Before we get much further with the roast of this build, I do want to emphasize that despite its innumerable flaws, it’s a pretty successful tank.
It had one die off about 4 or 5 years ago when the ATO shut-off valve malfunctioned and stuck open. Lost a lot of coral...both in # and biomass. And before the LEDs went in, temp was a huge issue...even with remote filtration and a chiller. So, definitely some peaks and valleys the first 5-6 years. Last 5 years have been smooth sailing, and I’ve been able to establish the enviro quality and stability to allow me to now transition into more SPS. It will always be a blended reef, but I would like to start to fill it some of that hard to work with vertical space with some plating montis and acro colonies.
Typical parameters:
salinity- 1.025
temp- 78-80
pH- 8.0-8.2
alk- ~9
Ca+- ~420
Mg+- ~1350
PO4- 0.4-0.5 (I can easily get this down)
NO3- 15-20
I had the sump (170 total gal) built with a pretty substantial refugium. That said, I moved away from fuges years ago. I’m thinking about firing it back up and just managing it differently. When it was up before, I had a 150w MH pendant over it. I grew ridiculous amounts of mac-alg, and then I would put a
Euphyllia or similar in, and then just watch it dissolve away.
Anyway, the tank has initial design warts that simply can’t be removed. Some are major and create a lot more work for me. That said, the biggest problem I have with the tank is that it just gets filled up with coral, so I end up spending a lot of time cutting, moving and rearranging. I put a 4-head frogspawn in a little over a year ago and it’s already almost the size of a volleyball.
This was a pic from about 8mos ago. I ended up moving a bunch of stuff around because the Sinularia has overgrown both sides and we’re filling the entire open space in the middle:
That giant mushroom ended up splitting because it had grown onto two rocks and then one rock slid and started pulling it apart.
