(HD720p)S.MAC 600g SPS System/Full MH + Solaris/Surge/Prop/Fuge/Pond Chiller

[REEF SMAC]

[REEF SMAC]

[Reef_Noob]

Wowwzzy Steve this is extremely Macroficent I mean magnificent
So much detail I think one can make out whether the coral is male or female
Great snaps you are mastering the art!!

[Acronic]

Mmmmmm tasty corals. Keep em coming Steve!

[klepto]

Great images Steve! I need to come visit some time soon.

Keep it up!

[steevareno2002]

Great tank! do you notice the corals coloring up more under MH vs. LED?

[REEF SMAC]

Originally Posted by Reef_Noob

Wowwzzy Steve this is extremely Macroficent I mean magnificent
So much detail I think one can make out whether the coral is male or female
Great snaps you are mastering the art!!

Originally Posted by Acronic

Mmmmmm tasty corals. Keep em coming Steve!

Originally Posted by klepto

Great images Steve! I need to come visit some time soon.

Keep it up!

Thanks you guys! Thanks for looking.

Originally Posted by steevareno2002

Great tank! do you notice the corals coloring up more under MH vs. LED?

Thank you steevareno2002.

I really did find much of a difference when my LEDs were new. They worked really well for me, for well over a year. The colors they were putting out were just fine. They soon deteriorated quickly after that though.
I still have some 4 year old LEDs still running over my QT tank but they won't grow anything but brown corals at this point.

50,000 hours my a$$.

[REEF SMAC]

Hello all,

Haven’t put any updates on here for a while. So here goes a little update for you all.
I’ve been doing a major hack job on a whole bunch of stuff for a period of several months now. So much of my corals were just getting too large. Not really a bad problem to have actually, it was just getting to the point where the entire top canopy of my tank was just one solid coral mass. I was getting many corals that were dying at the bases from not being able to get any light and at the same time growing all the way to water surface and/or growing outward to where they were touching my viewing windows and making it really difficult to clean them. In fact, the entire lower half of my tank was becoming really shaded and just wasn’t able to get much light at all. I was actually losing corals in the lower half of my tank that used to do really well and had just been shaded to the point of being brown and/or dead.
I’ve been spending many hours cutting out large colonies, chopping off all that lower dead underbrush, and replanting them back as a more manageable size. I’ve also tried to rearrange some of their placements, putting some of the ones that really table out solid to lower areas where they don’t block out the light to everything below them. This never seems to work too well as they all seem to table pretty much once the reach a certain size, but I'll keep trying.
Some corals have responded well to the new changes, some not so well. Some of the ones that weren’t getting much light, being shaded from above, suddenly are getting a ton more light. Some of those are looking better every day and others bleached from the light shock and still are pretty mad (or even dead). Some of the ones that I moved to different locations like their new spot, others hated it and RTNed. I’ve been trying to accomplish this task in phases, that way not causing too much of a shock to my system at one time.
Overall it’s been positive so far. I never really seem to be able to make everything in my tank happy at the same time though anyway.
I put this project off for a long time, probably too long, knowing what a chore this was going to be. I still have a ways to go, as this is still a work in progress.

Here are a bunch of pictures I took before I began this massacre.

[REEF SMAC]

[REEF SMAC]

This Oregon Tort was up out of the water with my main pump off. I lowered it down about 8”.










This Strawberry Lemonade grew massive onto the end of this piece of Tonga branch. I used a Sawsall blade on a handle to cut through the Tonga branch so I could move the entire colony. It was a beating but it worked.









And of course the FTS-

[REEF SMAC]

Here is a shot of three buckets of coral skeletons that I cut out of my tank. I think this is actually pretty close to the same amount of media that I’ve dissolved in my CA RX over the few years it took to grow these corals. There is quite a bit of kalk in there somewhere too.





So after this coral massacre my tank is looking like this now--

[Reef_Noob]

Hiya Steve,

Ok now it's official you are a "Coral Serial Killer"
Jokes apart what an amazing update. I would say this is Reefing at one of its best. I can very well imagine the hard work you had put into trimming and relocating corals. Wow!!!
You should be so proud you have achieved such "nitrous" accelerated growth in your system. And corals looking truly beautiful even after the "massacre" in your terms

Welcome back "Coral Gardener"

You are a true inspiration to me and everyone who loves SPS. I was feeling lazy but going through this update has recharged my batteries and I'm gonna go finish plumbing my new tank...Right now!
Thank you for sharing your journey.

[REEF SMAC]

Here is the newer FTS version-












Thanks for looking!

Reef on!

[Bax]

If you have to have a problem with your reef tank....What a great problem to have!

Looks great and the fish seem really happy with more swimming room!

[Santoki]

It's always a pleasure to see your updates. Without a doubt one of the of most well thought out systems I've seen and complete without being unnecessarily complex.
I think the surge system is almost certainly responsible for the density you're able to achieve. Now I just have to buy a new house so I can incorporate a surge system like yours!

One question regarding your early LED experiences...
You mentioned that it worked well for the the first year or so but then wasn't so good after that initial time. Do you know what type of emitters were used in your LED system? Do you think output dropped after the first year or was it a shift in spectra?

thanks and keep up the awesome work.
-Robert

[Moser]

Wow!.
Do you think it's worth cutting the lighting schedule to re- acclimatise everything?...

Mo

[coralreefdoc]

Excellent results, Steve ! Both before and after ... Well done

[albano]

Originally Posted by Santoki

One question regarding your early LED experiences...
You mentioned that it worked well for the the first year or so but then wasn't so good after that initial time.

have you changed your lighting?

[klepto]

Looking great Steve! I like how much the new scape opened things up for all of the fishes.

Keep the photos coming!!

[REEF SMAC]

Originally Posted by Reef_Noob

Hiya Steve,

Ok now it's official you are a "Coral Serial Killer"
Jokes apart what an amazing update. I would say this is Reefing at one of its best. I can very well imagine the hard work you had put into trimming and relocating corals. Wow!!!
You should be so proud you have achieved such "nitrous" accelerated growth in your system. And corals looking truly beautiful even after the "massacre" in your terms

Welcome back "Coral Gardener"

You are a true inspiration to me and everyone who loves SPS. I was feeling lazy but going through this update has recharged my batteries and I'm gonna go finish plumbing my new tank...Right now!
Thank you for sharing your journey.

Hey Noob, Thanks for all the kind words and for checking up on me my friend.


It should be official by now, cause I’ve killed a lot of corals over the years. Lol.

I’m glad fellow reefers like yourself can relate to how much work this hobby can turn into sometimes.
It’s funny how you can just start trimming this, moving that, while you cut this, it broke that, so you decide to move that too, but first you have to move that, so you can move this, next thing you know it’s midnight and you’ve had your hands in the water for 12 hours.
Then the next day your spouse and non-reefing friends look at your tank and say “What did you do? I don’t see anything different.”

Glad to hear I got you inspired to work on that new setup of yours.

Originally Posted by Bax

If you have to have a problem with your reef tank....What a great problem to have!

Looks great and the fish seem really happy with more swimming room!

Thanks Bax,

Some do like the extra swimming room and others I think are kinda upset cause I rearranged a lot of their hiding spots.
It’s been interesting to watch all my fish constantly swimming around trying to learn the new scape. I actually lost my large Naso when I went out of town for several days after rearranging my scape quite a bit. For some reason he trapped himself up inside some coral colonies I had moved. It looked like he swam into a crevice, maybe one he was used to swimming through for a long time, but this time he ended up trapping himself there where he couldn’t go forward and couldn’t figure out how to go backwards either. I think he just panicked, thrashed around until he killed himself. (or had a heart attack) I’ve had him for more than 5 years so I was pretty bummed about it.

[REEF SMAC]

Originally Posted by Santoki

It's always a pleasure to see your updates. Without a doubt one of the of most well thought out systems I've seen and complete without being unnecessarily complex.
I think the surge system is almost certainly responsible for the density you're able to achieve. Now I just have to buy a new house so I can incorporate a surge system like yours!

One question regarding your early LED experiences...
You mentioned that it worked well for the the first year or so but then wasn't so good after that initial time. Do you know what type of emitters were used in your LED system? Do you think output dropped after the first year or was it a shift in spectra?

thanks and keep up the awesome work.
-Robert

Thanks Santoki for the kind words.

I really jumped into the LED thing pretty early on. Mine were the Solaris LEDs that were probably one of the first major ones out there. I bought the 3 watt version in 2008 and was so impressed with it that I bought two of the 4 watt versions when they came out in 2009. I had pretty good results with them for about two years. The video that Kraylen posted of my tank, the first one linked at the beginning of this thread, I think pretty well shows what great results I was having with these LEDs. Pretty much everything you see growing under those LEDs was grown from 1” frags. Growing side by side with 400 MHs there wasn’t much difference in color or growth really.
It was after the second year that these LEDs really began to deteriorate. Besides the obvious failures like bulbs, and power sources that stopped working, you could really start to see a pattern of how the corals that were directly under these LEDs were declining. I am thankful to this day that I still had MHs hanging over my tank at the time to show me that it wasn’t a water quality issue or something else. The LED unit that I still have working today (only by cannibalizing the other two units) looks really bright. I don’t have a par meter to actually measure it nor do I have par readings from when they were new to compare. I honestly think it’s a combination of lower par and spectrum shift but I have no scientific data to back this up. The best I can explain it, is that it is similar to having two year old MH or T5 bulbs over your tank. Looks really bright, just won’t grow anything but brown and/or dead corals.
LEDs have a lot of great qualities and I really hope they get better in the future.
I really have no idea what kind of drivers that the Solaris were using. Maybe someone else can chime in that knows. I've read several things about how Solaris did this wrong and that wrong, how their design could have been better, etc. I am still not really convinced yet that any of the newer ones are any better.
I'm still waiting for someone to show me the one that actually is.
I constantly lurk all the LED threads out there and follow the debates. I can say from personal experience that LEDs can grow some nice looking SPS.
The problem as I see it now is, for how long?
“Let’s see your LED tanks up for a year” is really no big deal if you can afford to buy new fixtures every year or every other year.
I’m gonna wait until I see that tank still running the same LED fixture for a least 4 years with consistent results before I waste another penny on them. Let’s see one that has been running for even half of that 50,000 hours that is constantly claimed.

Originally Posted by Moser

Wow!.
Do you think it's worth cutting the lighting schedule to re- acclimatise everything?...

Mo

Thanks Moser,

I honestly think I had more issues with corals that I moved down lower in my tank than ones that were light shocked. The few that did bleach a little for a while really seemed to recover just fine. A few LPS pieces took it the worst. A few Acros that were up high close to lights getting a ton of flow didn’t do well at all when I moved them down to less light, less flow. I really don’t know why exactly. I think it might have something to do with their growth formation as a result of where they were used to growing. Maybe that growth formation didn’t work in a different (less flow) environment. Would love to know honestly. It really made me think as to why some of those wild/maricultured don’t do so well when they are moved from where they were once a lot happier. Strange how they could do so well for so many years in my tank and then I move them to a different, very similar spot, and they STN while others adapted just fine and have never looked better.

Not too many casualties overall though.

Probably would have been smart for me to acclimate the lighting a little better for a few of my corals though definitely.

Originally Posted by coralreefdoc

Excellent results, Steve ! Both before and after ... Well done

Thank you coralreefdoc.

Originally Posted by albano

have you changed your lighting?

I still have (4) MHs over my tank that have been over it almost from the beginning. I changed out my failed LEDs to (4) SeaShine Plasmas a little over two years ago now.
They have been great so far and have definitely outperformed my LEDs BTW.

Originally Posted by klepto

Looking great Steve! I like how much the new scape opened things up for all of the fishes.

Keep the photos coming!!

Thank you my friend.

Reef on!

[Bax]

Uhg! Sorry to hear about the Naso!

There are always risks with any major changes though. It is unavoidable.

[zaheda]

Good to get an honest opinion on led lighting. Im going to hold to my halides and t5, lucky I never got buyers yet for them. Is plasma units worth buying?

[veloboy]

Thanks for the updates RS. I always look forward to them! Very interesting to read about your experience thinning/relocating your acros. Shows we still have so much to learn about them. Sometimes it seems that they are masters of survival growing toward light and flow until they flourish. Other times they STN just because of a change in the flow within the same tank. This is why we love them though!

Keep the photos and updates coming! Thanks for sharing!

[aandfsoccr04]

Wow your tank is such an inspiration. The growth and size of your corals is outstanding. It gives us newer reefers something to look up to and try and immulate. Such a beautiful tank. Happy reefing