Well, being the next raffle a great option to win equipment and the need to make a build thread I’ll go ahead and make one.
How I ended with a large tank?
Things turned out nice after waiting for a long while on grabbing a used large tank, fortunately, I was even contacted by owner about an offer on his beatiful tank, stand, facade, canopy, rock, and equipment. I couldn’t say a yes for livestock because I’ll still have to deal with management of space, placement of equipment and such so livestock could suffer harm while I would be doing that.
History
I’ve started since young age taking care of aquariums, got engaged on caring for large cichlids and raising Oscars from baby’s to large size, one time I even had an Oscar trained to jump out of the water and grab a piece of food from my finger. Even my last try at Cichlids was my former 150g drilled caring for little ones until they became adults.
Transition to Salwater
After selling and loosing some of my largest African cichlids on my 150 I had decided to finally made the switch to saltwater, more entertaining, more complicated and more demanding yet more fascinating. I started with the 150 drilled. Made the same mistakes of a newbie, not all but the most common. RO spills, temp variations, various junk to good/great skimmers, choose a rather tall tank than a shallow one (heard more about light PAR) A 150 gallon that I had “preferred drilled than having a bulky overflow stealing state for rock and corals” : wrong, while having a larger return your option to add more gph isn’t limited to just depend on a drilled tank, well, unless you have a Bean Animal or the newer options for drilled tanks with external overflow, and obviously this last things weren’t available when I was doing my 150.
Downgrading to nanos.
After we’ve moved to another apartment I couldn’t continue with the 150, got literally “obligated” to do an small tank, 30g, and probably is this one when I’ve started to switch equipment to my liking, the 30g was drilled too, I made the stand and canopy in very limited time free, started with a 10g sump until I’ve got a real acrylic sump, started adding corals, I’ve never been addict to testing but incredibly this tanks were doing completely fine, water changes were my main key, temps and salinity on spot. I was so lucky that corals grew nicely and fast. Then I’ve move to a Biocube 29, on this one I tested 4 different light sets, 3 skimmers, a DIY HOB chaeto filter, an Algae Scrubber, UV light, Chiller, Mp10 and Aqamai pump, it was fun. Then a Nuvo20, on this one, things were even much better, Used a UV light, a couple of reactors, a HOB Refugium, same powerheads, Hiparego LED lights it was even nicer, corals were happy. Nanos are as demanding as big tanks, until… again… one more move.
Moving and transitioning tanks.
So we finally got in a house. The 30g continued nicely but eventually the “bigger build” plans started to appear on my dreams
and all of them cancelled by the boss. Got an Elos 120, a beatiful tank with its stand and its own sump and original skimmer, well, baby 2 was on plans too. For this tank I had good equipment, got me an ATI 8bulb modified with LED and a couple of mp40, right in the time when used Vortechs were never coming down on price due to demand and Used value. After thinking on power demand from T5’s decided to sell the ATI and got Kessils, finally baby 2 came and had to get rid of everything, all dry, same as when I’ve got it. Taking care for my kid was more important. Fast forward I’ve told the boss that probably after 3 years I’ll setup a different tank. This time an acrylic 120g. I had great equipment, thinking I could do an MRC mostly involved components. Got a large MRC Sump, Fluidized reactors, Calcium reactor, Kalkwasser reactor and Ecotech components, Radions G3pros, also I’ve got a Neptune WiFi with all the whistles. Sadly, same thing, this I could never had it salty due to family, work and time. That’s the reason you mostly see me buying and selling (unfortunately) things around.
And the same thing happened again, after getting “another tank plan” of a 60g cube brand new that got and then had to resell due to the same factor.
Those of you who have a mate that doesn’t show interest on the hobby will understand
This Build
Consistently, finally grabbed this Custom Glasscages 210.
Even so I’ll have to wait to move things around I’ll have to set it in the garage for now, it sucks because I finally got our own house and don’t have to worry about other issues. Will be gathering some equipment but I’ve almost everything to get it started
A set of 3 gen pro radions, one MP40QD and one gyre, a powerful barracuda return pump, now, I ended getting a pair of large UV lights, I’d have to decide which one to use and which one I’ll have to let go.
Tons of rock, since my first tank I’ve decided to start them dry and colonize them slowly with bacteria, pods and all the good critters. In all this tanks I’ve never dealt with aiptasia, or any other mayor pest, nor big outbreaks of algae, hopefully I’ll continue this pattern.
I guess I’ll continue with some former pics and then I’ll go ahead and document this one build.
Comments, suggestions, good info and everything is welcome!
How I ended with a large tank?
Things turned out nice after waiting for a long while on grabbing a used large tank, fortunately, I was even contacted by owner about an offer on his beatiful tank, stand, facade, canopy, rock, and equipment. I couldn’t say a yes for livestock because I’ll still have to deal with management of space, placement of equipment and such so livestock could suffer harm while I would be doing that.
History
I’ve started since young age taking care of aquariums, got engaged on caring for large cichlids and raising Oscars from baby’s to large size, one time I even had an Oscar trained to jump out of the water and grab a piece of food from my finger. Even my last try at Cichlids was my former 150g drilled caring for little ones until they became adults.
Transition to Salwater
After selling and loosing some of my largest African cichlids on my 150 I had decided to finally made the switch to saltwater, more entertaining, more complicated and more demanding yet more fascinating. I started with the 150 drilled. Made the same mistakes of a newbie, not all but the most common. RO spills, temp variations, various junk to good/great skimmers, choose a rather tall tank than a shallow one (heard more about light PAR) A 150 gallon that I had “preferred drilled than having a bulky overflow stealing state for rock and corals” : wrong, while having a larger return your option to add more gph isn’t limited to just depend on a drilled tank, well, unless you have a Bean Animal or the newer options for drilled tanks with external overflow, and obviously this last things weren’t available when I was doing my 150.
Downgrading to nanos.
After we’ve moved to another apartment I couldn’t continue with the 150, got literally “obligated” to do an small tank, 30g, and probably is this one when I’ve started to switch equipment to my liking, the 30g was drilled too, I made the stand and canopy in very limited time free, started with a 10g sump until I’ve got a real acrylic sump, started adding corals, I’ve never been addict to testing but incredibly this tanks were doing completely fine, water changes were my main key, temps and salinity on spot. I was so lucky that corals grew nicely and fast. Then I’ve move to a Biocube 29, on this one I tested 4 different light sets, 3 skimmers, a DIY HOB chaeto filter, an Algae Scrubber, UV light, Chiller, Mp10 and Aqamai pump, it was fun. Then a Nuvo20, on this one, things were even much better, Used a UV light, a couple of reactors, a HOB Refugium, same powerheads, Hiparego LED lights it was even nicer, corals were happy. Nanos are as demanding as big tanks, until… again… one more move.
Moving and transitioning tanks.
So we finally got in a house. The 30g continued nicely but eventually the “bigger build” plans started to appear on my dreams
and all of them cancelled by the boss. Got an Elos 120, a beatiful tank with its stand and its own sump and original skimmer, well, baby 2 was on plans too. For this tank I had good equipment, got me an ATI 8bulb modified with LED and a couple of mp40, right in the time when used Vortechs were never coming down on price due to demand and Used value. After thinking on power demand from T5’s decided to sell the ATI and got Kessils, finally baby 2 came and had to get rid of everything, all dry, same as when I’ve got it. Taking care for my kid was more important. Fast forward I’ve told the boss that probably after 3 years I’ll setup a different tank. This time an acrylic 120g. I had great equipment, thinking I could do an MRC mostly involved components. Got a large MRC Sump, Fluidized reactors, Calcium reactor, Kalkwasser reactor and Ecotech components, Radions G3pros, also I’ve got a Neptune WiFi with all the whistles. Sadly, same thing, this I could never had it salty due to family, work and time. That’s the reason you mostly see me buying and selling (unfortunately) things around.And the same thing happened again, after getting “another tank plan” of a 60g cube brand new that got and then had to resell due to the same factor.
Those of you who have a mate that doesn’t show interest on the hobby will understand
This Build
Consistently, finally grabbed this Custom Glasscages 210.
Even so I’ll have to wait to move things around I’ll have to set it in the garage for now, it sucks because I finally got our own house and don’t have to worry about other issues. Will be gathering some equipment but I’ve almost everything to get it started
A set of 3 gen pro radions, one MP40QD and one gyre, a powerful barracuda return pump, now, I ended getting a pair of large UV lights, I’d have to decide which one to use and which one I’ll have to let go.
Tons of rock, since my first tank I’ve decided to start them dry and colonize them slowly with bacteria, pods and all the good critters. In all this tanks I’ve never dealt with aiptasia, or any other mayor pest, nor big outbreaks of algae, hopefully I’ll continue this pattern.
I guess I’ll continue with some former pics and then I’ll go ahead and document this one build.
Comments, suggestions, good info and everything is welcome!
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