Crazy Coral Growth in the Heart of NYC! Reef Tank on the 30th Floor!

Okay, reefers. We are on the 30th floor up in a beautiful apartment building in New York City. Not the place you would typically think you'd find a reef tank, but I'm sitting here with Jamie. Jamie, thank you so much for having me here. Let's get right into it, man. You've got a loaded tank. Let's talk about the dimensions and what tank we're working with here. Well, the dimensions are 47 long, 20 high, and 21 in the width. And then this is a Red Sea tank. Yeah, it's a Red Sea Reaper 350. Okay. Okay. And then the total water volume we've got working west, it's 91. So I think there's about 75 up top and 20 in the sum more or less with the displacement of the rocks probably goes goes up to around 75 total. Crazy how loaded it is. And you told us a story before we even got here. Originally the tank was actually in a building just across the way and you ended up making the trip all the way here. There's a couple things you ran into on the way over here. Let's talk about the move from inter city moving, you know, getting this tank up to this apartment. How did that go for you? Uh, it was it was quite a challenge. We did it. I had a few of my friends come and help me. I had to order a bunch of equipment on Amazon, dollies and stuff, and we weren't doing this till 4:00 in the morning, but we got it done. I actually had a system that is not here anymore, but it on my way over here, it broke on the sidewalk. Uh fish were on the floor, clowns flapping on on on the snow salt. It was horrible. Luckily, they survived. No casualties. Clowns, they got a new name for themselves. That is crazy. I mean, the fact that we even have a reef tank here in the city, right? But let alone we've got clown fish on New York streets. Let's go ahead jump into We just kind of talked a little bit about some fish. Let's talk about the fish we have in the tank. You've got some of my favorite fish in the system. Let's go ahead let you work through what we got for fish selection. So, I have a a white tail bristle tooth. I have a a biota yellow tang, some two ocillaris clowns. Had them as babies when I started. I had a royal grandma. He hides somewhere out in the middle. A cleaner rass mandarin and about two chromoses that they're always hiding. I hear it all the time that people are like, "Oh, the biota yellows. They don't get yellow like the Hawaiians do, but this is a prime example. This one is a super yellow tang. And do you have any aggression that happens between the white tail and the yellow tang, or have they kind of co-inhabited with each other for a while? The white tail and the yellow tang, they go back and forth, but they shoe each other away and they don't come back to each other for a little while. So, they they you can say they live uh in pretty much good harmony there. You have done a good job in my opinion not packing this tank too full with fish. I think you've picked kind of the perfect amount of fish. How old are the clown fish at this point? I mean the female is definitely an older clown it seems like. Yeah. Well, yeah, she's the female. I got them when I started in the hobby about 4 years ago. Yeah. And then they they've been good ever since. I'd say they were about a little smaller than that. Give them about 5 years old, I I'd say. Okay. So, you started the hobby about four years ago. So, did you ever keep freshwater tanks before then or is salt did you just kind of dive right into the reef keeping? Oh, no. Well, I was actually in salt I mean freshwater aquacaping um doing plants, uh the rocks, the the the wood and and it was crazy. I was doing that for about 15 years. And yeah, I I I kind of got bored of it and I wanted to get some more excitement into it, you know. And this this took me for a ride, man. Uh, I started getting into the BRS videos. I started doing the research and I went down a whole rabbit hole. Till this day, I'm still learning. Let's talk about the corals, man. The stars, in my opinion, of the show. I I have not seen a Red Sea tank in quite some time. This loaded. Looks like you've gone with a mixed reef. Was that the approach you were headed for? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was very intentional on the on the scape and the reef that I wanted to create this time. This is my my second build with the same tank, but a second build from when I moved over here. And I I I escaped it exactly with the intentions on what what I was going to put where. Kind of created some gardens in a way it seems. You've got your torches on one side, the hammers. Was that kind of like you said, an intentional move? Yeah. Yeah. So, I I took into consideration the growth of all the corals, which way they grow in what directions, and also the flow. So, I already knew how how the the gyro pulls from under and spits it back out through through the top all the way across. You know, it's like a crossro uh power head. So, I I put the corals that can handle more flow towards the bottom and then and then the the hammers I put them here on the pulsing um DMP40 here. Yeah, it's cool to see that kind of rhythmic movement going on with the torches. A really good point. Kind of getting them underneath the gy and allowing the gy to kind of pick up the tentacles and push them across. I like what you've done as well. I see a couple Alve, some Ghanis, things that are set up on the back wall. Let's talk through that experience, why you went with doing that and how that's worked out for you. Yeah. Well, that gon up in the back, the big purple one, I bought him as a little frag. He grew and grew and grew. He was stinging everything around him. I had to get him out. I I said, I don't want to give him away. I really like his growth pattern. He he's he's really about the over the size of a softball, I could say. And I said, "You know what? Let me find some negative space. What I can do is so I I put him on a frag rack up there." And he's been there ever since. He's still growing till this day. Yeah. The same thing with the Albi. The Albi there, he was also stinging many things. And I also noticed that the Alb's, they don't they don't have a crazy light demand. So I was it was a perfect spot to put him right under the gon. And he he's growing just fine. The clowns love him. I love how a lot of the zoas too have begun to kind of take over some sections of the scape. You've got some super high-end stuff too as well. There's not just your basic corals. We've got some super high-end zoas. Anything that you think attributes to their success, especially those cracks over there. I mean, they look insane, man. That group is amazing. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Well, the zoas, the more higherend ones, I I I intentionally put them towards the front. But as as far as their growth, I would just say the stability, magnesium helps and also the amino acids. I also those are tons of amino acids. We've got a group of ganis in the front, but directly behind them, we have some Bernard Aaporas, some of those short tentacle ganis. You made a mention of, you know, I've kind of seen in the farm and with our own kind of studies that Bernard's kind of clash with ganis at times. It seems like you're doing a good job in allowing them to be close to each other, but what's allowing you to have them so in close in proximity? So, when I first started the system and I put the scape in here, I turned on both power heads and I ran them at at 100%. So, what I would do is I would put uh powdered food and uh the you know the AB plus very fluorescent. I would kind of try to see which way the flow direction was going and I would see it over the course of a few days. that allowed me to be able to place the stingers so the so the the tentacles could flow in the opposite direction. So in a sense they could live in harmony and and that's it kind of worked out for me. So they they're growing and they're they're they're growing opposite direction which is perfect for me. So you mentioned it. It's easily one of my favorite hacks in reefing that not that many people talk about is using AB+. Yeah, it's a good little product to use to feed some stuff, but using it to figure out your flow pattern to actually understand your flow pattern and see how everything's kind of working around it. You also have some LPS pieces as well. Are those some pieces that you have to actively feed in the tank or you just kind of letting them feed on whatever's in the system? So, I try not to target feed so I don't have to provoke any of the the cleanup crew or the bristle worms. I have I have a ton of micro brittle stars in here and at night time they they it's like a parade in in the tank. Yeah. Yeah. So I try not to target feed, but what I actually do is I try to mimic the ocean and the the natural reefs, you know, corals in the ocean, they they feed daily and and actually throughout the day. So the food that I make, I make a concoction. I mix everything together. I put uh micis hakari the pee micis. I put um brine shrimp in there. I dump benipets. I put uh the PNS Probio in there amino acids. I throw a little bit of everything. Reeids, reef chili, gonop power. I mix it everything. I make one big batch in a big giant Tupperware. And uh when I have to fill up my trays, I I'll melt it. Then I I'll rinse and repeat basically. Yeah. Got you pretty much. Yeah, they eat every day. Created your own little reef stew at this point. You've got everything in between. I like that idea. Do you do that as well to kind of give them all kinds of different tastes and things for them to enjoy and not just kind of hyperfocusing on one feeding that you're giving them? Yeah, that's exactly why I do it. So there there still has to be a lot of work done, I feel, with what corals eat what. I feel like a a lot of the companies it just mix a lot of things together and in all reality we don't know what's in what and you know h how how do they actually interact with the cores or not that's why I mix it all together so when when I throw it in there I turn off the the return pump the flow stays on and whatever they're going to grab they're going to grab. The LPS is definitely a big star to the show but smack in the middle you've got a big selection of sticks. Has this been a new recent thing for you? is picking up more SPS or have you always liked SPS as well and that's just the perfect spot to kind of place everything. So, when I first started this system, I just got into SPS. Uh I heard the stories about the SPS. Oh, they're hard. They they they bleach out and and and then the RTN and the STN I learned and I I fig I I figured that I cracked the code kind of I started cocking and I can't I can't stop them from growing. They're growing into each other. They're fighting. They're actually growing a lot faster than my LPS. And now learning learning everything that I've learned through the hobby. I figured that with the calcer trace elements and keeping your alkalinity stable, they're a lot hardier than than LPS. You know, LPS, they can catch infections and you know, once once they start bailing out, there's no stopping it. Yeah. So, that that's that's what I learned so far. But I've had great success even in the back up there. There's there's some hidden hidden gems back there. Yeah. I mean, at this point, the Digi is pretty much growing out of water. It's so grown out at this point. You're definitely getting some really great success. And I'm, you know, curious to hear what's making this system tick. Let's go ahead and start talking about the equipment we're running. We'll start from the top and work our way down. What are we using for lights? For lights, I have two XR15s on the left and the right. In the middle, I have um it's called a AASE. is uh is kind of like the Radeon, but not the Radeon, if you know what I mean. I have a a Quanta Helix bar. Great light, by the way. I I got a ton of growth off of that one. I also have on the back end on the back right, I have a Pixel I had a little dark spot in the back with some low light corals and I I put myself a custom custom pixel mount there and I put it on there. So, it works. It's working out pretty good so far. And then inside the tank, what are we using for flow? For flow, I have a here I have a DMP40, a Jakard DMP40, and I have a a Higer gyro up on the on the right side. I also have the the VSA random flow generators. They help, but these guys do the most for me. I have them both on pulsing, so they they kind of clash and create a a random flow all throughout the day. is not it's not just one singular direction for the corals, you know. Hooked up on the light bar here is a product that I haven't gotten the chance to even see myself in person. Let's talk about this. This is a piece from Avid Aqua. What are we looking at right here? Yeah, this is the Avid Aqua the the monitor. It's it's amazing. It it it connects directly to your Apex as long as you have a power connect power source connected to it. You can uh use the feed modes on it. You can toggle all the switches on it. It it it swipes back and forth and it gives you pretty much accurate information the same way that you would see it on your phone. Yeah, I I watched you using it earlier and I have to say big shout out to Avid Aqua. It's very seamless how you're able to utilize it and it's kind of nice. You know, of course you can run and grab your phone and do that, but when you're actively working with the tank, it's nice to just be able to swipe over, hit a feed mode. But let's now work our way down to the sum space. You've got a lot of fish, you got a lot of corals, and it seems like down below you've got a lot of filtration, too. Let's talk about the different pieces of filtration we're utilizing for this Red Sea. So, in there, I I have very limited space, but I'm I'm I try to make it work. I actually have to cut out some of the the glass barriers in there to make things work in there, but I have um the clear water scrubber in there, a turf scrubber. I have a Red Sea fleece roller, the 500 fleece roller. I have a Two Little Fishies reactor from Two Little Fishies. I have a curve curve elite 5 skimmer and u with with also attached to a recirculating CO2 scrubber and also just the return pump. The return pump is from Amazon. You know, again, I I could say I'm a little I'm I'm a budget reefer in a sense, you know, wherever I could cut a corner and save a few dollars, I always go that route. We talked about it off camera. I think that's honestly something that a lot of people tend to get, you know, drawn away from reef keeping is the, you know, the budget and just the sheer amount of money that sometimes goes into these reef tanks. I love the fact that you're going after it. You have a beautiful system, man. It's gorgeous, but you're doing it budget friendly. So, I mean, let people know, you know, reefkeeping. Can it be budget friendly? Uh, not really. But you can also you can always find a way. There's always new things coming out. you know, the there's the innovation in the hobby. It it it's great. And the best part about it is that a lot of the new things coming out are the hobbyists that are releasing it. So, they take a lot of the consideration with with the struggles and with the pricing and everything. So, like for perfect example is the the Helix bar. This thing is extremely affordable, a little over a hundred bucks and and it grows by color. It was great. You know, I I love it. And then all these tanks are getting so smart at this point. They've got all kinds of different controllers. We're seeing them right here. The interface up top. What are we running for our controller on our tank? I have the Apex Pro with the energy bar. Gotcha. And then I saw there was the Trident down below as well. You're utilizing the Trident and also the Trident. Yeah. I actually have a custom uh a custom casing for it from Rhino's Reef. Yeah. He he he kind of perfected the the dimensions on it and it saved me a lot of space in there, man. It's easy to do maintenance and to move things around to change out the reagents is like is a breeze. It's a complete breeze. Makes it even easier to use them. Right. I saw there's the Versa pump down there. Let's talk about what we're dosing the tank. You mentioned calcer kind of being a driving force of this system. What else are we dosing? I dose the cow washer. I also dose um some Captivate products. So it's Captivate MT. I also do use the the manganese, the fluoride, and the the iodine. It's it's actually iodide. So, yeah, I I dose those on the regular, you know, to try to keep the levels good. I've done a few ICPs. I've kind of try to learn what what the what the levels are, how they deplete in a sense. So, I try to kind of like keep them stable. I I don't I don't do the the moonshiners method. is it's pretty expensive, but I try to kind of anticipate the way that the levels are going to deplete and I I'll dose it accordingly. You know, Chris Chris from Captivate, he's he's really good on giving you the the the the measurements on on how to dose them for your tank based on the ICP and you can always email him and he always he's always willing to help you out. So, let's talk about temperature control in this apartment and how you kind of have it set up. I see we've got two Honeywell fans directly above the tank. How is temperature control kind of something that you try to chase after here in this tank? Uh, it it's it's a issue, but it's not an issue because we're we're so high. So, these high floors in these buildings get really hot even in the winter. So, I when I had my lid, I intentionally didn't get the evapors because I need the fan for the evaporation on the cal. So, and I also I intentionally keep my temperature low to provoke the fans to turn on and stay on as long as possible because, you know, like I said, the apartment gets really hot. So, that also helps with my pH a ton. You know, if my fans go most of the day without turning off, my salinity is changing. The calc is filling up the sump, right? And then we obviously don't have them on right now and they won't be probably seen in all the shots we're showing over the video, but you have a lid that you put over the tank. Yes. Is there a main reason that you have the lid on the system? Well, yeah. It's a funny story actually. If you see the this little cleaner rat here, he's about a day old in this tank. I had one. I had them for about 3 or 4 years also. Uh he jumped out and that's you can say the main reason why I have a lid. You know, of course, the tanks look amazing without the lid. You know, see the water is more natural look, but you know, these fish are expensive and you you don't want to spend all that money every week, every two weeks. You know, you know, rasses are are known for jumping. I have a I have a leopard rass in there that I forgot to mention, and he there's days that I I would hear him hit the lid. You hit the nail right on the head is that we spend so much money on these fish, on these animals, and to be kind of negligent and not have a lid is like kind of the wrong way to go about it. I think having a lid is super essential. It's something I talk about in a lot of videos is having a lid. I've got a lid on my system at home. Of course, if you have company over, you can always pop it off and move it to the side and let people enjoy it. Bacteria in tanks, super important. Some of the things that people tend to forget. I saw you have a nice jug of PNS down here on the side of the tank. Let's talk about PNS. How do you like using it and how frequently are you dosing the tank? And what exactly are you using from PNS? I'm using the PNS Probio. Um, it's live bacteria plankton. It's Listen, I've watched all his podcasts and I I strongly believe in this product. He he said something that it suit me in. He said that this bacteria directly combats um vibrio and the vibrio is the is associated with the brown jelly. Brown jelly, you know, I don't have to tell anybody what brown jelly is. Ever since I have I've been dosing this, I've had a one or two corals that it looked like they were dying and they wanted to catch brown jelly. Instead of it turning into brown jelly and and brown and gooey everywhere, it turned into a white stiff cottony substance. I don't know how to explain it, but it it the point is that it didn't spread and that sold me. And I I've seen it with my own eyes. I love it. Right on. And then you're actively adding that into the tank a few times a week. Yeah, about three times a week I dose it. They they recommend daily, but you know the it's pretty expensive, especially when you buy the one gallon jug. So I I try to do it three times a week, you know, and he also said that you can't over or underdose it, you know. It's it's pretty organic. It's just bacteria. So once you turn on your filtration, it'll just get get filtered out. So Gotcha. Wanted to circle back to the livestock. I saw in the back one of my favorite things in the world, Christmas tree worm rock. I love those little guys. I saw you had one. How long have you had it and are you actively dosing anything to try and help feed that coral? Well, the coral and the worms at this point. Yeah. Well, they like I said with my feeding schedule, they eat when everybody eats. So, whatever they grab, I'm sure they're going to they're grabbing some of the benefits, the the the gonio power, the reefs. I'm they're grabbing all of that stuff. I've had it for about I'd say 3 weeks now. Yeah. And they they they've adapted pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. I got it from uh from Poto Pieces of the Ocean on Stan Island. Yeah. And the guy had it. He had just put it in the tub. It the shipment had just came in and I said, "Listen, I'm taking it." You don't you don't see those often. So, I I couldn't I couldn't pass it up. Yeah. I was excited when I got to see one myself. A big fan of those for sure. What are we using for inverts and cleanup crew in the tank? So, for inverts and cleanup crew, I have tro snails. I have con snails, tiger conch snails, and I have a ton of nerious in there that you don't see them. They're in the sand right now, but I I do my best to try to keep them alive. You know, also with my feeding schedule, I I always feed them. Like I said, everybody eats when I feed. So, I would uh I would turn off the return manually. I'll throw the the the just the liquid in which has all the the the dusty foods in there and then and after about a few five minutes I'll hit the my a schedule on the return. It turns all the flow and all the power heads off. All the food now falls to the to the ground. The fish as it's falling the fish grab whatever they're going to eat. You know they they eat pretty fast. Whatever they don't eat falls on and then the the ground corals eat the my meat corals or scolies some of the duncans they eat. And then also the nerases all come out. You'll see them all erupt out of the ground and they have a feast every night. One of those tough things when you're in an apartment section in New York City, I'm sure space makes it extremely difficult, right? Trying to be able to set up enough space. Obviously, you found the room to put the tank. How are we able to make water up in here? And where do we have the room to set all that kind of stuff up? Yeah. So, fortunate for me, I have a a pretty large closet on the right side of the system. My wife made a deal with me. She I know I made a deal with my wife. I said, "If I can have this closet, you could take every other closet in the house." We shook on it. And it it turned into my It's officially my fish closet. I have all my RO system in there, my mixing containers. I have the couch in there, all my equipment. And it's because of that where I could keep all of this clean. I also saw the NIO salt that you're using as well. How are you How are you liking the Nio Salt? I know you said off camera you think it's actually attributing to the success of some of your ganis as well. Yeah. Yeah. The the Nios uh it contains a lot of the trace elements that the goonies need and and you know the good thing with the Nio so is that they each batch comes with a QR code and and they're all the batch is ICP tested so you can see literally the levels that you're dosing into your tank. So if anything is ever going wrong you say, "Oh, let me check the salt." Uh, oh yeah, this batch is actually low on iodine or is a little lower on manganesees than the other one. And you can make a move on that if you need to. And that's one of the best things I like about the salt, the the ICP uh QR code that it has on it. My favorite thing about Reef Keepers in general, we're all alike in the way is that one tank is never enough, right? We can never just have one tank. And over on the other side of us, we've got another system, right? We'll talk about that one a little bit here. And I know there was a couple reasons why this one was set up, but let's hear it from you. So, I had to set that one up because my hippo tank was one of the first fish that I had in the hobby. Literally bought them size of a quarter. We got so attached to the fish and I didn't want I couldn't even think about taking them to the LFS. So, I said, "You know what? Um, me and my wife actually agreed, let let's set up a tank just for the just for the hippo tank." And the rest is history. She's growing in there. She's happy. She's uh he or she is the queen of the tank, you know. And I also had a a ton of nems. I had maybe about a good 200 nems and they were stinging everything. So I I I said that when I start this new system, I'm not going to put any nems in here anymore. They were they were they were wrecking wrecking havoc in there. So they're they're happy in there. the the two clowns that came from the from the kitchen AIO, they're happy in there because they didn't have nems in that system. So, everybody it worked out for everybody. Everybody's happy. Yeah. And it kind of works for you, too. You said you had that copper band that lives in there as well that was also in this tank at one point and it ended up turning face to coral and you have this space. What was it actually going after actively in the tank? The copper band. It it was going after the scolies, all the the well souls, the cinas, all of the the the trache on the right side. It was going after the holy grail um aanss after the the Bernarda poras after the favas and I have a I had recorded a clip and I posted it online literally within a span of 5 minutes is all all of those attacks on the corals. From that day forward, I said the copper van has to get an eviction notice. thought, you know, it's hard to come by a a good copper band, a healthy copper band at that. I've had that guy since he was a baby, muscle the size of a quarter. I couldn't get rid of him. Flow in reef tanks is one of those kind of tough things that you have to go after over time, and I think it's one of those things you're constantly changing, too, as the reef develops. You had some really great points about flow in your tank in particular with some of your corals. Let's hear from you. You know, what is so important about flow? Uh I feel the flow is super important for the corals. One of the the most important aspects actually for these corals for example in this hobby a lot of people say oh the torches love flow. They like flow. They like flow. As you can see here they're my torches are like in a in a bouncing motion. And I that's intentional because I've noticed through through my years in the hobby when you slam the torches too much in one direction at the at the base of the mouth, they have the these sharp sharp edges. If you're constantly slamming them in one direction, you know, you're ripping the flesh from the inside. A lot of people say, "Oh, why did my torch die? My parameters are perfect. There's no leeching, no leeching contaminants into the tank. Nothing's piging at them." And a lot of people don't know that is the reason, you know, as you can see, 99% of my torches have fleshes all receding all the way down. And it's I I feel like it's it's that's one of the main reasons why, you know, I I feel that the that the pH and the stability on on your nutrients play a big part on how hard you can hit these corals with PAR. Okay, with that being said, at the top, see the Digi and the Monty and the the the branching Ciphastria back there. Those are all low light SPS. Believe it or not, that guy is getting about 8 or 900. Wow. The Scipastria is getting about 600. And the digits are almost coming out of the water. If I had more water, they'd keep growing. They're getting about 900 to a,000, I'd say, full blast. And I feel like that has a lot to do with keeping your pH elevated. You know, it it gives uh it gives the corals the strength and the immunity to to not catch infections or or stress. You know, they they can be getting stressed by the light, I'd say, but the pH gives them the the balance in the equilibrium in the with the water chemistry. And I I feel like it gives them the strength to to stay strong. You mentioned you measured the PAR. Did you measure the PAR with like a local fish stores PAR meter or do you have one here that you have kind of to use whenever you need it? Yeah, I have a I have a App Apogee 510 it's called. Yeah. And I'm always constantly measuring the PAR. When I first got into the hobby, they they say, "Oh, you're only going to use it once and never again." But corals grow, you know, things shade other things, you know, that that's the perfect tool to determine if should I move it or should I not move it, you know? So, it it helps me out a lot. This is this is how I came to that to that conclusion on the par because this Digi if if it was really stressed out from such high par, it wouldn't have grown so so fast. You know, one thing that Jake Adams used to do every time he'd come and do these tank tours is he would ask the person he was doing the interview with, if you could give a piece of advice for someone that's getting ready to get into this hobby, joining into saltwater, getting in on this crazy train that we're all a part of, what would that piece of advice be? Um, if you're going to chase anything, they say don't chase numbers, but I always say if you're going to chase anything, chase the pH. Chase the pH. The higher the better. Of course, I would say 8.6 8.7 the highest, but elevated pH. And you, as you can see, everything is happy and healthy. You know, I I like that because we really strive after chasing after pH in the farm. Obviously, with us being a farm space, we're actively trying to force these corals to grow faster and faster and faster, and the pH is super key. I want to say thank you so much for letting me come by, talk with you about your reef tank. You've done an amazing job to have something like this up on the 30th floor is crazy in my head to even kind of conceive, but really such a great job. If you guys have any questions about this tank we've talked about here today, please be sure to drop them down in the comments below. If you guys have hung out with us all the way till the end, I want to say thank you very much. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on any future uploads. Thanks.