thanks🙏🏻🙏🏻
I do have to say that my LFS's corals are mostly supplied by our local reefers and the LFS itself... very seldom do they ship in anything, unless you want something specific they'll get it.
Loved these hard earned lessons - but there were two comments in two different sections that I wanted to see if it's possible to clarify: Question 1: Right at time stamp 38:00, within "The Importance of Testing" section, Ryan talks to Victor about his approach to Nitrates, which seems to be 'monitor but do very little' - even though he does still monitor AND actively manage Phosphates. Ryan continues the line of thought by mentioning that Victor finds that a little higher nitrates are adding color to the corals and he then asks Victor to explain about controlling one and not the other. Victor responds that even a little phosphates and he can tell because the corals start showing symptoms. My Question: can you say more about the Nitrates and their affect on coral coloring and health? Such as: how much nitrates are okay? Is there a new Redfield ratio number that we can start trying to reach? Does he dose nitrates while controlling phosphates, or does he control phosphates and just leave nitrates to manage themselves? Question 2: Right about time stamp 48:02-ish, within "Sand Can be Complicated" section, Victor is responding to (or complimenting) Ryan's comment that 'if you're going to have sand in your tank, you're going to have to be okay with having some brown patches.' Victor starts his response by saying "What I've been using lately has been carbon reactor media from Julian Sprung (SIC - this is what the closed captioning says) and it's been working great; I like it on the bottom." Unfortunately Ryan states that we're always chasing something with sand, and the conversation continues without explaining this. My Question: I would love to know more about what Victor was saying here. Is he saying that instead of using sand on the bottom of his tank, he's using carbon reactor media as his sand bed when he says he likes it on the bottom? Is he just mixing in a small portion of this reactor media with his sand, or is he using 100% reactor media as his sand bed?
Nice tank. In relation to putting xenia in there...well😮. They are known to grow fast but only to melt overnight from unknown reasons. If that occurs then that is a setpoint for tank crashing due to decaying xenia. (From my experience of course. Good luck😊
I'd like to know something so many people are always talking about light spectrum in par the bottom line is can you grow SPS and LPS with just your Blues violet royal blue and of course uv without running the whites at all or very minimum. And also pretty much no matter what tank you have how high would you run the UV
I have a 55 gallon tank w 1 yellow rye cole tang and its not aggressive towards me or any of the fish. I used to have a Talbots damsel that he would occasionally chase off but nothing else. My clowns did fight over the anenome. So i bought 2. Now they both fight to host a colony of gonipora and leave eachother alone in the anenomes. Go figure... I had 2 draggonettes that would get angry around each other until one died. I have pipefish that eat the same copepods as the dragonettes but the pipefish stay on the sand while the the goby grazes the rock for them. Put a 6 line in there. Saw him a couple times then he disappeared. Had a cool barnacle blenny in there for a couple months eating fine had a bumch of hiding spots then disappeared. Bought a melanarus wrasse and he is taking care of my spaghetti worms...my emerald crab has been mia and red bubble algae is my only issue atm...
Curious if you'd still recommend a bare bottom tank for a 20 gallon with a DIY all-in-one sump. My thoughts are that the sand (crushed coral 1-2mm) is a large proportion of my 'sump'. Also, I'm weird and sort of like algae. Was good goldfish snacks in my old tank.
Adding less coral at a time can help to avoid bigger swings in tank parameters due to consumption! Many times frags will be fairly small so adding more at once may not make a large difference. I would monitor water parameters closely after adding new coral to ensure you adjust for the changes.
Zebrasoma. It's a genus of fish that includes popular tangs like Yellow, Purple, Sailfin, and Scopas tangs, just to name a few. Generally speaking, they all have a similar body shape, which make it easy to tell them apart from other types of tangs like Acanthurus tangs.
I remember as a kid with a freshwater tank with guppies, there was a 1” platform that the gravel was put on. Could this be applied to a reef? Could we use a pump to pull water through the sand? Would the ph be lower under the platform and essentially act like a carbon reactor??? Definitely curious to hear your feedback
Under gravel filters aren't used in the marine aquarium hobby these days. The idea back in the day was that the under gravel filter would promote aerobic bacteria growth on the substrate. This was easier to implement back when crushed coral substrate was more common. Now days, we use finer sand for our substrate and rely on live rock to provide additional biological filtration instead of filling our tanks with bleached coral skeletons for decoration.
Good God, I wish every reefer knew how to tell the difference between bristleworms and fireworms. 99% of the time when it's asked, no, that's not a fireworm, that's a bristleworm.
Hey, I had a question. I will be setting up a 600 litre (160 US gallons) tank it will be 60x26x25 inch (LxWxH). So, instead of using bottled bacteria to cycle my tank, if I buy buy two bags of Maxpect bio balls and put them in my cousin’s reef tank’s sump and leave it there for a month of two and then put it in my tank after setting it up, will that cycle my tank? As the bio media would be seeded with bacteria by then. Also the copepods and all that might come in the bio media, will they survive the cycle? The bacteria will eventually find its way up to the display tank right? Also do you think the pests like aptasia, bristle worms and other pests he has will cause a big problem? As far as I know he had an ich or velvet outbreak about 1.5 years ago as well which has been solved and all the fish are healthy now, so will that be a problem as well? Because we all get pests in the end anyways and in will be a sterile tank so they shouldn’t survive right? I will feed phytoplankton for the pods. Is there any way I can get all the bacteria and pods but not the pests into my tank? Please let me know. Thank you in advance!
@@david7384 I won’t be adding any corals to the tank until it is about 6 months old. Do you think the coral pests could survive that long? His tank had marine velvet about 1.5 years ago and the problem was solved and all the fish are healthy now, but could that also come into my tank even after the problem was solved?
Just like they said in video, patience. If you seed the bio balls in his tank you’ll take the good and the bad. As for what exactly you’ll take no one knows. The shortcut of using bacteria in a bottle is probably the only shortcut I would take. Take you time, seed the bio balls in your tank, add some pods. Add corals and just a few fish. Enjoy the journey
No offense but you two in a video does not look like chemistry. Victor looks like he is so tierd and waiting for the door LOL Love you guys button are talking g Victor's ears to death and it shows.Like I said no offense love your videos.
This hobby would not be where it is today without the help and wisdom of both of you and your organizations! Drive on!!
I am a fairly new reefer and I have binge watched many videos on your channel. I have learned a lot in the last 18 months but this has to be one of my favorites. You covered a lot of info in a very easy to understand and concise manner. I am currently struggling with my tank & have nicknamed it "the glass box of death" but it's videos like these that give me hope that MAYBE I can come out the other side and get that dream tank. Thank you
Love the attitude of not quitting
Wish we could have Victor back for more videos.
I thank Tony Montana for his wisdom.
His lil friend is an acropora! 😉😂🐶
Yes he sounds like
Him lol
"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the NUVO EXT 200. Then once you get the BRS 4 FT. SPS FlOW Bundle, then you get the Acropora."
@@silurianreefgod9535 Or you do research, never give up, stay persistent and goal orientated. Start with a tank, and fill it out over time. That's how I started. I begun this hobby with no money and now, it's almost become a potential career path for me now.
I’ve missed these lives!! So glad to see them back!!
Randy really crushed it here. Great episode. Great production. Great knowledge shared. Appreciate what you do.
I really love this series. I know you are supposed to pick someone and listen to them, but I listen to Randy. So I really like listening to who he listens to, and they bring up some interesting things that Randy doesn't see as much. I have learned so much from all this and I really feel like I'm going to have an easier go with my reef tank than I would have had without all these various BRS videos.
Number 5 is such a big thing for me. I use the same salt as WWC, the same lighting, I bring home corals from them, they go straight in my tank, and do amazing because there's so little stress
So true about changing one thing at a time. If something you did changes for the best/worst you'll never know what did it.
Thank you both so much! This content is spectacular! Well done.
This information is so true all the way thanks for sharing I hope more new reefers watch this
Congratulations on the video! Victor always helping with a lot of information. Congratulations to everyone involved.... 🇧🇷🇺🇸
I have always wanted to build a isolation box but never did. Coincidentally, to be able to add a Moorish idol and a Powder Blue Tang... Is great that you did that a 👍👍👍👍
Great interview. Cool pair.
Love these guys. Thanks for all the great vids, although you guys show an awesome way to keep a reef with rodi water, you can also keep a ok tank with tap water. I myself have been running a tank with tap water for two years. I have listen to lots of you guy's advice and have put it to the test. Love the info. Thanks. You guys have paved the way to my success
Thanks for the advice guys
Phosphates are also ideal for bacteria consumption and conversion
I spent the last 8 years thinking I had a 40 gallon tank-it’s actually 24G. The water is 0-0 since I’ve been doing 5 gallon changes every 1-2 weeks. Tank is great. Nothing grows much. I’ve got plans now--to feed!!!!!
Thank you soooo much!
Victor is the man
So much information in all your videos love it
Best thing I've heard about AEFW is for you to become the predictor. Have to be on them!
I come from the MH lights with the deep sand beds-success is relative. Who doesn’t miss the shimmer of a red hot MH bulb?
Thnx guys
I feed 2-3 times a day little chunk of Rod's Herbivore blend frozen and put a few drops of Selcon on it, 1 sheet of nori. Had the same fish for 6 years now...
Nice show- thanks for sharing always BRS and Friends!
The tang spine is called the caudal peduncle! Great podcast
I’ve watched this video 4 times now.
Hi , there is an intresting topic that you mentioned in the video, about feeding of the expert only, fishes, like sand siftings and copper band, plz explain more about them in your next video, thanks🙏🏻🙏🏻
Melev's Reef sells isolation boxes
Great video, keep it up!🕊️🇬🇧
Wise advice 👍
I do have to say that my LFS's corals are mostly supplied by our local reefers and the LFS itself... very seldom do they ship in anything, unless you want something specific they'll get it.
Loved these hard earned lessons - but there were two comments in two different sections that I wanted to see if it's possible to clarify:
Question 1: Right at time stamp 38:00, within "The Importance of Testing" section, Ryan talks to Victor about his approach to Nitrates, which seems to be 'monitor but do very little' - even though he does still monitor AND actively manage Phosphates. Ryan continues the line of thought by mentioning that Victor finds that a little higher nitrates are adding color to the corals and he then asks Victor to explain about controlling one and not the other. Victor responds that even a little phosphates and he can tell because the corals start showing symptoms. My Question: can you say more about the Nitrates and their affect on coral coloring and health? Such as: how much nitrates are okay? Is there a new Redfield ratio number that we can start trying to reach? Does he dose nitrates while controlling phosphates, or does he control phosphates and just leave nitrates to manage themselves?
Question 2: Right about time stamp 48:02-ish, within "Sand Can be Complicated" section, Victor is responding to (or complimenting) Ryan's comment that 'if you're going to have sand in your tank, you're going to have to be okay with having some brown patches.' Victor starts his response by saying "What I've been using lately has been carbon reactor media from Julian Sprung (SIC - this is what the closed captioning says) and it's been working great; I like it on the bottom." Unfortunately Ryan states that we're always chasing something with sand, and the conversation continues without explaining this. My Question: I would love to know more about what Victor was saying here. Is he saying that instead of using sand on the bottom of his tank, he's using carbon reactor media as his sand bed when he says he likes it on the bottom? Is he just mixing in a small portion of this reactor media with his sand, or is he using 100% reactor media as his sand bed?
Great video. Just “won” 4 WWC ebay auctions! Bout to get my second batch from them and can’t wait
Great vid!
I let my tank cycle for almost 4 months before I started adding fish and corals. It was only because I was to scared to mess it up by adding early.
I can’t wait for the dip videos!! When are they coming?
Waiting for more on the Dip-chit😃
Great video guys
what good to use to glue the acrylic panels together when making an isolation booth when adding new fish?
Do you have video for building separation fish box ?
Nice tank. In relation to putting xenia in there...well😮. They are known to grow fast but only to melt overnight from unknown reasons. If that occurs then that is a setpoint for tank crashing due to decaying xenia. (From my experience of course. Good luck😊
this was great !
Great talk Ryan! Have you seen the KFC method for treating disease in Euphyllia? Kung Foo Corals
Do leopard wrasses eat flatworms too?
I'd like to know something so many people are always talking about light spectrum in par the bottom line is can you grow SPS and LPS with just your Blues violet royal blue and of course uv without running the whites at all or very minimum. And also pretty much no matter what tank you have how high would you run the UV
during the comparison of the usage of amino acids (8.28), the corals on the left hardly looked healthy at all.
Probably because they had 0 No3/Po4 and the AA was able to provide them. If you have proper nutrient levels you probably don’t need to dose AA.
Gotta be careful with the filefish as if aptaisa are gone they MAY go after zoas
I have a 55 gallon tank w 1 yellow rye cole tang and its not aggressive towards me or any of the fish. I used to have a Talbots damsel that he would occasionally chase off but nothing else.
My clowns did fight over the anenome. So i bought 2. Now they both fight to host a colony of gonipora and leave eachother alone in the anenomes. Go figure...
I had 2 draggonettes that would get angry around each other until one died. I have pipefish that eat the same copepods as the dragonettes but the pipefish stay on the sand while the the goby grazes the rock for them.
Put a 6 line in there. Saw him a couple times then he disappeared. Had a cool barnacle blenny in there for a couple months eating fine had a bumch of hiding spots then disappeared. Bought a melanarus wrasse and he is taking care of my spaghetti worms...my emerald crab has been mia and red bubble algae is my only issue atm...
Can you put in a giant clam, in a bare bottom tank?
And if you listen to Sanjay One of the masters of the Reef in hobby and a professor at Penn State he turns all his lights up to 100%
How many hours?
What happens if we plant an aquaculture coral in the reef
Adding two tangs to a tank: am I better off adding them both at the same time or add one and add the other with an acclimation box?
Same time
@@david7384 that’s what I figured. I plan on introducing a purple tang and brown tang at the same time. Fingers crossed there isn’t fighting.
Curious if you'd still recommend a bare bottom tank for a 20 gallon with a DIY all-in-one sump. My thoughts are that the sand (crushed coral 1-2mm) is a large proportion of my 'sump'.
Also, I'm weird and sort of like algae. Was good goldfish snacks in my old tank.
How big of an acclimation box is good?
Is a 150 gallon Innovative Marine too big for a beginner reef tank? For me it seems to split the difference between too large and the space to grow.
Is it best to buy a bunce of frags at once or put just one or two at a time?
Adding less coral at a time can help to avoid bigger swings in tank parameters due to consumption! Many times frags will be fairly small so adding more at once may not make a large difference. I would monitor water parameters closely after adding new coral to ensure you adjust for the changes.
Freakin brilliant. Thank you so much
What are symptoms of palytoxin in reef tank ?
in my tank I used to get irritated LPS, like blastos, acans, ..
Where can I get the isolation box?
Hey Ryan, what kind of fish was it that you mentioned at 16.30 that eats hair algae all day?
Zebrasoma. It's a genus of fish that includes popular tangs like Yellow, Purple, Sailfin, and Scopas tangs, just to name a few. Generally speaking, they all have a similar body shape, which make it easy to tell them apart from other types of tangs like Acanthurus tangs.
What is a good wrasse that will not hurt my coral banded shrimp
nah dont do it , no wrasses
How do you measure PAR
You will need a PAR meter to get these values. We offer a few pieces of equipment on our site to measure PAR in your tank.
I remember as a kid with a freshwater tank with guppies, there was a 1” platform that the gravel was put on. Could this be applied to a reef? Could we use a pump to pull water through the sand? Would the ph be lower under the platform and essentially act like a carbon reactor??? Definitely curious to hear your feedback
Under gravel filters aren't used in the marine aquarium hobby these days. The idea back in the day was that the under gravel filter would promote aerobic bacteria growth on the substrate. This was easier to implement back when crushed coral substrate was more common. Now days, we use finer sand for our substrate and rely on live rock to provide additional biological filtration instead of filling our tanks with bleached coral skeletons for decoration.
Bro is the Scarface of corals
Didn’t want to say it, but he could tell anyone who walks into his house, “Say hello to my little friends.”
Does victor have a tattoo of a coral?
Good God, I wish every reefer knew how to tell the difference between bristleworms and fireworms. 99% of the time when it's asked, no, that's not a fireworm, that's a bristleworm.
Hey, I had a question. I will be setting up a 600 litre (160 US gallons) tank it will be 60x26x25 inch (LxWxH). So, instead of using bottled bacteria to cycle my tank, if I buy buy two bags of Maxpect bio balls and put them in my cousin’s reef tank’s sump and leave it there for a month of two and then put it in my tank after setting it up, will that cycle my tank? As the bio media would be seeded with bacteria by then. Also the copepods and all that might come in the bio media, will they survive the cycle? The bacteria will eventually find its way up to the display tank right? Also do you think the pests like aptasia, bristle worms and other pests he has will cause a big problem? As far as I know he had an ich or velvet outbreak about 1.5 years ago as well which has been solved and all the fish are healthy now, so will that be a problem as well? Because we all get pests in the end anyways and in will be a sterile tank so they shouldn’t survive right? I will feed phytoplankton for the pods. Is there any way I can get all the bacteria and pods but not the pests into my tank? Please let me know. Thank you in advance!
If you bring bacteria and pods, you will also bring the pests. Better to not use his tank, unless you are committed to having pests anyway
@@david7384 I won’t be adding any corals to the tank until it is about 6 months old. Do you think the coral pests could survive that long? His tank had marine velvet about 1.5 years ago and the problem was solved and all the fish are healthy now, but could that also come into my tank even after the problem was solved?
Just like they said in video, patience. If you seed the bio balls in his tank you’ll take the good and the bad. As for what exactly you’ll take no one knows. The shortcut of using bacteria in a bottle is probably the only shortcut I would take. Take you time, seed the bio balls in your tank, add some pods. Add corals and just a few fish. Enjoy the journey
@@JoesCoralReef thank you so much!
I will say I hate sand now
I’ve done the 100% hydrogen peroxide dip for 2 minutes on every frag I’ve ever gotten with algae on it. Never lost a single coral from it.
Do you mean undiluted 3% peroxide?
@@insanity4224 yes
I did the hydrogen peroxide dip on GSP, and they didn't come back.
Never try hydrogen peroxide on clove polyp.
Coral will melt away in couple of days
what if you pour some in a tank?
Uhhhhhh
Step 1 - charge astronomical prices
Thing number 1: you don’t have to buy anything from BRS to be a successful reefer.
Right, anyways, whos the forward most researcher when it comes to coral?
Uf you keep changing things you will never have stability.
Ivermectin
Could the host speak less than the guest speaker? No offence ! But we need to hear the guest’s opinions more
No offense but you two in a video does not look like chemistry. Victor looks like he is so tierd and waiting for the door LOL Love you guys button are talking g Victor's ears to death and it shows.Like I said no offense love your videos.
So true about changing one thing at a time. If something you did changes for the best/worst you'll never know what did it.