Hey All,
I've been reading all you're tank build threads for years but being true to this threads title I've been too lazy to create a thread of my own. I decided to finally get around to creating this thread to track my tanks progress so here goes.
First off a FTS
The tank started in 2014 and stayed fish only for about a year. I slowly started adding SPS in 2015 and wasn't able to keep anything alive because I was following the school of thought that you need zero nutrients for SPS to thrive. Man I tell you there's so much bad advise out there on how to keep sps. I'm convinced 90% of the people on the general forums are clueless and the people that do know don't want to argue with the people that don't. In the middle of 2015 I started following threads on this sps forum and after reading for a while I learned a ton and started learning how to keep sps. The tank is a standard 180gal (2ftx2ftx6ft). The tank is doing ok but it's far from where I'd like it to be since I made a lot of noob mistakes. As you can see on the bottom glass I have an astrea star fish infestation. I have 2 harlequin shrimp that are slowly picking away at them but it's taking along time to get rid of them completely. So far I only have sps but plan on adding some LPS on the bottom glass eventually (Flubber belongs at the very bottom of the tank"¦)
Lighting
Lighting is LED, I have (4) Hydra 52's over 4feet of the tank and (2) AI Sol Blues and (1) Hydra 52 HD over the last 2 feet. I plan to eventually get rid of the (2) sols and replace them with a hydra 52 HD so I have 6 in total. As you can see I've invested way more money in lighting than any sane person would. At this point I probably would have been better off with High end T5 or Radiums but I digress.
Sump and Tank Controller
My sump is a 40Gal breeder. It's nothing special and not worth discussing any further. LOL
I have an APEX to control the tank and everything except the lights are controlled by it.
Dosing
I've been using Aquaforest Comp 1,2,3 for dosing since July 2016, before that I used BRS dosing ingredients. After seeing all the success people were having on this forum with it I decided to give it a go. All I can say is wow this stuff is amazing. My consumption in June 2016 was 24ml per day for each part of the BRS recipe and had been that way for 8 months. Without changing anything else 3 weeks after starting the Component 1,2,3 my consumption went up ~400% to 120mls of each per day. Now 6 months later my consumption is 220mls per day. I don't dose anything else besides the Component 1,2,3 so needless to say I'm a fan.
Nutrient Control
As you can see I run a bare bottom tank. While I don't care for the look of it being bare bottom it makes maintenance so much easier and with me being lazy it was a no brainer. I feed a fair amount of frozen food daily and my nutrients have stayed low for a long time. My Nitrates are around 2.5ppm and phosphate stays around 0.08ppm luckily I never have to use GFO or any form of carbon dosing.
There's still a lot to talk about but Acro Porn will follow shortly"¦
I've been reading all you're tank build threads for years but being true to this threads title I've been too lazy to create a thread of my own. I decided to finally get around to creating this thread to track my tanks progress so here goes.
First off a FTS
The tank started in 2014 and stayed fish only for about a year. I slowly started adding SPS in 2015 and wasn't able to keep anything alive because I was following the school of thought that you need zero nutrients for SPS to thrive. Man I tell you there's so much bad advise out there on how to keep sps. I'm convinced 90% of the people on the general forums are clueless and the people that do know don't want to argue with the people that don't. In the middle of 2015 I started following threads on this sps forum and after reading for a while I learned a ton and started learning how to keep sps. The tank is a standard 180gal (2ftx2ftx6ft). The tank is doing ok but it's far from where I'd like it to be since I made a lot of noob mistakes. As you can see on the bottom glass I have an astrea star fish infestation. I have 2 harlequin shrimp that are slowly picking away at them but it's taking along time to get rid of them completely. So far I only have sps but plan on adding some LPS on the bottom glass eventually (Flubber belongs at the very bottom of the tank"¦)
Lighting
Lighting is LED, I have (4) Hydra 52's over 4feet of the tank and (2) AI Sol Blues and (1) Hydra 52 HD over the last 2 feet. I plan to eventually get rid of the (2) sols and replace them with a hydra 52 HD so I have 6 in total. As you can see I've invested way more money in lighting than any sane person would. At this point I probably would have been better off with High end T5 or Radiums but I digress.
Sump and Tank Controller
My sump is a 40Gal breeder. It's nothing special and not worth discussing any further. LOL
I have an APEX to control the tank and everything except the lights are controlled by it.
Dosing
I've been using Aquaforest Comp 1,2,3 for dosing since July 2016, before that I used BRS dosing ingredients. After seeing all the success people were having on this forum with it I decided to give it a go. All I can say is wow this stuff is amazing. My consumption in June 2016 was 24ml per day for each part of the BRS recipe and had been that way for 8 months. Without changing anything else 3 weeks after starting the Component 1,2,3 my consumption went up ~400% to 120mls of each per day. Now 6 months later my consumption is 220mls per day. I don't dose anything else besides the Component 1,2,3 so needless to say I'm a fan.
Nutrient Control
As you can see I run a bare bottom tank. While I don't care for the look of it being bare bottom it makes maintenance so much easier and with me being lazy it was a no brainer. I feed a fair amount of frozen food daily and my nutrients have stayed low for a long time. My Nitrates are around 2.5ppm and phosphate stays around 0.08ppm luckily I never have to use GFO or any form of carbon dosing.
There's still a lot to talk about but Acro Porn will follow shortly"¦
