Back in mid-2015 I started my latest reef tank, a 187 gallon aquarium. For the first time I decided to use dry rock instead of live rock and I had one problem after another, including diatoms, a bacterial bloom and the worst pest I ever encountered, dinos. Ultimately, I was never able to grow SPS like I had in the past so I decided to re-boot the tank and try again with live rock.
You can read more about the re-boot here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/time-to-reboot-my-tank.297700/
The re-boot happened in June of last year and for the first 6 months the tank was struggling....it was either very low phosphates or a rusty magnet on a frag rack....maybe both, but my LPS were dying and my SPS frags were either dormant or flaming out. I ended up doing a series of very large water changes, switching salts and getting rid of the rusty magnet
Right after that (January 2018) things started to turn around. Below are some shots of the tank as of today. IMO, this represents growth over the past 10 months since that is when the rebound occurred.
Oh, some info about the setup....
You can read more about the re-boot here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/time-to-reboot-my-tank.297700/
The re-boot happened in June of last year and for the first 6 months the tank was struggling....it was either very low phosphates or a rusty magnet on a frag rack....maybe both, but my LPS were dying and my SPS frags were either dormant or flaming out. I ended up doing a series of very large water changes, switching salts and getting rid of the rusty magnet
Right after that (January 2018) things started to turn around. Below are some shots of the tank as of today. IMO, this represents growth over the past 10 months since that is when the rebound occurred.
Oh, some info about the setup....
- Lighting - Two Giesemann Spectra 24″ Fixtures with 400W 20K Radium bulbs + T5s
- Skimmer - Deltec SC 1456 Internal Skimmer
- Nutrient Control - Pax Bellum ARID C30 Algae Reactor
- Ca/Alk Supplementation - ESV 2 Part Ca & Alk dosing via a GHL Doser 2.1, dKH monitoring via GHL KH Director
- Royal Exclusiv 2L Media Reactor - Activated Carbon
- Royal Exclusiv Dream Box Sump