I started in the saltwater hobby in 2009 with a 54G corner tank. Foolishly or luckily, I purchased an established tank with live rock and a handful of fish. I love the motion of soft corals and appreciate how forgiving they are, so I started with ricordea, leathers, and mushrooms. I quickly filled the tank to capacity with fish and corals, so I started a second, 90 gallon tank. It ended up being double the work and no additional enjoyment and my then soon to be wife liked the idea of consolidating to a 180. In 2011 I upgraded to my current 180. I moved my 4 year old tank to my current new house in May 2015.
My tank is a standard 180 set up in my basement. It’s a mixed reef with about 20 fish and inverts. Corals are predominantly softies (leathers, zoanthids, GSP, and Vargas xenia), with some LPS (hammer, Duncan, trumpet, and frogspawn), and a couple SPS montis on the back glass.
The return is a Mag 12. I use 4 Hydor Koralia Evolution 1400 and a Maxijet 1200 for in-tank circulation.
I have a Current Nova Extreme Pro T5 fixture with 12 39W ATI bulbs, and love it! LEDs sound attractive, but the current livestock loves the T5.
I upgraded my DIY sump to a Trigger Systems Emerald 39 when we moved in 2015. I run an Avast Marine skimmer. I also use an Avast Spyglass Reactor with Purigen, and a couple bags of of Chemi-pure Elite.
My additives are Tech M, Two Little Fish C-Balance, and Lugols Iodine.
My favorite fish are my swissguard basslet, midas blenny, and anthia trio.
I feed frozen cyclops and mysis, and New Life Spectrum pellets.
I once had a bad outbreak of green hair algae. The Tech-M helped by the derecho (meaning power outage) wiped the issue due to no lighting for 3 days!
I’d love to change my flow. I’d either like to get 2 gyre 230s, 2 wav, or 2 ecotechs. I’d also like to add a pair of Watanabei angels to complete the tank.
I love the soft corals because they grow fast, add lots of color, and move in the flow. They enable me to have a low maintenance tank that my family can enjoy.
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- Display: 180g
- Sump: Trigger Systems Sump
- Skimmer: Avast Marine
- Lighting: Current Nova 39Wx12
- Return: Mag 12
- Circulation: 4 Koralia Evol. 1400; MJ 1200
- Controller: Apex Pro
- ATO: Tunze
- Salinity 1.024
- Temperature 78.9-79.6 deg
- LED moon lights 24/7
- Weekday:
- Blue T5 1530–2330
- Full T5 1630–2230
- Weekend:
- Blue T5 0930–2330
- Full T5 1030–2230
- Pair of clownfish
- Pair of Bangaii cardinals
- Three Carberryi anthias
- Three zebra bar fish
- Swiss guard basslett
- Orange-back wrasse
- Flame angel
- Yellow tang
- Mandarin
- Clown goby
- Yellow midas benny
- Red flasher wrasse
- Orchid dottyback
- Orange spotted goby
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