Since Mike was interested, here is my 180g as of today... I'm at the point where I'm gonna start adding a few zoas and sps soon... I tried sand for a bit, but it jus traps too much garbage no matter what I do... I need a better light for the long haul, and I'd like to get a couple nice tunze streams at some point as well... At this time, I only have 5 fish (lost a powder blue I had for a couple months that slowly declined, and every few other fish due to my wrasse), I have a show size purple tang, a trio of yellow tangs, and a mystery wrasse that is the meanest little SoB I've come across... I also have 1 fire shrimp as I lost the second I had in a molting mishap... I have not used carbon in some time now, close to 6 weeks, but the carbon reactors are going back online tomorrow... My goal is to not add many sps at all, and give them plenty of space... I'd like to start adding some zoas as well... I recently got a nice frag of rasta zoas from an awesome local (bob) and I'm gonna see how they do, before I go nuts and get ahead of myself... I am also gonna rig up the second generic led fixture I have tomorrow right next to the one that is there now (no optics, Chinese made) tomorrow, to enhance PAR until I can afford a proper light... At this time, im only concentrating on the middle 2 feet/section of the tank... I'd still love to go metal halide, as alot of zoas and sps, jus don't look as well under LEDs... Save your pro led arguements for someone who cares, I jus don't like the look of them... I currently dose alk via dosing pump as the alk jus drops naturally on its own... I'm keeping my mag around 1500, and I test calcium on great occasion as without any corals, it's nothing to stress now, and keep that at about 420 to 430... My alk, I've always been comfy with it at about 8.5... So at this point, I'm gonna add a couple hardy sps and zoas, monitor, and see how they do... I plan on adding more fish, and inverts, as well...
Mike asked, so here is my system as it stands today... Like any other system, it's a constant work in progress... its 6 months old, and I'm proud I've been so patient with it, and I'm happy I've waited to add any corals...