29 Gallon College Tank

[fish12345]

Having finally moved out of college dorms and into an off campus apartment, I had the opportunity to start up a larger tank. I originally had a 10 gallon tank that was doing pretty well for about a year. I then switched to a 15 gallon when I moved into the dorms. It was running fine for about 3 months until my RA unplugged it over thanksgiving break. It went 4.5 days completely without power. No heat, no circulation, no air. Of course everything was dead when I got back (and I was furious) except my clownfish. She was moved to my dads 150 gallon tank where she is living happily now. Anyway to the build!

 

I wanted something that was big enough to have room to play with, but not so big I was concerned with weight on the second floor or taking up too much room. I settled on a standard 29 gallon and 29 gallon sump. Of course I wanted this to be a reef and not a fish only tank. Additionally, since I am a college student and college is stupidly expensive, this was done on a budget. I like doing everything myself so I didn't outsource anything myself. My equipment list is as follows:

 

SC-301 Protein skimmer

Mag 5 return pump

Marsaqua LED light

2 Hydor Koralia powerheads

Overflow I got off craigslist

Home made stand

Lots of PVC pipe

 

Here are some pictures:

 

There is about 45 lbs of live rock and 40lbs of live sand in there. The live rock has been curing for 6 weeks now so I hope to be able to start adding some livestock shortly. Next friday should be the clean up crew followed by fish the following week.

[Choice84]

I've been looking into that same skimmer. Let me know how it works out

[jkeating]

I have that skimmer. Personally, i think its great. I would say its good up to a 40 breeder heavily stocked. It manages to pull a lot out of my low bioload 25.

[ArabTanker]

Looks like you're off to a good start.

 

Just a tip for posting pictures. Use the BBCode link to post the actual pictures. It makes it easier for everyone to follow along.

 

[fish12345]

Looks like you're off to a good start.

 

Just a tip for posting pictures. Use the BBCode link to post the actual pictures. It makes it easier for everyone to follow along.

 

 

Thank you for that. I couldn't figure out how to get that to work.

[Arce]

Looking good. Glad to see another standard 29 out there. Following.

[fish12345]

Looking good. Glad to see another standard 29 out there. Following.

I went back and forth for several months but I always came back to the 29. It felt like to best compact size while still having room to play around.

[fish12345]

I have a few more pictures. The tank has been up for about 3 weeks now and I am getting good readings and I think it is cycled. I will be getting the first shipment of fish this friday. I have a CUC in there now from reefcleaners and most of them are doing very well. I think I lost less than 10% of the shipment. The protein skimmer has been working pretty well for the most part. It seems to overflow when I add top off water which i have not yet figured out. It is set up so the level is constant in that chamber. The refugium is growing a crap ton of algea and there is a lot of activity in the cheato ball I got from reef cleaners. It went a little brown sitting at the bottom of the fuge so I moved it up to the top and it is greening up again. Ill post more pictures when the fish get here and hopefully I can frag a few of my dad's corals and turn the FOWLR into a real reef in the next few weeks. I also moved the rocks around because most of the space where I could put corals would not be in direct light. I will probably move it again before I decide I like it. Additionally, I didn't think it was possible but one of the rocks may have coraline already. That particular rock was bleached when I got it about 6 weeks ago, and it has been in the light for about 3 weeks now. It is turning purple and it looks nothing like cyano.

 

[fish12345]

It has been a while since I have updated so I will share some changes. I got my first fish from Blue Zoo Aquatics a few weeks ago and that had a firefish, a yellow clown goby, and a yellow watchman goby. Unfortuntely, after trying 7 different foods and putting him in the fuge to munch on some pods, the yellow clown goby died, most likely of starvation. The other two eat like pigs and they are doing very well. I also raided my dads tank and took some of my corals back (its a long story yo) and they went in tonight. After just a few minutes the frogspawn opened which I found surprising. Enjoy some pictures.

 

This is Joker because he always looks like he is frowning, like the joker. He likes to hang out in the tunnels his unnamed pistol shrimp built and he eats plenty and appears healthy.

 

This is Flick because my girlfriend says he looks like he is always flicking the water. He doesn't like to hold still for pictures and he loves to hang out in the front of the tank and look cute. He eats like a pig and poops like a thing that poops a lot.

 

 

Here is the current full tank shot. There was a bit of an algea outbreak from adding the first fish (probably shouldnt have added 3 at once but I wanted to save on shipping) but that is on its way out. Matter of fact, I did a little scrubbing after taking this picture and it looks much better now.

 

These are the corals as they were acclimating to the new tank. 2 are from my old tank that I put in my dads tank when I left for college. I fragged the frogspawn and grabbed a colony of the kenya tree. The other two I bought from a local reefer and added to his tank until I fragged them and brought them to my tank. One is a green star polyp and the other I can't remember what it is called.

 

The frogspawn actually opened up really fast, like under 15 minutes fast. It glows in the blue light and I am excited to see it grow again! I got 2 heads from a reefer about a year and a half ago and when I fragged it from my dads tank today, it had at least 12 heads on it.

 

A quick picture of the sump. That is about a weeks worth of skimmate I think. The bioload is pretty low and I skim pretty dry so I am very pleased with the skimmer. The tank is in my bedroom and the only sound I hear is a hum from the return pump and running water as it trickles into the overflow and slows down when it hits the sump.

 

Next week I will be ordering my 2 clownfish and one more fish that has yet to be decided to fully stock the tank. I may get some corals at the same time to meet the free shipping requirement.

 

As a side note, My dad and I ordered 6 fish and a shrimp from Blue Zoo Aquatics and lost 2 fish. A naso tang and a yellow clown goby. We couldn't get either of them to eat and they unfortunately starved. The other 4 and the shrimp are doing very well. Those were a lawnmower blenny and a flame angel (in my dads custom 150) and a yellow watchman/pistol pair and a firefish in my 29. Additionally, when we first got our order, the flame angel was not in the bag, it had an empty bag full of water in it though. I sent them an email on the friday we got the order and they had a flame angel shipped on the following monday. Accidents happen and they took care of us real quick.

[fish12345]

A few updates:

 

I sent another order into blue zoo aquatics. Order consisted of:

-2 Oscillarous Clowns

-1 Yellow Clown Goby

-1 Peppermint shrimp

-Candy cane coral

-1 Colt coral

-1 umbrella leather

 

As of now, everything is doing well except the candy cane coral (any tips would be greatly appreciated). I acclimated them and put them at the bottom of the tank as well as left the lights off for the first day. After the second day, I turned the lights on the lowest they will go and left them like that for a few days. After 4 days of low light, I turned the lights up to about 20%. After another week of that, the corals that were doing well made their way from the bottom of the tank to the rocks. Everything is happy except the candy cane. I have him out to the side so it is out of direct light and in low flow. I will have to see what I can do for that one.

 

The clowns are very happy in the tank. They eat every time I put food in they always greet me when I come up to the tank. They will also eat out of my fingers if I let them.

 

The yellow watchman and pistol shrimp are doing well and constantly remodeling my sand bed. The firefish is a happy camper as well.

 

I also added a homemade carbon reactor and I feel like that cleaned up the water pretty well. The protein skimmer is doing a great job but I have crappy growth in the refugium. I think with the reactor running, I can probably reduce the number of water changes. I am monitoring levels to see if that will work and so far, everything looks good. I will be picking up 2 hammer corals, a purple frogspawn, and red mushrooms tomorrow. I hope that goes well.

 

[fish12345]

This tank is now 8 months old and I have been making a few changes to it.

 

Changed Mag5 return pump for waveline 660GPH DC pump. It worked for about 7 months and then seized up. Back to the Mag5 while I wait for them to respond for warranty replacement.

 

I am building an LED light for the tank to replace the chinese LED I have now. I will reuse some of the LEDs and add some new higher quality ones. That is almost done now.

 

Protein skimmer has been working well. I always gets a ton of gunk out of the tank. I was growing a lot of Algea in the refugium for a while but it has stopped growing in the last month or 2. I am going to make a new LED light to replace what it has now. It also has an enormous number of pods in it at this point.

 

The colt coral and candy cane coral died shortly after they were received. They were in pretty sorry shape when I got them. The umbrella leather was fragged and the bulk of it went into my dads tank. That frag has taken hold and started growing its own stalk in recent months.

 

Here is a pic under T5s while I was building the new fixture.

Here is it while I tested the new fixture at about 25%.

[yoshii]

Progress looks good! Just curious, did you place that sand like that or do you have an inhabitant that moves the sand around?

[fish12345]

Progress looks good! Just curious, did you place that sand like that or do you have an inhabitant that moves the sand around?

Thank you! I didn't put the sand like that. I have a pistol shrimp so the sand goes where he wants it. He can't seem to decide where he wants to leave it either.