"Past, Present, and Future" 143gadget's Tank History

143gadgets · Dec 27, 2006

I wanted to start a thread to show all of you my tank as it has evolved over the last 1.5 years. The tank was started on April 2005. I planned to start it with just LR and no corals, but after buying a PC fixture I decided to get some softies. In a couple months i managed to squeeze 770 watts of VHOs in the canopy ran by two icecap ballasts. At the end of summer 2005 I experienced my first tank crash. The tank overheated (~90 degrees) and killed everything. I was very upset and almost quit the hobby, but I vowed that this wouldn't stop me. I told myself that I would make a tank 10x better than this one. By the end of the year I upgraded to Metal Halides and increased my flow to two Seio 1100s. The tank also had various Softies, LPS, and SPS.

On January 2006, I decided to go Bare-bottom. I never had any algae problems, but I just wanted to try something new. I caught the SPS bug and wanted to get rid of everything else. I wanted to create the BEST environment for my SPS.

Soon after I added all kinds of equipment.
1. Tunze 6000 and 6100 w/ 7095 multi-controller
2. Aquacontroller
3. Deltec AP600

In around July of 2006 I decided to upgrade my skimmer to an AP701 and the 6000 to a 6100.

I have since went 100% SPS!!! I have however caught the zoa bug and began my new addiction.

Thanks for looking!!!

143gadgets · Dec 27, 2006

Tank at 3 Months

Tank at 12 Months

MarvinsReef · Dec 27, 2006

good read Chris.. can't wait to see more pics..

fishes2889 · Dec 27, 2006

Awesome! Any updated FTS's?

Steve

Smarsh · Dec 27, 2006

His tank is amazing. I bought a zoa frag pack from him and was completely awestruck by the beauty!!! Both in SPS and zoanthids. It was simply amazing

Sandy

JGoslee · Dec 28, 2006

Tank looks great Chris. Any pics of your zoa's/palys mixed in with your sps?

143gadgets · Jan 3, 2007

Here a a few shots from 2005. this is before I converted to Bare-bottom.

143gadgets · Jan 3, 2007

143gadgets · Jan 3, 2007

Here is the tank in Febuary 2006. At this point I had been BB for one month.

143gadgets · Jan 3, 2007

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

JGoslee · Jan 3, 2007

Your pics are awesome. Chris how are you getting such clear shots of your fish? Also do you have your rockwork up off the bottom?

fishes2889 · Jan 3, 2007

Absolutely awesome Chris!!

Steve

143gadgets · Jan 4, 2007

Thanks!!!

jgoslee- the rockwork is not lifted off the bottom. I placed them so that very little of each rock is touching the bottom. It took a while to get it right , but I LOVE it this way.