Chronicles of a 20 (Bulkhead cracked!!!!!)

Many of you are aware of the changes I have made to my tank setup the last couple of months. These changes were posted over several weeks in several unorganized threads. Now that I have completed those changes, I felt it would be best to compile those changes into one organized, succinct thread, chronicling my beginning to end changes and beginning to end results. I will include several before and after pictures of my build (stand), which includes a sump, lighting additions etc, plus a detailed description of said changes in a caption format. I love perusing pictures on 3reef (I think all of us do), so I will make this a very picture heavy thread of my setup and coral collection. I hope you all enjoy it.

The back story:

My first setup (3 years ago) was torn down due to a minor leak in the seal. I was constantly (daily) adding tap water (because of the leak) for top off as I did not have an RO/DI unit or the time to pick up RO/DI water daily for additions. The current 20 tank has been setup for one year to the month. Water had been in the tank for one year prior to the current setup (so 2 years really) running with a filter, rock and sand (no lighting). So essentially, I had a year long cycle. I began added coral to the tank a year ago to the month, so coral has been in the tank now for one year.

Lighting:

I had been running a 120 watt Bridgelux LED, with 55 dimmable diodes. This unit was over my tank from May of 2012 through April of 2013. In April of 2013, I decided that I wasn't happy with the lighting or the growth in my tank. As such, I traded the lighting in for a 250 watt Hamilton metal Halide unit with a 6 month of 14k Hamilton double ended bulb. I had the bulb over the tank for about a month before I decided (last week) that I didn't like the look of the bulb (yellow). I ordered a 14k Phoenix bulb and added it on Wednesday of last week.

Here is the LED unit:


Filtration:

For a year, I was running a Wal-Mart mechanical HOB filter rated for 20 gallons. I wasn't very pleased with my tank (corals didn't grow, now colorful), so I decided to look for a sump. I found a sump locally for $50 and decided to give it a go. I added a skimmer, a phosban reactor, chaeto and a phosphate media filter pad to filter rout larger particles. I've never had algae problems in this tank, believe it or not.

New Sump:


Stand:

I began building the stand 7 weeks ago (before I bought the sump) with intentions of moving the tank off of the desk and onto the stand. There really isn't much to say about it. I will just post a series of pictures showing its progress.

First I built the canopy:


Then began the stand:




Sump in:


Not the final stand (don't have that pic). Doors are now on as well as handles:


Dosing:
I am not dosing alk. or calc. supplement, not yet. I am however dosing amino acids, at the suggestion of several reefers, to try and bring some of my coral's color back. Additionally, I am also in the beginning stages of vinegar dosing. I want to give this a shot and see how it does for me.

Coral:
I lost a few pieces (a stag and couple montis) in the move and changes. I have been slowly seeing tissue regression on my candy cane, but it has stopped, at least temporarily. None of my corals have much color. They are either brown or pastel, but no bleaching. I will post some recent pictures now and then follow up pictures in the coming weeks to document the success of my changes.

Thanks for reading!

5/12/13 (baseline) Photos:

FTS


Bubble


Candy cane (4 heads)


Frogspawn (2 heads)


Pink BN


Zoa


Mushrooms (4)


Acro


Favia


acro


Favia


acro


I have several other pieces in the tank as well, most of which aren't doing well. Check back soon, as I'll be adding more photos!

 

A very nice tank, ones like these are what I strive to replicate.

 

Thanks!

 

cool tank !! great to see so many people upgrading !!

Must be something in the air

 

Coming along nicely. Way to document start to ??

 

Thanks. Must be the warm air!

 

Thanks!

 

Vinegar dosing seems to be going well. Skimmer was half full in 3 days.

 

Picked up some of that clear plastic canvas to add an algae scrubber to go alongside my chaeto, skimmer and phosban reactor.