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WAMAS Tank of the Month


My name is Stephen Bishop and I am reefaholic. I am native of North Carolina have a wonderful wife and two beautiful children. I started the hobby just two years ago, in January 2012, with the idea of having a simple FOWLR 20 gal half hex tank. Thousands of dollars later, here I am!

My current tank is a drilled All Glass Aquarium 40 gallon breeder with a 15 gal sump.

Two Ecotech Vortech MP40s, controlled by a custom program from my WXM, provide water movement for the tank.

I started with two Kessil 350W lights, but now I’m running two Ecotech Radion Pro LEDs which I love. I run the traditional reef program in Ecotech live at 75% intensity. The program starts at 0900 and runs blues for 3 hours, then ramps up and stays that way until 1800 and goes back to blues for 3 hours. Moon lights come on at 2100.

My filtration is a Reef Octopus 110 in-sump skimmer rated for 100 gallons. I use a mesh filter sock, Hydra Aquatics BioPellet Reactor, and a Two Little Fishies 150 running rowaphos. I have 40 lbs of live rock in the display and 40lbs of sand. I have chaeto and refuguim mud in the sump, with a filter block in the baffle. I use an Innovative Marine LED 6400k light for the macro.

I dose two part C-Balance by TLF via BRS dosing pumps.

I have several smallish fish in this tank, but my favorite fish is the hippo tang. This is a mixed reef tank with a wide variety of acropora, seriatopora, and montiporas; LPS corals; and softies.

I feed Sustainable Aquatics pellets and flake daily via an Eheim auto feeder. Once a week I feed Reef Roids coral smoothie for my dendros and lobo, and every two weeks I feed mysis or brine shrimp.

I've battled high phosphates before, but now my biggest challenge is bubble algae. I'd like to set up a 120gal sps bare bottom tank when I get to my new duty station.

I love reefing and WAMAS has helped me a lot. The club is a great organization and was the best $20 I spent in the hobby. My advice is to take your time and buy the right stuff the first time, so you won’t have to buy twice. Happy Reefing!


  • Salinity: 35 ppm
  • Temperature: 78 - 79°F
  • Alkalinity: 8.7 dkH
  • Calcium: 430 ppm
  • Phosphate: 0.04 ppm
  • Nitrate: 0 ppm

  • Display: AGA 40g
  • Sump: 15g AGA DIY sump
  • Skimmer: Reef Octopus 110
  • Lighting: 2 Ecotech Radion Pro
  • Return Pump: Waveline 3000
  • Circulation: 2 MP40
  • Reactors: Hydra Aquatics and TLF
  • Controller: Apex lite controller with XYM and ALD
  • ATO: Avast

  • Hippo tang
  • Blue reef chromis (2)
  • Green chromis
  • Mandarin
  • Royal gramma
  • Extreme snowflake clownfish
  • Firefish
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