JP's 240. A decade of work.

[wrxreefer823]

I second that motion!

 

[sirreal63]

Dare I say, TOTM worthy?

Look at April 2013 TOTM, you will find it. :thumbsup:

 

[wrxreefer823]

Oh. Well. Shows how much I pay attention. Lol

 

[sirreal63]

The pics are great but it's a pretty good read too.

 

[dtum]

One of the most memorable build threads I've read, you sir are definitely an inspiration.

Any new development or photos?

 

[JPMagyar]

How's the experiment going with the swap from blue pluses to true actinics and aquablues?

For years, people have said the aquablue tend to wash out the coral color, but I have always thought that it may by the heavy par from the blue plus actually doing the damage....

I will post a picture later, but the real test to me is in my daughters IM 38 gallon tank where she is growing Ice Fire Echinata, Tyree Purple Monster, Pink Birds Nest, ORA Red Planet, and Tubbs Blue Zoos. I have never seen better coral color and I set her ATI 6 bulb T5 lamp up using 4 ATI super actinics and 2 ATI Aquablue Specials. My tank has 2 T5s inop at the moment, but I am still using 4 x 150 watt Radiums (4 hours/day), 11 ATI Super Actinics and 3 ATI Aquablue Specials and up to a month ago my coral color was spectacular so I would say this combination is excellent and simple to duplicate.

Hey Joe,

Just watched your video back in post 347.

I noticed your clowns have these little black markings near the pectoral fins.

Any idea what that is? 1 of my clowns has the same thing, been like it for 18months, never bothered him but looks bad. I thought it could be stings from other corals (don't have a nem yet) but yours are in Nems, so that debunks that thought.

Tank looks amazing. Which post can I find a livestock list?

I asked the same question a while back and I searched the internet high and low for an answer but found none that were satisfactory. Personally, my SWAG is they are a form of age spots.

Hi Joe.

I've been reefing for almost five years now and one thing I've noticed on a lot of forums is people mentioning that they were inspired by one or another reef tank somewhere else in the world.

I've never that one special reef to aspire to.

Until now.
Yours is it.

Phenomenal!

Thank-you, you're makin' me blush . . . hopefully the news below isn't too upsetting.

Beautiful tank.love the anemone.what kind is it ? Sorry if it was already mentioned .

It's a Heteractis Magnifica. If you search Reef Hobbyist Magazine online you can find an old issue where my anemone was on the cover and I have an article inside detailing my years of ups and downs with it.

One of the most memorable build threads I've read, you sir are definitely an inspiration.

Any new development or photos?

Drum roll please . . .


So the thing is the sides of my tank were becoming 100% covered with evil brown palythoa and every nook and cranny in the tank was growing a majano so I finally invited my buddy Jason over and we took everything out. Broke up what we could and I have essentially started over. The real tragedy is I lost my Oregon Tort, but it seems that reefers all across America are losing their OT colonies so I honestly think there is some type of senescence issue involved. Everything was so overgrown with palys it was incredibly hard to get clean pieces to put back in so most of what I have is a mere frag of what I had. Anyways, I really like my new layout especially the new side views, but I figure it will be two years before the growth is enough to give me that mature reef look once again. Ah well hopefully this isn't too disappointing to the folks following along.

On a brighter note I did get a piece of a spectacular new coral, and I bought some Gomezi which looks incredibly like the Oregon Tort did so I have high hopes it will turn deep blue in my frag tank under 400 watt Radiums. We'll see I guess


And, on a final note stand by for the change up of a lifetime . . .

I, Joe Peck, the avowed hater of all things LED have ordered two Pacific Sun Pandora S2 fixtures. My Sfiligoi fixtures are breaking, and I can't get them repaired, but my 3 years of experience with them has led me to believe wholeheartedly in the power of T5 lighting as the primary source for great coral color. The two Pacific Sun fixtures will give me 8 T5 bulbs for great coral coloration while also giving me the shimmer of LEDs and the control to create sunrise, sunset, and full and accurate moon cycles. Admittedly I am a bit nervous, but excited at the same time. Of course, I intend to use an extremely low LED power setting to start. I expect to use just enough power to see some shimmer which I think will be about 40% power max. Again, we shall see . . .

 

[JPMagyar]

Thought an Evolutionary photo collection might be interesting . . .

At first

Final FTS Before breakdown

and now . . . seems a bit sad, but hopefully in a year or two it will be full once again . . .

 

[Bdial]

Wow. Drastic change! What did you do with all those amazing corals?

 

[Lubeck]

Holy cow that must have been hard. Onward and upward Joe! The bright side, there's so much to look forward to. I think you have finally convinced me to go back to halides.......but I'm still struggling with it.

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

Sad to see it empty but we are going to have the luck of watching it grow again!keep us posted!

 

[Electrobes]

Whoa! Sad to see it restart but awesome that you're willing to call it and start again!

 

[roni]

That's a dramatic change but part of the fun is watching things grow in. I have no doubt the reef will be spectacular again soon.

btw, noticed the regal in there...no problems with your zoos?

 

[dtum]

Wow, that sounded brutal. Sorry to hear about this drastic change, your mature layout was top notch. I'm very curious how your tank will progress over the course of the next few years.

Are there any other things you plan to do differently this time around, based on all of the experience you've gained?

Can we get a from-the-top shot? Will there still be a valley in between rocks?

How are you changing this aesthetically, what's your vision and preferences?

 

[JPMagyar]

Wow. Drastic change! What did you do with all those amazing corals?

Sadly a lot was just too unwieldy and ended up in the garbage. Other pieces went to Jason on a barter basis and a couple pieces didn't make the stress. In particular I lost the OT that was left, but it was already sick before the change.

Holy cow that must have been hard. Onward and upward Joe! The bright side, there's so much to look forward to. I think you have finally convinced me to go back to halides.......but I'm still struggling with it.

That's funny 'cuz I don't know if you caught the note above but I'm switching to LED + T5. I bought two Pac Sun Pandora S2s.

Sad to see it empty but we are going to have the luck of watching it grow again!keep us posted!

That's what I keep tellin' myself as I look at the pictures above. I know it will grow back but 2 to 3 years is a long time to wait.

Whoa! Sad to see it restart but awesome that you're willing to call it and start again!

I agonized over the decision for months until I finally convinced myself that I was well past the tanks zenith and no amount of minor fiddling was ever going to make it look as good as it did plus the palys and majanos were infuriating me. Honestly though now that it's done I am soooo happy that I did it. The truth is when I set up the tank the first time I let a local kid build half the rock work and it was not really what I had intended. This time around I have 3 separate pillars or pyramids with close to double the open sand area and no rocks touching the back wall so this design is much more what I originally wanted. I'm curious to see how it will look when it grows in.

That's a dramatic change but part of the fun is watching things grow in. I have no doubt the reef will be spectacular again soon.

btw, noticed the regal in there...no problems with your zoos?

I'm trying the Regal to see if he will eat the palys if they should return, but so far he hasn't been interested in anything except the frozen dinners of mysis, worms, brine, etc that I feed. At least he eats well



Thanks for the kind words everyone, and I will surely keep updating so we can all share in the fun as it grows back in!

 

[rtparty]

Hi Joe!

All of us who have been in this hobby long enough have been where you are. Not fun but it usually brings a new energy for the hobby again. I just recently transferred my tank from a 24g Nano Cube to a 20g Long. I have a whole new passion once again and loving every minute of it. I was quite sick of my old setup and almost sold everything off. Glad I didn't go that route!

The tank looks really good BTW! Keep up the good work!

Ryan

 

[CeeGee]

Wow! The tank now looks like the tank of a mere mortal

I am sure it will return to glory again very soon as it is in good hands.

 

[jdamon]

Very interested to see how the Pacific sun fixtures do for you! I have been admiring your tank from a distance for a while now, really awesome! Its nice to start from scratch again and watch everything grow, that's the fun part

I have been researching lights for over a year now, and I think I finally decided on the Pandora Hyperion S2 for my 150 set up that is the works. I definitely like the combination of T5 and LED, and their LED seems to be a bit better than the rest. Are you gonna use a different T5 selection for them? As the LED's are pretty blue? Or are you gonna stick to the true actinic and aquablue special? i was thinking of using the Leds as the blue and using 2 actinics and 2 coral plus (something whiter), to create a slightly less blue tank. I totally understand the blue spectrum being more beneficial, but a lot of these sps are in pretty shallow water, and slightly whiter light is more pleasant to view.

Thanks for posting so many nice photos and valuable info!

 

[Lubeck]

Sadly a lot was just too unwieldy and ended up in the garbage. Other pieces went to Jason on a barter basis and a couple pieces didn't make the stress. In particular I lost the OT that was left, but it was already sick before the change.




That's funny 'cuz I don't know if you caught the note above but I'm switching to LED + T5. I bought two Pac Sun Pandora S2s.




Whoops I think I,was so shocked to read your first announcement I didn't finish reading. Anything in particular that sold you on those fixtures?

 

[JPMagyar]

Hi Joe!

All of us who have been in this hobby long enough have been where you are. Not fun but it usually brings a new energy for the hobby again. I just recently transferred my tank from a 24g Nano Cube to a 20g Long. I have a whole new passion once again and loving every minute of it. I was quite sick of my old setup and almost sold everything off. Glad I didn't go that route!

The tank looks really good BTW! Keep up the good work!

Ryan

Thanks Ryan! It has definitely brought me some "new energy". I'm excited to find a couple new corals especially an anthocercis and a lokani.

Wow! The tank now looks like the tank of a mere mortal

I am sure it will return to glory again very soon as it is in good hands.

Ah yes the higher the high the bigger the fall :lol: but I look forward to some future "glory" for sure!

Very interested to see how the Pacific sun fixtures do for you! I have been admiring your tank from a distance for a while now, really awesome! Its nice to start from scratch again and watch everything grow, that's the fun part

I have been researching lights for over a year now, and I think I finally decided on the Pandora Hyperion S2 for my 150 set up that is the works. I definitely like the combination of T5 and LED, and their LED seems to be a bit better than the rest. Are you gonna use a different T5 selection for them? As the LED's are pretty blue? Or are you gonna stick to the true actinic and aquablue special? i was thinking of using the Leds as the blue and using 2 actinics and 2 coral plus (something whiter), to create a slightly less blue tank. I totally understand the blue spectrum being more beneficial, but a lot of these sps are in pretty shallow water, and slightly whiter light is more pleasant to view.

Thanks for posting so many nice photos and valuable info!

Whoops I think I,was so shocked to read your first announcement I didn't finish reading. Anything in particular that sold you on those fixtures?

Yeah, starting from scratch definitely was fun once I had all the grunt work taken care of, but now that I'm off the initial high of building it's a little depressing sitting down at night, but I know it'll get better. . .

As to the choice to try LEDs and T5s instead of MH + T5s, it was really driven by several factors:

1) My Sfiligoi's are failing.
2) I have long envied the LED fixtures that had programability.
3) I have also wanted to simulate moon phases for a while to see if that induces coral spawning.
4) My years with the Sfiligois have shown that T5 lighting is as good or better at creating coral coloration as my old venerable Radiums.
5) I love tank shimmer.

I was down to 2 possibilities for which LED lamp, one being the ATI LED Powermodule and the other the Pac Sun Pandora. I chose the Pac Sun because a friend with a 2000 gallon tank is using them successfully and the ATI Powermodule did not have moon phases just simple moonlight. Really I would have preferred an ATI Powermodule with 6 T5s per lamp, but the moonlight thing was something I have wanted to try since my first years as a reefer.

Finally the lamp selection: at the moment I'm planning on 4 pairs of ATI Coral Plus lamps which are as close to the white of Radium bulbs as I have seen in T5 tubes. I, too, am concerned about a too blue look so I think this is where I'll start and then we'll see how things shape up over time. I'm hoping to get my Sfiligois repaired while they're down so if I start to feel the corals or, God forbid, my anemone are not responding well then I can switch back. In addition I purchased a couple of the Acropora Gomezei's from Live Aquaria that I think may be close to the old Oregon Tort and I'm planning on growing some in my basement tank under the old combo of 400 watt Radium + 100 watt UVL Super Actinic which is on the frag system and that way I can get a really great comparison of growth. Same water different lighting. Too bad all this will take years to work itself out, but like the man says: Good things come to those who wait!


Thanks again everyone!

 

[Electrobes]

Not to sound like I know anything, but doesn't the actual moon (With it's pull on Earth) cause the spawning event, as opposed to just the light?