Deep Blue 30g rimless aka mistress

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, it's almost been a year since I've had a tank since selling my cadlight. My buddy who bought this set up from me 11 months ago is moving and had it for sale with some equipment for $150 so I jumped on it. Came with the tank, custom stand, custom acrylic sump, sca 301 skimmer, and eheim compact 3000.

 

when i sold the tank and bought it back.

[HarryPotter]

Sweet deal

[lilmatty5dimes]

save for FTS

Sweet deal

Thanks man. thats what i sold it to him for when he bought it and he gave me the equipment as a previous owner discount. lol

 

[lilmatty5dimes]

so the first thing i had to do with the stand is cut another opening on the side so i could stick the sump it left to right.

fits like a glove. lol

[lilmatty5dimes]

next found a rodi someone selling for a pretty good price. its a 5 stage brs with pressure gauge and tds meter.

and since i'm not going to have the money for an apex right now i went ahead and got 2x DJ switches. i didnt realize the plugs weren't on the back of these but instead on the side so i had to change where i put them in the tank. wanted them up top. plus they're build strange so the hole i had to cut is bigger than the plate on the switches so there's a gap(have to fix it) on the side of them.

next i had to figure out a way to hang the 250w radium over top of this.

and hanging over the tank bad pic with everything in the messy garage(need to clean this up. lol it just so hot here in FL)

if the halides are to hot i just got these custom DIY led from a friend for $25. i'll mount the brackets on the back before i set it up in case i want to switch it over.

finally mounted my fuge light to the stand in the bottom.

need to adjust it a lil bit but should work out great

[lilmatty5dimes]

Scored a killer deal on a Hanna PO4 checker, refractometer, handheld tds meter, and an api saltwater test kit for $50. Regimen is expired on the Hanna but figured it's still a good deal.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, finally went to Lowes to get some of the plumbing pieces together. Had about 30mins before work so I got the manifold put together and an idea of where I wanted to put it. Came out pretty nice.

After seeing everything up saw the drain wasn't going to line up so I needed to get a few 45's and forgot to add a ball value to the actual return part so on break went to ace to get the rest of the stuff. I got off work around 11:45 and "the mistress" was calling for some alone time so with a yuengling lager and a maduro HC black stogie went ahead and finish the plumbing part or at least the dry fit. Think it came out nicely. Tomorrow I'll move the tank inside to glue everything up.

I'm thinking this might be the aquascape plus an island out front and a ledge.

On a great note won a few auction tonight. Yellow and blue tenuis

 

Here's to a good night. Also got my jebao pp4 ordered. Hopefully she'll be wet tomorrow.

[Sharbuckle]

Great start. What are your stocking plans?

[lilmatty5dimes]

Great start. What are your stocking plans?

Thanks. I'm a z&p's hoarder. So mostly those and a few sps, acans, chalices, and LPS. So, it'll be a mixed reef. Fish are probably going to be a nice

pair of snowflake clowns

Trio of anthais or wrasse something with color

Springer's Damsel/Blue Sapphire Damsel

Yellow Coris wrasse

[Sharbuckle]

Thanks. I'm a z&p's hoarder. So mostly those and a few sps, acans, chalices, and LPS. So, it'll be a mixed reef. Fish are probably going to be a nice

pair of snowflake clowns

Trio of anthais or wrasse something with color

Springer's Damsel/Blue Sapphire Damsel

Yellow Coris wrasse

Great plans! Just caught the zoa/paly bug myself. Are you into the designer ones?

[lilmatty5dimes]

Great plans! Just caught the zoa/paly bug myself. Are you into the designer ones?

Oh most definitely here's a list of a few I'm getting once it's cycle.

red hornets

wows

orange rainbows

sunny d

space monster

pink zippers

Rastas

emeralds on fire

cars

Darth mauls

orange oxides

utter chaos

blondies

my clementines

mandarin oranges

3G

goldmeister

pink boobies

toxic pie

Beach bum

Pikachu

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, got a lil more done to the tank. I still need a clamp for the return and to make up some water and buy salt. That'll probably be tomorrow mornings task or another cigar and beer night. Lol got the halides up and plumbing done and moved the refugium light to the other side. Think it should work there pretty good. Lol

Also won a pretty sweet Aussie chalice

 

Still deciding on if I want to run these DIY LEDs I got. I know they'll grow anything under them.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, got 14g from a glacier machine and the tds was only 7 so I'll cheat on making my own and waiting all day for it. Lol I'll grab another 14g tomorrow and probably fill up my brute can in the garage for top offs. Still need to figure out what I'm going to use as a mixing bucket. Buy a tote or use a 20g tank and drill out the side and fit a bulkhead out of it.

Got my pp4 in today and hopefully get my salt Friday or Saturday. All it'll need is to be mixed and aquascape the rocks and add sand. Here's a teaser for ya.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, got off of work late tonight/morning but the mistress wanted some attention so I finish making water from break. Ended up mixing up 21g In the tank and about 14g in a tote. All I can say is aquaforest reef salt is amazing. Never saw it get cloudy and after about 15mins it was ready to be used. So, I've got no complaints. Plumbing needs a lil work to make it a tad bit quieter. Other than that didn't see any leaks. The skimmer is looking pretty good. Can't wait to see it in action. I'm glad I never got the dct6000 pump. The eheim compact 3000 is plenty of power has its only 50% open. The only equipment I need now is a couple reactors, tunze 3155 ago, and a apex jr to control the temp & lights. Here's a few pics of the aquascape which I'm planning on putting in with the sand and I'm going to the Madreefer(Lfs) tomorrow to buy a couple of mag floats and aquaforest bio s to jump start the cycle. Hopefully it'll do pretty good. Here's are the pics. Lol

And the only tank fully running.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, got the aquascape done like how it turned out. Here's a few shots of it plus whoever doesn't thing reef tanks are messy hasn't had one. Lol

Front

Top view

Side view

Messy room. Lol

[Reefkid88]

Shit,that looks nice man !!! Get this thing stocked already !!!

[lilmatty5dimes]

Shit,that looks nice man !!! Get this thing stocked already !!!

Thanks. Hopefully in 2 weeks I'll be getting corals and a pair of clowns. I'm dosing the tank with aquaforest bio s which helps with the cycle. We'll see how it goes.

[metrokat]

Scape looks great

[lilmatty5dimes]

Scape looks great

Thanks. If only this sand wasn't making it so cloudy. Lol

 

 

Well, I drop 2 drops of AF bio s yesterday(7/25/2016) so let the cycle start. This Fiji pink sand has the tank so cloudy I couldn't get anything else done last night after work. Finally cleared up enough to see it and I needed to move the sand around and poof another sand storm inside the tank. I dropped 2 more drops today followed by some ammonia. Tested the water and it was showing some ammonia so hopefully the cycle will go quickly now. It's got to be great using Aquaforest product when the LFS shelves looks like this. Lol

They were running a sale on reactor and phosphate minus so I went ahead and bought the 2 of them for $100. Basically got the minus for free.

Here it is under the stand. Almost doesn't fit but it's like a glove. Lol

Here's now the tank looks now. All cloudy for the damn sand.

And testing out the sump light with a cheap frag. Going to see how it does while cycling. So, far it's been opened the whole time. I have high hopes for this light.

[metrokat]

Gotta rinse the sand in small batches.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Gotta rinse the sand in small crude batches.

This stuff your not suppose to cause its live sand. I've used it before and didn't have a problem with it. I don't know. Hopefully it'll be clean tonight when I get home.

[vegasgundog]

I'll forever rinse live sand from now on.....I'm doing weekly wc in rsm and pulling silt out with vacuuming. It's a mess every time I disturb the sand.

[blizzardscout2]

Nice build, I was especially interested to find this as I am interested in a tank of these dimensions.

[lilmatty5dimes]

I'll forever rinse live sand from now on.....I'm doing weekly wc in rsm and pulling silt out with vacuuming. It's a mess every time I disturb the sand.

Yea I'll be doing the same thing. It looks like every time I move it white clouds come up. It's fine for now but once I start getting sps it's going to cause a ton of trouble.

Nice build, I was especially interested to find this as I am interested in a tank of these dimensions.

Thanks. The sad part is I had a Deep blue 60g tank right next to this one but sold it to get the salt and the testing equipment for this one. Plus I have all the equipment for the 30g. Good luck with your Reefing quest. Lol

[lilmatty5dimes]

Well, just got off work and went ahead and tested the tank to see where I was at.

Salinity 1.026

Ammonia 0.50

Nitrites 0

Nitrates 0

I've been dosing 2 drops of the bio s and I think I'll drop that down to a single drop starting today now.

Got some cords worked out of the way a lil bit. Still have some work there but need to go to lowes to figure out what to use as far as cord management stuff. Believe I've got my halide and refugium light set up now. My halides will run from 11a-4p and the refugium 4p-11a.

Turned the skimmer on to see how it would do. I left it now the other day and it overflowed and got some water all over the place. Nothing to major. It's actually producing a nice decent foamy head.

Put a ball value on the brute can and found a 20g one at Walmart for only $15 so I grabbed that one to use for mixing water. I'll buy the wheels for it so I can wheel it to the tank for when I mix up about 5-7g for water changes.

This thing saved me from a huge mess in the garage. Thank god it actually stopped the water from overflowing the can.

 

Got the call I've been waiting for about my new pair of clowns. They're a pair of ora premium snowflakes aka extreme snowflakes.

That's hint of blue streak that I absolutely love.