criticalencore
New Member
So I'm recently returning to the hobby after a rather long (about 4.5 year) break. I gave away and sold my live stuff on my out out but kept a lot of the equipment. I had cleaned most of it up and stuck in the corner of my old fish room and just did normal person life stuff. I would see if on occasion and miss my old tank... I never removed my old tank from the wall in my house which was a rather common reminder itself..
Recently a friend of mine picked up a setup from someone getting out of the hobby. After talking to him for awhile several times for several hours I knew I wouldn't be too far behind him. I recently find myself I'm a somewhat peaceful place in life and figured it was time to bring a tad bit of chaos back. Most of my old equipment is way oversized for my current build but I keep telling myself I'm only about a year from going back in full on with my big tank... so like with any addiction... this is my first taste that will lead to my full relapse...
So I decided on one of 40 breeders that I had already drilled. 1.5" overflow and .75" return. I had a stand already from when i used it when I had my octopus in it. I pulled 2 165w Mars leds fixtures ( I ran 8 on my big tank and kept 2 backups) and made a rack from some aluminum i had laying around. I am using my 20g sump I had baffled for it using a Tunze 5017 ATO. With my old tank I was happy with the jebao wp40, wp60 and the cp-150 despite some of the reviews I had seen and they still seem random hit/miss from online reviews. So for a return I had put a spare impeller i had into an old mag7 but it was too loud for my living room so I ordered a jebao dcp-2500 to use. I had some .75" locline for the return in the tank. I had a 300w hydrogen heater that I tested. I also set up my Apex with one of my eb8 for now. I recalibrated my ph probe and after checking it against my Hanna pH/EC/tds meter it seems right (i didn't see any expiration dates on my pinpoint calibration solutions but I opened 2 packs of 7.0 and 10.0 to double check).
For the rockwork I still have hundreds on lbs in my old tank but I picked through the rock I had bleached when i broke down that has been sitting on my back patio. From the pieces I picked I did a quick muratic acid soak then pressure washed it. After a couple days I soaked them in bleach for about 5 days before rinsing and bleaching again for about 5 days.. after it sat in the sun for about a week I soaked in vinegar for a couple days before pressure washing and letting sit in the sun again. Not sure if this was too much or the wrong approach on my part but I wanted a clean start. It has been cycling about 3 weeks now and I had put in 1 table shrimp and ghost fed mysis a couple times over this time after I dosed it for the first week with microbacter7.
Today when I was in town I stopped by one of the LFS and got out the cheapest i think I have ever walked in and out of a fish store. I spent $4 on 2 "bio sticks?" Media that they have in the lower section of one of their units sump that they said had been in there a long time. First time I have been in a fish store in probably 4 years.. I actually had stopped into our Petco first since I was in that area and it had made me sad :( with the LFS I went into, i was really impressed with their stock of coral and health/cleanliness of their fish tanks. I was wondering how much the cost difference from when I used to keep fish was and unfortunately is was what I expected...
Anyways I figured I'd make a thread to show any progress I have as I go.. I'll try to keep it pic heavy since that's all anyone prob wants to see anyways. I'm debating on what other equipment i am going to need. I have a pair of powerheads coming today after hours of reading reviews trying to figure out which ones would be enough/not too much.. thanks for reading
Recently a friend of mine picked up a setup from someone getting out of the hobby. After talking to him for awhile several times for several hours I knew I wouldn't be too far behind him. I recently find myself I'm a somewhat peaceful place in life and figured it was time to bring a tad bit of chaos back. Most of my old equipment is way oversized for my current build but I keep telling myself I'm only about a year from going back in full on with my big tank... so like with any addiction... this is my first taste that will lead to my full relapse...
So I decided on one of 40 breeders that I had already drilled. 1.5" overflow and .75" return. I had a stand already from when i used it when I had my octopus in it. I pulled 2 165w Mars leds fixtures ( I ran 8 on my big tank and kept 2 backups) and made a rack from some aluminum i had laying around. I am using my 20g sump I had baffled for it using a Tunze 5017 ATO. With my old tank I was happy with the jebao wp40, wp60 and the cp-150 despite some of the reviews I had seen and they still seem random hit/miss from online reviews. So for a return I had put a spare impeller i had into an old mag7 but it was too loud for my living room so I ordered a jebao dcp-2500 to use. I had some .75" locline for the return in the tank. I had a 300w hydrogen heater that I tested. I also set up my Apex with one of my eb8 for now. I recalibrated my ph probe and after checking it against my Hanna pH/EC/tds meter it seems right (i didn't see any expiration dates on my pinpoint calibration solutions but I opened 2 packs of 7.0 and 10.0 to double check).
For the rockwork I still have hundreds on lbs in my old tank but I picked through the rock I had bleached when i broke down that has been sitting on my back patio. From the pieces I picked I did a quick muratic acid soak then pressure washed it. After a couple days I soaked them in bleach for about 5 days before rinsing and bleaching again for about 5 days.. after it sat in the sun for about a week I soaked in vinegar for a couple days before pressure washing and letting sit in the sun again. Not sure if this was too much or the wrong approach on my part but I wanted a clean start. It has been cycling about 3 weeks now and I had put in 1 table shrimp and ghost fed mysis a couple times over this time after I dosed it for the first week with microbacter7.
Today when I was in town I stopped by one of the LFS and got out the cheapest i think I have ever walked in and out of a fish store. I spent $4 on 2 "bio sticks?" Media that they have in the lower section of one of their units sump that they said had been in there a long time. First time I have been in a fish store in probably 4 years.. I actually had stopped into our Petco first since I was in that area and it had made me sad :( with the LFS I went into, i was really impressed with their stock of coral and health/cleanliness of their fish tanks. I was wondering how much the cost difference from when I used to keep fish was and unfortunately is was what I expected...
Anyways I figured I'd make a thread to show any progress I have as I go.. I'll try to keep it pic heavy since that's all anyone prob wants to see anyways. I'm debating on what other equipment i am going to need. I have a pair of powerheads coming today after hours of reading reviews trying to figure out which ones would be enough/not too much.. thanks for reading
