Diving The World's 80g Acro Wonderland!

[Kyle T.]

After giving this thread a thorough read as I’m gearing up to set a similar sized tank up myself that will be an Acropora dominated tank, is there anything you’d have done differently if you were to start over again?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

After giving this thread a thorough read as I’m gearing up to set a similar sized tank up myself that will be an Acropora dominated tank, is there anything you’d have done differently if you were to start over again?

Started with a tank about double the size?

Seriously though, not a lot. I would have started with T5 instead of LED. If I was adding lighting now with what’s currently available, I’d probably do two Radion XR30s with 4 T5 in a hybrid fixture. But what I have now works well and I’m not changing.

I’d have built my stand a couple inches higher so I could accommodate my skimmer’s auto cleaner. Dumb mistake...

I’d have set up my tank about an inch more away from the wall so my MP40s would fit better.

I’d have done an external overflow, although those were much less common when I bought my tank.

I’d have not tried to chase ULN the first year or so of my tank and run lower Alk (7.5). The first year my Alk was around 9 with ULN and I killed a lot of acros.

But all that said, I really love my tank and I’m very fortunate to have a wife who doesn’t hassle me too much about it. But she’s well aware that if anything happened to her, the couch next to the tank would be moved and I’d be ordering about a 200g...

 

[DivingTheWorld]

BC Miss Scarlet

 

[Kyle T.]

Thanks for sharing that information. I’m setting up a 70g Cadlights tank and planning on going T5 since I have a 36” fixture on hand and can save some money for coral.

I love your BC Miss Scarlet and BC Shades of Fall. I got both from Adam about a month ago, they have encrusted slightly but I bottomed our nutrients and got a Dino bloom. After 3 weeks of them looking kissed im starting to get more polyp extension and color again!

 

[DivingTheWorld]

 

[DivingTheWorld]

WWC Forgemaster & RRU Red Bull

 

[drawman]

WWC Forgemaster & RRU Red Bull

Will be looking forward to seeing the growout on that forgemaster!

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Will be looking forward to seeing the growout on that forgemaster!

So far it’s looking similar to my RRU Hades. I find often you need to grow acros out before you can see their true colors.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Vivid Confetti

 

[DivingTheWorld]

TGC Cherry Bomb

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

 

[DivingTheWorld]

JF Homewrecker & CB Maleficent with a couple others photo-bombing.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

RRU Pink Floyd

 

[DivingTheWorld]

TSA Bill Murray

 

[ScottB]

WWC Forgemaster & RRU Red Bull

Where did all this bare rock come from? What have you been doing all this time?

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Where did all this bare rock come from? What have you been doing all this time?

I remove older corals and replace them with newer ones. I’m always making changes to keep it more interesting.

 

[ScottB]

I remove older corals and replace them with newer ones. I’m always making changes to keep it more interesting.

Smart. I will be doing that going forward. I let mine run about 4 years and it looked great for the middle two or so, before getting clogged and shaded out. One photo from the middle period. One photo of harvest time.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Smart. I will be doing that going forward. I let mine run about 4 years and it looked great for the middle two or so, before getting clogged and shaded out. One photo from the middle period. One photo of harvest time.

Looks great. I wish I had a huge tank that I could really grow my colonies out in, maybe a 300g. Mine end up hitting the sides and then they don't look as nice. So I usually try to keep them trimmed before they get there. Luckily we have a good sized group of reefers in the Bay Area so plenty of people looking for frags.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

RRU Hades

 

[Overfloater]

Wow, this tank is amazing. I just read through the entire thread.

It seems you are only using 2 mp40 and the return nozzles for flow. That doesn't seem like much flow when you read for the most part everyone saying to use as much flow as you can without flesh blowing off.

You definitely should post a video of your flow.