~180 Reef~

[John]

Equipment Specs:

(Display Equipment)
Perfecto 180 w/ Dual Corner Overflows 72"x24"x24"
Black Poplar stand w/ matching canopy
2x Mp40w Vortech (w/ battery backup)
Neptune Lite Level II Aquacontroller
8x Bulb 48" Tek Light Fixture (Has 2x Workhorse 7 Ballasts now.)

3x ATI Blue Plus
3x ATI Aquablue Special
2x Koralin Zucht Fiji Purple

(Sump/Refugium Equipment)
MSX SWC 300 Protein Skimmer (Not Modded)
Mag 18 (return pump)
3x 250 watt Stealth heaters
Tsunami ATO
Two Part Doser

(Frag Tank Equipment)
4x 36" T5 HO Retro
2x Glo Ballasts
4x Tek II Reflectors

2x ATI Aquablue Special
1x ATI Blue Plus
1x Koralin Zucht

Livestock

Current Fish Stock

2x Black and White Clownfish
3x Allens Damsels
1x Blue Devil Damsel
1x Yellow Tang
2x Barred Gobies
1x Algae Blenny
1x Coral Beauty

Future Possible Additions

Flame Angel
Naso Tang
Lyretail Anthias

Current Coral Stock

Softies

Zoas and Palys

Purple Hornets
Blue Hornets
Organism Palys
Green People Eaters
Midas Gold (Can't find them now)
Incredible Hulks
Eagle Eyes
Peanut Butter Cups
Nightmares
Blowpops
Rastas
Tubs Blues
Fruitloops
Armor of Gods
Better than Kedds Reds
Purple Deaths
Devils Armor
Eye of Rah
Green Bay Packers
Lunar Eclipse
Goochsters
Orange Delights
Candy Apple Greens
Candy Apple Reds
Alien Eyes
Plus an assortment of unknowns

Devils Hand Leather
Green Sinularia
GSP (Green Star Polyps)
Pulsing Xenia

LPS

Long Tentacle Plate Coral
Pink Hammer Coral
Green Base w/ Pink Tip Frogspawn
Neon Green Trumpets
Greenish Blue Trumpets
Bubblegum Chalice
Under The Rainbow Acan

SPS

Birds of Paradise (Maybe)
Blue Tenius
Green Birdsnest
Ponape Birds Nest
Blue Stag

Montis and Caps (Plating)

Orange Cap
Purple with Blue Polyps
Purple Haze
Olive Green
Hollywood Stunner
Green Cap

Future Corals I would like to add:

Zoas and Palys

Nuclear Greens
Red People Eaters
Jokers or Purple People Eaters
Magicians
Whatever else catches my eye

LPS

Some More Acans
Open Brain Coral

SPS

Green Slimer
PC Superman Acropora
Red Planet
Orange Digi
Poker Monti
Superman Monti
Sunset Monti
Reverse Sunset Monti

Cleanup Crew/Inverts

Snails
Magarita Snails
Turbo Snails
Cerith Snails
Nerite Snails
Nassarius
2x Cucumber
3x Brittle Star
1x Black Urchin

Shrimp
1x Cleaner Shimp

Crabs
1x Emerald Crab
Blue Legged Hermits

Future Cleanup Crew/Inverts

Shrimp
Blood Shrimp
Peppermint Shrimp
Anemone Shrimp

Crabs
Porcerlain Crab
Arrow Crab

I'll add some updated pics soon... keep in mind this tank is not very mature yet. 3 months old...

[Sir Patrick]

About time man!! I was wondering what you were running these days!

Taggin along on this one. Have a feeling its gonna be a sweet build!

[Manoj's Reef]

Nice collection!!!

Pics plz!!

[Chris]

[John]

It's not too much to look at right now. When I buy coral I usually buy small frags. Especially with the Zs and Ps. So, the tank looks sort of barren at the moment.

The sand was added to this tank 4 months ago today!!! July 17th

Water was added about a week later.







Then these next pics were taken on the July 30th







(I took these pics off my wife's facebook page so, if they don't work let me know and I'll upload them to imageshack)

[John]

Tomorrow or Wed, I will begin my two part dosing.

I finally did some water tests today...
Calcium and Alkalinity are very low... How low you wonder... well... low... Calcium is 310, Alkalinty 5.5 dKH...

On a plus note. Nitrates were reading 0, Nitrites are 0 and amonia is 0.

I like to think of it as, my tank is lacking a bit of everything...

But, at least I know why my coralline growth was so slow. On that note, weekly 15% water changes won't cut it for me. Darn...

[Chris]

Looks great man! Thanks for sharing did u build the stand canopy yourself or buy it like that? I have a 180g work in progress myself... but mines a bigger work in progress although its been up a few months now lol

[John]

I bought the stand and canopy.

I didn't do a lot of DIY projects on this tank. Well... I did... just not as many as the 60 cube I built.

Between moving and not having a place to work on stuff prior to moving, I figured I would spend the time waiting to move to slowly stock up on equipment.

My calcium is up to 340 this morning now that I started to add my two part mix. The Alkalinty increased a little faster than I had hoped it would as well. Its now at 8dKH.

[John]

Well, my Calcium is finally up to 400! I can see growth lines in the SPS again already, which makes me happy.

Now, I need a new PH probe!

[John]

Just did some water tests... had to tweak my two part dosing a bit... calcium dropped to 380 a few days ago.

Now I'm holding steady at about 410.

My PH 8.2

But, the Alk is a bit low... 7dKH.. now I need to bump that up... jeesh...

No equipment changes.

I did just order the other half to my cleanup crew!

100x Hermits (For display and frag tank)
1x Black Urchin (For frag tank and fuge will switch when needed)
3x Brittle Stars (1 For frag tank, 1 for fuge and 1 for rock section)
2x Sandsifting Cukes (For Display)

Also, a few weeks back I picked up a Powder Brown. It went into my quarentine tank, it got ich. The Ich went away after treating (or so I thought) after a week I put it in the main system. The ich came back, killed it, then my mandarin, then my kole tang, and finally one of my allens damsels... the rest of my fish seem fine now... but, I'm not going to hold my breath.

LESSON LEARNED: Quarantine fish for 1 entire month. No matter what. Disappointed in LFS that sold me the fish, not really. Tangs are prone to getting sick... I'll accept this as my fault.