Crabs McJones
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My Tank Thread
I've had my tank up and running now for almost 2 and a half years. About 6 months in I ditched the hang on back equipment and bought an Aqueon Proflex 1 sump. I immediately set it up to accommodate a refugium. I put sand, rock rubble, and filled it with water and ordered my algea. I started out with flat blade caulerpa and a cheap marineland led light. Kept it this way for the better half of a year, and the caulerpa took off. After a little incident, I ended up upgrading to the Proflex 2 sump. Bigger all around and had a larger refugium chamber and return chamber to house my new Reef Octopus skimmer. Kept the same light, and transferred the caulerpa over. Long story short, I ended up switching to chaeto. After reading about caulerpa possibly going asexual and nuking the tank, I switched. The light I had was not even close to strong enough as the chaeto kept turning white and disintegrating into nothing. So I purchased a Kessil H80 after hearing great reviews about it on forums and supplier websites. Ordered a new batch of chaeto and hoped for the best. Chaeto came in, and same thing, the chaeto would white out after 2 to 3 days and die off. I knew I had the nutrients because I had GHA all over my display tank, and I was intentionally feeding heavy to give the Chaeto a chance to outcompete the GHA for nutrients. I went through probably 4 or 5 balls of chaeto. I even started dosing iron by recommendation of other users with the same issue. Still nothing so I decided to throw in the towel. I sold the H80 and used that plus my christmas money from my parents and bought the Kessil H380. Bought another baseball size ball of chaeto, and hoped for the best. Boy what a pay off. My baseball size ball of chaeto (purchased november 27th) has now exploded into almost a basket ball size! This light has outperformed even my expectations. I believe ryan from bulk reef supply said it best that a 13 watt light (H80) can't compete with the 185 watt light (AP700) in the display tank for the nutrients. And I'm noticing my green hair algae problem and other algae problem in my display tank slowly dwindling down. I am extremely happy with this light, and anybody who asks what refugium light to use will always get the H380 as a recommendation from me. Unfortunately it is pretty pricey ($300) but it's well worth the investment. I apologize for the long run, but hope that you found this useful and enjoyed reading it.
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