Bale's 180g Tank

[bale31]

As I've mentioned in my initial post, I'm a bit of a new reefer. My father-in-law gave us his 75 gallon tank when we got married 18 years ago. Since then it was cichlid tank, a saltwater fish tank, a reef tank, an out of commission tank and back to a saltwater fish tank. About 1.5 years ago, I made the decision to jump in with both feet and got a 180 gallon tank. Frankly, I didn't really know what I was doing and still don't know a lot. I took a lot of recommendations from a couple of LFS. I'm more than open to a suggestions as well. I don't have a ton of friends that are really into acquariums, so I need to show it off a bit so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time. So with that, here she is:

Just the basics about equipment- ADmittedly, this is my biggest weakness and depend of smarter people.

• Tank- 180 gallon glass acquarium
• Skimmer- Axiom EShops X350
• EShopps REfugium Sump
• Apex Fusion Runs the ATO, Heater, Return, Skimmer, Lights,Tester, Doser, Powerheads
  • I dose calcium and alkalinity 3 times each day
  • Test Alk 4 times/day and calcium/magnesium 2 times/day
• LIghts- AI 32
• Powerheads- 2- Nero 3 Powerheads and a ReefWave RS45

I'm a bit of a storyteller, so for my own entertainment, I'm going to tell the story of just how we got our "Music Star" tank. I'm not sure that you all are all that interested, but, frankly, I just wanna do this for my own fun. Unfortunately, I didn't take many/any pictures of the actual build, so I'm gonna focus on the build of the reef/fish mix. Without further ado......

Here's the overall tank as it stands. Then I'll introduce you to our stars.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Great looking tank!!

 

[bale31]

When we first started, we got a couple of show pieces. Unfortunately, we went through a few fish and a few coral while we learned. I feel bad that we didn't do things correctly right away. They paid the ultimate price, but I guess that's an unfortunate reality of the hobby.

Our first show piece was this beauty. It's a toxic green hammer. My wife and I have this annoying habit of blurting out a song when we hear key words. I told her that that it was a "Toxic Green Hammer" and she instantly started singing the song "Toxic" by Brittney Spears. Thus, she was named Brittney. As we added more corals, we decided that all of our corals needed to be named and, if possible, they needed to be named after female pop singers. Yes, we came of age in the 90s and early 2000s, so you will notice a theme.

Of course, along with Brittney, you can't forget about Christina. We thought that our Elegance and flowing blonde hair just like Christina Aguilara, so yeah, it just made sense.

 

[bale31]

Being that we were relatively new to the hobby, we wanted to have some quicker growing coral. Our LFS suggested these Xenias. One regular and one pulsing. He didn't tell us just how quickly they grow and how they can just overtake things.

This is Shakira. She started with just 2 polyps and started taking over the rock. I actually broke the rock off so she had a smaller rock that she could take over. I'm actually thinking about trading her in so she doesn't get too out of control. When she gets going in the flow, she shimmie shakes all over the place. And like Shakira says these "Hips Don't Lie".

The next star is Jewel (the Pulsing Xenia). She was named due to the "smaller" look. She's very strong and can be overpowering if you give her a chance, but she's a bit less in your face.

The other fast grower is Avril. I feel bad for Avril she's a powerhouse, but gets overlooked by the more showy girls out there. She always seems to sit in the background, but you just can't forget about her though because she's solid. Admittedly, I'm not exactly sure what kind of coral she is. If someone could help me out, I'd appreciate.

 

[bale31]

You'll notice on the last post, there was a runaway mushroom. That's Beyonce. She started along with the rest of her group, but then just kind of floated away and caught on in her own place (true story, she let go of the rock where the other mushrooms were and attached to a different rock before I noticed and I haven't wanted to force her to move). The rest of her group (or former group) is shown below. This is the "leftovers" of Destiny's Child.

Next to Destiny's Child is my first foray into the SPS world. We haven't named her yet, but when I do, I know she will be a resiliant. When I was working on the tank, I knocked her with my elbow and snapped her off. I quickly re-glued her. She's still growing and (you can't see this in the picture) the stub on the bottom is also starting to grow.

Of course, when you think of 90s girl groups, you can't forget about the Spice Girls....and here they are. I know there technically aren't 5 Ricordias to match the Spice Girls I'm asking you to fogive some of the holes in my logic.

 

[bale31]

When we had our first tank, one of the first things we got was a beautiful Anenome. We decided we wanted one in this tank as well. Unfortunately, this is where the story gets a bit sad. We went through 2 rose bubble tip anenomes. This was a big learning moment for me. I didn't totally understand the science of reefing and my nutrients got all FUBAR'd and they paid the price. I have since learned a bit better what I'm doing and our new girl is doing well. This is Pink. She's an Ultra Speckled Rainbow Anenome. Again, she's often overlooked, but Pink is brilliant and you just never know what she's going to do next.

From here, we're starting to get into a few girls that don't have names. Not because we don't want to, but because we can't think of any representative names. This is a pair that we've had for a while, are our toad stools. I'll be honest, I haven't figured out a good name for them. I dont' know of any signers that resemble toads, so I've been at a bit of a loss.

We've also got a couple of torches here that are as of yet unnamed. They are beautiful and flowing, but we have some work to do here. I actually just moved them this morning as they were getting a bit too close to the candy cane trio of trumpets.

We've also recently added a Blue Stylo. She's standing up tall on the top of our tank.

 

[bale31]

Our last two additions in the last couple months are meant to add some color to the right side of the tank. Again, they are still unnamed, but I'm sure they will jump out shortly. This is our Acantho.

And here is what will be our Zoa colony. I'm actually thinking of adding a couple more varieties/colors to this rock as well. Here we have a Rasta, Mandarin, Bam Bam and Daisy Cutter.

I also added a Green Slimer. This one very well blow away our naming conventions as it just seems obvious to make a Ghostbusters reference. The other obvious thought is that she's some sort of a hippy chick as she's giving the peace sign. I'm just not sure what to do and it's causing me to start my mid-life crisis. Here is the slimer pictured alont with a plant-like creature that I thought was cool at the time, but for the life of me can't figure out what the heck it is. On the bottom you can also see what I think is an acan, but, again, this is where my ineptitude comes into play.

Last, and certainly not lease we have our leather. Again, she's been quite hardy and adds a nice addition to the tank, but, unfortunately, she gets overlooked a bit.

 

[bale31]

Of course, what is the music scence/aquarium without the boy bands/fish. Here we've got a lot of blue. The first one is the blue damsel. He's quite close to our heart. I know this doesn't fit with the theme AT ALL, but this is "Blue Guy". Blue guy was the first fish we had in our old 75 gallon tank when we turned it into a saltwater tank. I'd venture to guess that he's 11 or 12 year old (thinking back how old our kids are and when we started our tank based off of their ages. He's been through 2 moves, a new tank, a period in which I was a very bad acquarium owner and let things get disgustingly dirty in the tank and a stay at the LFS during the tank transition. He is one hardy SOB.

In the next pic you'll also see the 3 hippo tangs. These guys are, obviously, the Blue Man Group. They are so simple, but strangely entertaining to watch. They hide in the most bizarre places and seem to thing that their electric blue color doesn't make them stick out like a sore thumb.

And, of course, what acquarium would be complete without our Insane Clown Posse.

 

[bale31]

We've got a few unnamed fish in the tank as well. We're always thinking about where to go with them. When I was taking pictures, the Melanarus Wrasse wasn't being all that helpful. He kept getting away from me, so I just re-posted a pic from up above where you can see him int he background.

We've also got a hawkfish that we've defaulted to calling "Hawk". I'm open to some ideas though. In any case, this guy is hilareous to watch. He's sucha a spaz.

 

[bale31]

A few of the fish came before the coral, so they don't have boy band names....beacuse really, I don't want to cause these guys mental anguish by changing their names mid-life. First we've got Dot (our Diamond Goby)....his buddy polka passed away a couple months ago. He's doing OK as he's got a new buddy (the second picture) in the Yellow Goby who is unnamed at this point.

 

[bale31]

That brings us to our 2 big guys of the tank (again they were there before the corals, so they didn't follow the boy band/male singer theme). This is Chocolate and Eye Spy. Chocolate is a CHocolate Tang and Eye Spy is a Marine Betta. Eye Spy is the boss of the tank for sure and looks like the old kids viaual puzzle "Eye Spy".

It should be noted that there are a few more fish that I have had that haven't made it due to a really dumb mistake I made about 4-5 months ago. I posted about this in the LPS forum, but I hurt Christina during a water change. When I was pouring the new water in, I didn't have the salt mixed as well as I thought. When I was pouring the water, I had the trail of terror (unmixed salt) that got dumped in and landed on Christina. One of her polyps got burned and rotted in the tank. I wasn't sure what happened at the time and it caused my phosphates and nitrates to skyrocket. Other corals were showing stress and a few of the fish/invertebrates died including another wrasse, 2 orange star fish and a couple others. It sucked, but, again, I guess it was a learning experience.

 

[nuxx]

Looking great so far

 

[bale31]

The last guy here is "Justin". When we first started stocking the tank, we wanted to have a school of fish were the calming influence in the tank. We got a school of firefish. We affectionately named them NSync. Then a "funny" thing started happening. One by one, they started disappearing. I finally saw that one of them was missing it's top fin and disappeared the next day. There was only one left. Not knowing a ton about them, I asked my LFS about them and he suggested that the one was probably the dominant one and got rid of the rest. That was the day we knew which on Justin was. That was about 12 months ago and he's still alive and kicking. He's pictured here with his old Mouseketeer friend, Christina.

 

[bale31]

So, that's my story about how my tank came to be. I'm open to suggestions on how to make it better through design, coral, fish or names. I'm learning as I go, but, as you can see, I'm having fun along the way. I kinda feel like I should call myself the Fresh Prince after "telling you the story of how my life got flipped, turned upside down".

 

[bale31]

Great looking tank!!

Thank you.

 

[bale31]

Looking great so far

It's a work in progress, but we're enjoying it.

 

[bale31]

Added a Purple Stylo, a Green Stylo and a couple of Zoas (but lost the Daisy Cutter). I'm really thankful for my LFS. They have a weekly special of a frags (one SPS, one LPS and one Soft Coral) ...often for $10-$15. It's a great way to fill out a newer tank and watch it grow. I'm going to be trading in Jewel (the Pulsing Zenia) and one of the Toadstools tomorrow. They were great for me in that they helped a beginner get his feet under him, but they've served their purpose and I'm now doing a better job of planning things out.

 

[Qwknbad]

Tank looks great.
I also opted for some pulsing xenia in the early days, cool coral until it starts popping up in unexpected places. I have a huge patch I have been fighting. I thought if I kept it on an "island" I would be ok, well it finds a way to propagate where it likes.

 

[bale31]

I'm going to keep the regular Xenia. It provides a lot of movement in the tank, so at least for now am going to keep it.

 

[Fish Styx]

As I've mentioned in my initial post, I'm a bit of a new reefer. My father-in-law gave us his 75 gallon tank when we got married 18 years ago. Since then it was cichlid tank, a saltwater fish tank, a reef tank, an out of commission tank and back to a saltwater fish tank. About 1.5 years ago, I made the decision to jump in with both feet and got a 180 gallon tank. Frankly, I didn't really know what I was doing and still don't know a lot. I took a lot of recommendations from a couple of LFS. I'm more than open to a suggestions as well. I don't have a ton of friends that are really into acquariums, so I need to show it off a bit so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time. So with that, here she is:

Just the basics about equipment- ADmittedly, this is my biggest weakness and depend of smarter people.

• Tank- 180 gallon glass acquarium
• Skimmer- Axiom EShops X350
• EShopps REfugium Sump
• Apex Fusion Runs the ATO, Heater, Return, Skimmer, Lights,Tester, Doser, Powerheads
  • I dose calcium and alkalinity 3 times each day
  • Test Alk 4 times/day and calcium/magnesium 2 times/day
• LIghts- AI 32
• Powerheads- 2- Nero 3 Powerheads and a ReefWave RS45

I'm a bit of a storyteller, so for my own entertainment, I'm going to tell the story of just how we got our "Music Star" tank. I'm not sure that you all are all that interested, but, frankly, I just wanna do this for my own fun. Unfortunately, I didn't take many/any pictures of the actual build, so I'm gonna focus on the build of the reef/fish mix. Without further ado......

Here's the overall tank as it stands. Then I'll introduce you to our stars.

Beautiful tank!