Building an SPS Monster- my 1300 gallon SPS display

[copps]

That Gigas looks massive. Any idea on its size and weight? How long had the person you acquired from had it?

Thanks,
Geoffrey

Oh the gigas... I'd been planning this system in my head for decades... there were constants in the planning... must haves for years that I planned... a large group of anthias... a pair of imperator angels... a few regal angels... groups of Centropyge... a magnifica anemone island... stands of Acropora everywhere... and a true giant clam... the gigas was acquired by my friend John in about 2006... he had in a tank just over 300 gallons and it was outgrowing it... fortunately I'm Clark Griswold and love to travel with the wife and kids... we're hitting all 50 states before they leave the nest. I had a road trip planned that included white water rafting in West Virginia, a visit to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, then onto Chicago... and on and on... we passed through Indianapolis and decided to stay a couple of days there, where John lives and had the clam. We visited him and I saw the clam... yada yada yada... he drove it out not long after.

The clam was growing like a root. After seeing the gigas in Waikiki on a yearly basis grow I got a bit scared as I like to plan for the long term... the larger of the gigas the Waikiki acquired in 1982 was five years old... born in 1977... same year as me... and back before we had kids in the early 2000s my wife would accompany me to Hawaii on every trip... at the time they were weighing the clams regularly... and my wife pointed out that the clams weight... 160... than 170... than 180... was pacing mine... she would jokingly tell me to not outpace the clam... fortunately I've slimmed down a bit now and the remaining clam is probably over 300 pounds... So, I wondered how large and how fast this thing was going to grow...

Early last year I had James Fatheree over my house... who wrote the book on giant clams... it was the largest clam he'd ever seen in someone's house... one of the questions I had for him was when would this clam start spawning... and would my 1950 gallons of water be able to handle it. He said it would and for me not to worry... in retrospect... the clam had already been spawning... just lightly and I didn't realize it.

Then came Spring break of last year... I had a thirteen day Griswold family vacation planned that included Las Vegas, NV Death Valley National Park in California, Hoover Dam, Zion National Park in Utah (AMAZING!), and the Grand Canyon and Sedona in Arizona. A few days before leaving I did two water changes back to back... on the second water change my 200 gallon water vat was probably in the 60s in terms of temperature... not really a big deal... except that it triggered something catastrophic in the gigas...

The morning the day before we were flying out west for this trip I walked into the basement before taking my daughter to the bus stop as usual... the lights were off on the big system but as I walked by my eye caught something in the tank... it's amazing how you know the sites and sounds of your system so well... the tank was cloudy... I turned on the actinics and saw this through the side view... compared to the views above of my system... I couldn't see two feet into the tank...

I was speechless... but I had two things going for me to my benefit... one... I was home for the next thirty hours... and two... I knew this cloudiness was from a clam spawn and not cloudiness from death... at least not yet... My skimmer had gone nuts... my five gallon skimmer bucket was full... we all know what skimmate looks like... and what color... but this is what the bucket was... LOADED with clam sperm... and EGGS...

The water change I had done with colder water had triggered a massive spawn from the gigas... and initiated many of my other clams to spawn... I watched some in the 4" range shooting out eggs... but the amount of sperm the gigas put out I could not comprehend... IT HAD TURNED NEARLY 2000 GALLONS OF WATER INTO NEAR MILK!

I texted James Fatheree a pic... his response was "Cool!!!"... not cool to me I went to work wet skimming... and changing my filter socks... and had it nearly clear by the time we flew out the next day.

I called up Joe Yaiullo at the Long Island Aquarium... a good friend and an inspiration for my system... he's a fellow NY Italian and he has that mix of technical and artistic traits required to have an amazing system... if you have not seen his 20,000 gallon reef you should plan to. He had been looking for a gigas clam and I had planned down the line to give this to him... but that spawn expedited it. I planned the trip and my father, myself, and my son drove this baby up... the clam was about 60 to 70 pounds... here's Joe receiving it... happy as a clam... notice the white ring of growth on this baby... the shell was almost 30 inches from tip to tip...

My son about to hand the clam to Joe... getting in the tank...

Joe almost fell over with it in the tank... it was funny because we got there after hours, and the facility was rented out by the fire department... all of these guys and gals dressed up... and there were wrestling a clam and guiding it into place...

Always a great day at Joe's! Here's Joe, myself, my son and my father... a great trip... that's Bob Stark in the background... Co-owner at ESV and creator of B-ionic... he came out to the Island to meet us... asked me how much B-ionic I wanted... and I asked "how much can you fit in your car?" ... he rolled in with his bumper near dragging... his car was filled with buckets for me to take back to Virginia... thanks Bobby!

And a shot when we returned the next day... you can see it in the center... this is the left half of this 20,000 gallon incredible reef...

So... my lifelong goal of wanting a gigas in my giant reef is gone... been there... done that... I had no clue that this clam could have taken down my reef... you think 2000 gallons is alot... but it's a drop in the bucket. Sticking to my squamosas now!

 

[hatfielj]

Guys, you're making me blush... thanks for the compliments... I haven't posted very much in the last few years, and while I have many friends over often I don't show my systems off very much online... this is my first build thread I believe... so it's appreciated... but I must say the true Godfathers and Paul McCartneys of this hobby are many... and were doing this as they say when I was in diapers...

One of the Godfathers is Dr. Bruce Carlson... As one of the organizers of the 2015 MACNA I was the speaker coordinator... to show the level of respect I have for Bruce I chose him as our Saturday night banquet speaker... the biggest speaking gig in the biz... it's tough to sum up Bruce contributions to our hobby... but to sum it up... Bruce started keeping marine tanks in the early 1960s... in the early 1970s he joins the Peace Corps and lived in Fiji... He's shared photos with me of his tanks in Fiji in the early 1970s where he believe it or not had Acropora in them... before I was born... it's just amazing... in the mid 1970s he started working at the Waikiki Aquarium, and after getting his PhD in Ichthyology Bruce became just the sixth or seventh Director of this historic aquarium that's over 110 years old... he spent over 25 years there and pioneered the keeping of corals... was one of the first to "frag" overgrowth of Acropora, and had the first public displays in the United States of the Pacific corals we all know and love... Bruce left the Waikiki Aquarium in 2002 to be one of the designers of the Georgia Aquarium... the owner of Home Depot sat Bruce and few others down at a table... and basically told them that he wanted to gift an aquarium to the city of Atlanta... he asked that they make the best aquarium in the world... and gave them a budget of 200 million dollars... and I thought I was nervous planning my system! They ended up spending 250 million dollars... and as they say... the rest is history...

Bruce is now retired and lives back in Hawaii, where his wife Marj works at the Disney resort and manages their swim through exhibit... I travel with my job to Hawaii regularly, and Bruce, my son and I went through the old aquarium...

Here's a shot of us at one of their outdoor exhibits... Bruce realized that he was having troubly keeping Acropora and other hard corals early on... they had sun, and they had pristine water pulled in from the ocean, but he realized they needed flow... he came up with a device that is now famous and named after him called the Carlson surge device... you could see it on the left... it's basically a giant vat of water that slowly fills... and every ten minutes or flushes like a giant toilet bowl and provides enough flow to grow incredibly large colonies of Acropora... just amazing...

It's like $9 to get in this aquarium... no Shamu or flipping dolphins... but the exhibits are incredible...

Check these out... on the left is Tridacna gigas... the next tank has a carpet and magnifica anemone... the third tank is a mixed reef with Acropora... and the fourth tank has a mangroves and a saltwater crocodile... pretty cool huh? Well... this photo was taken in 1980!!!!! Literally... I was in diapers...

Many of their exhibits have inspired me through the years... this is another... I think around 4000 gallons... these are the oldest clams in captivity... Bruce got them in 1982, and while one has passed on recently there is still one alive now...

As an aside I am a hardcore angelfish guy... in addition to everything else Bruce has done he described the Griffis' angelfish... Apolemichthys griffisi...

Another one of my huge influences who got his start at the Waikiki Aquarium (at age 12) is Rich Pyle... another PhD ichthyologist and amazing aquarist... the world authority on the Pomacanthid family, and a pioneer in deep sea diving... diving a rebreather with Rich is like having a friggin' beer with Sam Adams! Had Rich not just given a banquet talk at MACNA before ours he would have given Bruce a run for his money...

Crack a beer and read one of Rich's many great works... what a story...
http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research/treks/palautz97/cmd.html

How about the one who all reef fans look up to... the LIVING LEGEND... the great Dr. Jack Randall... Jack has described more valid reef fish species than any person in history... over 800 now... and has probably dived more than any person in history... Jack is now 93... but shares all of his knowledge so well... Jack can jam his hand into one of his encyclopedia sized books, open the page, and talk for hours about the one or two fish species on that page... in recent years he's had trouble getting around, so instead of me taking him and his wife to dinner... I picked up their choice of takeout and we ate in...

The list can go on... and this is just on the island of Oahu! These guys are the Godfathers and Paul McCartneys... rock stars and legends, and we as hobbyists owe so much to them... I read about them as a kid, and as you meet them you realize they all share a story that many of us do... we grew up as kids enamored with the oceans and coral reefs...

What island is this on??

 

[copps]

As a current high school student with the tanks taking over, this is incredibly inspirational. Time to start planning mine!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's AWESOME! As a kid I was inspired by so many... have you been to Absolutely Fish in Clifton? When I was a kid it was called Aqua-Tropics... but it's the same awesome store now... I was just there last year when I spoke at Reefapalooza nearby... one of the best shops in the US. As a kid I would spend hours there... mesmerized... I remember it all... clarion angels for $300 or $400 bucks... the first wave of Red Sea things... $400 purple tangs... I remember the first asfur angel I saw... nearly $800... the first conspic angel... at almost $2K! As a kid this seemed unattainable... $2000 to a twelve year old is like a million to an adult...

Anyway, keeping systems like you are as a kid builds character... and allows you to appreciate those you have as an adult... without jumping on my soapbox I will tell you to plan your life like I planned my dream system... be willing to do a lot of up front work at your age... bust your butt... whatever you decide to do in life... a brain surgeon... a plumber... a teacher... bust your butt and do it well... for your hard work at your age will allow you to have an easier life later on, and build your dream system you want. I busted my butt building my system... a lot of up front work so that I could coast and enjoy doing the things I love with my systems... do the same in your life. :celeb1:

 

[copps]

What island is this on??

This is all on Oahu... but with you going to Maui there is plenty to do there... I love it... we'll be back this summer... drive the road to Hana... go up to Haleakala... preferably for sunrise... check out the Maui Ocean Center... not quite the displays of the Waikiki Aquarium but one of the cool things I did there years ago was to dive in there large tank... which had a tiger shark in it! That's the one shark I'm wary of when in the water in Hawaii... but this guy was uninterested... a cool experience!

 

[copps]

I'll give the Drs. Randall, Carlson and Pyle there own rockstar status, say Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard but you're still McCartney in my book

Lol... I'll pass this along to them...

John,

You managed to get this dinosaur of a member and long time lurker out posting. I was one of the first few dozen members who joined Reef Central way back.

The hobby and its technology has come a long way and I have seen many monster builds. But I don't think any is backed by your extreme level of commitment. The size of the fish room is bigger than a downtown condo in my neck of the woods... Vancouver, BC.

Simply amazing... Makes me wish I didn't divert my attention to so many different hobbies and gave up reef keeping all together...

If you have a video of your displays showing the behaviour of the fish etc, please share.

I will be following your journey more regularly.

Kindest regards,

Clinton

Clinton, thank you so much... it's really such a pleasure... I share my systems with so many people that are not hobbyists like you guys... it's funny, because they come down the stairs in my house and oohh and ahhh... saying "Wow!"... and that's when they see my 350 gallon fish only... as we know it's easy to impress non hobbyists... but to inspire old salts like yourself is truly gratifying... I always tell people that come over that I didn't make these organisms... Mother Nature did... I just keep them... living art they are... it's just incredible what our coral reefs have... I'll for sure get some videos soon. Where you live you shouldn't be inside much anyway... I travel to Bremerton, Washington with work... just south of you, and it's absolutely beautiful where you live... so green and so lush... with so much waterfront and so many interesting creatures living in the water... thanks again Clinton and enjoy following along. Feel free to throw more comments in while your lurking!

 

[hatfielj]

This is all on Oahu... but with you going to Maui there is plenty to do there... I love it... we'll be back this summer... drive the road to Hana... go up to Haleakala... preferably for sunrise... check out the Maui Ocean Center... not quite the displays of the Waikiki Aquarium but one of the cool things I did there years ago was to dive in there large tank... which had a tiger shark in it! That's the one shark I'm wary of when in the water in Hawaii... but this guy was uninterested... a cool experience!

Very cool, thanks for the recommendation. I was thinking of checking that place out.

 

[Ucantwin]

With that size of system I'd be afraid to travel as much as you seem to do. What type of work do you do that has you traveling like that?

 

[topjimmy]

Do you rob banks for a living?


That setup is awesome.

Sent from my Lenovo TAB 2 A10-70F using Tapatalk

 

[tripdad]

Hey John,
I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for sharing your tank, experiences and friendships with us. It has only been a few pages but already you have given us contact with several legends in this hobby, yourself included. I have been keeping marine fish since 1983 and it has really been a treat to hear you relate stories of some of the greats. It is so nice to have contact with some of the "old" guard, I hope you can spur some others to come out of the shadows. Your time spent here really enriches this forum for all of us and elevates our collective experience.

 

[dodgerblew]

Hey John,
I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for sharing your tank, experiences and friendships with us. It has only been a few pages but already you have given us contact with several legends in this hobby, yourself included. I have been keeping marine fish since 1983 and it has really been a treat to hear you relate stories of some of the greats. It is so nice to have contact with some of the "old" guard, I hope you can spur some others to come out of the shadows. Your time spent here really enriches this forum for all of us and elevates our collective experience.

:thumbsup: well said

 

[ca1ore]

Wow, makes my 450 look small ...... I guess it is small! Reef tanks are like storage, 'crap' expands to fill the available space :lol: or in the case of a reef tank, grows. Love the pyramids/zosters.

 

[ClintY]

Lol... I'll pass this along to them...



Clinton, thank you so much... it's really such a pleasure... I share my systems with so many people that are not hobbyists like you guys... it's funny, because they come down the stairs in my house and oohh and ahhh... saying "Wow!"... and that's when they see my 350 gallon fish only... as we know it's easy to impress non hobbyists... but to inspire old salts like yourself is truly gratifying... I always tell people that come over that I didn't make these organisms... Mother Nature did... I just keep them... living art they are... it's just incredible what our coral reefs have... I'll for sure get some videos soon. Where you live you shouldn't be inside much anyway... I travel to Bremerton, Washington with work... just south of you, and it's absolutely beautiful where you live... so green and so lush... with so much waterfront and so many interesting creatures living in the water... thanks again Clinton and enjoy following along. Feel free to throw more comments in while your lurking!

Now that I look at your post a few more times, I do recall seeing your 180g... and was always amazed at how dense and complete the coral heads grew. What is also really impressive is your dedication to meeting and working with the forefathers in the science and hobby of reef husbandry.

I had a 60 gallon running a DIY skimmer with a DIY needle wheel, DIY aragonite reactor and dosing kalkwasser with DIY MH lights then. Heck I was messing with the seaclone and amongst others was encouraged by Larry Maras to write more articles about various projects to boost RC's content back in the day. I went as far as researching with our local lighting manufacturers to prototype MH fixtures using 70 watt par lamps and cree LED etc but could not compete with the real companies who can mass produce the goods.

The hobby was becoming more and more complex and expensive with members dosing chemicals, feeding live foods and using all sorts of new equipment claiming to be the only way to achieve your results. Then I tore the system down in 2007 to build a new home but have not set up another reef since.

Interestingly, you mentioned kalkwasser and MH lighting in your system. So the technology race may be turning full circle back to simpler equipment. Mind you the modern digital ballast is a whole lot more efficient and dimmable than the magnetic ones we were using...

Bremerton! A fellow electronics wiz who moderates the Oplug forum for my other hobby, http://www.linkwitzlab.com/, lives there. yes, the west coast does have some interesting sea life, mostly anemones, which took me on a search for tidepools to collect specimen for a cold water reef, then I thought maybe if I lived by the water I could pump water in, etc etc and ended up purchasing a lot in Sooke BC. I currently have a simple 5 bedroom rancher with a 4 car garage/shop (another obsession) designed as my retirement - summer / long weekend home... but looks like I will need to add a fish room now that I am inspired by your efforts.

Hopefully you will list out your systems in more detail and perhaps a maintenance checklist/routine so a novice like myself can see what is really needed to achieve your results.

Cheers,
Clinton

 

[ReefBum]

Simply wow. You have taken things to a whole new stratosphere!

Question....and perhaps I missed this, but did you use just dry rock to start this system or did you seed it with some live rock from your old tank? Interested to see if you ran into any algae problems (dinos?) others, myself included, have experienced starting dry rock only tanks or had trouble at first growing SPS due to lack of biodiversity.

 

[reefsponge]

Simply amazing! Well done, very happy for you and your hard work. It is a true work of art

 

[Piper27]

Thanks for sharing the new tank John! I am curious, did you collect many new acros for this tank? If so let's see em How do you go about making sure no pests enter your system? Have you had any coral pests before? I would love to see this setup in person!

 

[Sundog101]

Insane!
Do you have any videos?

This may get me kicked, but you should make a thread over at *********

 

[Sundog101]

I guess the other forum is censored

 

[Haksar]

Wow ,one amazing build thread and a dream tank .
Any idea who sells those angels and hybrid tangs.

 

[copps]

With that size of system I'd be afraid to travel as much as you seem to do. What type of work do you do that has you traveling like that?

I'm a systems engineer contracted by the Navy and work on submarine trainers. I only travel for work maybe six or eight weeks a year, to the seven US submarine bases, including Hawaii and Guam. If the kids are out of school I take them along with me and my wife, so it's not too bad. Tack on a few more weeks for vacation each year, and some travel for aquarium lectures... The size of your system doesn't matter... it's the plan you have and the number of points of failure. My system, despite it's size, is very simple in terms of plumbing and I have spares and a backup plan for everything. You only live once... your aquarium cannot be a ball and chain... especially if you like to travel.

Hey John,
I just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for sharing your tank, experiences and friendships with us. It has only been a few pages but already you have given us contact with several legends in this hobby, yourself included. I have been keeping marine fish since 1983 and it has really been a treat to hear you relate stories of some of the greats. It is so nice to have contact with some of the "old" guard, I hope you can spur some others to come out of the shadows. Your time spent here really enriches this forum for all of us and elevates our collective experience.

Thank you for that wonderful comment. It's great to share this stuff with you guys... because as my wife always says... she's heard enough! Seriously though, whether it's reef noob above who's in high school, Jack Randall who is in his nineties, or any of us in between, we are all bonded by this similar passion. It's great to share our experiences and feed off of eachother.

Wow, makes my 450 look small ...... I guess it is small! Reef tanks are like storage, 'crap' expands to fill the available space :lol: or in the case of a reef tank, grows. Love the pyramids/zosters.

Our tank sizes are like our age... they're all relative. At 40, I'm one of the old guys on my hockey team... but I'm one of the young guys at work... in my local reef club WAMAS I am the crazy guy with the giant system... but to friends like Joe Yaiullo, who has a 20,000 gallon reef, and Bruce Carlson, who had a tank over SIX MILLION gallons, I have a nano...

 

[copps]

Now that I look at your post a few more times, I do recall seeing your 180g... and was always amazed at how dense and complete the coral heads grew. What is also really impressive is your dedication to meeting and working with the forefathers in the science and hobby of reef husbandry.

Clint, thanks again for chiming in and for the kind words. Coral heads should be grown that way! So many nowadays chop their corals as soon as they start taking off, so their energy then gets put into repair again rather than growing... and what I call the "blue revolution" has been incredible... so many blast their tank with blue lights, that you cannot tell what they'd look like in nature. I can shoot the sock on my foot with enough crazy LEDs to make my sock look like it's a rainbow from another planet... as a nature lover and diver though what I appreciate is growing incredible corals as they're seen in the wild, large enough to appreciate they're differences in growth forms.

In regards to our forefathers we as reefers are living in an amazing time! Most of the forefathers of our hobby are still alive, and most all of them are just great people to hang out with, with great knowledge. There is an unlimited amount of knowledge to learn from them... you can only learn so much from reading... hanging out with these greats is just about the greatest thing there is. And while we hold them up on a pedestal, they are all just people like us... people with a passion for this wonderful hobby.

I had a 60 gallon running a DIY skimmer with a DIY needle wheel, DIY aragonite reactor and dosing kalkwasser with DIY MH lights then. Heck I was messing with the seaclone and amongst others was encouraged by Larry Maras to write more articles about various projects to boost RC's content back in the day. I went as far as researching with our local lighting manufacturers to prototype MH fixtures using 70 watt par lamps and cree LED etc but could not compete with the real companies who can mass produce the goods.

The hobby was becoming more and more complex and expensive with members dosing chemicals, feeding live foods and using all sorts of new equipment claiming to be the only way to achieve your results. Then I tore the system down in 2007 to build a new home but have not set up another reef since.

Interestingly, you mentioned kalkwasser and MH lighting in your system. So the technology race may be turning full circle back to simpler equipment. Mind you the modern digital ballast is a whole lot more efficient and dimmable than the magnetic ones we were using...

Yup... complex and expensive... we all have dealt with trying to explain our hobby to a friend that is not involved in it... sometimes it's like we're speaking a foreign language! The truth is though that all we have to do is what Mother Nature does effortlessly... you look at setups like the one at the Waikiki Aquarium... so much of the complex nature of our hobby is getting our aquarium water back to the freshly made up bucket of saltwater that we fill it with. After water, all we need is a something that replicates the equatorial sun, and a source of flow... that's it! Kalkwasser is great, as it adds back to the water what our corals take out, while RAISING pH... the opposite of what a calcium reactor does. Raising pH allows for more calcification and more growth in our corals. The downsides of kalk can be avoided... DO NOT hook up your kalk to your topoff... one... our topoff amount changes according to the climate... on rainy days we evaporate less when the air is more humid, but the corals still grow the same. Also, if your topoff ever stays on you quickly nuke your tank... your corals are literally better off out of the water than in a kalked tank.

Again I love LED lights as supplemental lights... to wake up the fish and tune in the Kelvin color you'd like your tank. But as a primary source of lighting there is no beating halides. People talk about them drawing electricity... the amount of light and coverage I get from one 400 watt halide is worth MORE than 400 watts of LED to me. I have very good friends that I respect greatly that have switched to LED from halide, and the amount of LED they need to replicate their halides for SPS is much more than many people state... and the growth they get on many SPS is not the same.

People also talk about the cost of replacing a halide... ok... for me that's what... $50 or $60 a bulb once a year? People talk about LED fixtures like they're going to run forever. You don't replace the bulbs, but if one component fails the whole thing goes down, and good luck taking that apart... So, even if you get TEN years from a fixture, which is more than I'd expect, you need to replace that... for how many hundreds of dollars? Also, if a ballast or bulb goes I swap it cheaply and easily... if a component goes in my $700 LED fixture how the heck do I replace it? So, to replace my six 400 watt halides lighting my 1300 I'd need how many LEDs... and if they ran for six years and started failing I'd have to spend how much to replace them? Also, the single point origin of LEDs is just not there... the spread I get on a 400 watt halide is amazing... yes I have 2400 watts of halide, but that's over 1300 gallons... less than two watts per gallon, run just seven hours a day... I'll stick with my halides.

Bremerton! A fellow electronics wiz who moderates the Oplug forum for my other hobby, http://www.linkwitzlab.com/, lives there. yes, the west coast does have some interesting sea life, mostly anemones, which took me on a search for tidepools to collect specimen for a cold water reef, then I thought maybe if I lived by the water I could pump water in, etc etc and ended up purchasing a lot in Sooke BC. I currently have a simple 5 bedroom rancher with a 4 car garage/shop (another obsession) designed as my retirement - summer / long weekend home... but looks like I will need to add a fish room now that I am inspired by your efforts.

Hopefully you will list out your systems in more detail and perhaps a maintenance checklist/routine so a novice like myself can see what is really needed to achieve your results.

Cheers,
Clinton

Yup Clinton... I'm very fortunate to only travel for work to places right on the ocean... in all corners of the US. I can list my maintenance checklist in more detail later... but you need to have one... both in maintenance for removing detritus from your system and general husbandry, to preventative maintenance for all of your points of failure on your system.

Simply wow. You have taken things to a whole new stratosphere!

Question....and perhaps I missed this, but did you use just dry rock to start this system or did you seed it with some live rock from your old tank? Interested to see if you ran into any algae problems (dinos?) others, myself included, have experienced starting dry rock only tanks or had trouble at first growing SPS due to lack of biodiversity.

Yup... there was no way I was going to be able to start with all live rock in this tank... It took me weeks to get the aquascape in the tank right, and with the way I designed it, it had to be done dry. Starting with dry rock also allows you to limit the amount of nuisance algaes and other things bad you bring in on live rock. With dry rock though it takes patience... yes my tank bloomed with many nuisance algaes... but that's normal... and with proper nutrient cycling, grazers, and time, it bounces back... I seeded my new system with a few pieces of live rock from my old system... after a year or so you couldn't tell the dry rock from live rock. Nothing good in this hobby happens quickly.

More to come...

Copps