Leemar Starphire 290

Well, it’s been a fun 5 years of learning, enjoying, suffering through this tank. LOL! It was starting to have some serious issues of over crowding and lighting issues (ie....big corals high in the tank, shading the rest of the tank). I also had a bunch of mushrooms that had simply taken over huge sections and were killing off several of my SPS as well as some chalice coral. So, I took a quick / crappy iPhone video just before I ripped out most of the stuff.

Huge thank you to Mike “The fish Doctor” for coming over and taking away tons of coral from the tank. If you are interested, head over to his shop and check it out.

Here is a video of it’s last day.

 

So now it’s been a process of removing coral, then taking out all the rocks and removing any unwanted mushrooms, polyps, vermatid snails, etc, etc. Then, moving some of my larger colonies that I am going to keep to their own rocks. The new idea is to lower all the coral, so you can see the top (color) of each coral. I would like to focus on much less coral, and give them all more room to grow out and get BIG!!!! It was a sad and fun process. I actually found several corals that I had completely forgotten about. Things that had fallen behind rocks, etc.....but somehow lived anyway. So, stay tuned for a new look. Lot’s of changes.

Here are some quick photo’s of the progress.





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Ohhhhhhh, so modern looking!

 

Oh no! Something’s missing!

 

How are your fish and other livestock responding to the change? How much did you have to dial back the carx?

 

Fish are a bit stressed about not having Their original sleeping spots, but they seem very happy with all the extra swimming room. The tangs are like a little gang that swim back and forth. They, and the wrasses are also loving that most of the rocks have been split and cut open, as well as turned upside down, so they are feasting on the critters they couldn’t get to before.

I will likely add some fish before I am all finished, as it is usually very difficult to add them to this tank with all the established fish in there. Especially my fat little 6 line wrasse.......total A-hole!!

I was running the reactor with the ph at about 6.3.......about as close as I can get without a meltdown. I dropped it back to about 6.45. I will probably drop it a bit more, however there are still a lot of coral in there. Most are in holding in the frag tank at the moment.


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Wow looks so different but still fantastic! When do you think the new lights be up and running?

 

Picking them up tomorrow. Not likely that I will make it through the weekend before temporarily mounting them.

 

Kris, you can count on me if you need help for anything. I will be off the next few weeks. Let me know.

 

Huge difference. Looking forward to the next 5 years

 

Looks good Kris, opening that tank up really changes the dynamic a lot. Hope your fish don't have territorial disputes or anything.

 

I really liked the 'overgrown' and packed in look. It's rare to see mature reef tanks like yours. It took me back to when I first joined the club!

 

Kris, Capescuba has a very large 12inch squamosa clam that would look great in your tank.

 

Still looks awesome Kris. But can't wait to see the new lights and the progress.

 

Me too!!! Loved it, but couldn’t handle seeing stuff die off in the shadows. Also my own fault for not trimming the coral back, and for adding mushrooms in the first place. They all came from my previous tanks, and were filler for when the sticks were small. Once they started growing I couldn’t get the shrooms back out. This time I’m gonna try to give almost everything it’s own rock. Hoping to make it easier to move things around as needed. We’ll see.

 

Sounds a bit OCD to me I'm sure the tank will return to awesome in just a short while!