Tank Size: 90 gallon

Sump: 30 gallon (includes refugium)

Protein Skimmer: Xtreme MSX 160

Return Pump: Eheim 1260

Water Movement: 2 x Vortech MP40W, Tunze 6045

Lighting: 2 x 250 watt MH with Radium 20k bulbs, 2 x T5 with actinic/blue+ bulbs

Cooling: three fans

Misc: Phosban reactor running GFO, JBJ ATO, Aquacontroller III

SYSTEM PARAMETERS

PH: 8.2

Temperature: 78-81

Ammonia: Undetectable

Nitrite: Undetectable

Nitrate: Undetectable

Phosphates: Undetectable

Ca: 410

Alk: 9

Mag: 1320

OVERVIEW

My tank has been up and running for about one year now. The tank is primarily dominated with sps corals, but I do have several lps and even a couple softies. The following is the current list of fish in the tank:

2 False Percula Clownfish

1 Yellow Tang

1 Male Flame Wrasse

1 Mystery Wrasse

3 Anthias

Because I have chosen to start my sps collection from frags, everything in my tank is still relatively small.

PROBLEMS

It seems I am constantly learning new things in this hobby. The more I learn the better I am able to diagnose problems when they arise in my tank. Most recently I have been battling acropora eating flatworms. I had taken very strict precautions to keep pests such as these out of my tank by dipping all new corals with both Interceptor and Tropic Marine Pro Coral Cure; however, it appears I must have missed a batch of eggs. These eggs cannot be eliminated by any forms of dips, they must be manually removed. In order to eliminate these worms from my system I have decided to quarantine all the acroporas in a separate tank for a 6-8 week duration. During this time the corals will be dipped weekly to eliminate the worms. I am expecting to lose roughly 30% of my corals from the stress caused from these dips. I am trying to maintain the attitude of what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.

FUTURE PLANS

In the future I would like to purchase a larger skimmer for my tank.  I am considering something like the BK 180 or one of the new cone skimmers.  At some point and time I may also experiment with running all T5 lighting.  At this point and time I still believe that MHs provide for better growth of sps corals so I will be sticking with them at least until my tank grows out.