Nurse Payne
Active Member
Hi. My obsession started back in 2004, when a friend gave me a 29 gallon freshwater tank that held a single plecostomus. I slowly stocked it, while researching. I came across saltwater fish and immediately wanted to switch! I talked to a friend that had a saltwater tank and he told me “It’s very difficult. You can’t do it.†Excuse me?? That’s all I needed. Someone to tell me I couldn’t. I so did! All I did was study up on EVERYTHING. Non-stop. I was obsessed. Not only did I manage, I was so good, he asked me to take over his tank for him. I upgraded (don’t we all?) to a 90 gallon corner tank. I went through the stage of buying a lesser grade piece of equipment to save a couple hundred bucks, to tossing that piece of equipment and buying what I should’ve bought in the first place. I wasted so much money trying to save money. In 2008, some life changing events happened and I had to sell my tank and move. I was starting over in life and by 2011, things were looking up. I met my soul mate, got a degree (nursing), and still longed for another tank.
I was still fascinated with anything fish or reef related. After sharing my desire for another tank with my husband, he surprised me after work one day. I came home and he had a U-Haul covered trailer in the driveway and told me to "hop in". He drove me 13 hours one way to pick up a used tank. Bless his heart, he didn't know what he was getting into!! It was supposed to come with everything I needed, but yeah. Nothing was what the man said it was, and I've pretty much replaced everything at this point. This time around, I've tried not to make haphazard purchases. I've not tried to save a dime to spend ten later.
My husband made me a new stand and canopy. I had no idea the man could even drive a nail! He started pulling all these tools from all corners of the garage. He would say "I need a band-saw to do this part." I would tell him to go buy one, but he would already be in a far corner of the garage pulling one out. We didn't use Facebook those entire few weeks. We sat outside in the garage together and talked while he built and I sanded. It was some of our best quality time together.
I had to sand and buff the inside and outside of the tank for about 2 weeks. I spent countless hours inside the tank. I can now say I know how our fish feel because my family watched me inside of my “boxâ€. I came out to get fresh soapy water, and back in I went! My arms were toned when I finished, and not a blemish anywhere on the glass. I was so proud of myself considering I had never attempted that before.
I had to design new sumps after only a few months since the ones that came with the tank had cracks around where the previous owner obviously didn't know how to drill. I tried bracing with new acrylic, but it didn't last. Now, I have 1/4" acrylic sumps and they are beautiful!! Because of the 30†width of the tank, it was hard to find a sump that fit, so my sumps are actually two separate ones that I have joined together. Each one has an output, input and a connecting u-shaped pipe that I have drilled and used bulkheads to connect. I was proud of myself for figuring out how to prevent the sumps from emptying at different rates. The U-shaped pipe I designed keeps the water perfectly level in both sumps.
I also had a custom ATO reservoir made that holds around 35 gallons since my tank loses about 2.5 gallons a day. I just recently bought a Tunze ATO and it is the bee's knees!! It's so nice not having to carry my bucket of RO/DI inside every night before going to bed.
I have 4 of the Chinese LED fixtures. I have them on separate timers where 2 actinics turn on, an hour later, the other two actinics, an hour later, two daylight, and an hour later, the last two daylight. They ramp down the same way. I must say I've been pleased with the energy consumption and have had zero heat issues. I can't speculate on how well they grow my corals yet since my tank was set-up in February. Everything seems to be holding it's color, so I have no complaints.
My Skimmer is an AquaMaxx EcoMaxx EM500. It pulls some pretty nasty gunk out and I have to empty my collection cup about once a week because it is 1/3 full and it is just gross! I'm constantly looking UNDER the tank at the skimmer, ATO, refugium, plumbing.....I think I look under the tank as much as I look IN. That's normal, right?
I just recently added a BRS dual GFO/carbon reactor. I have a large section of the sump filled with chaeto. I have filter socks on both intakes which I change out weekly as well. So far, my nitrates are 0. I'm loving that!!
I used a fine sand (about 3" deep) and dry rock from BRS (about 180 lbs). My rock is a mixture of Pukani, branching, and Reef saver. The pukani is my favorite. It was so light and easy to arrange. Inside the tank, my overflows are in the middle of both side panels. I am a stickler for not being able to see any equipment, so I built two towers of rock in front of those overflows. In the middle, I placed a show piece of branching rock. It left lots of swimming room for the fish (coz with 300 gallons we all know I will have tangs and maybe I will slide by with just a citation from our resident “tang po-poâ€).
For circulation, I have a Reeflo Dart Hybrid as my return, and also have a Tunze 6255 Turbelle Stream. It is hidden by an overflow. I've been meaning to add one or two Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105 controllables with the Tunze controller, but I'm also trying to keep my husband from hating the tank altogether, so slowly.....slowly add those things when he isn't here....right?? Just kidding. I think what I enjoy the most about the hobby is the anticipation of getting it "just right".
Stockwise I have some plating Montis, several mushrooms, a rainbow BTA, Torch, hammer, frogspawn, chalice and a few others.
Fish:
1 Brown Tang
2 Yellow Tangs
5 blue-green chromis
2 black snowflake ocellaris
2 true perculas
1 Flame angel
1 Longfin Fairy Wrasse
1 Bicolor Basslet
1 Black Combtooth Blenny
2 Schooling Bannerfish
1 Ignitus Anthias
I was still fascinated with anything fish or reef related. After sharing my desire for another tank with my husband, he surprised me after work one day. I came home and he had a U-Haul covered trailer in the driveway and told me to "hop in". He drove me 13 hours one way to pick up a used tank. Bless his heart, he didn't know what he was getting into!! It was supposed to come with everything I needed, but yeah. Nothing was what the man said it was, and I've pretty much replaced everything at this point. This time around, I've tried not to make haphazard purchases. I've not tried to save a dime to spend ten later.
My husband made me a new stand and canopy. I had no idea the man could even drive a nail! He started pulling all these tools from all corners of the garage. He would say "I need a band-saw to do this part." I would tell him to go buy one, but he would already be in a far corner of the garage pulling one out. We didn't use Facebook those entire few weeks. We sat outside in the garage together and talked while he built and I sanded. It was some of our best quality time together.
I had to sand and buff the inside and outside of the tank for about 2 weeks. I spent countless hours inside the tank. I can now say I know how our fish feel because my family watched me inside of my “boxâ€. I came out to get fresh soapy water, and back in I went! My arms were toned when I finished, and not a blemish anywhere on the glass. I was so proud of myself considering I had never attempted that before.
I had to design new sumps after only a few months since the ones that came with the tank had cracks around where the previous owner obviously didn't know how to drill. I tried bracing with new acrylic, but it didn't last. Now, I have 1/4" acrylic sumps and they are beautiful!! Because of the 30†width of the tank, it was hard to find a sump that fit, so my sumps are actually two separate ones that I have joined together. Each one has an output, input and a connecting u-shaped pipe that I have drilled and used bulkheads to connect. I was proud of myself for figuring out how to prevent the sumps from emptying at different rates. The U-shaped pipe I designed keeps the water perfectly level in both sumps.
I also had a custom ATO reservoir made that holds around 35 gallons since my tank loses about 2.5 gallons a day. I just recently bought a Tunze ATO and it is the bee's knees!! It's so nice not having to carry my bucket of RO/DI inside every night before going to bed.
I have 4 of the Chinese LED fixtures. I have them on separate timers where 2 actinics turn on, an hour later, the other two actinics, an hour later, two daylight, and an hour later, the last two daylight. They ramp down the same way. I must say I've been pleased with the energy consumption and have had zero heat issues. I can't speculate on how well they grow my corals yet since my tank was set-up in February. Everything seems to be holding it's color, so I have no complaints.
My Skimmer is an AquaMaxx EcoMaxx EM500. It pulls some pretty nasty gunk out and I have to empty my collection cup about once a week because it is 1/3 full and it is just gross! I'm constantly looking UNDER the tank at the skimmer, ATO, refugium, plumbing.....I think I look under the tank as much as I look IN. That's normal, right?
I just recently added a BRS dual GFO/carbon reactor. I have a large section of the sump filled with chaeto. I have filter socks on both intakes which I change out weekly as well. So far, my nitrates are 0. I'm loving that!!
I used a fine sand (about 3" deep) and dry rock from BRS (about 180 lbs). My rock is a mixture of Pukani, branching, and Reef saver. The pukani is my favorite. It was so light and easy to arrange. Inside the tank, my overflows are in the middle of both side panels. I am a stickler for not being able to see any equipment, so I built two towers of rock in front of those overflows. In the middle, I placed a show piece of branching rock. It left lots of swimming room for the fish (coz with 300 gallons we all know I will have tangs and maybe I will slide by with just a citation from our resident “tang po-poâ€).
For circulation, I have a Reeflo Dart Hybrid as my return, and also have a Tunze 6255 Turbelle Stream. It is hidden by an overflow. I've been meaning to add one or two Tunze Turbelle Stream 6105 controllables with the Tunze controller, but I'm also trying to keep my husband from hating the tank altogether, so slowly.....slowly add those things when he isn't here....right?? Just kidding. I think what I enjoy the most about the hobby is the anticipation of getting it "just right".
Stockwise I have some plating Montis, several mushrooms, a rainbow BTA, Torch, hammer, frogspawn, chalice and a few others.
Fish:
1 Brown Tang
2 Yellow Tangs
5 blue-green chromis
2 black snowflake ocellaris
2 true perculas
1 Flame angel
1 Longfin Fairy Wrasse
1 Bicolor Basslet
1 Black Combtooth Blenny
2 Schooling Bannerfish
1 Ignitus Anthias
Love the rock work
