60G Octagon

JAS927

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I’ve been keeping aquariums since childhood, starting as many do with a beloved pet goldfish; at the age of 4 with a 15G and one $0.03 feeder fish that lived nearly 8 years. Her name was “Goldy.”

Fast forward to my teens working in fish departments at various large name pet stores to be able to afford my cichlid and reef-keeping addiction hobby.

In my adult years I continued keeping my aquariums even though moving thousands of miles around Ontario for work - juggling moving hundreds of gallons of water and previous aquatic life.

During the big nasty event that recently took place to all of us, we purchased a homemade 60G octagon paludarium tank with someone’s handmade island that was supposed to hold plants - that ended up being nothing but a waste of $450 when it ended up arriving at the door with rusted, seized pumps, a burned out aquarium heater and a lousy Amazon light that wouldn’t keep anything thriving. We quickly decided this tank should be filled with water and it ended up housing a whole lot of freshwater shrimp until a new set up was recently purchased just for them. The shrimp tank was drained, silicone removed, and resealed before the thinking began. What to house in this unique tank?

It has been a few years since we’ve had a saltwater setup on the go. I vowed to stick with freshwater since life is just so busy between work and raising a family of 5 children. Cichlids are forgiving and water changes and maintenance is simple. However, an octagon that will allow for 360° viewing would just look so nice with a reef in it right?

Well, this former paludarium, turned shrimp tank will now be a reef. It will need to stay hidden in a corner with couch and cabinets blocking little people from going near it for the time being.

Updated and current pics to follow! There have been a few happy fish swimming around for a while and it’s ready to order something to get it started! (we don’t have any LFSs up here that sell anything saltwater unfortunately.)


Rock cycled in advance IMG_6650.jpeg
Adding some water
IMG_6655.jpeg
Waking up a ragdoll who knows he isn’t allowed to sleep up there…and the tank continues to cycle
IMG_6681.jpeg
Fully cycled but still being set up…lighting not yet incorporated at this point
IMG_6736.jpeg

More to follow when I have time! IMG_6792.jpeg
 
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jamie1210

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what a unique tank! I've never heard of an octagon reef before (hexagons, yes), but never a tank with 8 sides :) Looking forward to seeing how you scape this project
 
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JAS927

JAS927

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Added a Duncan and some metallic green ‘shrooms
It’s been about 12 hours at this point since they were added. Both recovering nicely and starting to open up a little.
 

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JAS927

JAS927

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Acid rain BTA added. He’s hiding in an empty shell currently But such a bright neon orange with green towards his foot! Love him!
 

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JAS927

JAS927

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such a cool tank! diggin all the caves in your scape
Thank you! I really though this was a cool reef idea but I found that the viewing area was so small and if you look between two glass panels it distorted everything so I’ll be swapping everything over to a new tank once it gets here! Maybe turn this into something with only fish?
 
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Clown is quite content guarding its new rainbow BTA instead of a nylon bag. Tank is doing fantastic, as is everything in it! It certainly helped having live rock and critters from a 10+ year tank to start with I think! Wasn’t nearly as nice looking as the load of dry rock we got from someone locally but it can hide among the nice stuff lol The dry rock cycled in a bin for a full week before it went in also.

I’ve been having some problems with nitrates this week. As in, zero nitrates and higher phosphates (0.2 as per Hanna). Everything else is in check.

The new tank was supposed to arrive last week but there was a delay and so it’s coming in tomorrow! Woohoo!!
 

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