My Tank of the Month text

Even though I started in the aquarium hobby 33 years ago. This is my first Reef tank. I've had saltwater aquariums before, with crushed coral & undergravel filters, but never with sand, live rock and live corals. I got this tank on December 1st. The guy I bought it from broke the end glass getting it off his truck. I siliconed a piece of Lexan over the crack and had a new 100 gallon tank for $35 U.S.

Getting started:
A guy on my Delta Force online gaming squad had sent me pics of his 2/ 180 gallon reefs to put on his bio page. Right then I had to have one! I had 6 large aquariums (2x75 & 4x125 gallons) already up and running. My friend sent me 2 packages of some of the sand from his tanks for a total of 100 pounds. I added another 60 of "not live" sand to it. I put 4 pieces of live rock in it to start. As the tank sits today, there are close to 180 pounds of liverock (160 Premium Fiji & 20 of Brazilian).

Filtration:
I have a 170GPH powerhead pushing water through an ultraviolet sterilizer then through the skimmer (amiracle). There are a Hagan 402 & an 802 with filter cartridges in the tank also. I have 3 mini jets buried in the rock for added current. There is an amiracle hang on overflow going to the homemade 20 gallon sump/refugium. The water is pumped back into the tank by a Rio 1590GPH pump with an inline ball valve to control the flow (wide open, it pushed the water over the edge of the tank and drained it's section of the sump within seconds. As it is now, the ball valve is close to ½ open. I made a 5 foot spraybar, drilled every inch to relieve some of the pressure and keep the water moving on the top of the tank. Most of what I'm using now will be in the "stuff I wish I hadn't bought" box within 2 weeks. I'm ordering the following:
A MagDrive 1200 GPH pump
A Precision Marine Bullet 2 Skimmer
A CSL Velocity T4 1225GPH External Pump
I'm sure most of you have said "I wish I knew before I bought the junk" LOL.

Lighting:
I have a total of 417 watts on the tank. It's 9 inches above the water on a homemade canopy. I'm using:
2x36 inch 96 watt PC Smartlight
4 foot reflector with 2x55watt PC 50/50s
4 foot double reflector with a 40 watt actinic and a 40 watt 50/50
18inch reflector with a 15 watt 50/50
24inch reflector with a 20 watt 50/50

I'm planning on buying a house by summer and putting the contents of the 100 gallon into a 265 as we move. The MH and maybe VHOs will come as soon as I can get them an electrical circuit of their own.

The Tank Inhabitants:
1. Big eyed Squirrelfish
2. Hippo Tang
3. Yellow Tang
4. Foxface Rabbitfish
5. False Percula Clown
6. 2 Emerald Crabs
7. 3 Peppermint Shrimp (I think)
8. 5 large Mexican Turbo Snails
9. Maxima Clam
There are 4 different color mushrooms/Riccordia. Brown polyps, green polyps. 2 different flower anemonies, a curly que anemone, an Atlantic anemone & an Elephant Ear (anemone or mushroom?).

The Corals:
1. Pulsing Xenia
2. Fox Coral
3. Colt Coral
4. Toadstool Leather Corals
5. Frogspawn
6. Trumpet Coral
7. Brain Coral
8. Clove Polyps
9. Cabbage Coral
10. Star Polyps
11. Pagoda Cup Coral
12. Montipora Digitata
13. Yellow Ball Sponge

Well that's about it boys and girls. Some Corals may named wrong, but I'm still learning. Please visit my site. It has all my tanks, Freshwater included.
http://www.75th-meu.com/MGSsPages.htm