nrosdal
12-09-2009, 08:22 PM
hey, i have had an ats going for about 4-5 months and am finally happy with my design and the results that it is giving me so i figured that i would post a thread with pics from along the way. i would love to say that my tank clearing up is only due to the ats but there are other factors (vodka dosing/more water changes) that also did contribute. But i can definately say that the ats is the biggest contributing factor in my tanks successfully staying free from green and my N and P staying within a reasonable range.
i might as well take it way back and here is a pic of my tank when i first got it. about a year and a half ago i got a great deal on all my tank/rock/corals/mushrooms/ect.. from a fellow i knew. but didnt really know all that much about keeping them properly as i had only had FW tanks before. her it was:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/80Salt.jpg
couple months later i upgraded to a 120gal tank and things were still goin pretty well and i was figuring out how to keep everything alive ect...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140048.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140054.jpg
a short while later this little guy came along... he seemed to be doing alright nipping a little but not doing any serious damage. until i went away on holidays for 2 weeks and had my sister stay and watch the fish while i was gone(and really underfeed them aparently). in that 2 weeks the angel managed to eat every mushroom/polyp/coral in the tank excluding 1 hard coral that he didn't touch.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/bluefacedangel.jpg
jumping ahead about 6 months of me discouraged and allowing the wife to overfeed the pretty much fish only tank daily and not doing the upkeep that i should have. Here are a few pics of what neglect will get you (a really big fish and a whole lot of algae):
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00032.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00031.jpg
around this time i decided that i was gonna get the tank back on track and started taking better care of it (water changes being done every 2 weeks started feeding myself insted of letting the wife overfeed). after quite a while with no improvements i was online and found a thread from santa monica about a turf scrubber and built one for myself. it was doing ok but not what i was hoping for. so i rebuilt with more flow and 23w cfl floods insted of standard cfls with dull aluminum reflectors. it was also around this time that i started dosing vodka to the system as well as beefed up clean up crew. here is a pic of my 2nd gen scrubber and the tank at the time
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00017.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00028.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00052.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg
i was getting a little better growth of algae and doing 1-2 water changes a week also changed bulbs to 6500k from the standard ones and put the scrubber on its own timer so that i could have it on for 18hrs as opposed to 12. over the next few weeks i saw some serious improvements in growth on my ats and noticed that the algae in the display was not growing back after my snails/crabs cleaned it. here is the tank looking a bit better.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00056.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00058.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00075.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00074.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00077.jpg
fast forward to today and the tank has been clear of algae(except for on 1 coral that the snails dont like to touch) for about a month now and even has a slight purple hue to it as opposed to green. Corals are slowly popping back out of the rock... and i have my latest version of the scrubber up and running for a week now (same screen just new lighting/box setup). here are a few pics of the scrubber with its new diy acrylic box, polished aluminium reflector, and 42watt 6500k cfl lights. as well as new tank shots.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00081.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00082.jpg
one with a reflector off so that you can see inside
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00084.jpg
harvest time
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00086.jpg
tank shots
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00089.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00090.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00091.jpg
will post a few more up close pics tomorrow when the lights are back on. thanks for taking the time to read my senseless drivel, i hope i didn't bore you all to death...
Nick
i might as well take it way back and here is a pic of my tank when i first got it. about a year and a half ago i got a great deal on all my tank/rock/corals/mushrooms/ect.. from a fellow i knew. but didnt really know all that much about keeping them properly as i had only had FW tanks before. her it was:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/80Salt.jpg
couple months later i upgraded to a 120gal tank and things were still goin pretty well and i was figuring out how to keep everything alive ect...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140048.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/PA140054.jpg
a short while later this little guy came along... he seemed to be doing alright nipping a little but not doing any serious damage. until i went away on holidays for 2 weeks and had my sister stay and watch the fish while i was gone(and really underfeed them aparently). in that 2 weeks the angel managed to eat every mushroom/polyp/coral in the tank excluding 1 hard coral that he didn't touch.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/bluefacedangel.jpg
jumping ahead about 6 months of me discouraged and allowing the wife to overfeed the pretty much fish only tank daily and not doing the upkeep that i should have. Here are a few pics of what neglect will get you (a really big fish and a whole lot of algae):
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00032.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00031.jpg
around this time i decided that i was gonna get the tank back on track and started taking better care of it (water changes being done every 2 weeks started feeding myself insted of letting the wife overfeed). after quite a while with no improvements i was online and found a thread from santa monica about a turf scrubber and built one for myself. it was doing ok but not what i was hoping for. so i rebuilt with more flow and 23w cfl floods insted of standard cfls with dull aluminum reflectors. it was also around this time that i started dosing vodka to the system as well as beefed up clean up crew. here is a pic of my 2nd gen scrubber and the tank at the time
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00017.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00028.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00052.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg
i was getting a little better growth of algae and doing 1-2 water changes a week also changed bulbs to 6500k from the standard ones and put the scrubber on its own timer so that i could have it on for 18hrs as opposed to 12. over the next few weeks i saw some serious improvements in growth on my ats and noticed that the algae in the display was not growing back after my snails/crabs cleaned it. here is the tank looking a bit better.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00055.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00056.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00058.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00075.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00074.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00077.jpg
fast forward to today and the tank has been clear of algae(except for on 1 coral that the snails dont like to touch) for about a month now and even has a slight purple hue to it as opposed to green. Corals are slowly popping back out of the rock... and i have my latest version of the scrubber up and running for a week now (same screen just new lighting/box setup). here are a few pics of the scrubber with its new diy acrylic box, polished aluminium reflector, and 42watt 6500k cfl lights. as well as new tank shots.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00081.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00082.jpg
one with a reflector off so that you can see inside
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00084.jpg
harvest time
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00086.jpg
tank shots
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00089.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00090.jpg
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d99/sheetmetal/IMG00091.jpg
will post a few more up close pics tomorrow when the lights are back on. thanks for taking the time to read my senseless drivel, i hope i didn't bore you all to death...
Nick