Disaster's 80gal + 15gal SPS Reef Tank

[disaster999]

its a mix feeling for the red LED. i think its too cool if i dont have one. but its too red/purple if i have it on.

 

maybe if i put one red LED in the center running at a lower current, or a lower wattage bulb it might be better.

 

but then, its not like i stare at the sump that much anyways =P as long as my corals are reacting good with my LED (which they are) then im happy

 

before with the MH setup. the sps frags were just barely living, they were brown and wasnt growing much. but with the LED, the colors are coming back and the tips of the frag is turning colors again.

[bitts]

That's really interesting, since every ones always saying that mh is the only way to go.

[disaster999]

it was a 70w, magnetic ballast, cheapo floodlight housing, 2 year+ 20000k bulb...so i think thats why=P

 

i was too cheap to find a bulb thats 3 times more expensive than what i paid for the entire set.

[sammy113]

its a mix feeling for the red LED. i think its too cool if i dont have one. but its too red/purple if i have it on.

 

maybe if i put one red LED in the center running at a lower current, or a lower wattage bulb it might be better.

 

but then, its not like i stare at the sump that much anyways =P as long as my corals are reacting good with my LED (which they are) then im happy

 

before with the MH setup. the sps frags were just barely living, they were brown and wasnt growing much. but with the LED, the colors are coming back and the tips of the frag is turning colors again.

Today I installed my red LED right in the middle of the lamp. Swapped a cool white fo the red and my white string runs at lower power than blues so the color mixes very well. Also used a 80 degree lens for wider coverage. The rest of the LEDs use 60 deg lenses. I'm very happy with the results

[disaster999]

Today I installed my red LED right in the middle of the lamp. Swapped a cool white fo the red and my white string runs at lower power than blues so the color mixes very well. Also used a 80 degree lens for wider coverage. The rest of the LEDs use 60 deg lenses. I'm very happy with the results

 

evil was asking me about the red LED if i felt sick after looking at the tank with it. he was saying him and a few others have noticed it gave them motion sickness with the red reflecting off the water surface...you noticed anything like that?

[disaster999]

So its been a while since i updated this thread with pictures. I didnt want to take any because my tank was pretty ugly at this point....all thanks to these

 

I have this really tough red algae growing all over my rocks. They are a pain to get out and are anchored pretty good in my rocks. I have a sea slug in hope it would eat that stuff, but so far he havent touched it yet. I also have those caulerpa grape algae and the flat leave looking caulerpa growing ALL over my tank. I have no idea how those got in, but it did and its appearing everywhere. On top of all that, I have a flat worm problem as well. I have a 2 reactor, 1 with Rowa phos absorber and 1 with charcoal.

 

I tried adding 6line to my tank to help with the flat worm and tangs to help with my algae problem but they didnt survive long in my tank. For one thing, I'm constantly battling with ich. Somehow the fish already in my tank is immune to it, but whenever I tried to add new fish, they would die pretty fast. Tangs will survive for a 2-3 weeks before their whole body would be covered in white spots and eventually die. Small fish like the 6line would die within days. I think I need a better Q tank setup...

 

Enough with that, lets show you some pics of my SPS

 

Sold off most of my birdsnest frags and used some of the money i earned and bought this

 

Not much growth on this one, color changed a bit tho

 

Probably my fav picture yet. Too bad PE is very limited

 

Same kind, different color, better PE, but I'm not really sure what color this suppose to be

 

Cats paw

 

Growth from the base, this piece grew alot. I was told it was a milli, but the new growth is telling me otherwise

[bitts]

sorry if i missed it but how many of the birnest frags made it.

 

pics are awesome.

[disaster999]

all my frags made it...sold 15 frags

[disaster999]

wow..been over a month since i last updated...nothing as changed much. the green stag RTN on me so im left with the brownish blue one. the rest of the corals are all doing fine, some SPS is growing like weeds, some havent changed at all. algae problem is still a problem, the rowa reactor wasnt really doing much infact it was seriously clouding my water. took it offline last night and WOW my tank never looked so clear before. I finally am able to a tang in my tank. after living in my sump for a little over a month, i kept feeding it a few times a day fattening it up, feeding it all kinds of food...the hard work payed off and its ich free.

 

FTS

 

sps growth

Aug9th

Sept 22

 

blue tang

fat female clown

male clown

tail spotted blenny

[sammy113]

Damn! that's one fat clown lol sorry I missed your question in regards to the red LED. I didn't feel sick or anything because of it. Growth is nice. Your tank looks really good

[disaster999]

Thanks sammy.

 

yeah, that clown is really fat. shes been like that for a while, i thought shes full of eggs and ready to spawn soon, but havent seen her do so yet.

[bitts]

damn pics are great like always.

love that first one of the bleny.

[disaster999]

thanks bitts!

 

a few things happened since my last update...staying at the algae growing in my tank has pushed me to my limits till one day one day i finally snapped. i removed 90% of my rocks in my tank, mostly all the rocks with any sort of algae growth on it, and letting it air dry. i didnt care if there are corals attached to it. i saved as much as i could but left some zoas and monti to die since i have plenty of those. gonna dry them for around 2 weeks...i have an industrial strength pressure washer at home which i will blast my rocks with to get ride of any stubborn algae still attached. soaking it in fresh water for another week or so changing the water everyday to remove any decaying matter. once im pleased with my rocks im going to do my rock scape while they are out of the tank and have them epoxy puttied together into at least 3 large pieces for easy removal and scape later on. ill take a picture of my sad tank sometime this week.

 

still dont know what to do with my algae infested clams. i didnt want to kill it, but i dont want the algae to spread. i might sell it to local members for cheap and have them deal with the problem =P

[disaster999]

oh, and since i have all that going on, i might as well upgrade my sump as well. designing a more efficient pump with better flow design can accommodate for upgrades later

 

what do you all think?

[disaster999]

what my tank looks like as of now

 

90% of rocks are out of the tank to rid them of algae. more than half of my fish (tangs and chrmois) are dead due to flatworm exit =( i guess i live up to my name as the fish killer. at least my clowns and tail spotted blenny are still alive.

 

cleaned the sump and rearranged it a little too.

 

also, did some crude google sketch drawings of my new sump

[sammy113]

Sorry to hear that sucks. At least you got rid of the boogers and rock will come back clean algae free

[disaster999]

yeah, i rather start almost all over again than deal with the ridiculous amount or algae on my rocks. they are literally smothering my zoas and killing them. they are also preventing my sps to spread its base.

 

they are been cooked right now....i guess a month or 2 should rid the rocks of algae...doing another scape would be fun tho...this time im going to try and maximize space in my tank.

[MusicISUnlimited]

beautiful.

[disaster999]

nothing much to update, so i guess ill post up pictures of the SPS frag growing in my sump.

 

They are lacking color because they are in the sump with 6 white, 5 blue and 1 red LED light. I might have to add more blue led to get the color i want and better spread

 

anyways, here are some frag pictures

[sammy113]

Looking good. I'm actually dealing with some algae problem too. It was growing right in my zoa garden and they were all extended to catch some light. Managed to remove almost all by hand and will try to find something that will take care of the small spots

[bitts]

ok thats it we hate you & your bloody camera too.

Edited November 6, 2010 by bitts

[disaster999]

 

[sammy113]

hahaa!

[bitts]

[disaster999]

after almost 2 months of killing my rocks, curing it, scrubbing, i finally put all the rocks back and came up with a new scape. its similar to my old one, but moved all my rocks flush to the back wall so i have more space in front. it seems like there are a lot more space to put more corals too.

 

took a quick snap of how my tank sits right now. will probably do more rearranging later one depending how i feel about the overall scape