It's time for me to start a tank build thread... just be forewarned I like to take things slowly so this is gonna be a long, fun, but deliberately cautious ride! (For example l qt everything for a minimum of 8 weeks.)
Some backround:
I started with saltwater fish tanks about 10 years ago- my first one then was really just a big algae tank with a couple of clowns... just enough to give me the itch so to speak. Then we moved from CO to TN and it all got put on the back burner for a few years.
About 5 years ago a friend gave me a 29 gallon bowfront for helping her out watching her kids and my itch was scratched and I really got into it. That is when I found super useful forums like this one and started devouring tank build threads.
I ended up with 3 tanks, a 55 gallon, a fluval edge, and the original 29 gallon. The fluval had a couple gorgs, sexy shrimp, and porcelain crabs... it was cool because I kept it blue all the time. The 55 replaced my 29 and was FOWLR mostly because I was afraid of corals and still learning. (I am always learning with this hobby.) The 29 eventually did end up housing some corals and then.... time to move back to CO!
I sold everything before the move and was a mess until I finally got another 55 a year and few months after we moved. It was a gorg tank meant for seahorses.
About 6 months later, just when the tank was getting settled in and I was getting close adding the seahorses, my wife was offered a job that is perfect for her... in ATL, GA. So here I am in ATL writing you about my new tank. (We moved 3 weeks after this offer came out of the blue, holy fast batman!)
<iframe style="width: 70%; height: 400px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" src="=https://youtu.be/DkIUeuGQkng]Here is a video of that tank.<!-- gcu-updated /ame -->
I was pretty broken up about having to break down another tank, even though this job is awesome for my girl and she felt really bad so she promised as soon as we moved and found a new house I could get 2 tanks. When we got to the house I saw this huge empty 7 foot wall and had visions of a big tank there, so I asked if I could get one big tank instead of 2 small ones... she said whatever makes me happy.
So the next day I ordered a 180 gallon tank (72×24×25) from glasscages. It has 2 corner overflows, black silicone, and starfire glass on the front. This is my very first brand new tank... all my others have been used and are always scratched! Grrr! Now I get to be the one to do that, well actually let's hope not, haha! The tank came today!
I was also already on the waiting list for a lifereef sump I was going to get for my 55 in CO. So I talked to Jeff and asked him if I could upgrade my order and of course he was extremely accommodating! I have a LF1-200s with 24" liferefugium along with 2 reactors for media and a Biopellet reactor ordered from him. The sump and refugium will be here Monday!
For powerheads I have two of the new VorTech MP40w QD, along with a battery backup. For lighting I have one of the brand new Orbit Marine Pro's! (I am really excited about this, I had a regular Orbit Marine light on my 55 and they are so nice.) I also have a regular Orbit Marine for the refugium.
I have sand, an ro/di unit ready to make sone water, and salt waiting!
The tank came on the stand with the hood on, it is all unpainted. Today I got the hood, front doors, and back of the tank all painted. Hopefully tomorrow I have some friends coming to help lift the tank off the stand so I can get it painted. Then I will have to get them to come back and move it in the house early next week...
Here are some pics of some of the goodies... much more to come!
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I also have some fish and corals and cuc in quarantine. Here are pictures of my qt tanks in the garage:
(You can also see the two giant trash cans that currently have dry rock curing in them. It's mostly Pukani from Bulk Reef Supply.)
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The tanks are laid out like this, left to right:
Far left: Invert quarantine, with live rock and a bowl of sand for Nassarius. Just fyi, on the group of snails I have caught aptasia, vermatid snails, and digitate hydroids so far from their shells. This is exactly why I qt inverts.
Middle Left: Small fish quarantine, has a Camel/Helmet Cowfish and Diamond goby, all holes blocked.
Middle Right: Coral quarantine, with live rock and frag rack. There are some snails, hermit crabs, and emerald crabs in there for cleaning. This has skimmer, Bioreactor, and is used to seed new media.
Far Right: Main fish quarantine. Currently there is: 1 Desjardin Sailfin Tang, 1 Kole Yellow Eye Tang, 10 blue/green Chromis, 5 Lyretail Anthias, and 1 Red Spot Cardinal fish. I am very glad I qt'ed them. The LFS where I got the Sailfin from, about a week earlier than the rest of the fish said I wouldn't need to qt him as he had been in their tank for over a month with no problems. But most LFS's around here keep their salinity low = 1.016/1.017, that just masks ich a lot of times it pops up when you get them at normal salinity.
Sure enough, just before the other fish came from LiveAquaria, he had spots all over him. I went ahead and started hypo at 1.009 and all the fish are doing great. I am going to leave it there for 4 weeks after I see the last symptoms, I think we are almost there, but did see just a bit of scratching today so I am not going to say we are in the clear yet. After the 4 weeks I'll take a week to bring the salinity back up, then an additional 2 weeks to make sure it doesn't come back.
Either way, I will be ready to put them in the tank soon after it cycles. All the corals I have I brought with me in a 5 gallon bucket from CO.
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It had an air stone, a heater, and small powerhead. All the corals made it here and did ok in the bucket until I could get a tank cycled. The gorgs are the only ones still mad at me, because I couldn't feed them like they needed unless I wanted to have major problems. They are coming around though.
I brought one fish with me, a red spot cardinal fish, it is very happy to have friends again in the 55 which I am using as a qt atm. I don't have pics but will definitely get some at some point.
I will update soon, exhausted for the day, looking forward to tomorrow, I am just days away from adding water!
I look foward to getting to know you all and meeting you at the reef show next weekend.
Alex
Some backround:
I started with saltwater fish tanks about 10 years ago- my first one then was really just a big algae tank with a couple of clowns... just enough to give me the itch so to speak. Then we moved from CO to TN and it all got put on the back burner for a few years.
About 5 years ago a friend gave me a 29 gallon bowfront for helping her out watching her kids and my itch was scratched and I really got into it. That is when I found super useful forums like this one and started devouring tank build threads.
I ended up with 3 tanks, a 55 gallon, a fluval edge, and the original 29 gallon. The fluval had a couple gorgs, sexy shrimp, and porcelain crabs... it was cool because I kept it blue all the time. The 55 replaced my 29 and was FOWLR mostly because I was afraid of corals and still learning. (I am always learning with this hobby.) The 29 eventually did end up housing some corals and then.... time to move back to CO!
I sold everything before the move and was a mess until I finally got another 55 a year and few months after we moved. It was a gorg tank meant for seahorses.
About 6 months later, just when the tank was getting settled in and I was getting close adding the seahorses, my wife was offered a job that is perfect for her... in ATL, GA. So here I am in ATL writing you about my new tank. (We moved 3 weeks after this offer came out of the blue, holy fast batman!)
<iframe style="width: 70%; height: 400px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto" src="=https://youtu.be/DkIUeuGQkng]Here is a video of that tank.<!-- gcu-updated /ame -->
I was pretty broken up about having to break down another tank, even though this job is awesome for my girl and she felt really bad so she promised as soon as we moved and found a new house I could get 2 tanks. When we got to the house I saw this huge empty 7 foot wall and had visions of a big tank there, so I asked if I could get one big tank instead of 2 small ones... she said whatever makes me happy.
So the next day I ordered a 180 gallon tank (72×24×25) from glasscages. It has 2 corner overflows, black silicone, and starfire glass on the front. This is my very first brand new tank... all my others have been used and are always scratched! Grrr! Now I get to be the one to do that, well actually let's hope not, haha! The tank came today!
I was also already on the waiting list for a lifereef sump I was going to get for my 55 in CO. So I talked to Jeff and asked him if I could upgrade my order and of course he was extremely accommodating! I have a LF1-200s with 24" liferefugium along with 2 reactors for media and a Biopellet reactor ordered from him. The sump and refugium will be here Monday!
For powerheads I have two of the new VorTech MP40w QD, along with a battery backup. For lighting I have one of the brand new Orbit Marine Pro's! (I am really excited about this, I had a regular Orbit Marine light on my 55 and they are so nice.) I also have a regular Orbit Marine for the refugium.
I have sand, an ro/di unit ready to make sone water, and salt waiting!
The tank came on the stand with the hood on, it is all unpainted. Today I got the hood, front doors, and back of the tank all painted. Hopefully tomorrow I have some friends coming to help lift the tank off the stand so I can get it painted. Then I will have to get them to come back and move it in the house early next week...
Here are some pics of some of the goodies... much more to come!
I also have some fish and corals and cuc in quarantine. Here are pictures of my qt tanks in the garage:
(You can also see the two giant trash cans that currently have dry rock curing in them. It's mostly Pukani from Bulk Reef Supply.)
The tanks are laid out like this, left to right:
Far left: Invert quarantine, with live rock and a bowl of sand for Nassarius. Just fyi, on the group of snails I have caught aptasia, vermatid snails, and digitate hydroids so far from their shells. This is exactly why I qt inverts.
Middle Left: Small fish quarantine, has a Camel/Helmet Cowfish and Diamond goby, all holes blocked.
Middle Right: Coral quarantine, with live rock and frag rack. There are some snails, hermit crabs, and emerald crabs in there for cleaning. This has skimmer, Bioreactor, and is used to seed new media.
Far Right: Main fish quarantine. Currently there is: 1 Desjardin Sailfin Tang, 1 Kole Yellow Eye Tang, 10 blue/green Chromis, 5 Lyretail Anthias, and 1 Red Spot Cardinal fish. I am very glad I qt'ed them. The LFS where I got the Sailfin from, about a week earlier than the rest of the fish said I wouldn't need to qt him as he had been in their tank for over a month with no problems. But most LFS's around here keep their salinity low = 1.016/1.017, that just masks ich a lot of times it pops up when you get them at normal salinity.
Sure enough, just before the other fish came from LiveAquaria, he had spots all over him. I went ahead and started hypo at 1.009 and all the fish are doing great. I am going to leave it there for 4 weeks after I see the last symptoms, I think we are almost there, but did see just a bit of scratching today so I am not going to say we are in the clear yet. After the 4 weeks I'll take a week to bring the salinity back up, then an additional 2 weeks to make sure it doesn't come back.
Either way, I will be ready to put them in the tank soon after it cycles. All the corals I have I brought with me in a 5 gallon bucket from CO.
It had an air stone, a heater, and small powerhead. All the corals made it here and did ok in the bucket until I could get a tank cycled. The gorgs are the only ones still mad at me, because I couldn't feed them like they needed unless I wanted to have major problems. They are coming around though.
I brought one fish with me, a red spot cardinal fish, it is very happy to have friends again in the 55 which I am using as a qt atm. I don't have pics but will definitely get some at some point.
I will update soon, exhausted for the day, looking forward to tomorrow, I am just days away from adding water!
I look foward to getting to know you all and meeting you at the reef show next weekend.
Alex
