Our first SW tank - 180 gal build

[Coralgurl]

Tank looks amazing!! Woooooww! your 2 radions should work great like that too. Nice corals and fish! I loooove your sailfin, great shot of him!!

Did I miss something?? Are you Expecting?? If so congrats!

[subman]

Great meeting you and your family today!
What did you end up bringing home from BWA? I saw a beautiful Acan then I had to chase my little terror around lol

[reefgirl189]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Tank looks amazing!! Woooooww! your 2 radions should work great like that too. Nice corals and fish! I loooove your sailfin, great shot of him!!

Did I miss something?? Are you Expecting?? If so congrats!

Unfortunately the sailfin died a couple weeks ago. I still have no idea why. He just stopped eating and then got bloated and passed away. Everything else is flourishing ( and in some cases splitting lol ).

Yes we are expecting child #2 now. A couple months in and I was ready to be done with this pregnancy weeks ago, haha.

Originally Posted by subman

Great meeting you and your family today!
What did you end up bringing home from BWA? I saw a beautiful Acan then I had to chase my little terror around lol

Thanks, you too! I'm kind of glad I brought my little terror of my own otherwise my wallet would have been much emptier upon leaving. If I didn't have to chase a little guy I would have had much more time for shopping, lol.

We got a little royal gramma an acan and some zoas. I'll post pics once they settle in.

[reefgirl189]

I'm sorry, it's been a very long time since my last update. I've been incredibly overloaded with a hectic work schedule and the dogs. We recently got our show male back from his showing circuit in Oklahoma and I'm happy to say he's now a multi-champion with the AKC and UKC both on bench and show! Now we can finally let him relax and enjoy the good life for a few months.

So here's the update:

The new tank has been set up for over 6 months now.

I debated re-aquascaping a bit over the past few months but I'm over that now. I like all the caves and shady hiding spots and I think the fish appreciate them also.

I haven't been having huge success with corals and I'm a bit disappointed about that but I know where my problems lie. I need to get a better understanding of the dosing/water change relationship. I'm thinking about changing the salt I use also (currently using IO) as I find it's low on calcium and doing frequent water changes messes with the levels too often. I know stability is key so perhaps a better quality salt will help with that.

Some of the more recent additions (in the last 3 months) include:

Blue throat male and female trigger
Regal Tang
A new sailfin tang
3 sand sifting starfish
1 diamond goby (haven't seen him yet unfortunately, but he's only been in there since yesterday)
3 lyretail anthias

I haven't added any new corals lately for obvious reasons. I don't want to add to a problem I haven't fixed yet.

Here's plenty of pictures of the livestock though:

[Rice Reef]

Looking good! Is that trigger reef safe? Been thinking about getty one...

[Coralgurl]

Does your hippo tang go after the triggers at all? Mine is brutal....

Love the new scape!

[reefgirl189]

Originally Posted by Rice Reef

Looking good! Is that trigger reef safe? Been thinking about getty one...

I have heard there's the odd one that pics at SPS but I haven't noticed any bad behaviours yet. The triggers are so fun to watch, I love the way they move through the water. I kinda wish I would have got a niger trigger instead but I think they are less reef compatible than the blue throats.

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Does your hippo tang go after the triggers at all? Mine is brutal....

Love the new scape!

No, not at all. I'm very lucky in the fact that everyone gets along well in my tank. The one exception is the purple tang occasionally chases someone but that's kind of my fault as I shouldn't have added him first. He doesn't harass anyone often enough for it to be a problem though.

[reefgirl189]

Ok, I haven't tested my water in well over a month because I don't like to and I've been very busy. Things really weren't all that bad. Perhaps I should ignore my tank more often.

Calcium 440
Magnesium 1590 (whoa... should be 1320 ish)
Alk 6 or 7, kinda in between.
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 0 ppm
salinity 1.026
temp 78
pH 8.25

[reefgirl189]

Just found my new diamond goby shrivelled up dead on the floor. Poor guy I feel bad as I've been thinking about getting a screen top for months and never did anything about it.

[gregzz4]

Sorry to hear this