My Reef turned 1 year old ...

[LoJack]

Well since my reef is a year old ... I thought I'd post a few photos of then and now. I started with LED but switched to T5 due to poor performance.

Here it is then ...



First SPS: 1" Branch of Pocillipora



First LPS: 5 Heads of Green Candycane



Full Tank Shot Today:



Same Pocillipora Colony today:



Same Candycane Colony today:

 

[colortrilogy]

Nice scape. Hope my new task will look as nice in a year.

 

[LoJack]

Thanks

 

[Saltydrip]

Nice! Makes me want a candy cane.

 

[greech]

Congrats on the milestone! Very nice tank!

 

[maddmaxx]

looks nice and healthy. job well done with this tank...

 

[wreck]

Nice work!

 

[OrQidz]

I LOVE your rock work! Looks great. Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about the LEDs? I'm tempted to go LED but have heard not everyone has success with them.

 

[asudavew]

Looks great! What size tank? How may pounds of live rock?

Just curious.

 

[PikkaGTR]

holy crap growth batman!
looking good
hope when my tank turns 1 in Dec it will be as nice as yours

 

[PaulieReef]

Congrats! My tank hit the one year mark a couple months ago and i was NOT happy with what it looked like . MAde me realize i needed to pick it up!

 

[biggles]

Looking good, congrats on the first year anniversary :thumbsup: That first 12 months can be a scary ride at times lol.........
That pocil has gone nuts for you, placed that guy in just the right spot. What bulbs are you running at the moment if i can ask. Some more close up pics would be good when you can manage it please mate

 

[Palting]

Happy 1 year! Tanks looks great. You must be doing it right!!

 

[LoJack]

Nice! Makes me want a candy cane.

Congrats on the milestone! Very nice tank!

looks nice and healthy. job well done with this tank...

Nice work!

Thank you very much for the kind words

 

[LoJack]

I LOVE your rock work! Looks great. Out of curiosity, what didn't you like about the LEDs? I'm tempted to go LED but have heard not everyone has success with them.

Thanks. I didn't like the directionality of the lighting. I didn't like that most of my SPS wouldn't show true proper color under them. I didn't like the shadows that they cast in the tank as a result of the directionality of the optics.

The LED guys will tell you that there was something else at play because there are tons of successful tanks lit with LED's ... and I agree. But there are very few beautiful tanks that started on LED's and used LED the whole way. Most of the best examples of tanks lit with LED's were grown with metal halide and or T-5 and then they switched over to LED.

I switched back to T-5 and I'm starting to get more rapid growth, better polyp extension and the color back in some of my stags. Nothing else has changed, so in my mind ... its pretty definitive that the lighting was the problem.

Also with LED, every day it seems like there is new technology. A new color that you need if you want success. LED is the future ... that I'm sure of, however its not the present.

If LED's truly were the be all and end all ... you wouldn't have thousands of reefers switching back to halide and T5

 

[LoJack]

Looks great! What size tank? How may pounds of live rock?

Just curious.

The tank is 144 gallons with a 50 gallon sump.

There is about 100 lbs of rock in the display and another 20 or so in the sump.

 

[LoJack]

holy crap growth batman!
looking good
hope when my tank turns 1 in Dec it will be as nice as yours

Thanks

Congrats! My tank hit the one year mark a couple months ago and i was NOT happy with what it looked like . MAde me realize i needed to pick it up!

Thanks

Looking good, congrats on the first year anniversary :thumbsup: That first 12 months can be a scary ride at times lol.........
That pocil has gone nuts for you, placed that guy in just the right spot. What bulbs are you running at the moment if i can ask. Some more close up pics would be good when you can manage it please mate

yeah the Pocillipora has always done well for me. I've probably cut 20 frags off of the thing over the course of this year and its still massive. I really like it.

Happy 1 year! Tanks looks great. You must be doing it right!!

Thank you

 

[Metal Man 1221]

Good growth and your rocks have colored up very nicely.

 

[LoJack]

Good growth and your rocks have colored up very nicely.

Yeah the rocks have come a long way. I forgot how white they were when I started. I guess when you see it everyday ... its easy to miss the gradual changes that take place.

I love the purple coralline look on the rocks ... its one of my favorite things about a reef.

 

[tallball158]

Awesome looking tank! I really like the aquascaping. The coralline has come along way in a year!