72 Bowfront raised from the dead

[Hornsby903]

We'll, 2012 was a rough year for my saltwater addiction. It began with a relocation from Texas to Illinois, which cost me a large Pink Jade colony, a large Super Pink Monti and 5 chromis. Of course, I was upset because of the losses but it was expected due to the length of time the livestock was bagged up and in transition. After settling in, I had an explosion of green algae and the tank was almost completely covered with green algae for about 8 months. Then.... We moved down the street and I crashed my first tank since getting into the hobby about 10 years ago. I lost almost everything except for my carpet anemones, a few zoas and chalices, and one maroon clown, which is now blind due to the crash. I decided to keep the clown and then built her a tank for her and her carpet anemone. She is hand fed every night by sticking pellets onto the carpet where she picks them off. I am not sure what caused the crash but it wiped out my tank in less than 8 hours so it was pretty aggressive. My only thought, maybe the die off from the green algae caused the crash. After all that, I left what little live stock that survived in my tank without the rocks and then cooked all my live rock to make sure and kill all the green algae. At this time, I about gave up on the hobby and sold everything.

And then....... I jumped back in over my head again and completely rebuilt my system. As a long time 250 watt MH fan, I finally broke down and bought two Apollo UV5000 LED fixtures and three Nano cube leds to replace all of my lights on all aquariums. I figured I didn't have anything to lose since all had already been lost anyway. So far.... I like the temperature stability the most!! I have yet to figure out the color loss on my chalices so I have yet to completely fall in love with LEDs.

I have slowly been restocking the tank to see how things do under the LEDs. The following is a list of livestock in the main display (72 bowfront):

Fish: Blue hippo tang, leopard wrasse, and a scooter blenny
Anemones: 4 mini carpets and a rose bubble tip anemone
Inverts: Tube anemone and the usual clean up crew
Zoas: Lemon drop morph, rainbow palys, ked reds, purple death palys, radioactive dragon eyes, tubbs blue, armor of gods, ninja turtles, and fire and ice zoas.
Chalices: blood red, ultra pink tip, cotton candy, and an unknown purple chalice
SPS: Purple monti cap, brown digitata, season's greeting monti, and bird's of paradise birdsnest
Acans: two unknown. One red and one bright green

I have a 20 gallon 48" tank, donated by JDavis, that I recently drilled and plumbed into my main system. This is where I have my maroon clown and large carpet anemone along with my collection of mangroves. I have two of the Apollo nano LEDs over this tank and the carpet anemone seems to be adjusting to the new lights just fine.

Finally, all of this is tied together into a 40 gallon custom made sump/refugium. At the moment, I am finishing up the cabinet doors and rebuilding my canopy to house the new LED fixtures. I attached a few pics but not much to see since I only have frags scattered around the tank.

 

[ritter6788]

Can't believe you finally made the switch to LEDs.

Looking good so far!

 

[MarvinsReef]

good luck from here on. hope 2013 will be a great year for yah and the tank.

 

[wysiwyg]

hope 2013 is alot better for you

 

[Rockhead]

Not to a Debby downer, but after having the Apollo leds on my sps tank I lost almost all color in my corals, every tank is different, needless to say I'm back to T5s and my tank looks great. I ran the leds for 6 months.

 

[JDavis]

Glad to have you back! Addicts are meant to share.... I'm sure we'll see lots of progress soon

 

[Hornsby903]

If my tank would not have crashed I would never had made the switch to LEDs. At this point, I figure if I can't maintain the color I like in a particular coral then I will just trade it off for something else. I have passed the point of no return!! It is kind of strange how only certain pieces lost their colors and its really only the chalices at this point. The red and greens look better under LEDs while the purples, blues and pinks seem to have washed out. I am playing around with the location of the chalice frags to see if they need to be shaded from the intense lighting.

Good to be back JDavis.... What happened to Pookie!?

I am finishing up the final touches on the canopy tonight. I hope to have some more pictures tomorrow.

 

[JDavis]

Pookie passed a couple of months back. Never really got to understand why. Look forward to see what kinda canopy you come up with.

Just an FYI- This guy builds the nicest custom stands!

 

[Hornsby903]

The canopy is real close to being completed. First, I have to finish making the brackets to mount the LED fixtures so I can get rid of the cables. Then I have to come up with something to mount my auto feeder inside the canopy.

The blue tang is doing great! Believe it or not, this is the first blue tang I have ever had. She stays busy in the tank and is not startled at all when I reach into the tank.

I used the plastic you see over office lights on the canopy door. I wasn't sure how it would look but it turned out really good on the canopy.

The door on the canopy is one large door. This makes it easy to get in and work in the tank. The canopy is an exact fit all the way around the aquarium to keep the jumping fish from carpet surfing.

 

[Hornsby903]

The tank I got off of JDavis about a year ago.

I needed a tank for my carpet and blind clown so I finally drilled the tank and plumbed it into my system. It was only meant to be a frag tank but my wife and I like the look so much that I am going to build a stand/canopy for it and move it into the sitting room.

The carpet anemone I have had since the beginning of time. It did not like the Apollo nano lights at first but it has finally settled down and is starting to look good again.

The sump that I built out of a 40 gallon breeder. It used to be stuffed in my stand and now it is back behind the tank, which makes it a lot easier to clean and maintain.

 

[Hornsby903]

A few pieces I picked up yesterday.

Unknown

Purple Digitata

Larry Jacksons Acro and Red Plant Acro

 

[Hornsby903]

Update on LED's: When I finished my canopy I cranked up the LED's, up to 90% White and 100% blue, after thinking that everything already had enough time to acclimate to the new lighting. Immediately after that, my zoas stopped multiplying and my chalices started looking bad. I am now back down to 50% white and 60% blue to see if my colors start coming back and the zoas start growing again. I don't have a PAR meter so I am using my corals to fine tune the intensity of the lights. Is it normal to turn down LED fixtures that much?

BTW.... My SPS frags look great! Good coloration and growth but they are on the sand bed right now. Even the unknown brown frag is starting to change to a really nice blue and yellow color.

 

[ritter6788]

I'm still using the old 1 watt LEDs so I can't say for sure. I do notice a lot of people running the 3 watt LEDs at full blast complain about the color loss. It's a lot of light especially with optics. It takes LPS a long time in my tank to adjust and keep color.

 

[JDavis]

Yeah, if your SPS is doing great on the sandbed, everything else is getting to much light for sure. Your gettin' it figured out

 

[ritter6788]

I'm still shocked your using LEDs! :xd:

 

[revhtree]

Nice additions!

 

[Hornsby903]

I'm still shocked myself Ritter! Actually, my MH fixtures are up for sale. :bigsmile: I figured there was no going back now. There is still something visually strange about the LEDs to me though. They just don't seem to have the good crisp look that a MH has. But I am getting old so maybe its just my eyes. :nerd: However, no heat and no excess evaporation is a good trade off. I like having my canopy down on the tank instead of hanging from the ceiling with 6 fans blowing through it. I will figure these things out and make them work.

 

[ritter6788]

Same here. Not much better than MH shimmer except not having to buy bulbs ever. I've only had my LEDs for 2 years but it has saved me $ in bulb replacement more than the cost of the fixture already.

 

[EpicWin]

So. I moved my stuff from Colorado to Texas. I lost almost everything. Lol we live we learn. Question. Did u try and leave ur old sandbed in the tank when u moved? If so there is ur algae problem and crash.

 

[revsgirl]

Lookin' good!