My 150 gallon budget perpetual work in progress.

townjas

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1st I am going to say that I have just gotten the coral bug over the last year and during that year I am been planning this build, so currently my corals are low end and only a few species.

Next... About me. I am 41 married for 6 years to my beautiful wife. We have no 2 legged children but we have 3 that have 4 legs (2 pit bulls and a cat).
I have have fresh water tanks off and on most of my life. I started with a small tank with community fish until my grandfather stepped in and gave me a tank he had in storage. It was an old metal framed slate bottom 55 gallon tall (Man I wish I still had that tank) which I had for a few years. When we moved I donated the tank to a friend. Eventually I started another 55 that I had various tank mates including a winter with a could fish I caught from a local steam.
Through some moves I found myself tank-less again. I went tank-less for about 10 years until I had stopped into my local pet store and seeing the saltwater tanks I started thinking I wanted to try my hand with a saltwater tank. By shear coincidence my aunt decided to take her 55 down and offered it me for free. She had it as a freshwater planted tank. There was enough there to give me a good jump start.
So after a good cleaning and more money than I expected to spend on sand, salt, rock and water I had a 55 gallon saltwater tank.
My 1st inhabitants were an ocilarus clown, a starry blenny, pistol shrimp and banded ray goby. At this point the only corals I had were some kenya trees and brownish zoa's that were on the live rock I had

I decided fairly early on that I wanted a mandarin so I started collecting live rock. I used craigslist and managed to amass about 60 lbs over the next 6 months and frequently used an LED flash light at night to check my pod population. After about 7 months I finally had my mandarin. I created rubble piles and dosed phyto-feast to keep the population health. I even managed to get my mandarin to eat Nutramar Ova. Earlier this year the supply of Nutramar Ova dried up all across the country and I had since added a sump, more live rock as well add a yellow corris wrasse and a Melanrus Wrasse. Some how the pod population dropped of am my mandarin starved to death after 18 months and shortly there after the corris wrasse just disappeared.
During this time I also added GSP, some mushrooms, some red star polyps, blue xenia, anthelia, frog spawn and green hammer coral. I learned that I cannot keep mushrooms and the frog spawn didn't make it either. The anthelia, blue xenia and kenya trees tried to take over. I had also added a 48" beamworks LED.

This progression took almost 2.5 years, and during that time I had visions of a larger tank, so I spent a ton of time on craigslist and convincing my wife that a bigger tank was the way to go. I found an older 6' 150 gallon tank about 90 minutes away from home and picked it up for $80. I start building a stand frame that would accommodate both the 55 and the 150 in an L configuration. This progress went quite slowly since I was 1 on a budget & had little time because I was working on finishing my college degree.
A little less than a year after I bought the 150 the wife and I were running some errands and ran across some signs for an estate sales and decided to stop in, it was there that I found my tank. I picked up a 7' 150 gallon (7' long 18" wide and and 24" tall)tank for $20!

I got it home and tested it, it help water! So I sold the 6' tank and made plans with the 7'. To make sure, I resealed the tank and drilled it for two 1.5" overflows. I also decided to put the sump in the basement. Since I had found an RO/DI unit and a pondmaster 2400 pumping up from the basement would not be a problem.

During this time I found some more live rock on craigslist that I just couldn't turn down, It was about 100lbs of rock including a fair amount of branch tonga rock. I also picked up a WP-40 from amazon, I used it in my 55 at its lowest setting and a fast pulse. It was the only way to keep all of the water in the tank!
I reused the 150 gallon part of the stand frame I had made and adjusted plans to go with only the one tank and once the 55 was down and cleaned I would make plans to use the 55 as my sump.

On a side note I was given a small 5 gallon tank that I have set up at work that has 7 corals including 2 sps (a birds nest and an acro) a firefish, a blue neon goby, a peppermint shrimp, an emerald crab and a couple of snails. I only say this because I will add some pics from it also. Ok, some pics

These are my 5 gallon at work &
The 150 after I drillled it, but before the overflow
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townjas

townjas

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More pics of my nano tank at work. I will add more build/old 55 tank pics later
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townjas

townjas

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some early pics of my 55
 

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townjas

townjas

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I need to get my real camera out and take some pics instead of just my phone.
 
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townjas

townjas

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I should have a Jebao DC-12000 to replace the pondmaster 2400 that I am currently using, I am really hoping the DC-12000 will be much more efficient. My electric bill jumped over $100 for the 1st month after I upgraded from the 55 to the 150. Next project is wrapping the stand in oak and building a canopy. Well, and adding more fish and corals!
Here are a couple pictures of the 150 now that it is up
In the pictures are the 3 newest members. A dragon goby, Red Christmas Wrasse and a Yellow Eye Kole Tang
 

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Dmmz

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Nice looking tank keep the updates coming
 
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townjas

townjas

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I am slowly working on the canopy...hey, it's summer in Michigan and there a lot of things to do that are more fun than woodworking! The canopy is nearing completion and I am already wishing I had dome some things differently! I need to sand the front put the hinges on and stain and seal it. I have lost 2 wrasses to finding small holes in my current tops so I am putting that to an end with the canopy by leaving the back mostly open but covering it in screen. I also lost a couple of fish to velvet, but between Dr. G's anti-parasitic and a good UV sterilizer I only lost 2. Anyhow, here is a few updated pictures (I wish I would have taken more build/along the way type pictures.

This is what I believe to be a Halichoeres poeyi (Black Eared Wrasse). The picture does not do it justice It's pearly white with pink and green lines in the face and transparent red fins.
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Purple sunset monti and branching hammer with a little bit of my torch on the edge
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Bright orange chalice with bright green eyes
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Clown Tang, Sailfin Tang and Yellow Line Chromis. The Chromis and Clown Tang are both semi-aggressive and may find their way to the LFS.
Torch
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