The Journey: JSG3’s Saltwater Tank

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Hello and welcome to The Journey: JSG3's Saltwater Tank. This is going to be a compilation of where my journey in the hobby goes. I start out with a 56G Column Tank and move forward from there. There will be a lot of errors, failures, and hopefully successes as well. I will ask questions. Feel free to answer and offer any advise that you have (It will be greatly appreciated). Thank you again for stopping by and reading. I hope you all enjoy and look forward to interacting with you.

Most Recent Tank Update:

9/16/20

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INDEX

56 Gallon Column Tank
Aug '19-Oct '19

120 Gallon Column Tank
Nov '19-Feb '20

65 Gallon Column Tank
Feb '20-July '20

40 Gallon Breeder Tank
Aug '20-Present
 
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Good luck with your 1st tank! How is your filtration going to be set up though? Is there space underneath you can plumb into?
 
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Hello all,

Just wanted to make a progress thread for my tank that I am starting. This will be my first saltwater tank and first tank overall. Looking to start as a fish only at the start and potentially move into corals later if I can sustain.

Why I chose my tank size?

I have a very specific place that I needed to put the tank if my wife was going to let me get it. The area is in a built-in book shelf in our basement. The opening is 31 inches wide and about 36 inches tall.

Therefore if I was going to maximize the space available, I had to go 29 gallon or 56 gallon. Each tank is 30 inches wide. I decided to go with the 56 gallon as it gives more volume for mistakes as a beginner and more fish in the tank.



Bought the tank used and now had to figure out amount of rock I needed and how I was going to filter.

As I found out after buying the tank, it has a sticker on it that says tempered glass, do not drill. Therefore I have two options, hang on back overflow to sump and canister filter. Space behind is a utility room and the plan is to house the filter setup behind the built-ins. However, I don’t want to cut or drill the back wall, which has an 8 electrical outlet setup in the middle and if I end up moving the tank (hopefully once I get approval to go bigger and put another tank elsewhere.

Reading a lot of things before deciding to jump in I knew the best option is a sump. However, I saw a lot of people talk about the ease of setting up a tank with a canister filter, especially if you want to save time and some money.

In the end I decided to go with an overflow box, connected to a sump mainly because it is where I can put all my stuff, pump, filter, skimmer, heater, and give a little more room in the tank, especially with needing a couple things hanging on the baxk already. Went with Eshopps due to reviews and talk about lack of failure of syphon, even after power outages, which definitely is a big concern with a HOB overflow.

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Size might be a little overkill, but I wanted to be sure to get enough flow and even have this past this tank if I ever have to go non-drilled again.
 
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Good luck with your 1st tank! How is your filtration going to be set up though? Is there space underneath you can plumb into?

Limited underneath per say, but a utility room behind with appliances and some shelving for storage. Used some of the shelves right behind to hold everything.
 
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So after picking out my overflow box, I had to pick what I wanted to make my sump out of. Was in between a 40G Breeder and 20L. With not a ton of space on the shelving behind, I decided on the 20L. With so many options for acrylic inserts online to make different sections of the sump, I went with glass baffles attached with the aquarium safe silicone. I'll have more pictures of the sump later when it has water in it.

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I was caught in another bind trying to figure out what I wanted to use for plumbing. At first I thought I was going to use some flexible pic for every connection. I thought it would be easier to feed through the gaps that I would have in the shelving and have to make less cuts of pvc and walls/built-ins.

After trying a few things with the "flexible" tubing, I decided that it wasn't flexible enough. It would kink when feeding through the holes and changing direction. So I went full PVC. See some of the pipes below.

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I decided to go with plenty of live rock. I had just a few pieces at first but was able to score some pukani and also Marcos style that I wanted to blend together. I originally had about 70 pounds in the tank but reduced it to nearly 50.

As for the aquascape, it took me a while to decide in one. I wanted something with gaps, caves, an area of open sand, and almost two shelves coming together in the middle.

Some of my Tries:

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The last one was pretty close to what I wanted but still had some structural problems and it also was touching the glass in a coupe spots.
 
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At first it was touch and go with the Jebao DC 6000 pump and the overflow box trying to get it to match intake and output. Couldn’t even put it on the first setting without it running out of water in the last compartment. Didn’t seem like I could get enough flow from the box. Took a few tries to get the air out of the u-tubes and the water is flowing extremely well now. From there I let the water flow into the sump and marked on and off. Now able to run it on every setting, even in max power with water and inch or two above the pump and it keeps up well. Decided to keep it in the middle.

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Last couple things I need to do are drill a hole in the return below the water to avoid syphon backflow. I have enough room in the sump for that though without drilling. I also need to get a filter sock so I can move the foam from there and get a protein skimmer. Trying to find a solid one that won’t break the bank.
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Here we are right now. Add my bacteria tomorrow and start cycling.

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Good flow right now from the return for oxygen exchange and my wave makers are on their way too.

Also setting up my qt tank tomorrow and planning fish so I can keep them out of the tank for a while when I’m cycling.

Any recommendations on lights and protein skimmers would be welcome.
 
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Also would like any insight on what I have done. Not that I can fix or change everything/anything but knowledge is power.
 
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I’ll try and update the equipment list as I add or subtract.

Thus far:

56 gallon tank
20 gallon long tank for sump with DIY cut glass for baffles (skimmer/refugium areas)
EShopps PF1200 HOB overflow
Jebao DC6000 return pump
Eheim Jager 150W Heater
Cut-to-size foam filter - mechanical filtration in sump
Generic reticulating return pipe

Inside tank:

Pukani and Marcos dry rock - 50/60 pounds
Sand - 2-3 inches all around
 
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Today was Dr. Tim’s day.

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Added the entire bottle, which was for 60 gallons. Have a little over 70 total so it should be good.

 
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Another day, another set of tests. Looks to be making progress. I have added the ammonium twice and it appears the bacteria is starting to take hold. Third day of ammonium is coming up and then we are officially over half way cycled if the results continue.

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Last day of ammonium tomorrow and then a few more tests to see if it is truly cycled according. Looking to grab a couple fish and put them in the QT tank tomorrow or Wednesday.
 
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Another day, another test. Today I decided to do some ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Results are promising as it seems like my bacteria is at least processing the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrite to nitrate. We shall see if it diminishes tomorrow.

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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