72g to 75g

[tinyreef]

old 72g AGA bowfront tank

 

the newer 75g Oceanic tank (little alcove all to itself with window for supplemental sunlight)

 

yeah, it's not much of an upgrade as volume goes but moving from a 72g AGA to a 75g Oceanic is still night/day in terms of quality and peace of mind. i'd been worried that the 72g would just collapse after all these years. not really that long compared to my old fw tanks but the 72g's taken more abuse.

 

the lighting was just changed too (20000K to 14000K) to limit the blueish. the colors are coming out a bit better in pics (used to be just purple/blue).

 

in the picture the tank's been running for approximately 1-hour so forgive the ticked off corals, slight cloudiness, and smeary glass (sw drippings). i just tossed all the rock and corals in whereever there was space. i still need to aquascape a bit. the only aquascaping i've done so far was to make sure some corals weren't smooshed or buried. so far so good though. the sarcos have already taken to the tank and are re-sprouting.

[proraptor2]

why did you take down the bowfront tiny? I have a thing for bow's! The new tank looks nice though

[tinyreef]

thanks, pro! there was a number of reasons why i wanted to swap tanks though.

 

originally, i wanted to upgrade bigtime, to a 240g~500g but i had 2nd thoughts after talking with raywhisperer about a tank supplier and the timing just wasn't there. so upgrading to a bigger tank was the first real reason. the 3-gallons that actually turned out ain't much though, d'oh!

 

the bow was set up when i was still newb'ing around (end of '98). i didn't even know enough to call what i was doing "reefing" at the time. although i knew some since i had been reefing for a couple of years by then but still not a lot (i started with AGA stock NO lighting, 1-bulb...please stop laughing, you're hurting my feelings ). so the rock layout was kinda just tossed together and only by happenstance and luck did it not turn out to be a brick wall.

 

i've always found the underside of the reef to be just as interesting as the top-side (cryptic zones). so this time around i planned/designed a lot of crevices, spurs/grooves, valleys, ledges, and caves but all still viewable to some degree. so redoing the layout/aquascaping to viewing and cryptic zones was another major reason.

 

the bow was nice but i never liked the odd shape. it forced one-side to be the front (naturally). with the rectangular format i've done a 4-side viewing format instead. the "front" is still the most accessible side and laden with more corals but the "back" is still pretty wide open and viewable. so a new look and layout tank-wise was also a factor. the new setup allows me to really put what i've learned (and still learning) into doing it like i think it should be done.

 

also, as i noted above, i really was worried about the stand and setup rotting from underneath. the quality of the AGA just can't compare to the Oceanic. i mean i literally carried the AGA by myself and put it into place. it took me and my brother to huff&puff (yeah, we're older. shaddup) this oceanic into place. no fricking way i could've done it by myself.

 

i'll be posting some pics as the tank settles in.

[tinyreef]

the new 75g still settling in (view from the end of the tank, that's me in the guinea-tee in the reflection ).

 

closeup of my sarcophyton roseum (all p*ssed off ). you can see some of the shedding on the edges but it finally seems to be adjusting.

[CGNano]

Looking good so far, Tiny. Good luck with it.

[adinsxq]