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I have cheto in the fuge in my sump, stuff grows like crazy. I will get some new pictures up soon.

3 years later. Well this month marks my tanks 3 year birthday. good or bad its still kicking. After losing most my sps last year I have not really tried but once to keep sps. I have been trying to narrow down my issues with the tank along with life and work which takes it toll. My current issues are Phosphates I think. Everything else seems pretty good. I just cant seem to shake the PO4 for some reason. After talking with quite a few reefers its hard to come up with a definitive answer. Have I got "old tank syndrome", do I over feed, Do I just need to do a massive water change, are my softies giving off something that the SPS doesnt like? I give you a run down of what I have going as of 3 years later. Fish (approx age/time I have had them) Female blue throat Trigger(lost her partner of 3 years recently(sad)) Hippo tang 4 years Sail fin tang 3 years White cheek tang 2 years Occelaris clown(egg laying pair) 4 years Pink skunk clowns 2 years Lawn mower blenny 3 years Yellow Coris Wrasse about a year 2 diamond gobies 6 months or so Inverts and such 4 RBTA's( they like to split) 1 Green with purple tip BTA(thanks Wannareef) 1 cleaner shrimp 1 Harlequin shrimp Misc snails and crabs. Red mushrooms(they are like weeds) Green hairy shrooms Large toadstool leather(thanks Saltfinsax, gave me a tiny frag long ago) Misc Palys green and tan. New torch/hammerhead coral(thanks Kilmca) Thats pretty much it now days for livestock. Equipment is pretty much the same with some newer stuff. 3 250w Se hamilton 14k bulbs ASM G3 skimmer Added a Carbon reactor(thanks Wannareef again). Will be adding a Phosban reactor as soon as I can hook up with Charles again). My parameters dont seem out of whack. As of this morning. Specific gravity - 1.025 Mag 1300 Cal 480 Alk 8.4 Ph 8.2 Temp 79 Nitrates ? ( I have 2 test kits and both are giving a different reading. 1 is .20 and the other is .40) PO4 ? need a new test kit.(make sure you screw them lids on tight) Im using RODI, which is coming out at about .002. I just changed the sediment filter and flushed the membrane so that may fix it. Aside from that its still the same tank. Looking for anyones thoughts on my sps problems. After talking with Kilmca the other night, I decided to stop feeding spectrum pellets for a while, and just stick with nori for the big fish and mysis and brine every other day for the other fish. I feed my RBTA's about once a week with frozen cut up shrimp from winco. Im going to set up a phosban reactor soon as I pick it up. Any other thoughts would be great. I have not posted anything on this in about a year since I really have not had much going on with the tank. So I thought I would update it and get some advice. Ill post some pictures later once I take some(whistle).

Me and my buddies play alot of BF3. Ive been working alot but on most nights after 10ish. Tried MW3 when Steam had a free weekend a couple weeks ago. Was not impressed at all. Skyrim is single player but a great game.

Welcome to the couve. Now your closer to OIAB. Where at in the couve?

bleh double post. Way to much lag around here lately.

Too soon? Yeah, im glad we get them at home, but the giants in the playoffs scare me.

Is it a dig to bring this thread back?

Honestly I would say my diamond goby. Does the most work and does a nice job of keeping my sand clean.

Cos showed me some new LED's the other day when I was in, wonder if they are the same ones. They are pretty sweet. spendy, but sweet.

Makes me sick. My wife has a little internet store that she sells scrapbooking stuff on and her site was hacked at christmas. Couldnt even recover it, had to wipe it and start over. Why? for some childs amusement.

My 180 is 24" and I dont have an issue with it. Im not a small guy so I can reach the bottom without issue. Comes down to preference and what your plans are for the tank.

Yep, top of my list. Hey and they even will acknowledge you and help you unlike some other lfs. Way to go guys. You know you got my business.

Why would you want to get rid of your skimmer?

Thanks, its getting back to where it should be. Mag, alk and Cal are back to normal levels. SO with any luck I can see if my little bit of SPS will start to grow.

Well the light itself has built in fans in both ends. But I still have not done the end piece to the canopy so its just open. My plan is to enclose it with a couple pc fans or something in the end. My tank doesnt get to warm and I normally have one side of my canopy always open it seems. Update Well thanks to Robert down at OIAB we narrowed down that my magnesium got really depleted and more than likely that and lack of consistent water changes led to the demise of my sps. Have been doing some pretty hefty WC's and dosing for MG and all my levels are coming back up nicely. Lost one of my oldest fish my Kole tang yesterday. Stopped eating and never did figure it out. Added a midas blenny since my wife really wanted one.

Also a few fish stores and members have fish traps they will loan out.

No luck catching him. Found him almost completly munched on by crabs this morning. What a bummer, one of my oldest fish and been in my 180 since it was set up. 2 years this next month. Thanks for all the advice folks. Here it is swimming with the group a while back

you got any down there robert?

I appriciate the offer. I got a couple tanks set up in the garage I can move him to. Not likely that im gonna catch him. Ill give it a go though. Thanks.

Well as far as water changes, yeah I have started doing more regular changes, got behind a bit and paid for it with most my sps. I just got done taking a good look at him and it looks like someone is picking on him. His tail is good and chewed up. I have 3 other tangs in there. He was normally the bully though of the 4. All though maybe turn about is fair play. Does not look like any disease, just looks thin and malnurished. Ill try and get a pic and post it.

So not really sure whats up. I have had this tang for over 2 years, always been fat and happy. The last month it is almost bleach white, cheeks are sucked in and its body is really thin. Shows no signs of ich or anything, just looks to be sickly. Still eats nori, picks at algae on everything. Feeds when I feed the rest of the fish. just curious if there is anything I could try. I use garlic most the time. Anything else?

Great pictures Rick. Glad you picked up that white cheek tang. It is a beautiful fish. If I didnt already have one I would of snagged it. One of the best looking tangs out there imo. The guys are great and a ton of help. Roberts been helping me get my mag in check so I can get back to collecting some sps again.

Hey that puffer looks familar. Glad you still got him(assuming its the same one). Looks great. Love the FOWLR tanks.

Wow way to get all technical you geeks. LOL Either way its pretty cool. I did not get the infatuation with chalices a while back, but after having a small one for a bit and really looking at them, they are quite stunning.