DyloHeath Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Hey everyone, I'm brand new to the hobby and have had my first tank for around 1-2 months now and couldn't be anymore happier. It's being an exciting journey learning so many things and making a few mistakes along the way, while still having so much to learn. I love it! With the help of these forums I've slowly and patiently made some progress with my new hobby. A few shout outs to: @seabass @Ratvan @WV Reefer @mcarroll @Clown79 and many more people! Thankyou! A community of so much knowledge is priceless. I've purchased equipment, returned, modded, and everything in between. Plenty of mistakes have been made. This is my journey. MAJOR UPDATE. 60G Tank cracked, had to quickly swap to 10G. Disclaimer: My story jumps and skips around a bit because there were times I didn't take pictures, etc Equipment & others: Rocks: 18kg CaribSea Base rock Live Rock: 5KG LFS Sand: Red Sea Reef Base Pink Heater: Ehiem 200w Lighting: 1x Marsaqua 300w Powerheads: 1x JEBAO SOW 6 Controller Wavemaker & 1x Koralia 5000/1350 Filter: Aquaclear 70 modded with a refugium (I didn't have the budget for a sump) Skimmer: Skimz SH2 Hangon Series Livestock: 2 x Ocellaris Clownfish 1 x Peppermint Shrimp (always hiding), maybe need to remove with more coral coming in. I had an Aiptasia problem. 2 x Trochus Snails 3 x Turbo Snails 2 x Nassarius Snails 1 x Stromb Snail I will be getting a lot more clean up crew in the next few weeks Corals: 8 x Zoas 1 x Elegance 1 x Torch 1 x Green Star Polyps 1 x Australian Lobo 1 x Leather August - September 2019 I purchased this tank off Gumtree (similar to craigslist but in Australia) for $120, I threw out the lids, re-did the silicone inside (first time doing that), and repainted from grey to black. I also painted the back of the tank completely black. (No pictures of the paint job till later) Next I received my dry rock and came up with a plan to design the layout using the rule of thirds I learnt from the community. I made use of acrylic rods, aqua epoxy, and super glue gel. This was challenging for the first time. You'll see the final design next, I setup my tank, added the rock design, began filling the tank with sand, and began filling it up with water. You can see the black painted background in these shots. After this I added some live rock, bottled bacteria, and waited for my tank to cycle. Took around 3 weeks because I made a few mistakes. In this time I ordered an aquaclear 70 to filter the tank, I modded it with a refugium. I couldn't fit a sump into my budget. I began stocking the tank with livestock, a few corals, and a hang on skimmer (these are awesome!). I still need to clean up the cords and make everything look a little nicer, I installed the shelf to hang the light above the tank, unfortunately the studs didn't line up so it looks a little off middle. But it works for me. I know it's not the prettiest setup in the world, and I now know what i'll do differently for my future tanks. (Sump, larger tank, and a bigger space) In the future I will hide cords better, have less equipment hanging on the tank, and purchase a rimless tank for the look. But this works for now. This is my journey so far...Thankyou for helping me along the way. November 23rd 2019 3 2 Quote Link to comment
BioCube Newb Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 hows that MarsAqua doing for you, getting good growth? Was eyeing them before but never saw anyone who was using one till now. Quote Link to comment
Ratvan Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Lovely set up, nice to have a thread to follow along with your progress, any new hitch hikers? Has that red thing grown at all yet? Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 11 minutes ago, BioCube Newb said: hows that MarsAqua doing for you, getting good growth? Was eyeing them before but never saw anyone who was using one till now. The Marsaqua is great! If anything, it's too powerful. Right now I only run my blues at 40% for 8 hours. Haven't even touched the whites and everything seems to be growing and happy! Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 9 minutes ago, Ratvan said: Lovely set up, nice to have a thread to follow along with your progress, any new hitch hikers? Has that red thing grown at all yet? The red things haven't changed at all oddly enough. I found a stomatella snail roaming around but that's about it for now. 1 Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 32 minutes ago, DyloHeath said: In the future I will hide cords better, have less equipment hanging on the tank, and purchase a rimless tank for the look. But this works for now. All those things are nice for aesthetics....definitely can wait. 1 minute ago, DyloHeath said: The Marsaqua is great! If anything, it's too powerful. Right now I only run my blues at 40% for 8 hours. Haven't even touched the whites and everything seems to be growing and happy! 40% sounds about right to me for intensity. (Check with a lux meter, or lux meter app.) For color, just turn up the white channel until the color looks a nice "approximately 20,000K" to you. That will be adequate and it won't take much power to do it. 1 minute ago, DyloHeath said: I found a stomatella snail roaming around but that's about it for now. Cool! Make sure nutrients don't bottom out so there's a plentiful amount of algae to keep him happy! 🙂 Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 3 minutes ago, mcarroll said: All those things are nice for aesthetics....definitely can wait. 40% sounds about right to me for intensity. (Check with a lux meter, or lux meter app.) For color, just turn up the white channel until the color looks a nice "approximately 20,000K" to you. That will be adequate and it won't take much power to do it. Cool! Make sure nutrients don't bottom out so there's a plentiful amount of algae to keep him happy! 🙂 Is it necessary to have whites at all in your opinion? I love the look of the blues, and would only use whites if it benefits the corals. i will keep an eye on the nutrients for sure, right now my rocks are covered in a light green algae, I actually love the look of it. Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Hm...necessary? Probably only because our eyeballs are more tuned to that light....you're actually missing a lot of the "show" by having only blues. 😉 I don't think it'll hurt anything while the newness of all that blue florescence wears off though! 🙂 (We all go though a version of that....and it really is amazing.) If anything corals might grow a little slower under blue-only, but that's actually more a good thing than a bad thing. 1 Quote Link to comment
WV Reefer Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 2 hours ago, DyloHeath said: Hey everyone, I'm brand new to the hobby and have had my first tank for around 1-2 months now and couldn't be anymore happier. It's being an exciting journey learning so many things and making a few mistakes along the way, while still having so much to learn. I love it! With the help of these forums I've slowly and patiently made some progress with my new hobby. A few shout outs to: @seabass @Ratvan @WV Reefer @mcarroll @Clown79 and many more people! Thankyou! A community of so much knowledge is priceless. I've purchased equipment, returned, modded, and everything in between. Plenty of mistakes have been made. This is my journey. Disclaimer: My story jumps and skips around a bit because there were times I didn't take pictures, etc Equipment & others: Rocks: 18kg CaribSea Base rock Live Rock: 5KG LFS Sand: Red Sea Reef Base Pink Heater: Ehiem 200w Lighting: 1x Marsaqua 300w Powerheads: 1x JEBAO SOW 6 Controller Wavemaker & 1x Koralia 5000/1350 Filter: Aquaclear 70 modded with a refugium (I didn't have the budget for a sump) Skimmer: Skimz SH2 Hangon Series Livestock: 2 x Ocellaris Clownfish 1 x Peppermint Shrimp (always hiding), maybe need to remove with more coral coming in. I had an Aiptasia problem. 2 x Trochus Snails 3 x Turbo Snails 2 x Nassarius Snails 1 x Stromb Snail I will be getting a lot more clean up crew in the next few weeks Corals: 8 x Zoas 1 x Elegance 1 x Torch 1 x Green Star Polyps 1 x Australian Lobo 1 x Leather August - September 2019 I purchased this tank off Gumtree (similar to craigslist but in Australia) for $120, I threw out the lids, re-did the silicone inside (first time doing that), and repainted from grey to black. I also painted the back of the tank completely black. (No pictures of the paint job till later) Next I received my dry rock and came up with a plan to design the layout using the rule of thirds I learnt from the community. I made use of acrylic rods, aqua epoxy, and super glue gel. This was challenging for the first time. You'll see the final design next, I setup my tank, added the rock design, began filling the tank with sand, and began filling it up with water. You can see the black painted background in these shots. After this I added some live rock, bottled bacteria, and waited for my tank to cycle. Took around 3 weeks because I made a few mistakes. In this time I ordered an aquaclear 70 to filter the tank, I modded it with a refugium. I couldn't fit a sump into my budget. I began stocking the tank with livestock, a few corals, and a hang on skimmer (these are awesome!). I still need to clean up the cords and make everything look a little nicer, I installed the shelf to hang the light above the tank, unfortunately the studs didn't line up so it looks a little off middle. But it works for me. I know it's not the prettiest setup in the world, and I now know what i'll do differently for my future tanks. (Sump, larger tank, and a bigger space) In the future I will hide cords better, have less equipment hanging on the tank, and purchase a rimless tank for the look. But this works for now. This is my journey so far...Thankyou for helping me along the way. Looks great with the double arch! 😃 Quote Link to comment
billygoat Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Yeah this is pretty cool. Great use of acrylic armatures to build your rock arch. I feel like one of the major advantages to using dry rock is that you can do things like drill it and epoxy it without having to worry about the life on it dying in the meantime (because there is none), but many reefers who opt for dry rock choose not to do any of that. So kudos to you for creativity! Great build and great read so far! I'll be following along. 1 Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted June 6, 2020 Author Share Posted June 6, 2020 So it's been quite a long time since I've posted for my journal, i was been lazy! A lot has happen since the start of this tank! Fast forward a few months later and I noticed there was always water around the outside of my tank.....I had a slow leak from the bottom of the tank! The stand was starting to soak up the water and weaken each day! Buying the tank second hand, it wasnt until a few months later that I realized there must of been a crack on the bottom of the tank that I missed. In panic mode, I found the closet reef shop and all I could find for a reasonable price was a 45L (10 gallon) tank to transfer everything too. The process started! I had to get rid of so much live rock it wasn't funny (its still sitting outside). The transfer wasn't fun, I feel sorry for people moving houses. Buckets every where, water, pumps, heaters, the process took well over 6 hours. Down sizing was a hit to the ego, but it had to be done as I couldn't risk the livestock. I only lost a few coral (Some zoas, and the torch) Here is the current setup: 3 Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 In the next 7 days I will be: - Testing parameters with new salifert kits (calcium, magnesium) and hanna checkers (phos, and Alk) - Slowly vacuuming the sand bed in sections (I have never done this so it needs a good clean) - Waiting for my skimmer to break in so its a little more effective - I now have a ATO to help with the salinity swings (installed today) - Feeding less, I was an overfeeder for quite some time In the next 30 days: - I will be replacing the two rocks to the right of the tank, I'm currently bleach treating, then curing leftover dry rock from the tank - I will be getting rid of the leather coral (I will frag him up, might add a small frag back on the new rock I add), leathers make me a little nervous. Reason I'm replacing the rock to the right is because im simply running out of room and would like more SPS up top. 1 Quote Link to comment
DyloHeath Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 Here are the coral photos: Forest Green Acropora (I think) Purple Digitata Green Tip Birdsnest Rainbow Montipora Pink Birdsnest Duncan Purple Tip Elegance Orange Encrusting Montipora Green Montipora Pink Goniopora Devils Armor Zoa Hammer Red Morph Watermelon Birdsnest Zoas: (Still need to ID in order) But I know some: Utter Choas Frozen PE Rastas Red Hornet 2 Quote Link to comment
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