looks stunning.

Thanks for the kind words!

I haven't mounted any frags in a while, but will entertain requests if the colonies are about to touch others.

i officially want my tank back. two words: re donculous.

wow that looks awesome! Definitely a HUGE improvement over what the last owner had going on with it.

I'll accept that as the highest form of complement! Every one of your builds is extremely high in quality and innovation.

Thanks Kien! The last owner had freshwater fish in it :lol:

WERD.

1 Month of growth under T5

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps55beaed5.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psb4c4fc49.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps57f66c29.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps62bd0589.jpg

Random Cool shots...

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...psd9883612.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2374208e.jpg

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps49830de0.jpg

that's insane for one month. i wish!

T5s are the wave of the future.

:thumb:

Wholley snapping "uh" corals. Is that a gorgeous tank. What beautiful corals. Does that blue acro just grow with the green cap?

I assume you are still running your leds?

LEDs are so 2012.

Thanks!

The blue stag is killed constantly by the green cap, but only where
It touches. The look of the cap growing around it is really nice though, good contrast in my opinion. The stag grows fairly quick now so I'm not too concerned.

I switched away from LED to a T5 fixture. There are ups and downs to both.

This tank is so much more beautiful in person! Thanks for the frags and awesome tank!

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5ea1dfec.jpg


That looks INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!! :shocked!::jaw:

Thanks again guys!

I wish I could get top down colors from the side view. Hmmm... :idea: Next build, sideways aquascape with edge lit LED system!

FTS Just under 2 1/2 years from dry.

http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5fd47f24.jpg

Very impressive collection! Looks fantastic.

I look at this as going forward. I did the same thing as you ... went from LED back to T-5 ... and that's all I'm going to use until the technology is no longer available to me. Dramatic difference in my tank after switching to T-5 ... and clearly you are having the same results. Phenomenal growth since the switch, and you have some amazing colors in that reef! Keep up the good work

Tank is absolutely gorgeous. Great job. Beautiful pics too.

Just went through the journal, and very impressive and interesting indeed. I like how you persisted with the aquascaping and coral placement adjustments until you got it the way you wanted. Nice contrast, too, the large colonies and stags with the smaller frag colonies.

Amazing what can be done in just 2 1/2 years! And some good lessons for me in this build. Thanks.

Truly gorgeous! Can you share your thoughts of the sps growth under LEDs vs t5s and what made you switched?

It really depends on the coral, I have some stuff that grew like crazy under LED and some that did absolutely nothing. Since switching to T5 everything is growing well, some of the stuff that was stagnant is starting to form growth tips. Other stuff that grew like crazy under LED is slow growing under T5. I think the trick to LED is to have a lot of coverage.

The reason for switching was purely financial at the time. I was almost $3000 into Hydras and found my tank required several more to get the proper coverage. It was cheaper to cut my losses and sell the Hydras and pick up a T5 fixture with some spare bulbs. In fact I pocketed a bunch of money and have bulbs for two years. I was worried about power consumption, but there was no difference, in fact my power bill seemed to go down a bit (pretty sure it's due to me enclosing the top of the tank).

I found the same thing with the switch back to T5 Wayne.

I had certain corals that were growing like weeds under LED, but I had a lot that were stagnant, or lost all of their color.

I switched to T-5 and I was getting growth out of everything again … after about 3 months I started to notice certain stagnant browned out corals starting to sprout new life and morph colours.

That was enough for me … I've never looked back, and I'm planning an 8 foot upgrade in the next few months and It'll still be T-5

Thanks for sharing guys. I'm looking at prob switching to the Ati hybrid and trying to gather as much info before taking the plunge.

Wayne

Just this one? :wink:

i have been putting a lot of man-hours into helping to setup my old 400 lol. at least wayne's not asking me for help sheesh.

T-5 combination
 

Your tank looks fantastic.
Could I ask you what combination of T-5 bulbs you are using and your time period?
Thanks.
Michael

No problem. :)

4x Blue+
2x Purple+
1x Aquablue Special
1x Coral+

From front to back it is... b+,c+,b+,p+,b+,as,p+,b+

11-11 is two b+ and between 2 and 10 is the rest of them.

Thanks.

dang!

It looks like we are closing the page on this build and moving on. I'm already dreaming of the next one in the new house. Moving a tank this size would likely result in a lot of die off and heart break. Instead I can help seed fellow hobbyists tanks and hopefully have many places to buy frags back from when I start up in a year or two.

Thanks to everyone who inspired me in this amazing hobby.

You're welcome...lol (for the inspiration). Haha. Glad to have met ya through canreef twin!