Has anyone ever started over due to overgrowth/age?

[2Wheelsonly]

When I got into this hobby I was thrilled to get anything to grow and over time and frustration I began to develop an understanding of what grew and what didn't. In my experiences Montipora, Stylophora, and "green" acros seemed to grow easily and fast. Medium were the PC rainbows and Red Planet and all types of stag. Slow (any LPS) and most nice Tenius, ultra slow were the Millepora.

As I learned I would buy the confidence booster corals that would grow and give me reason to keep going. As I got better with all types of SPS I felt the easy to grow stuff became a pest.

Fast forward to today I have a 300G tank filled to the brim with SPS; some colonies are so massive I have to break them apart in the tank to even get them out as they are bigger than the Home Depot bucket i'd put them in. With that comes lots of problems...first getting to the rocks to blow them off is difficult. Hair algae that I never worried about in the early days becomes and issue because it grows at the base of the coral due to die off the light shade. The "easy" corals outgrow my prize $$$ sps at a rapid pace and can sometimes grow enough in a day to shade them. Flow and lighting become another concern. Even though i'm blasting 95% of 8 radion G4 pro across the top of the tank along with 8 ATI Blue + 54w bulbs I STILL have major shade areas due to overgrowth near the top.

Starting out I didn't look to the future; I placed my frags fairly close to each other and they eventually start growing into each other. To this day i'd say 90% of my coral losses came from warfare of growth. I have so many "if I could do it all over again" moments...

So now I am thinking about ripping most if not all out and starting over. Has anyone ever done this? It will be heart breaking as it usually takes 2 years for an army of frag plugs to start looking like an actual reef. I still remember how thrilled I was at year 2 as my tank really started to click. Nowadays I look at the tank and it's a color explosion but i'm starting to lose more than i'm used to due to overgrowth and inability to clean the crevices and remove pests due to the size. I'm still at a toss up and totally unsure of what to do but part of me thinks it would a lot of fun doing it over with what I know now and making sure to stay on top of growth patterns that I know will bite me later.

 

[JPergamo]

I would maybe use this as an opportunity to remove and sell a bunch of large colonies thst no longer interest you and use the money to invest in new coral that does. Unless you are looking to upgrade or downgrade tank size, shape or something else, why break down a very successful system? Just give it a makeover.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I would maybe use this as an opportunity to remove and sell a bunch of large colonies thst no longer interest you and use the money to invest in new coral that does. Unless you are looking to upgrade or downgrade tank size, shape or something else, why break down a very successful system? Just give it a makeover.

I don't sell due to the fact my tank has AEFW; I have learned to live with it by blasting corals weekly and using purge treatments. Even though purge isn't 100% it usually kills them back enough that they are not an issue for 3-6 months and coral growth explodes. I am 2 months into dbl flatworm stop doses and hoping this with my twice a year purge bomb gets rid of them.

This reason is why I think starting over would be a complete 100% rebuild. Might as well get rid of the AEFW even though IMO is extremely hard to prevent getting them if you're trying to populate a large system with SPS frags. The eggs are just too small and very easy to miss even from the most reliable vendors.

I do want to note, AEFW is not my reason for wanting to start over. I am in the "you can live with them" boat and while they do concern me, I don't look at it with doom and gloom like others in this hobby do.

 

[JPergamo]

I don't sell due to the fact my tank has AEFW; I have learned to live with it by blasting corals weekly and using purge treatments. Even though purge isn't 100% it usually kills them back enough that they are not an issue for 3-6 months and coral growth explodes. I am 2 months into dbl flatworm stop doses and hoping this with my twice a year purge bomb gets rid of them.

This reason is why I think starting over would be a complete 100% rebuild. Might as well get rid of the AEFW even though IMO is extremely hard to prevent getting them if you're trying to populate a large system with SPS frags. The eggs are just too small and very easy to miss even from the most reliable vendors.

Ah yes I understand. Can't hurt to start over. Growing out a system is the fun of it. Theres nothing like a new tank!

 

[Jon Fishman]

I see you’re in Floyd’s Knobs Indiana? I would say the Marathon station there is 317.2 miles away from me, and 5h29m drive, give or take, would be needed for me to show up with some large storage totes to help you clean out the tank.....


Hypothetically speaking....

 

[JPergamo]

I don't sell due to the fact my tank has AEFW; I have learned to live with it by blasting corals weekly and using purge treatments. Even though purge isn't 100% it usually kills them back enough that they are not an issue for 3-6 months and coral growth explodes. I am 2 months into dbl flatworm stop doses and hoping this with my twice a year purge bomb gets rid of them.

This reason is why I think starting over would be a complete 100% rebuild. Might as well get rid of the AEFW even though IMO is extremely hard to prevent getting them if you're trying to populate a large system with SPS frags. The eggs are just too small and very easy to miss even from the most reliable vendors.

I do want to note, AEFW is not my reason for wanting to start over. I am in the "you can live with them" boat and while they do concern me, I don't look at it with doom and gloom like others in this hobby do.

One other idea maybe to retain some financial benefit to breaking the system down, possibly start a frag tank temporarily, frag a bunch of colonies over time ensuring that the flatworms don't enter the system? Just a thought good luck whatever you choose!

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I see you’re in Floyd’s Knobs Indiana? I would say the Marathon station there is 317.2 miles away from me, and 5h29m drive, give or take, would be needed for me to show up with some large storage totes to help you clean out the tank.....


Hypothetically speaking....

Haha I live like 2 miles from that Marathon! LOL

It's crazy to think of the amount of clippings I removed from the tank (some 13 inches and larger) that someone would have killed to have. I just hate the liability of potentially giving someone AEFW; it's often a pain and major inconvenience to give stuff away. Literally buckets of frags that people are paying $50 for 1 inch...

Makes you wonder how many frags are discarded in this hobby... the most prized coral I have in my tank is this florescent pink milli, i'ts my pride and joy and I make sure to look at it every single day. The colors are just unreal to me and it almost looks like a plastic spray painted piece it's so bright and vivid. Apparently the guy who traded in to my local LFS had so much of it he hated it as his entire tank was pink and red. He threw away buckets of this coral before finally taking some small frags to our local LFS. He was throwing something away I make it a point to look at almost every single day that I feed my tank.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

One other idea maybe to retain some financial benefit to breaking the system down, possibly start a frag tank temporarily, frag a bunch of colonies over time ensuring that the flatworms don't enter the system? Just a thought good luck whatever you choose!

Thanks, I thought about this too...I may actually go that route. I'll slowly build one out over the course of the next 6 months and use that time to decide what I want to do. Even IF I decided to keep the tank I can use the frag tank to hold choice cuts of large colonies I decide to take out.

 

[Jon Fishman]

What I would do. Not necessarily the easiest....

Keep it running, set up a new tank (assuming you’re ok doing that in a different location) and set up yet a 3rd, smaller hospital tank and treat coral one at a time before putting them in the new tank.....

Treat aggressively..... may have some total losses, but if you have that much coral, even saving half of it would be worth the expense

 

[AngryMike2016]

May I ask for an FTS? Would love to see such an SPS heavy tank.

 

[Bramzor]

I've just done a restart. Had lots of GHA growing over everything. So what did I do:
- Let it grow till it covered everything and stopped growing.
- Pulled all the algae out (took a LONG time to do)
- Scrubbed all the rocks (inside the tank after removing almost all algae)
- Added algae scrubber and GFO to pull out everything that starts releasing PO4 again. To work towards 0 nutrients. Nutrients where already 0 because of the algae but when some is left in the tank nutrients might go up again so you need something to pull it out in a controlled way.
- Stopped dosing. Especially trace elements etc.
- Using the liquid form of NaOH to battle the small spots of algae that are left. I used 2ml each day (increases PH so can only use a few ml each day). Stopped the pumps for 30 minutes while injecting it in the algae. It's heavier than water so it will remain at one spot. If some of it floats, that's not an issue. But do not let it touch corals! After 2 days the treated spot shows no sign of algae anymore and stays algae free for some time.

Result: almost no more algae in my tank. If I see some algae, I inject some NaOH right on top of the algae. That's how I battle them at the moment and seems that I'm winning the fight. If I don't see any algae anymore, it's time to put in a fish or 2 that can eat algae to make sure I stay in front of the algae.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

May I ask for an FTS? Would love to see such an SPS heavy tank.

Sorry for the crappy cell phone photo, it's my most recent one when I was on vacation and asked my "cat feeder" to grab a shot of the tank to ensure all was well. It wasn't cleaned in over 2 weeks when photo was taken.

Tank is a 96x30x24, for scale that red planet near the center left is about the size of a volleyball.

 

[AngryMike2016]

I think that looks great!

 

[Jon Fishman]

Nice stand too. Very nice tank. I change my vote for “no reboot”

 

[Macdaddynick1]

I hear you, I am also considering breaking down my tank, it’s not as big as yours but it’s now packed with massive colonies that kill the flow and overgrown each other. Sometimes you become a victim of your own success. I also have flatworms but they don’t cause as much of a problem as I initially anticipated. It would be nice to get rid of them completely though. Give your Corals to the stores for credit and get some nice stuff instead. I’ll be following this thread, keep us updated.

 

[JCOLE]

@2Wheelsonly just checking in to see what you decided to do? Your tank looks great! I am wondering the same thing about my tank lately. I have a 150 gallon and have 76 pieces of SPS(Mostly smaller frags/mini colonies) and have 8 more pieces in my frag tank that I am trying to find places to mount them. I look at my tank every day and think man, in a year I am going to be busy trimming frags weekly.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

@2Wheelsonly just checking in to see what you decided to do? Your tank looks great! I am wondering the same thing about my tank lately. I have a 150 gallon and have 76 pieces of SPS(Mostly smaller frags/mini colonies) and have 8 more pieces in my frag tank that I am trying to find places to mount them. I look at my tank every day and think man, in a year I am going to be busy trimming frags weekly.

Hello! I ended up cutting a lot out and trading in for supplies at my LFS. I was able to rework the whole right side of the tank and add new rock structures (towers, bridges, caverns) cleaned up the middle. Relocated some and kept some colonies. I am thrilled with the results and put a large order of sps frags I have always wanted. (WD, BC Firecracker, Superman Table, Cherry bomb, pikachi, etc) once these all grow out the tank will be very, very colorful! It's nice to see smaller frags start to grow out again.

Here is how it looked after I cut the large stuff out with the new rock work. My slower growing stuff has all taken off (my orange passion has tripled in size).

This is right before I populated it with about 30 sps frags from sellers here, TKC, and JF.

Here is my BC firecracker, this is why I did it. Restart with more colorful frags that have room to grow:

Here is the tank shot with par values, everything is much improved without the smaller ones being suffocated and shaded by the quick growers...

 

[JCOLE]

Hello! I ended up cutting a lot out and trading in for supplies at my LFS. I was able to rework the whole right side of the tank and add new rock structures (towers, bridges, caverns) cleaned up the middle. Relocated some and kept some colonies. I am thrilled with the results and put a large order of sps frags I have always wanted. (WD, BC Firecracker, Superman Table, Cherry bomb, pikachi, etc) once these all grow out the tank will be very, very colorful! It's nice to see smaller frags start to grow out again.

Here is how it looked after I cut the large stuff out with the new rock work. My slower growing stuff has all taken off (my orange passion has tripled in size).

This is right before I populated it with about 30 sps frags from sellers here, TKC, and JF.

Here is my BC firecracker, this is why I did it. Restart with more colorful frags that have room to grow:

Here is the tank shot with par values, everything is much improved without the smaller ones being suffocated and shaded by the quick growers...

Tank looks awesome. I picked up the BC Firecracker also and cannot wait for it to grow out. That is great news it all worked out ok and you didn't have to start over. I am actually looking forward to doing this myself in a year or so. Once everything grows out then I will cut and make room for others. Goals right here.