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.
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.