Good morning ya'll!
I'm "new" here, former lurker (for years it seems) who finally bit the bullet and joined officially.
Was big time into SH's about 13, 14 years ago. This was before there were loads of captive bred options like these days. H. barbouri was the most common WC species available local to me and they quickly stole my heart. Fast forward some many years and lost all my SH's in the post hurricane aftermath and quit the hobby with a broken heart. I did dabble in reefing, bettas, FW puffers, planted tanks, etc over the years until now. I'm finally ready to get going again.
I've decided to do this tank slow and simple with not too many bells and whistles. I have a habit of quickly over doing things and regretting it.
So I picked up a used 65 gallon, stand and canopy for $100 but decided I wanted new glass.
Ordered a new 65, cleaned up an did some minor repairs on the stand and canopy and got the new tank up on the stand in the living room.
Got my other goodies, mostly from Amazon and BRS, and gave the furkid lots of reasons to bark like mad at the "scary package bringers".
Starting details:
65 gal Megaflo Tank
Trigger Systems Crystal 30 sump
70ish lbs Fiji Pink sand by Caribsea
28lbs Liferock shapes
20lbs Liferock branch
2x Xport No3 bricks
MarinePure plate
Simplicity 120DC skimmer (rated for up to 120 gal, smaller than I wanted but fit my limited space)
Jebao CP 90 cross flow wave maker
Jebao DCS 7000 return (supposedly 1850 gph)
Relassy 300W LED light (supposedly 300W but I have no par meter and dont care enough to rent one as this will only be a low-medium light coral and macro seahorse tank and it fits in my canopy with good coverage *shrug*)
No, I dont have all the newest releases, no the equipment isnt all the most expensive brands. I don't believe in sinking more money than is necessary in this hobby on "names" and am using bargin brands I'm familiar with & used (and trusted) over the years. Sometimes it ends up being replaced with more expensive equipment if something fails but usually it's all pretty much the same in the end for me.
I'm using a 75 GPD RO/DI unit with IO Reef Crystals for salt.
I'll be honest. The liferock branch is a ***** to work with. Please excuse my french but this rock was more trouble than it was worth. Out of both boxes MOST pieces of branch and shapes came broken requiring more time for mending and unnecessary unsightly epoxy required on almost every piece.
Trying to make even a slightly appealing scape was a challenge. I miss the ease when base rock just "comes together" if you move the pieces around enough. lol
Meh....
Anywho. Took a break from the rock after much frustration with the cookie cutter straight as a board branch rock to set up the hubby a 225 gal FW planted Oscar/Aggressive tank which was much smoother.
When I came back to the branch rock I had come up with a concept that would require the bottom tip of the branches to be cut at specific angles so I could epoxy them together into an antler or bouquet shape that would be secured in a base of one of the life rock circles. Used 95% of the branch and had to pick up another circle from the LFS but finally got it done. Please excuse the hideous epoxy job, but at least this rock ain't budging. LOL
With a pair antler/bouquet islands and one double arch cave piece it was ready for the tank.
Time for the sump and plumbing. Very simple job since I had just plumbed another tank and had lots of spare parts and pipe and was going for veeeeery simple. Did have to order normal bulkheads though as the bulkhead/barbs it came with were not in the plans. Added a ball valve for a future reactor to maybe add (GFO/Carbon etc) just in case. But for now nothing is plumbed into the return.
From here I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed some more until 99% of the sand dust was out of the sand and put it in. Made up my new SW and turned her on!
That was 2 weeks ago. I added the recommended dose of Microbacter7 (which I'm not convinced actually does anything) and Dr Tim's liquid ammonia and am monitoring the cycle. Which.... isnt going any faster than non-bac cycling. As soon as nitrite starts to show I'm going to start ordering macros. I've cycled with them before with little if any ill effect but I want the ammonia to start being converted at least before I add macro this time.
Anyway, if you made it this far thank you for reading my journey to this point. Some future additions include chiller (after cycle is complete), reactor or two, sump light and macro additions and possible 2 part doser squeezed in there when and if needed much further down the road.
I'll post updated photos today or tomorrow but tbh everything still looks the same.
Thanks again!
I'm "new" here, former lurker (for years it seems) who finally bit the bullet and joined officially.
Was big time into SH's about 13, 14 years ago. This was before there were loads of captive bred options like these days. H. barbouri was the most common WC species available local to me and they quickly stole my heart. Fast forward some many years and lost all my SH's in the post hurricane aftermath and quit the hobby with a broken heart. I did dabble in reefing, bettas, FW puffers, planted tanks, etc over the years until now. I'm finally ready to get going again.
I've decided to do this tank slow and simple with not too many bells and whistles. I have a habit of quickly over doing things and regretting it.
So I picked up a used 65 gallon, stand and canopy for $100 but decided I wanted new glass.
Ordered a new 65, cleaned up an did some minor repairs on the stand and canopy and got the new tank up on the stand in the living room.
Got my other goodies, mostly from Amazon and BRS, and gave the furkid lots of reasons to bark like mad at the "scary package bringers".
Starting details:
65 gal Megaflo Tank
Trigger Systems Crystal 30 sump
70ish lbs Fiji Pink sand by Caribsea
28lbs Liferock shapes
20lbs Liferock branch
2x Xport No3 bricks
MarinePure plate
Simplicity 120DC skimmer (rated for up to 120 gal, smaller than I wanted but fit my limited space)
Jebao CP 90 cross flow wave maker
Jebao DCS 7000 return (supposedly 1850 gph)
Relassy 300W LED light (supposedly 300W but I have no par meter and dont care enough to rent one as this will only be a low-medium light coral and macro seahorse tank and it fits in my canopy with good coverage *shrug*)
No, I dont have all the newest releases, no the equipment isnt all the most expensive brands. I don't believe in sinking more money than is necessary in this hobby on "names" and am using bargin brands I'm familiar with & used (and trusted) over the years. Sometimes it ends up being replaced with more expensive equipment if something fails but usually it's all pretty much the same in the end for me.
I'm using a 75 GPD RO/DI unit with IO Reef Crystals for salt.
I'll be honest. The liferock branch is a ***** to work with. Please excuse my french but this rock was more trouble than it was worth. Out of both boxes MOST pieces of branch and shapes came broken requiring more time for mending and unnecessary unsightly epoxy required on almost every piece.
Trying to make even a slightly appealing scape was a challenge. I miss the ease when base rock just "comes together" if you move the pieces around enough. lol
Meh....
Anywho. Took a break from the rock after much frustration with the cookie cutter straight as a board branch rock to set up the hubby a 225 gal FW planted Oscar/Aggressive tank which was much smoother.
When I came back to the branch rock I had come up with a concept that would require the bottom tip of the branches to be cut at specific angles so I could epoxy them together into an antler or bouquet shape that would be secured in a base of one of the life rock circles. Used 95% of the branch and had to pick up another circle from the LFS but finally got it done. Please excuse the hideous epoxy job, but at least this rock ain't budging. LOL
With a pair antler/bouquet islands and one double arch cave piece it was ready for the tank.
Time for the sump and plumbing. Very simple job since I had just plumbed another tank and had lots of spare parts and pipe and was going for veeeeery simple. Did have to order normal bulkheads though as the bulkhead/barbs it came with were not in the plans. Added a ball valve for a future reactor to maybe add (GFO/Carbon etc) just in case. But for now nothing is plumbed into the return.
From here I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed some more until 99% of the sand dust was out of the sand and put it in. Made up my new SW and turned her on!
That was 2 weeks ago. I added the recommended dose of Microbacter7 (which I'm not convinced actually does anything) and Dr Tim's liquid ammonia and am monitoring the cycle. Which.... isnt going any faster than non-bac cycling. As soon as nitrite starts to show I'm going to start ordering macros. I've cycled with them before with little if any ill effect but I want the ammonia to start being converted at least before I add macro this time.
Anyway, if you made it this far thank you for reading my journey to this point. Some future additions include chiller (after cycle is complete), reactor or two, sump light and macro additions and possible 2 part doser squeezed in there when and if needed much further down the road.
I'll post updated photos today or tomorrow but tbh everything still looks the same.
Thanks again!
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