First of all, thank you WAMAS for this opportunity. It is truly humbling and an honor to share my little slice of the ocean. I hope some day my system continues to mature and look as good as many other tanks in this group!
My name is Matt Hardesty and I have been keeping saltwater tanks for a little over 4 years. I've kept freshwater tanks for a while before that but nothing complicated. I started with a 29g acrylic tank in my parents basement when I went to college and started working. I relied on the all knowing Google and soon I had ordered a pair of black and white clownfish and a toadstool leather from live aquaria. I kept those for a few years and wasn't really looking to do anything crazy since I knew I would be moving. After that tank, I upgraded to a JBJ 45 while living in an apartment. It was after that tank being up for a little while, a friend told me about WAMAS. I joined WAMAS and began to add to my system. That system ended with a good bit of the livestock I have in my system now. I bought a house back in May and I had the space so I figured why not just get a bigger tank. I setup this tank in the first week of June in the basement and moved over my livestock from the 45 the following week. I found a lot of enjoyment meeting reefers in the area and getting corals that are aqua-cultured. So I set out to do as much of my tank as possible with things from other members. I believe all of my corals except my first toadstool leather have been from WAMAS members. All of the live rock is as well. So thank you to some past and present WAMAS members, your success has contributed to my success.
Currently my display is a Waterbox 230.6. Its a 180g display with a 44g sump.
2 Ecotech Quiet Drive MP-40s. I run the Reef crest mode. Ramps from like 30% to full power every so many seconds. My return pump is running around 1500 gph. There are two nozzles so figure 450-500 gph at the top(guestimate).
4 AI Hydra HD 26s. Running AB+ AI version at like 90%.
I have about 120-140lbs of live rock in the display, another few pounds in the sump, and like 30 very established pieces of Pond matrix in the sump. I don't use a protein skimmer. I sometimes use filter socks when I do maintenance. I'd kick up a bunch of stuff and leave those in for a few days to let them catch everything. I clean them out and wait about a week or so. My refugium lights run probably 5 days a week. There is chaeto and some kenya trees in there. I use that and some media bags with phosguard to manage my phosphates that I change out weekly.
I mostly use 10-15% water changes every 3-4 weeks and have been fine for now to replenish trace elements. However, I have been dosing kalkwasser for about 4 months for alk/ca. Just mix some in a bucket and add the top layer either to the ATO reservoir or manually.
I have 14 fish currently. My two coolest, in my opinion, are a Potters Angelfish and a Quoyi Parrotfish. All my fish are less than 4 inches except for the tang and parrtofish. I prefer more small fish as opposed to fewer big fish. I have a lot of the usual suspects- clowns, gramma, cardinalfish, coris wrasse etc. I have a few different crabs, maybe some peppermint shrimp still, like 20 hermits of different kinds and 4 urchins, and maybe some snails too. I have a nice mix of SPS, some LPS and some big softies. I like easy-ish corals that grow fast so my choices reflect that.
I feed NLS pellets, Nori, Rods food (the herbivore blend/omnivore blend) and PE mysis. I usually do pellets once or twice a day sometimes more. Frozen food 5 or 6 times a week and nori on a clip 4 or 5 times. I keep the back wall and sometimes side wall with a nice layer of algae. I sort of like the natural look and the herbivores like to graze off of it. I think so far the feeding regimen has been good. The fish seem fat and healthy but I am slowly beginning to feed more as they grow. I usually broadcast feed the frozen food a few times and turn the pumps off some other times. Seems to do a good job of feeding the corals and the inverts.
I have faced a few big challenges so far. The first being my ich management situation. Basically, I have had ich for at least a couple months after experiencing it and treating it a couple or so months before. My hippo tang gets like 10 spots or so every few weeks with no behavior changes but that number seems to go down as the parasite goes through its life cycles and no other fish show any signs at all. My big challenge is struggling with knowing its there as a potential killer but also knowing breaking down and treating might cause more harm than letting the seemingly healthy fish live with it. If I add anymore fish it won't be for a while as I keep an eye on it. The second challenge I have faced has been keeping all my LPS happy. I know mixed reefs are hard, but I have only had any issues with LPS. None have died but my only unhappy corals are a few LPS. Lastly is some coral coloration. I have some corals that I may move around a little to see if they color up more or start checking some lesser checked elements like iron.
Let the corals continue to grow out. I have a good bit of coral and they are all growing nicely. I am hopeful the tank will look more full like many others' in this group in a year or so. I would like to add a chocolate tang that lives in my frag tank but I am waiting to see how the ich situation progresses as I don't trust Acanthurus tangs to be hardy with ich long term. Maybe some anthias or more wrasse or a mandarin as I have no bottom dwellers.
This is a tremendous honor. WAMAS is an incredible group with some awesome people and amazing looking tanks. I wish I would've found this group before I set up my first two tanks. Thanks for reading. Happy reefing!
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- AB+ 12 hours with a 3 hour ramp up and down
- Salinity: 1.025
- Temperature: 79 - 80°F
- Alkalinity: 7.5 dkH
- Calcium: 390 - 410 ppm
- Magnesium: 1300 ppm
- Phosphate: 0.05 - 0.08 ppm
- Nitrate: 3 - 5 ppm
- Display: Waterbox 230.6 180g
- Sump: 44g Sump
- ATO: 16g ATO
- Lighting: AI Hydra HD 26s (4)
- Refugium Light: Aquamaxx Refugium Light
- Return Pump: DC Simplicity 1600 gph
- Circulation: Ecotech QD MP-40s (2)
- Heater: Finnex 500w heaters (3)
- Quoyi Parrotfish
- Hippo Tang
- Potters Angelfish
- Flame Hawkfish
- Black and White Clownfish pair
- Royal Gramma
- Candy Hogfish
- Starry Blenny
- Sapphire Damsel
- Strawberry Crab
- Porcelain Crab
- Halloween Hermits
- Scarlet Reef Hermits
- Electric Blue Hermits
- some weird Black Leg Hermit
- Pincushion Urchin
- Tuxedo Urchins (3)
- a whole bunch of Starfish
- Cerith Snails
- Peppermint Shrimp (3)
- Feather Dusters
- Sinularia Leather
- Red Robin Colony
- Purple Gorgonian
- Elegance Coral
- Mind Trick Montipora
- Red Montipora
- Sunset Montiporaonti
- Utter Chaos Zoanthids
- Duncans
- Toadstool Leathers
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