gig
New member
So I figured it was time for my tank thread, I orginally got the go ahead to build my "dream' tank in wall when we purchased our new house back in 2006, the basment was infinished and we worked with a local company to build out my "man cave" complete with the in wall reef.
I'd been keeping marine fish since 1987, but they were always FO and eventually I had a 95 RR that was FOWLR. When we moved I decided it was time to move to the next level!
So the tank has been running since early 2007 when I set it up, it was a mixed reef that I had my trials and tribulations with angels, newbie issues, etc...we then had twin girls in July 2007 and it sorta went to hell, I kept it going, but it was ok, nothing thrived.
So last year I turned over a new leaf and started doing 10% WC every two weeks and recently dosing brightwell potassion and kent iodine (minimumally as a supplement).
I also changed my bulbs (which I did regularly every 6-9 mo) to the following:
4 72" VHO's - 3X UVL 454 and 1X UVL Aquasuns (used to be 2X Super Act)
4 36" T5's - 4X Actinic+ by Guiessmann (from ATI blue+)
so far I like it, even brighter than before, but a little less purple, I might condisered swapping two of the t5's for those KZ purple bulbs or something next time, if I dont go LED.
I've added two Vortech MP40w ES's which I bought earlier this year and dumped the 4 korallia evo's.
the big change is I caught the "colored sticks" bug, so my tank is now predominantly SPS, with a few leftover LPS that survived and even one softie (Green Nepthea sp?)
I've pretty much been buying cheap SPS frags from MCF primarily (typically $10 or less) and with success have slowly moved up to more expensive pieces ($25+ for 1" frags of red planet or ora, etc). I've had really good results and growth since the beginning of the year and now I've got a tank that I'm someowhat proud of, but it needs more tiem for growth and I hope it keeps going.
pictures in the next post.
I'd been keeping marine fish since 1987, but they were always FO and eventually I had a 95 RR that was FOWLR. When we moved I decided it was time to move to the next level!
So the tank has been running since early 2007 when I set it up, it was a mixed reef that I had my trials and tribulations with angels, newbie issues, etc...we then had twin girls in July 2007 and it sorta went to hell, I kept it going, but it was ok, nothing thrived.So last year I turned over a new leaf and started doing 10% WC every two weeks and recently dosing brightwell potassion and kent iodine (minimumally as a supplement).
I also changed my bulbs (which I did regularly every 6-9 mo) to the following:
4 72" VHO's - 3X UVL 454 and 1X UVL Aquasuns (used to be 2X Super Act)
4 36" T5's - 4X Actinic+ by Guiessmann (from ATI blue+)
so far I like it, even brighter than before, but a little less purple, I might condisered swapping two of the t5's for those KZ purple bulbs or something next time, if I dont go LED.
I've added two Vortech MP40w ES's which I bought earlier this year and dumped the 4 korallia evo's.
the big change is I caught the "colored sticks" bug, so my tank is now predominantly SPS, with a few leftover LPS that survived and even one softie (Green Nepthea sp?)
I've pretty much been buying cheap SPS frags from MCF primarily (typically $10 or less) and with success have slowly moved up to more expensive pieces ($25+ for 1" frags of red planet or ora, etc). I've had really good results and growth since the beginning of the year and now I've got a tank that I'm someowhat proud of, but it needs more tiem for growth and I hope it keeps going.
pictures in the next post.
