RodeoClownfish
Community Member
Howdy y'all! RodeoClownfish here. Just got my tank started this past weekend and decided to join R2R. Really looking forward to contributing and learning here. Regrettably I didn't take near as many pictures as I would have liked while getting started, but here's my build in a nutshell.
Before we start, a couple disclaimers:
- I'm new here. I welcome feedback of all kinds, but don't be rude.
- This is my first saltwater tank. I've kept freshwater systems in the past, but was looking for a challenge. I've always admired marine tanks, and after a year of watching countless youtube videos and lurking on R2R I decided to start this tank.
- My plan is to make this a FOWLR tank for the first year so I can get my bearings before starting with corals or inverts. I figure if I need to dose copper or Prazi in the event that one of my fish is sick, it's much easier to do in a FOWLR tank than a full blown reef tank.
- I farm for a living, and by nature farmers have to be resourceful and use whatever they have on hand to solve a problem. You'll see why I'm saying this later on in the threat when I talk about getting RO/DI water.
So...I bought a 75 gallon tank and stand used off of Facebook over a year ago with the intention of starting a reef tank. I don't want to admit it, but it was an impulse buy for sure. Then I watched the videos. Hours and hours and HOURS of them. I started reading on R2R and started to realize how difficult and expensive this hobby can be, and thought "what did I get myself into?"
Analysis paralysis set in, and unfortunately the tank languished for a year in storage before I finally decided to bite the bullet and get it off the ground. Fortunately, it came with just about everything needed to get started - two Hydor circ pumps, a eShopps sump, hang on back overflow, IceCap protein skimmer, Sicce return pump, a fluval marine light, a glass lid, and the stand. Here it is set up in my office. I chose this spot because it's frequently traveled, but was far enough away from return vents and windows.
The next step was the rock and sand. I ran down to Lafayette to Aquarium World and picked up 70 pounds or so of purple reef saver rock, 40 pounds of CaribSea Arag-Alive sand, and some cycling products. I chose Brightwell QuickCycl and MicroBacter7 since I wanted a fishless cycle and MicroBacter Start, while effective, isn't compatible with the live sand. I traced out the size of the aquarium on some cardboard and began building my rock scape. Here's the final result before gluing in place.
I wanted plenty of places for fish to hide in case of aggression, but didn't want caves where they couldn't be seen, so I tried to build a scape that allowed them to hide in plain sight, so to speak. Should be good for inverts like shrimp and crabs too once I get there. Per the suggestion of the guys over at Aquarium World, they recommended I glue the rock pieces together using Coral Putty, a purple colored two part epoxy putty, and do so in the tank, piece by piece so I didn't crack the aquarium. That turned out to be an excellent suggestion. Here's the final result in the tank.
Mixing the saltwater was a bit of an adventure. I live in the boonies, so my house is on a well and the water is extremely hard. I happen to know a guy in town who owns a car wash with a very fancy, high cap RO/DI system for making the water he uses in the wash. After talking to him and verifying it made 0 TDS water, I asked if I could buy some water off him. I think he was surprised when I showed up with 50 foot of vinyl hose, a Sicce pump, and a 65 gallon poly chemical tank (bought new, only used for the water transfer) in the bed of my pickup. I wish I'd taken pictures, but this worked out better than I thought. I'd run the pump to his main RO holding tank, pump 55 gallons into the tank in my truck, run it home, back up to my office window, and run the water into a 45 gallon Brute trash bin to mix the water. I used instant ocean salt as it was the cheaper option and for now, this will be a FOWLR tank until I get my bearings, in which case IO is sufficient. I ended up mixing two batches of saltwater, each batch preheated to 78 degrees F and using a refractometer to verify it was mixed to 35ppt. I dumped in the sand, moved it around a bit, and filled the tank and sump with the fresh saltwater. It took some tweaking to get the U tube on the overflow started and also figure out the exact volume needed to fill the sump but not over/under fill, but I eventually got it down. The first few hours of the tank running were a bit nerve-racking because I figured if there were going to be any leaks, I'd see them in the first 24 hours of the tank running. Fortunately *crossing fingers* there are no leaks.
I don't have any pictures of the tank with the rock, sand and water in it for some reason but I did take a video of it before covering the tank in cardboard and starting the cycle. My office gets tons of natural light and I didn't want algae taking over during the cycle. I dosed the QuickCycl until ammonia read 3ppm and started adding MicroBacter7 per the dosing instructions. I'll continue this for 7 days total before reading ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels again. My hope is after 7 days the tank will be cycled and I can start adding fish. Current parameters are as follows:
1.025 SG
78 degrees F
8.4pH
9.5 DkH
NO3 at 3.0ppm (currently cycling)
PO4 at 0.2ppm (not sure why, could it be in the salt?)
Ca 400ppm
Mg 1300ppm
I'll check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate after 5 days of cycling to see if they've dropped or even register. Here's the tank covered in cardboard to keep algae growth down while it cycles. We will see if this is effective or not.
Lastly, here's a quick video of the tank before I covered it with cardboard. I did spill a little bit, but as we say in agriculture, "It'll buff!" Stay tuned and hope you enjoyed reading.
Before we start, a couple disclaimers:
- I'm new here. I welcome feedback of all kinds, but don't be rude.
- This is my first saltwater tank. I've kept freshwater systems in the past, but was looking for a challenge. I've always admired marine tanks, and after a year of watching countless youtube videos and lurking on R2R I decided to start this tank.
- My plan is to make this a FOWLR tank for the first year so I can get my bearings before starting with corals or inverts. I figure if I need to dose copper or Prazi in the event that one of my fish is sick, it's much easier to do in a FOWLR tank than a full blown reef tank.
- I farm for a living, and by nature farmers have to be resourceful and use whatever they have on hand to solve a problem. You'll see why I'm saying this later on in the threat when I talk about getting RO/DI water.
So...I bought a 75 gallon tank and stand used off of Facebook over a year ago with the intention of starting a reef tank. I don't want to admit it, but it was an impulse buy for sure. Then I watched the videos. Hours and hours and HOURS of them. I started reading on R2R and started to realize how difficult and expensive this hobby can be, and thought "what did I get myself into?"
Analysis paralysis set in, and unfortunately the tank languished for a year in storage before I finally decided to bite the bullet and get it off the ground. Fortunately, it came with just about everything needed to get started - two Hydor circ pumps, a eShopps sump, hang on back overflow, IceCap protein skimmer, Sicce return pump, a fluval marine light, a glass lid, and the stand. Here it is set up in my office. I chose this spot because it's frequently traveled, but was far enough away from return vents and windows.
The next step was the rock and sand. I ran down to Lafayette to Aquarium World and picked up 70 pounds or so of purple reef saver rock, 40 pounds of CaribSea Arag-Alive sand, and some cycling products. I chose Brightwell QuickCycl and MicroBacter7 since I wanted a fishless cycle and MicroBacter Start, while effective, isn't compatible with the live sand. I traced out the size of the aquarium on some cardboard and began building my rock scape. Here's the final result before gluing in place.
I wanted plenty of places for fish to hide in case of aggression, but didn't want caves where they couldn't be seen, so I tried to build a scape that allowed them to hide in plain sight, so to speak. Should be good for inverts like shrimp and crabs too once I get there. Per the suggestion of the guys over at Aquarium World, they recommended I glue the rock pieces together using Coral Putty, a purple colored two part epoxy putty, and do so in the tank, piece by piece so I didn't crack the aquarium. That turned out to be an excellent suggestion. Here's the final result in the tank.
Mixing the saltwater was a bit of an adventure. I live in the boonies, so my house is on a well and the water is extremely hard. I happen to know a guy in town who owns a car wash with a very fancy, high cap RO/DI system for making the water he uses in the wash. After talking to him and verifying it made 0 TDS water, I asked if I could buy some water off him. I think he was surprised when I showed up with 50 foot of vinyl hose, a Sicce pump, and a 65 gallon poly chemical tank (bought new, only used for the water transfer) in the bed of my pickup. I wish I'd taken pictures, but this worked out better than I thought. I'd run the pump to his main RO holding tank, pump 55 gallons into the tank in my truck, run it home, back up to my office window, and run the water into a 45 gallon Brute trash bin to mix the water. I used instant ocean salt as it was the cheaper option and for now, this will be a FOWLR tank until I get my bearings, in which case IO is sufficient. I ended up mixing two batches of saltwater, each batch preheated to 78 degrees F and using a refractometer to verify it was mixed to 35ppt. I dumped in the sand, moved it around a bit, and filled the tank and sump with the fresh saltwater. It took some tweaking to get the U tube on the overflow started and also figure out the exact volume needed to fill the sump but not over/under fill, but I eventually got it down. The first few hours of the tank running were a bit nerve-racking because I figured if there were going to be any leaks, I'd see them in the first 24 hours of the tank running. Fortunately *crossing fingers* there are no leaks.
I don't have any pictures of the tank with the rock, sand and water in it for some reason but I did take a video of it before covering the tank in cardboard and starting the cycle. My office gets tons of natural light and I didn't want algae taking over during the cycle. I dosed the QuickCycl until ammonia read 3ppm and started adding MicroBacter7 per the dosing instructions. I'll continue this for 7 days total before reading ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels again. My hope is after 7 days the tank will be cycled and I can start adding fish. Current parameters are as follows:
1.025 SG
78 degrees F
8.4pH
9.5 DkH
NO3 at 3.0ppm (currently cycling)
PO4 at 0.2ppm (not sure why, could it be in the salt?)
Ca 400ppm
Mg 1300ppm
I'll check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate after 5 days of cycling to see if they've dropped or even register. Here's the tank covered in cardboard to keep algae growth down while it cycles. We will see if this is effective or not.
Lastly, here's a quick video of the tank before I covered it with cardboard. I did spill a little bit, but as we say in agriculture, "It'll buff!" Stay tuned and hope you enjoyed reading.
