disaster999's Reefing Adventures

[disaster999]

Ive been lurking around for a while on R2R but never really posted anything about my tank. Ive been reefing for 10+ years and have a few tanks over the years so I will give you a TL;DR version.

My first ever tank was a 14g AIO that I designed and built back in my college days

During my last year in college, I built a 12g acrylic tank, sump and stand and decided I like it so much that I would bring it back home with me to Hong Kong

Eventually I grew out of this small 12g tank, but I still loved the stand since I built it so I decided to upgrade the tank itself to a 20g

Eventually a 20gal was too small for me and wanted something bigger. So I bought a 100gal system

The 30inch high tank was getting annoying as I had to climb into my tank every time I needed to work on the tank so I broke the tank down once again and bought a 24" tall rimless tank, ~80gals

At this point my tank suffered a crash and lost most of my fish and corals. At this point Ive killed and cooked all of my rocks and decided to start over again.

My tank never went back to its former glory and I was getting discouraged. It was time for me to move too and I was able to land an awesome deal on a large tank. Most of you might of heard of V1_Rotate. He was getting out of the hobby and I picked up his tank

After about 2 years I had to move again to a smaller place and this 160 gal wasnt going to fit in my new place. So I sold it for as much as I paid for it and went back to my old 80gal tank. I also plumbed my 20gal tank together as a frag tank

Here it is as it sits right now. Coral colors is VERY meh and Im hoping using the full line of Aquaforest product will help improve the colors. Im also debating to go either switch to AI LEDs or T5Ho as I dont think the Maxspect lights are performing that well.

 

[Mal11224]

You've had quite an adventure. Nice looking tanks. I honestly would use T5 HO lights. I use 4 along with a Kessil AP700. I love it. With all of those acros, why not consider a MH lighting setup.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

You've had quite an adventure. Nice looking tanks. I honestly would use T5 HO lights. I use 4 along with a Kessil AP700. I love it. With all of those acros, why not consider a MH lighting setup.

I love the growth with T5, how natrual metal halide looks, and the pop led’s give. I wonder if anyone has tried a 3 way combo.... I might have to try that soon.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Disaster999 what lighting were you using on the 80 gallon? The colors and coral look amazing! Sweet colonies on your last photo did you grow them yourself? I agree with Mal on this one you should try some Metal halides, i cant imagine how amazing this tank will look with some 14k metal halides!

 

[disaster999]

You've had quite an adventure. Nice looking tanks. I honestly would use T5 HO lights. I use 4 along with a Kessil AP700. I love it. With all of those acros, why not consider a MH lighting setup.

Cant really argue about the colors it produces, but MH is not really an option for me. It does not justify the power needed, heat produced and the frequent bulb changes required.

Disaster999 what lighting were you using on the 80 gallon? The colors and coral look amazing! Sweet colonies on your last photo did you grow them yourself? I agree with Mal on this one you should try some Metal halides, i cant imagine how amazing this tank will look with some 14k metal halides!

The first picture of the 80gal I was using a custom built LED light on that tank. That was pretty much the peak of my reefing days...since then its just been downhill from there and really hoped it can be revived again.

The last picture all those colonies i grew myself. Some were bought that big tho, but have grown quite a big since they were added to the tank. The top left one probably tripled or quadrupled in size, the acans on the lower right was about the same. The frogspawn probably grew about 10 folds but it fragged itself under its own weight. The rest probably grew around 25-50% since adding to the tank.

 

[FactoryKTMmotocross46]

Update!

 

[disaster999]

Such an honor to be featured, I didnt think my potato of a tank would be picked, especially I havent updated it in over a year.

To pick up where I left off. I started using Aquaforest products hoping it will help my tank. Their dosing products, their additives, nutrients etc but Im still not really seeing much significant changes after a year with Aquaforest. I thought it had something to do with my old Maxspect lights since I had them for at least 4 years now so I started researching and looking around for a new light. I got talking to my reef buddies and he suggested Noopsyche LEDs. I started researching them and looking online to find where I can buy them. I found them on a popular Chinese online shopping platform, Taobao, and was able to buy 3 lights with hangers and the controller for WAY less than 1 Radion or 52HD.With these new lights I can see a significant different with my corals. They are reacting really well with these new lights and can see a lot more polyp extension with them.

All was going well until my tank started to have a mini crash. I am a homebrewer as well and uses my constant 24c tank water as a water bath and ferment my beer inside a stainless steel container as well. Ive done this multiple of times and never had a problem, up until this stainless steel vessel cracked on it and started rusting pretty badly. Non of the beer content ended up in my tank, but I guess the rust was bad enough to cause a mini crash in my tank. It halted some of the progress I was having, but I was able to stop the crash by using carbon to soak up as much contaminates in my tank, frequent water changes and got away with minimal losses. A lot of my corals was bleached but they are slowly recovering right now.

Here are some comparison pictures in just 2ish weeks
FTS 20th June 2019 (when I got the lights)

FTS 7th Aug 2019

FTS 25th Aug 2019

7th Aug 2019

25th Aug 2019

7th Aug 2019

25th Aug 2019

7th Aug 2019

25th Aug 2019

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Such a beautiful reef!!