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SYSTEM PROFILE 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.
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