what do you guys think of my tank?

[Keightly1981]

The big patch of purple in the top left corner is xenia on a side note. On the upside I only have purple algae and no bubble, cyano, or hair. I scraped some yesterday and it did look alot better, but my corals and fish are healthy and thats most important to me, and I do stay up on my water changes.

oh and the frag racks have been a godsend for me because I can never get the stupid plugs to stay where I put them.

 

[MvM]

Hey, I think it looks pretty good, but you do have some nuisance algae. If you run a BB properly, you shouldn't have that issue. How often are you changing water and how much?

 

[Keightly1981]

awww... you guys are really killing it here. a side note from jason's better half, aka, me: constructive criticism doesn't include nonsense such as "clean your glass," fifteen times.
it's like landscaping... some people edge their lawns, use chems to make their grass really green and plant their flowers in nice neat little rows. we aren't those people. we are the "naturalization" kind of people... the kind that enjoy the purple algae that grows on our glass. it's not dirty, it's natural. like jas mentioned above, it's not bad algae, or slime or anything gross.
we just re-aquascaped and took an buttload of rock out of the tank to give us more room for coral, and our fish more room to swim. we have plenty of rock in the sump, thanks for the head's up mccliffy. and you are also right about the lighting, mccliffy. i've been begging him to get some actinics for awhile - i think it would really make the colors pop.
IMO, he could have chosen better pics to post, usually i'm the one to do that =) and like he said, our coral and fish are beautiful - which is the important part. who cares if we have coraline on our glass... i mean, apparently you guys do. =)

 

[tangobc29]

nice start...im sure you did your hw...keep it up

 

[scaryperson27]

You are right, for some reason I do care. Maybe that's what makes us a great community. Clean your glass. Coraline will consume your calcium and alk making it hard to keep your levels stable for your pocket book and your SPS corals.

Naturalization means that you would want to take the focus away from the glass that surrounds everything that is natural. Also, those Xenia will eat your tank alive if you don't get them out of there. SPS will have trouble with them in there.

Other than that, your light is yellow, that can be fixed. Maybe a different color temperature is in order for you.

 

[Keightly1981]

what do you mean that the xenia will eat my tank alive? And do they really affect SPS?

 

[scaryperson27]

They just grow everywhere! I had some in my old 65 gallon tank. What a mess. If you are looking for a clean aquascape, then veer away from them.

 

[mcliffy2]

Regarding scraping the corralline off the glass, I will admit it is a matter of personal taste since it is mostly aesthetic (ignoring the fact it does suck up calcium/alk, which is annoying but can be worked around). However, I think that there are some people who convince themselves they like it because they don't want to scrape...not saying this is you at all, just something to think about. As for the argument it is natural, I don't understand this...IMO it doesn't look anything like the ocean, where corals have the backdrop of the deep blue water. There are no corraline covered backdrops in the wild - its on the rocks...a solid background makes the corals pop and gives the illusion of depth, which is much closer to what is natural IMO. ReefBum's tank demonstrates this nicely I think:

 

[ReeferChick85]

i don't think anyone was trying to be rude or harsh on their comments but YOU did ask "what do you guys think of my tank?". So what were you expecting? People gave their honest opinion of what they thought. Sorry if you were expecting some sugar coated responses but your definitely not gonna get that with what you put up. If your happy with your tank the way it is, then that's all that matters. Just don't get all butt hurt if people criticize your tank when asked. JMO

happy reefing!

 

[Keightly1981]

yeah reeferchick saying its like I took a good idea and killed it, or that all my tank needs is a stick of dynamite is not rude in the least bit. you have 1 year experience anyways so if you shouldnt even be keeping sps anyways according to the laws of this forum. And I dont mind people giving me their opinons, but dont tell me that they arent rude when there is no constuctive criticsm.

 

[ReeferChick85]

whether i have 1 year in the hobby or 10 years...that was such an irrelevant comment. LAME. I don't have sps in my tank fyi but i do know a lot of people who keep it and know enough about it to know what's up. Does the laws of the forum say i can't comment on an sps thread too???I can't look through threads if I don't own that type of coral or whatever???? Lame. I like looking at sps and your thread came across me titled "what do you guys think of my tank?", so it caught my attention and i commented. End of story. So what if you got a few comments like that, that was just their opinion to what they thought. Get over it.

Go be a samurai warrior or something.

 

[SunnyX]

Calm down everyone. Why must people always gravitate to the negatives? mcliffy2 has gone out of his way to give some great advice and all you guys can do is focus on the negatives.

Anyways.......

I am sure the tank will be decent once some of the corals have grown out but I am with Mike on this, clean the glass.
i understand you like corraline and "natural" elements in your reef but all they do is serve as a distraction. In a reef tank the focus should be on the corals and fish, not what is on the glass.

Personally, i am a neat freak when it comes to my reef. I clean the glass every chance I get. I want nothing to distract the observer form the beauty of the corals and fish.

At any rate, your corals look colorful so clean the glass so we can see them!

 

[plyle02]

Keightly1981
You have had some respectable reefers comment and provide excellent advice. I too am very particular over the way my glass looks, it does allow depth, colors to show, and overall orginization. Heck, your scaping looks pretty cool, you seem to have some sweet frags, now just get that glass clean. Try it and re-post the first pic and a new pic of the FTS, I am sure you too will be quite amazed...GL...

 

[scaryperson27]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14830679#post14830679 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Keightly1981
yeah reeferchick saying its like I took a good idea and killed it, or that all my tank needs is a stick of dynamite is not rude in the least bit. you have 1 year experience anyways so if you shouldnt even be keeping sps anyways according to the laws of this forum. And I dont mind people giving me their opinons, but dont tell me that they arent rude when there is no constuctive criticsm.

Really?? Lol, this is a discussion forum. You're taking it like we killed your mother. We're talking to you over the internet from some far away place. Don't take rude comments seriously. Skip to the more constructed comments.

 

[scaryperson27]

What are you planning to do anyways?

 

[seesick]

(all joking aside)
When I first opened up this thread I thought it was a joke no disrespect to anyone.
Usually When people post pictures and ask what everybody thinks, it’s for the most part a tank that has taken great time, effort and planning. After opening this tread, it was the first time, for me that I was not completely blown away by the TANK (The Quality on the site is among the BEST IN THE WORLD). I as a Mathematics Teacher, understand that different people have different capabilities and potentials vary greatly among us all. If this is your dream tank, and truly your best than I apologize for the comment I made. No one is trying to hurt feeling here, we are all here for the same reason, have fun and learning about the hobby we all love so much. So I hope nothing but your continued success with your beautiful slice of the ocean.

P.S. if this was my tank I would scrap the Glass a little.

 

[nces519]

Someone may have alrady said this, but a black or blue background would do wonders for the overall look of your tank

 

[The Escaped Ape]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14835034#post14835034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by scaryperson27
Really?? Lol, this is a discussion forum. You're taking it like we killed your mother. We're talking to you over the internet from some far away place. Don't take rude comments seriously. Skip to the more constructed comments.

IMO, some of the comments went over the line. Not all of them, but the ones highlighted.

There have also been some really helpful comments of course. Firm but fair, including your original comments.

 

[johnanddawn]

Re: what do you guys think of my tank?

<a href="http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s299/Keightly1981/?action=view&current=100_1477.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s299/Keightly1981/100_1477.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> [/B]

yeah rough crowd in here

first my advice is to search threads an this forum and see all the amazing tanks people show off
not to say your tank needs to be like others, but this is what rc does to us - we see things we like and try to mimic it
we not only share techniques but ideas in all aspects of husbandry and aquascaping. i personally have about a dozen pics of my favorite aquascapes of other peoples tanks saved to look back at
the scape i currently have is my favorite of hundreds of attempts


second - get rid of the frag racks and putty them down if they don't stay put i personally use a combination of epoxy and superglue - ask if you have trouble

and third presentation - i too am meticulous in my tanks cleanliness and would not even get the camera out without cleaning the glass. then i take a bunch of pics and only show the best. good FTS's are very hard to take

good luck with your tank - i expect in future updates it will show signs of real improvment

 

[graveyardworm]

i like the coraline on the glass look myself. Perhaps mostly because I dont have a background and it helps to conceal the plumbing and other stuff going on behind the tank. The cave on the right looks a little too planned and manmade. Perhaps with some growth it can be more disguised. Some bluer lights or actinics would really help to bring out some color, and anohter suggestion to ditch the frag rack atleast when taking pictures and showing the tank. Its a nice utility but tends to detract from the overall appearance. The xenia looks like a nasty smudge on the upper corner of the tank, I would atleast keep it off the viewing panes. I think there's alot of potential, figure out how to get the corals on the frag rack mounted securly. Maintain your water quality and watch it grow.