Taqpol's 220 gallon custom Miracles tank!

[bruce 1]

I love this set up.

[Sardaukar]

Wow nice tank! Looking at your setup, I'm starting to think I'm doing Grad School wrong haha.

[ReefEnabler]

Hey Alex long time no see.


Read back a few pages and your tank was lookin NICE!.

Sorry to hear about your recent troubles though with the corals. I'd be surprised if lack of light was directly responsible for coral STN from the base, although I guess it's possible. You definitely make a good point that LED setups with efficient optics do have some drawbacks, namely their lack of ability to penetrade deep into complex branching corals. You get top lighting that's it. I bet light movers would really help, combined wit medium optics (light movers with tight optics seems somewhat pointless to me, not totally pointless but you'd never get any fresh angles).


I'm actually in the process of selling my tank right now (it's already sold, waiting on buyer to get it next month) since I am moving to a new house in Raleigh. I will likely be tankless for a few years, but I'm not giving up the hobby, perhaps shifting focus over to Hydroponic veggie gardening with LEDs for a while


I also lost a good number of my SPS corals (aka most), earlier this year. Mine was from working too many hours, then being lazy at home and not refilling my 2part dosers. So my alk was dosing empty air, and alk was getting into the low 4 zone for too long and one day things rapidly fell apart Since then all the LPS look great but I've been battling cyano ever since. I've been selling a few LPS here and there. Strangely, even when my tank is at its worst, I've never ever gotten above 0 on a nitrate test. Very strange to me! I've tried two kits also, Salifert and API.

[Bigjoe2531]

.........

[prop-frags]

Hi Alex, haven't heard from you in a while... How are things going?

[salali]

Dear Alex we need an update.

[Taqpol]

I'm going to come out and say it and hope that karma/murphy doesn't rebound and kick me in the hiney: I think that the tank has rounded the corner!

Coral colors are completely back, polyp extension is up, I can see visible growth tips on the SPS, and the sand bed is no longer completely covered in algae! My Nitrates are still much higher then I would ever want them to be, but since the corals look good I'm not letting it stress me out too much. This is good because I am about to inherit a small school of four Anthias from a friend and ReefSMART is just around the corner on November 12th! I'm definitely looking to pick up some more corals at an acceptable price soon to "Officially" test the waters.

Theres a small chance I will take some pictures this weekend, but I will most likely be preparing for a scientific conference in DC the following Monday and Tuesday.

[Taqpol]

Originally Posted by Sardaukar

Wow nice tank! Looking at your setup, I'm starting to think I'm doing Grad School wrong haha.

Sorry for the late reply. I think what it boils down to is that the cost of living in North Carolina is MUCH lower than in Cali. If I went to any of the UC schools I would probably have to live inside the tank with my fish.

That being said, grad school is really tough on a tank and it is probably smart not to have anything too complex. I've been in lab from 9:00 am to midnight for the past two days in a row, and without my auto feeder the fishies just would not have gotten fed.

[Taqpol]

Originally Posted by ReefEnabler

Hey Alex long time no see.


Read back a few pages and your tank was lookin NICE!.

Sorry to hear about your recent troubles though with the corals. I'd be surprised if lack of light was directly responsible for coral STN from the base, although I guess it's possible. You definitely make a good point that LED setups with efficient optics do have some drawbacks, namely their lack of ability to penetrade deep into complex branching corals. You get top lighting that's it. I bet light movers would really help, combined wit medium optics (light movers with tight optics seems somewhat pointless to me, not totally pointless but you'd never get any fresh angles).


I'm actually in the process of selling my tank right now (it's already sold, waiting on buyer to get it next month) since I am moving to a new house in Raleigh. I will likely be tankless for a few years, but I'm not giving up the hobby, perhaps shifting focus over to Hydroponic veggie gardening with LEDs for a while


I also lost a good number of my SPS corals (aka most), earlier this year. Mine was from working too many hours, then being lazy at home and not refilling my 2part dosers. So my alk was dosing empty air, and alk was getting into the low 4 zone for too long and one day things rapidly fell apart Since then all the LPS look great but I've been battling cyano ever since. I've been selling a few LPS here and there. Strangely, even when my tank is at its worst, I've never ever gotten above 0 on a nitrate test. Very strange to me! I've tried two kits also, Salifert and API.

Sorry to hear about your tank! I imagine that a break will be nice, especially while moving. Your last tank was so well designed and thought out I'm sure when you come back it will only be better. Let me know if you need any help storing equipment or whatnot.

Also sad that you had to leave the gorgeous house behind, but I assume that if you're moving its because you found an even better house with more expansion room!

[Megabite]

Hey man, read back a few pages and the tank is/ was looking GREAT! I'm sorry to hear about some of the problems you are/ were having. It's tough putting that much time in school and trying to take care of a large tank. I put off a tank when I moved due to time and now starting off with a smaller one for now trying to avoid problems. Goos luck mand and I know your tank will be looking great soon!

[gatorchem]

Glad things seems to be going better for the tank.

Oh I remember those long days and nights in the lab during grad school...Don't really miss those weeks!

[Taqpol]

The tank is ALIVE!

(Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone who has been asking for updated pictures!)







FTS as of 12/28/2011


With all the problems I had I don't have much growth to show for it, but the tank is now officially 1.5 years old!

[Taqpol]

I have a bunch of new corals that kinda look crappy, but they just finished their acclimation to LEDs (something I'm still getting the hang of). I am mainly uploading these for documentation purposes so a year from now i can show off how they started.

New Corals:

Green Millepora


Browned out ORA Pearlberry


Recovering Ponape Birdsnest


"Blue" Tenius


Yellow Tortuosa


Orange Monti Cap macro


My "Monti rock". A few pages back there is a picture of this that really shows off their growth.

[Taqpol]

Old Standby corals

Green Slimer


Bonsai-Like (Red Planet in the background)


Meteor Shower Cyphastrea


Tri-color Valida


Sunset Montipora (Encrusting over tube worms)


Frag of GARF Bonsai that almost died on me

[chrisv]

GARF Bonsai is sweet. Looking good Alex! Thanks again for watching the tank while I was away.

[Taqpol]

Thanks to my friend Chris for the Lyretail Anthias. They are doing great!



I think one of the females might actually be transitioning into a male, even though there is a male in the tank with them. Her colors are definitely distinct.


With the Lyretails in the tank the lone Carberryi feels safe enough to come out and eat. Which is good, because he was getting dangerously skinny.


Solarensis Wrasse

[Taqpol]

I recently picked up an arc eye hawkfish, as this was a fish I actually saw quite frequently while in Bora Bora. His antics are cute, and he has definitely claimed this spot on my bonsai-like coral because it is perfectly spaced for resting his fins.



His other favorite hiding spot


More cute fish

[Taqpol]

Tangs, tangs, tangs!

[chrisv]

wow! she sure is turning male! look at the pectoral fin spot! I wonder if she will go all the way or hang there for a bit...

Glad to see that things are going well!

[Taqpol]

So.... I think my carpet anemone ate an urchin. Yes, a spiky urchin.

One day I walked by the tank and the carpet anemone was swollen up huge and round, larger then a softball. Every once in awhile the nem will do that and be back to normal the next day, so I just let it be. The next day I walked past and the anemone was back to its normal size and shape, but right in front of it was the half decomposed urchin body with all of its spikes ripped off and strewn around the sand. I think the nem tried to eat it and then spat it out!

Pictures:







Have any of you guys ever heard of something like this?

[Padrino]

Alex,
Since moving my tank and switching to the vertex illumina 260, i have yet to see positive feedback, granted that the move was a massive shock to the tank however its been a few months and colors are definately not as vibrant or defined. Alot of my sps is kinda browned out or changing color. For instances my ORA pink lemonade is turning green. Well see what happens with the rest of the tank but im not convinced yet that LEDs are the way to go. However the reduced evap and humidity are great positives.

What are your thoughts so far?
Cheers
Rob

[Taqpol]

Originally Posted by Padrino

Alex,
Since moving my tank and switching to the vertex illumina 260, i have yet to see positive feedback, granted that the move was a massive shock to the tank however its been a few months and colors are definately not as vibrant or defined. Alot of my sps is kinda browned out or changing color. For instances my ORA pink lemonade is turning green. Well see what happens with the rest of the tank but im not convinced yet that LEDs are the way to go. However the reduced evap and humidity are great positives.

What are your thoughts so far?
Cheers
Rob

Hey Rob, sorry to hear about your tank troubles. Moving is hard and throwing in a finicky reef tank never makes it easier. As far as LEDs go, I have yet to see truly unequivocally positive results in my tank with my DIY LEDs either, but my tank has also just recently recovered from a series of bad events. At the very least I know my LEDs are growing SPS corals, but I feel like I need to get a few chemicals (nitrates...) in check as well as longer term stability before I make any true judgement calls.

Even if LEDs aren't the answer yet, I don't know if i could make any of the other light transitions at this point. I loved my T5's, but to light this size tank I would need at least eight five footers, if not twelve three footers. Add in the electricity bill of ~450 watts (minimum) of T5's and 12x$20 bulbs every twelve months and I will have paid for LEDs many times over. If I went the other way and did tried and true MH's over my tank (a much better idea considering the footprint), I know for a fact that i would need to add a chiller to the system with all of those associated woes.

Last but not least, while I have yet to achieve rousing success with my LEDs, others have. As far as coral coloration goes I always suggest checking out Sammy113's thread here on RC. I think it takes corals longer to adjust to LED light then other light sources, so since you have already dropped the money on the LEDs I would at least stick with it until you have some system stability before calling it quits.

[Taqpol]

I spoke too soon, apparently Sammy has a new build thread up for his 40 gallon. If anyone here likes some real amazing DIY work, or LEDs, or both, you should check this out:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2067118

[Taqpol]

No one's heard of the anemone-eating-urchin thing? I guess I should post about it in the anemone forum.

[Padrino]

Originally Posted by Taqpol

Hey Rob, sorry to hear about your tank troubles. Moving is hard and throwing in a finicky reef tank never makes it easier. As far as LEDs go, I have yet to see truly unequivocally positive results in my tank with my DIY LEDs either, but my tank has also just recently recovered from a series of bad events. At the very least I know my LEDs are growing SPS corals, but I feel like I need to get a few chemicals (nitrates...) in check as well as longer term stability before I make any true judgement calls.

Even if LEDs aren't the answer yet, I don't know if i could make any of the other light transitions at this point. I loved my T5's, but to light this size tank I would need at least eight five footers, if not twelve three footers. Add in the electricity bill of ~450 watts (minimum) of T5's and 12x$20 bulbs every twelve months and I will have paid for LEDs many times over. If I went the other way and did tried and true MH's over my tank (a much better idea considering the footprint), I know for a fact that i would need to add a chiller to the system with all of those associated woes.

Last but not least, while I have yet to achieve rousing success with my LEDs, others have. As far as coral coloration goes I always suggest checking out Sammy113's thread here on RC. I think it takes corals longer to adjust to LED light then other light sources, so since you have already dropped the money on the LEDs I would at least stick with it until you have some system stability before calling it quits.

Those are my exact intentions. This is also how I justified the cost of my vertex Illumina. Between cost savings a month and bulb replacements a year, it was less than 2 or 3 years for me alone. Not to mention that i have a fraction of the humidity in the house that I used too with MH/T5.