Sams 340 Gallon SPS dominated tank

[SamsReef]

Let me ask, in that two year time its been running, how many things have you changed in terms of lighting, equipment, salt, etc? My tank is almost two years now and it looks nothing like this I blame it on a number of things (dealt with pests, changed lighting several times, changed salt mix several times, had dosing troubles, removed my sand bed, and the list goes on) My goal now is to just leave it alone for once

No change in lighting. It has been running mixture of T5, halide and led since beginning. Have gradually increased flow as the corals have grown. I have taken the sand out once and added back some when I did not like the look. I have switched from dosing calcium, carbonate and mag to calcium reactor back to dosing. That is all I can recall.

 

[SamsReef]

How much rock do you have? Which salt do you use? Have you had any bad hitchhikers?

I use reef crystals and found them acceptable. Live rock around 600 lbs. Since I bought dry rock and buy small frags, no hitch hiker yet in this tank......hope that helps.

Sam

 

[thefuz]

Awesome reef!!

What about nutrient export, etc.? Looking forward to insights on that also. I'm working on a 250 build and am trying to sort out if I should go with regular carbon/gfo or something more exotic. Also have an oversized calcium reactor but will probably start out with dosing. Upgrading from a 90 so I'm not starting from scratch but I suspect the CaRx is overkill in the beginning. What made you switch back to dosing?

 

[SamsReef]

Nutrient export is simple, large reef octopus skimmer, lots of live rock, large Refugium and GFO and GAC in phosban reactors. I have tried carbon dosing and bio pellets. My LPS receded when I did. With above I get negligible nitrate and undetectable phosphate. I do not see a reason to get more fancy.

I switched back to dosing because I feel I have more control. I can up and down the dosage very easily. Hope that helps. Best of luck with your build.

Sam

 

[Reefcowboy]

Beautiful tank!

 

[SamsReef]

Beautiful tank!

Thank you. Appreciate the kind words. It's update time over the weekend

 

[SamsReef]

It was time to change the bulbs for the ATI instead shelled out $1200 and got 2 BRAND NEW AI HYDRA HD 52. Still figuring out but first impression I love it. Let's see how the week progresses.

Sam

 

[Sahin]

Update please. Do you still have the radium over the tank?

 

[Josh King]

Really nice tank with good growth! I plan on getting a calcium reactor eventually. Would you say that paired with your lighting provided the exponential growth?

 

[SamsReef]

Cannot pinpoint 1 or two things but here are the things I believe in -
- Calc reactor or 2 part(both have worked equally good, it's a matter of preference)
- good skimmer
- good wide spectrum Lights
- random flow
- right amount of nutrients
- no pests
- water changes
- not dosing anything other than what calcium reactor adds to the tank and
- most importantly stability. All are important factors in my opinion. We always tinker our tanks to push to next level. Some improves the condition and some backfires...but whatever you do, keep it slow.

As we speak, I have slowly phased out T5 and Halides to LEDs (AI hydra HD, Kessils and Radion G3 Pros). I like not having to change the bulb in my large T5 fixture but color fill was amazing in T5s. I get lots of shadowing with LEDS (even with five fixtures) but gotta love the controls.

Sam

 

[Josh King]

Funny, I was thinking of switching from all LED to LED and T5. I currently use aquaticlife and kessil LEDs. Seems to be working ok. Growth seems slow to me. But this is my first real reef tank. I only have a couple months of growth on sps so really nothing to compare it to. My montiporas are growing really well though!

 

[SamsReef]

some of the best SPS tanks are T5 tanks. no argument there. I have experienced it first hand. I just could not get myself to break my back trying to change the bulbs. More over, I can vouch for the radions and AI Hydras. they are both solid fixtures (with solid cost). I first tried a radion G3 over my frag tank and it can grow and color up corals pretty good.

 

[Diesel]

Can we say Old School tank here.
That's one awesome tank and crazy growth on corals.

Did you see this [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[SamsReef]

Can we say Old School tank here.
That's one awesome tank and crazy growth on corals.

Did you see this [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

Thanks man. I remember you from my dfwmas days...(used to go by zoa_king...). Moved to NJ 3 years back. Guess what they have basement here ...I finished my basement around this tank.

I am going to take a few updated FTS and picture of the setup before I take a few colonies down. Real estate is premium and am running out of it. gotta take some SPS and recycle them in my calcium reactor .

 

[Diesel]

Oh man, that's you?
WoW, all the way to NJ?
It wasn't cold enough in the BIG D for you?
Basements........... there are some in the BIG D too, you didn't had to move up north for that.

HAHA my moto........... recycle the SPS but I started a war in Houston to throw $300 frags in my CaRx
Now I cut a deal with some members as they give me their dead SPS and I'll give them 50% off on the packs.

 

[revhtree]

Love your beautiful reef!

 

[SamsReef]

Lol. Just to clarify, I am only going to recycle my montis, stylos and some green acros that nobody wants and grow like weed.

 

[TaylorPilot]

Canon T2i with Macro lens. I believe there is only one from Canon, which produces one to one Magnification. Also, the last few pictures are taken top down. the colors are always the best looking down.

Sam

They actually make 5. They have a 100mm 2.8, a 100mm 2.8 IS L, and a 180mm 3.5 L. They even make one that is a 65mm 2.8 1-5X magnification, but it doesn't have a focus, so you have to actually move the camera in and out to get it to the proper distance. It is pretty neat, but probably zooms too much for tanks. they also have a cheaper 65mm 2.8, but you can only use it on crop sensors (EF-S), not full frame cameras. I think the 100mm 2.8 Non-L is probably your best bang for the buck. They were actually cheaper when they first came out, but were so popular that they jumped up the price several $100. People who bought early (cheaper) models were actually selling their used ones and making money

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/c...Token=true&storeId=10051&ddkey=http:ClickInfo

I just started reading your build. The tank is pretty amazing!

 

[Marquiseo]

The Super Macro lens @TaylorPilot is talking about



Also, sending you a pm now TaylorPilot while I just remembered.

 

[TaylorPilot]

That was the video I was looking for earlier, but couldn't remember where I saw it!

I have actually played with one before. The DOF is literally paper thin. No way you're going to hand hold that thing at max magnification. You need a nice heavy tripod with a screw plate to move the whole camera back and forward.