kdxboy Posted April 12, 2013 Share Posted April 12, 2013 My reef tank obsession started about 7 years ago. I had just gotten married, and my wife and I moved out to DeKalb, IL so I could finish school. I thought I wanted to set up a reef tank, so I went out and bought a 10 G aquarium from petco, an Aquaclear filter, an Outer Orbit T5 fixture, and I built a stand. For those who don't know, Rod's Reef is out in Dekalb. So, I spent a lot of time at Rod's place checking out his tank, and buying his food for my tank....pretty neat experience! The first tank went well, but my wife got pregnant and we moved (quickly) to Texas. I parted out that first aquarium...but wasn't able to get anything new until just recently. We moved from TX to Seattle about 3 years ago, and a couple years ago bought a house up here, as we decided it's a pretty cool place to live. A promotion and a lot of arguing later, my wife decided she was tired of listening to me reminisce about a reef tank from years earlier, so she let me set one up. I found a deal (I thought) on craigslist.....a 55 G acrylic tank with stand, hood, light, sump, etc all for $400. I went over there...it was running, had a lot of algae, but I saw potential, so I bought it for $350. Brought it home, set it up, and went to work on cleaning the thing up. Once I figure out how to upload photos, I'll upload some! An injury to my shoulder, surgery, and a long recovery later, my tank was overrun with hair algae. I wasn't able to do maintenance on the tank....I couldn't move my arm for a good 3 weeks, and after that couldn't lift a 5 gallon bucket much past my waist! Enter the new tank....I told my wife things about that craigslist tank drove me nuts....between the slightly scratched acrylic, HAIR ALGAE, crappy equipment, etc, I was ready to upgrade. We had run out of room anyway. With a fresh bonus check in hand, I went to nano-reef to plan everything out. LED fixtures from ReefBreeders, new koralia powerheads, a decent skimmer, and some dry (algae free) rock from BRS, along with a new RO/DI filter, and I was set to go. Here is the equipment I started with: - 75 G standard glass aquarium + stand -- $100 on craigslist - 2 ReefBreeders 120W controllable LED's - 3 Koralia 1050's - 100 LBS BRS dry Fiji rock - 75 GPD BRS RO / DI filter (deluxe with TDS meter, auto-shut off for barrel system) - Reef Crystals salt - 80 lbs Fiji Pink aragonite sand - 20 G long sump with acrylic baffles - SWC BMK 150 Skimmer - Fuge with Chaeto, rock rubble - JBJ Auto Top Off - GFO, Chemipure Elite in media bags in sump - Mag 9.5 return pump Here are a few pics to keep this thread kind of interesting: This is my $350 craigslist tank. I saw potential....I think. I got it home, and it sat on my island....for a while. Probably a couple of weeks! I threw together a stand, and this is the final resting place. All filled back up, I didn't lose a thing in the transfer. That's what it looked like before it was full....but before the algae too. Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 12, 2013 Author Share Posted April 12, 2013 Here's the 75 G pics....I moved everything (too quickly) from the 55G and lost a lot of stuff. I let the dry rock cycle, but disturbed the sand bed in the 55 A LOT when I was trying to pull all of the coral out. I figured nothing stood a chance in the 55 G, so I threw it all in the cycled 75. Some stuff made it, most didn't. Live and learn!! Leak test = pass! New RO/DI. I suspect my old one went bad (one of those compact ones that you can't change pre-filters)....that contributed to the algae problem. Bought this huge acrylic box thinking I'd make a sump out of it (all 1/2" acrylic)....only $20! I screwed up a lot of acrylic trying to use this. I ended up with this instead (ato resevoir): Here's where I mix salt and make RO water. This is before the tank was filled....that's my BRS rock. I love the stuff. It's finally starting to color up now. Half filled: Filled.....the kids approve of the sump apparently. One last one.....it took me a long time to set everything up. I was exhausted. So was my dog. He made himself a fluff bed. Enjoy, I'll keep regularly updating, as I want to watch my tank grow out. I have a few pics of corals I've added, and will upload those soon as well! Thanks for reading!! Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 13, 2013 Author Share Posted April 13, 2013 Here are a few more updated pics. Please share comments!! This is a cool perspective shot. Gunner was checking something out..... Reefcleaners snail bomb.... Zoa garden.... The few SPS that survived the move from the 55G.... Link to comment
Thelizardkin Posted April 13, 2013 Share Posted April 13, 2013 Very nice I wish you luck, and how are the fish stores in WA? Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 13, 2013 Author Share Posted April 13, 2013 Thanks for the well wishes! There are a couple of good stores pretty close to me which is nice. One place almost always has $5 frags of all kinds of cool stuff. One of the things that excited me the most is getting a bunch of frags and watching them grow out....I should be able to fill this thing up with some neat stuff for relatively cheap! Thanks for looking! Link to comment
eitallent Posted April 14, 2013 Share Posted April 14, 2013 What a job! LOTS of work but well worth it. Your boys are precious. They look enthralled by the tank. Good luck! Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 14, 2013 Author Share Posted April 14, 2013 What a job! LOTS of work but well worth it. Your boys are precious. They look enthralled by the tank. Good luck! Thanks for the comments! Yeah, it's funny....we go to the fish store and they can name half the fish in the tank. They're obsessed! My girl is not so interested....she rarely looks at the tank even haha! BTW, I remember reading through your thread a month or two back, when you were just working on the rocks....It's turning out really nice!! Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 15, 2013 Author Share Posted April 15, 2013 So, I started my tank, and began normal tank maintenance after the cycle. I was planning every other week water changes (with RO/ DI and reef crystals salt). However, I had a pretty bad GHA outbreak, so quickly went to once a week water changes. I've been keeping up with that, and the tank is looking great (saw my first coralline algae spots on the back glass finally!). Is there really any reason to go back to bi-weekly changes? It doesn't take very long to do, and maintaining these weekly water changes have obviously helped me keep my tank very clean. Also, I had a big piece of Galaxea coral....when I transferred everything over, about half of it died, so I fragged it up. Does anybody have any idea how fast this stuff will start spreading again? The heads look really good now, I don't see the sweeper tentacles like it used to have, but they are plump and bright green, and they take food when I feed. Thanks for looking! Josh Link to comment
eitallent Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 I do weekly water changes. I think most people do less frequent wc b/c of time constraints and cost of salt. If you like the way your tank looks with weekly wc then continue. You can't argue with success! IDK about Galaxea corals. It sounds like they like what you are doing though. If they eat then they should grow, right? Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 15, 2013 Author Share Posted April 15, 2013 I do weekly water changes. I think most people do less frequent wc b/c of time constraints and cost of salt. If you like the way your tank looks with weekly wc then continue. You can't argue with success! IDK about Galaxea corals. It sounds like they like what you are doing though. If they eat then they should grow, right? You're right....why change if it's not broken?? They are eating, so you're probably right! This whole patience thing sucks though....I need some instant gratification haha Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 In my experience, galaxea corals do not grow too quickly, but thank goodness, cause if they did, they'd take over tanks with their massive sweepers! Give it some time, let it build up its anger and you'll start seeing the sweepers again. Link to comment
kdxboy Posted April 15, 2013 Author Share Posted April 15, 2013 In my experience, galaxea corals do not grow too quickly, but thank goodness, cause if they did, they'd take over tanks with their massive sweepers! Give it some time, let it build up its anger and you'll start seeing the sweepers again. Thanks for the advice! Your recommendation to wait until it becomes angry made me laugh...didn't really think about it like that! Thanks for looking too....glad to see my little thread is attacting attention of knowledgable and helpful members!! Link to comment
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