my 185g irish reef

[jl1]

hi everyone!
my name is jim and am living in Ireland,
Dublin city to be precise.
I will start with how I got to the present with my tank.
I had always wanted an aquarium and going on advice I received I purchased the biggest one I could afford at the time.
it is 5ft long 2ft high and 2ft deep and holds just under 700 litres including the sump area.
It is running a year now and as most reefers would probably know its had its ups and downs.
don't worry the talking will soon stop and the pics will start :smile:

 

[jl1]

a pic of when the tank arrived .


doing the big fill


sand in and one piece of liverock!!

 

[jl1]

before I put up some more pics I will list what equipment I am using.

bubble magus curve 7 skimmer
2 x tunze powerheads 8500lph each (cant remember the model number)
vecton v2 600 uv unit
eheim compact plus return pump 3500lph
my lights are a twin t5 and blue led unit ( upgrading to a reefbreeders photon 48 in the next week or so)
have cheato in the sump and some rowaphos
will shortly be ordering two reactors to run bio pellets and rowaphos.

 

[jl1]

after letting the tank cycle I added my first fish 3 yellow bellied damsels.


I then purchased 30 kgs of liverock as the one piece wasn't really cutting it!!
so the tank now looked like this.


a few weeks passed and approaching Christmas 2012 I added some more inhabitants to the tank consisting of:
2 black and white clownfish
1 bi-colour angel
1 bi-colour blenny

I was feeling pretty chuffed even at this early stage!!




please excuse the awful pics they were all taken on my phone.
my dslr got trashed.

 

[jl1]

I then purchased 2 cleaner shrimp


at the beginning of January I suffered my first loss :sad:
my two clowns who I thought were settling in well died within 3 days of each other I was gutted.
so I ordered some replacements and they arrived a week later and joined the gang.

it was at this stage I went a bit tang mad!!
within a month I had purchased a naso tang , tomini/goldrush tang and a regal tang!!



my regal was only 2 inches in size at this stage and very shy so I have no pics of her at the beginning

 

[inurocker]

Very nice.

 

[jl1]

Very nice.

thank you.

 

[jl1]

at this stage I decided I needed a little bit more liverock for the tank so I purchased another 25 kg and decided to do a little rescape so the tank now looked like this


I then decided the tank was a bit static looking so I added a hammer coral and a torch coral



I must at this point let you all know that my wife has been very supportive in my reefing adventures and even though the tank takes up a lot of room and my money and time but I never really thought she had much interest until my next trip to my local fish shop.
my lfs had just gotten in its delivery of fish and there in one of the tanks was a fish that was always on my wanted list.


this is the actual picture I took at the fish shop and because it was fairly pricey I decided to text it to my wife to see what she thought of it.
to my utter surprise she texted me back with the reply " don't you dare come home without that fish!!"
so needless to say an emperor angel became the latest addition:xd:

 

[Saltgator]

How's the emperor doing?

 

[jl1]

How's the emperor doing?

the emperor is doing really well.
he is starting the change to adult colours.
he is so friendly I can very nearly pet him when putting some nori in the tank
on another note I purchased a vampire tang last week and so far so good.
he got a bit of hassle from the yellow and regal tang but things have settled down and he is starting to settle in.
today I purchased a female mandarin to go with the male I have already and also picked up a red spot flymo blenny.#
as soon as everyone settles in I shall post some pics.
oh I also took delivery of a reefbreeders photon 48 just sorting out how I am going to mount it.
turned it on yesterday for the first time and got 100% of both channels right in the face.
nearly bloody blinded me!!

 

[jl1]

her is a pic of my male mandarin he has settled in really well even eating frozen Mysis