Inspired by Firewater's thread I decided to start my own. Hopefully you will get something out of my thread.

Warning, have a comfortable chair, reading glasses, beer, or whatever it is you need because this is one of my very few long winded threads.

Today reminded me of when I had a FOWLR full of GHA. I was happy w/ it back then.

I thought my tank was beautiful and loved how it was a breeding ground for pods. Then, I discovered MAAST and saw how gorgeous reef tanks could be without GHA and lots of brightly colored corals. So I switched to RODI H2O, picked up dosing, switched to a 250W Metal Halides (from 2X96 PC) and began keeping up with the Joneses. I was happy for a while and then it happened......

A 10K bulb and heavy coral feeding has caused an algae bloom in my tank. Vodka dosing is helping, but at the expense of some prize corals. I noticed pale coloring on couple sps so I cut back. Today I discovered STN on the paling corals. Luckily, no cyano besides in the refugium.

I want to break down my tank and cook the rock while I slowly work on getting my 75g set up. The other part of me says that I have beaten algae before, I can do it again. I have some coral and fish that are dear to me that I don't think I could let go of.

Now that you are up to date w/ my tank, I'm going to list plans for my new tank and ways I am going to make it less stressful for me.

1) Bigger Fuge. As big as I can manage. I may have to go w/ a custom sump to meet my needs.

2) Bigger overflow. I have an HOB overflow right now and it's not cutting it. I am considering a Calfo style but they seem cumbersome.

4) Stop dosing. I don't dose a lot now per se but my coral still grew and I didn't see any explosion in growth or coral after I started dosing. I will keep some homemade 2 part for Ca and Alk on hand in case its needed, but no more kalk dripping and hopefully no more magnesium dosing.

3) Getting away from SPS. I love them, but I am finally admitting I don't have the time right now to monitor their needs. Some of the prettiest tanks I have ever seen don't have a single stick in them. I'll keep my prized ones like the Red Planet and Troy V's green Mille, but the harder to keeps (like the purples) are leaving my tank.

4) Cheaper lights. Buying bulbs hurts. I just can't drop a couple hundred bucks at a time on 2 metal halide and 2-4 PC or T5 bulbs. I have seen odyssea bulbs work well and seen the PAR results. They are good enough for me and my tank. I can get two MH bulbs and four 54w T5 bulbs shipped for around $60. Albeit the actinics won't be 420 nm, but w/ money saved I will splurge for a single 420nm T5 to boost coloring.

6) External Pump!! Not only will I save room, but cut down on heat which will allow me more room to leave the doors and windows open on a warm sunny day.

7) No more frags for me. I accumulated too many frags and i ended up with a mix n match tank. I lose frags and don't pay close enough attention when I have 50 smallish frags as compared to when i had 10 or 15 larger corals.


Things I am considering:

Foam background for coral placement and tunneling.

Converting the PC's in my 48" hood for 4 T5's. I may go with 2, but I like the idea of having 420nm, 460nm, and a pink bulb for better coloring. I love what a pink bulb does to coloring on fish! And getting a pack of 4 T5's for $30 is still cheaper to buy a couple times than paying for name brand bulbs at $20 a bulb.




If you actually read the whole thing, I commend you for your patience!!! and look forward to your feedback, questions, comments, etc.