adaminelpaso
New member
Hello fellow reefers,
My name's Adam and I'm admittedly a newbie. I had a 55 gallon and then I inherited a 180 gallon tank that was in a friend's wall. He got tired of the upkeep and I got it. I transfered everything over about a year and half ago and really have become obsessed with my reef. I don't have unlimited funds but I try and spare no expense. Mostly I'm just not frugal with my time when it comes to maintenance and patience.
Ironically, about two months after I inherited this tank I found out I was going to lose a kidney and have some serious recuperation time. So while I got better (and I am) I read volumes about reef husbandry and the like all over the web. Mostly wetwebmedia and reefcentral. I've been intuitive enough to utilize what works for me and I've also taken some risks with my tank. The link at the bottom of this post is the evolution of my tank. The only fish I've lost that's in the photos is my sweetlips. I've also lost 2 rbta's and now I have an lta that seems to be doing well. Here's where I've gone wrong...
I over feed my fish. I have quite a few fish in the 180 with 40 gallon sump and 20 gallon fuge. I know that's too many, especially with all my coral. My bio-filter is at it's max and my nitrates are at about 50. I water change and water change and house plenty of macro but I can't get them down. I feed maybe 12 cubes a day along with rod's food and flake and nori blended in. All this is spread into 2 feedings. Well the fish have gone on a diet because while with nitrates so high I couldn't have an algae bloom even if I wanted them but I'm not pushing my luck. I do have quite the janitorial staff but still, no micro or nuisance algae. Phosphates have spiked lately. I'm down to 4-5 cubes in the morning, 4-5 cubes in the evening, I'm running a phosphate reactor with phosban (550) and I'm going to get my levels stabilized. One, I don't want to tempt fate and two, corals are open and look great but not really growing lately. Also no coralline lately and what I had is looking less bright then in the past. So I'm correcting myself and learning from the errors of keeping my fish rediculously fat and happy.
Finally I've had to place my old green carpet nem and my vlamingi tang in a friend's 500 because they outgrew my tank rapidly. Here's what I've got right now and here's a link to my progress after about a year and a half.
It's a privilege and a pleasure to read all of your posts and see the magic you've all created in your beautiful tanks. Also the knowledge and advice I've taken from this community humbles me. I'd like to stick around and continue to learn, and hopefully give back. Nice to meet you...I'm Adam.
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/adaminelpaso/
Display:
1 sailfin
1 blue hippo
1 yellow tang
1 marine betta
1 foxface rabbit
1 pink skunk clown
2 maroon clowns
2 lyretail anthias (m&f)
1 banghai cardinal
3 chromis
1 copperband butterfly
1 half-blue damsel
1 niger trigger
1 lawnmower blenny
1 cleaner wrasse
coral
assorted button polyps
rapid mushroom and hairy mushroom proliferation
sunburst
zoas
leathers
brains
torch
frogspawn
elegance
hammer
sponges
candy cane
xenia
inverts
cleaner shrimp
fire shrimp
sea urchin
purple lobster
lta
15 mexican turbo snails
25 astria snails
15 nerite snails
15 useless but semi-interesting hermit crabs
All my lighting is T-5. PC's over the fuge.
My name's Adam and I'm admittedly a newbie. I had a 55 gallon and then I inherited a 180 gallon tank that was in a friend's wall. He got tired of the upkeep and I got it. I transfered everything over about a year and half ago and really have become obsessed with my reef. I don't have unlimited funds but I try and spare no expense. Mostly I'm just not frugal with my time when it comes to maintenance and patience.
Ironically, about two months after I inherited this tank I found out I was going to lose a kidney and have some serious recuperation time. So while I got better (and I am) I read volumes about reef husbandry and the like all over the web. Mostly wetwebmedia and reefcentral. I've been intuitive enough to utilize what works for me and I've also taken some risks with my tank. The link at the bottom of this post is the evolution of my tank. The only fish I've lost that's in the photos is my sweetlips. I've also lost 2 rbta's and now I have an lta that seems to be doing well. Here's where I've gone wrong...
I over feed my fish. I have quite a few fish in the 180 with 40 gallon sump and 20 gallon fuge. I know that's too many, especially with all my coral. My bio-filter is at it's max and my nitrates are at about 50. I water change and water change and house plenty of macro but I can't get them down. I feed maybe 12 cubes a day along with rod's food and flake and nori blended in. All this is spread into 2 feedings. Well the fish have gone on a diet because while with nitrates so high I couldn't have an algae bloom even if I wanted them but I'm not pushing my luck. I do have quite the janitorial staff but still, no micro or nuisance algae. Phosphates have spiked lately. I'm down to 4-5 cubes in the morning, 4-5 cubes in the evening, I'm running a phosphate reactor with phosban (550) and I'm going to get my levels stabilized. One, I don't want to tempt fate and two, corals are open and look great but not really growing lately. Also no coralline lately and what I had is looking less bright then in the past. So I'm correcting myself and learning from the errors of keeping my fish rediculously fat and happy.
Finally I've had to place my old green carpet nem and my vlamingi tang in a friend's 500 because they outgrew my tank rapidly. Here's what I've got right now and here's a link to my progress after about a year and a half.
It's a privilege and a pleasure to read all of your posts and see the magic you've all created in your beautiful tanks. Also the knowledge and advice I've taken from this community humbles me. I'd like to stick around and continue to learn, and hopefully give back. Nice to meet you...I'm Adam.
http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn301/adaminelpaso/
Display:
1 sailfin
1 blue hippo
1 yellow tang
1 marine betta
1 foxface rabbit
1 pink skunk clown
2 maroon clowns
2 lyretail anthias (m&f)
1 banghai cardinal
3 chromis
1 copperband butterfly
1 half-blue damsel
1 niger trigger
1 lawnmower blenny
1 cleaner wrasse
coral
assorted button polyps
rapid mushroom and hairy mushroom proliferation
sunburst
zoas
leathers
brains
torch
frogspawn
elegance
hammer
sponges
candy cane
xenia
inverts
cleaner shrimp
fire shrimp
sea urchin
purple lobster
lta
15 mexican turbo snails
25 astria snails
15 nerite snails
15 useless but semi-interesting hermit crabs
All my lighting is T-5. PC's over the fuge.
