Having some more fun with the phone camera...my tank has been looking pretty "fuzzy" lately with every square inch packed with a happy coral! I'll be fragging out a bunch of these corals for the Frag & Swag wheel at #MCES .
I wish my tank looked like that. I just am not getting the growth that I want. Maybe it is the LEDs. Back when I had MH and T5 things grew so fast for me, now.... not so much.
@Hopkins
What corals are you keeping? Same type of stuff?
I wished I could say I was doing anything special. I have no skimmer, I stopped using carbon/gfo (out of laziness), I have only done 3 water changes since last January (usually to get water for the Frag & Swag wheel tank), my fish get fed when I remember. My tank sits in a storage closet in the basement so there are times, especially in summer, when I forget to check on it for several days. I have become a bad (lazy) reefkeeper ...Fortunately, most of my corals are "weeds" and are forgiving (maybe even thrive on lack of attention). I do have a couple hardy LPS (bubble, orange torch, lithophyllon-type coral..which was a hitchhiker) which seem to do okay. I'm sure most SPS would melt in a day in my tank.
I'm happy with LEDs. Not sure if the growth is any better or worse...but I like the control I have with them to dial in the look that I like. The best thing about LEDs for reef tanks, especially nano tanks (my tank is a 29 biocube), is that it doesn't add a lot of heat to the tank. The temperature stays very constant...the graph below shows the temps for the past month:
The flat area around Christmas is where I lost internet from the ice storm, and the blip after it is from running out of top off water and then the top off added too much cool water all at once (another bad reefing habit I have).
Another great thing I like about the LEDs (and a small tank) is the power usage...I'm averaging a little over 1 amp (less in the summer). It costs less than $13 per month to run.
I have a little of this and a little of that in the tank. Mostly LPS and soft coral. I think one of my issues is high phosphates based on the fact that my sand bed has become a hair algae bed. I just started running phosguard and I might even do a water change. Between work and finishing up school; I just have not had much time to deal with the tank. After reading some threads on here I decided to turn the whites way down and run the tank very blue. I think this is helping because the zoos are starting to increase in size.
One day at a time... Good thing this isn't a race.
I have ran my tank for several weeks on blue alone and the corals were fine.
Another thing I forgot to mention that I think is a huge help is I have a couple mangroves that are sitting in the first compartment of the back sump area. They are a little neglected and would benefit from more light and an occasional dusting of the leaves, but I think they suck up the phosphates pretty well...my tank seemed to do much better after I added them.
I noticed last night that my female clownfish is hosting in my giant green shroom...this mushroom is my favorite coral. Its almost 8-inches across!
This female clown was one that beakerbob had nurtured back to health for me last year. She had ich and he took her in to treat her in his qt tank. I ended up giving him the clownfish because he didn't have any snowflakes or fancy clownfish yet (and after all he saved her life). However, when Bob passed away this fall, I moved her back to my tank. I think she is settling back in nicely...although I would much rather her be living happily under Bob's care.