Hi everyone! It was suggested by another member that I do a thread on my build. So, here I am!
First I'd like to say that I am sort of new to this whole thing and a poor homeowner living in Florida. So most of my stuff is personally created by me, myself and I on a very tight budget. My kids tell everyone that I'd rather have something for my tank than new clothes. (I think that may very well be true).
Okay, I said "sort of new" didn't I? That's because I used to have a 300 g tank in the mid '90s that I purchased from someone who was moving. I was new to the hobby and in love with coral.... That was back when I was told to use 6 - T12s and you didn't have to feed coral (ummm I wondered why I lost so many). But I did have good husbandry for the times and watched my perimeters closely. Well as life sometimes goes, I got divorced and didn't pick the hobby back up until last year when my husband (the new guy) was being thoughtful and bought a 150g used tank, sight unseen and had it delivered to me. Now, he knows nothing about these things and meant well... I swear it was the worst tank I ever saw! LOL. It had awful water lines a 1/3rd up from the bottom I could not get rid of, terribly scratched and just plain old. There wasn't a center support either. I built a stand and canopy and not thinking placed T12s in it also (old habit I guess). I spent one year battling constant repairs of busting seams. I thought when I created a glass center support and it held, finally things would be okay for a while. Then it happened, big crash and it was over. After living in designated trash cans with my canopy over-top for months, what didn't perish in the crash eventually did so in the cans.
During all this time, I did nothing but research. I learned a lot and am still doing so. For Christmas my kids took up a family collection to buy me a brand new tank and surprised me with it. It wasn't a 150 because they didn't know enough to measure height as well but hey, it was great! Gotta love'em
I built a new canopy because I just knew I was going to get some LEDs when tax time came along and it had to be right the first time. However until then the T12s went back inside.
My aquascape is a little out of the norm you could say. (this happens when cutting corners and your family is involved with finding stuff for the tank). I still had about 25lbs of live rock that was still live and some cool river rock, quartz, flat ledge rock and 100lbs of dry dead coral so that would be used. I used to have crushed coral but decided against it this time so I purchased 100lbs of dry sand and 3- 20lb bags of live Bahama sand to seed the bed. Then my mother found this "ancient Roman ruin" sculpture she thought the fish would like to swim through, it was very large and the kids loved it so it was in too. So My aquascape you could say is "collective" and unique.
This picture above is of the ruin, ledge rock and the river rock before adding the dry argonite rock.
And so you know, one thing I learned was that you put your base rock in before the sand bed. It help to keep it all in place
This photo above is with all of the rock in place and the canopy build in progress. If you look inside the door openings you will see some AI Sol Blue LED fixtures. I forgot to order the tracks and some things you just don't need patience for. I purchased a spring rod (made for curtains but of stronger metal than normal rods), took it apart, cut off the ends with a hack saw and screwed them to the hood. The slide opening in the rods were the same size as the bolts on the Sols. This actually cost me less than $5! And just so ya know, I am not cheap I am saving money where it can be saved. I bought the Sols because they were almost 1/2 the price of Radions and if you check into them, they are just as good. I had an $800 budget for lights and 2 is better than one. But not quite enough for a 6' long tank so I placed 2- 24" T5s in the center between them and will place lower light corals in that area. (at least until I can afford more)
My money went where it counts most. Lights, pump and plumbing and protein skimmer. Though I did do some DIY cheating with my sump.
As you can see in the first picture above there is some cyano and HA. <sigh> I need better powerheads for sure (next on my list) I have 4 modded MJ1200s from my old set up and they just don't cut it. I'm getting Hydor Koralia Mag 6's next month if all goes well. In the meantime I'm dealing with the algae.
1st I killed the cyano. Got the worst of the long HA off the rocks and started bio pellet and microbacter7 treatments as well as vodka. It's working great and the HA is mostly on the ruin that's left. I am not sure what exactly caused the HA outbreak but I'm thinking it was a combo of things. The tank is still new and cycling, adding a lot of things in the tank at once (6 coral frags and several fish), and possibly (just possibly) bio balls and at the time of the outbreak I was using my old Sea Clone skimmer that was just not doing a good job. I now have a terrific Reef Octopus that started sucking out the gunk in 8 hours after set up. Just amazing! Don't skimp on the skimmer!!!!
About the sump system:
It's a DIY 30g glass tank (I couldn't fit a larger one through the doors), Bio pellet reactor, RO cone skimmer 150, a refugium section (not all set up yet) and a media comparment. That last one was the most fun for me I created a riser of 1x4 wood that is clear coated several times and purchased a 5g Lowes bucket and 2 lids to make this. The bucket fits perfectly on the riser. I drilled hundreds of holes in the bottom of the bucket and added a bunch of bio balls. Then cut the edge of one of the lids and placed inside of the bucket about 5" from the top and sealed it with silicone. It is used as a rim for the media tray. The tray is made out of the rest of that lid. Yes, many, many more holes drilled on this tray. Put the tray in place and added the media. Drilled a hole the size of my piping for the water drain from the tank and added the plumbing fixtures to it. The lids fit so tight on these buckets there is no worry of it popping off.
Finished stand and canopy.
It's going to be a while before I have several corals growing. When they do, I'll add more pictures. Thanks for reading my long tank story
First I'd like to say that I am sort of new to this whole thing and a poor homeowner living in Florida. So most of my stuff is personally created by me, myself and I on a very tight budget. My kids tell everyone that I'd rather have something for my tank than new clothes. (I think that may very well be true).
Okay, I said "sort of new" didn't I? That's because I used to have a 300 g tank in the mid '90s that I purchased from someone who was moving. I was new to the hobby and in love with coral.... That was back when I was told to use 6 - T12s and you didn't have to feed coral (ummm I wondered why I lost so many). But I did have good husbandry for the times and watched my perimeters closely. Well as life sometimes goes, I got divorced and didn't pick the hobby back up until last year when my husband (the new guy) was being thoughtful and bought a 150g used tank, sight unseen and had it delivered to me. Now, he knows nothing about these things and meant well... I swear it was the worst tank I ever saw! LOL. It had awful water lines a 1/3rd up from the bottom I could not get rid of, terribly scratched and just plain old. There wasn't a center support either. I built a stand and canopy and not thinking placed T12s in it also (old habit I guess). I spent one year battling constant repairs of busting seams. I thought when I created a glass center support and it held, finally things would be okay for a while. Then it happened, big crash and it was over. After living in designated trash cans with my canopy over-top for months, what didn't perish in the crash eventually did so in the cans.
During all this time, I did nothing but research. I learned a lot and am still doing so. For Christmas my kids took up a family collection to buy me a brand new tank and surprised me with it. It wasn't a 150 because they didn't know enough to measure height as well but hey, it was great! Gotta love'em
I built a new canopy because I just knew I was going to get some LEDs when tax time came along and it had to be right the first time. However until then the T12s went back inside. My aquascape is a little out of the norm you could say. (this happens when cutting corners and your family is involved with finding stuff for the tank). I still had about 25lbs of live rock that was still live and some cool river rock, quartz, flat ledge rock and 100lbs of dry dead coral so that would be used. I used to have crushed coral but decided against it this time so I purchased 100lbs of dry sand and 3- 20lb bags of live Bahama sand to seed the bed. Then my mother found this "ancient Roman ruin" sculpture she thought the fish would like to swim through, it was very large and the kids loved it so it was in too. So My aquascape you could say is "collective" and unique.
This picture above is of the ruin, ledge rock and the river rock before adding the dry argonite rock.
And so you know, one thing I learned was that you put your base rock in before the sand bed. It help to keep it all in place
This photo above is with all of the rock in place and the canopy build in progress. If you look inside the door openings you will see some AI Sol Blue LED fixtures. I forgot to order the tracks and some things you just don't need patience for. I purchased a spring rod (made for curtains but of stronger metal than normal rods), took it apart, cut off the ends with a hack saw and screwed them to the hood. The slide opening in the rods were the same size as the bolts on the Sols. This actually cost me less than $5! And just so ya know, I am not cheap I am saving money where it can be saved. I bought the Sols because they were almost 1/2 the price of Radions and if you check into them, they are just as good. I had an $800 budget for lights and 2 is better than one. But not quite enough for a 6' long tank so I placed 2- 24" T5s in the center between them and will place lower light corals in that area. (at least until I can afford more)
My money went where it counts most. Lights, pump and plumbing and protein skimmer. Though I did do some DIY cheating with my sump.
As you can see in the first picture above there is some cyano and HA. <sigh> I need better powerheads for sure (next on my list) I have 4 modded MJ1200s from my old set up and they just don't cut it. I'm getting Hydor Koralia Mag 6's next month if all goes well. In the meantime I'm dealing with the algae.
1st I killed the cyano. Got the worst of the long HA off the rocks and started bio pellet and microbacter7 treatments as well as vodka. It's working great and the HA is mostly on the ruin that's left. I am not sure what exactly caused the HA outbreak but I'm thinking it was a combo of things. The tank is still new and cycling, adding a lot of things in the tank at once (6 coral frags and several fish), and possibly (just possibly) bio balls and at the time of the outbreak I was using my old Sea Clone skimmer that was just not doing a good job. I now have a terrific Reef Octopus that started sucking out the gunk in 8 hours after set up. Just amazing! Don't skimp on the skimmer!!!!
About the sump system:
It's a DIY 30g glass tank (I couldn't fit a larger one through the doors), Bio pellet reactor, RO cone skimmer 150, a refugium section (not all set up yet) and a media comparment. That last one was the most fun for me
I created a riser of 1x4 wood that is clear coated several times and purchased a 5g Lowes bucket and 2 lids to make this. The bucket fits perfectly on the riser. I drilled hundreds of holes in the bottom of the bucket and added a bunch of bio balls. Then cut the edge of one of the lids and placed inside of the bucket about 5" from the top and sealed it with silicone. It is used as a rim for the media tray. The tray is made out of the rest of that lid. Yes, many, many more holes drilled on this tray. Put the tray in place and added the media. Drilled a hole the size of my piping for the water drain from the tank and added the plumbing fixtures to it. The lids fit so tight on these buckets there is no worry of it popping off.Finished stand and canopy.
It's going to be a while before I have several corals growing. When they do, I'll add more pictures. Thanks for reading my long tank story
