Figured I just as well get this going, although I don't think I will be receiving my frags till next week. I'll be going low tech on this one.
About the tank:
Size: 30" x 12.5" x 12.5"; 20gal Long
Sump: N/A
Temp: ranges from 78-80
Age: Approximately 5 years old; reset twice over that time period
This tank is one of the school tanks in my classroom, and over the years has hosted a variety of critters, including at one time a donated Snowflake eel. Most recently, until last summer, it contained a volleyball sized purple bowerbankii, a purple and green Acan, a few random zoa frags and a mantis shrimp. I sent the bowerbankii off to be fragged, and haven't gotten it back yet. Neglected from early last summer till now, the tank became overgrown with hair algae, and aiptasia. I decided to clean it up and use it as the growout tank for the contest.
Equipment:
2 Coralife 21W T5HO lights with stock actinic and 10,000K bulbs
Flow is maintained with two K2s and a maxi-jet 1200 attached to a DIY spraybar
Heater: unknown - so coralline encrusted I can't even determine the brand and I don't remember anymore
Tank will be skimmerless and Top off will be manual with a Kalkwasser drip; I'm planning to try daily water changes.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures prior to starting the revival process, but this is what it looks like after 2 hours of algae removal and scrubbing;
Here's a nice shot of a gunk-covered powerhead to give you an idea of how bad it was;
Here is what it looked like four days later after it started clearing up finally;