Ashburn's Frugal 55g

ashburn2k

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So I started doing reef after seeing a giant reef display at a east coast LFS, and from that point on, I went salty from freshwater and there's no returning since then ( and that was 15 years ago )

I've pretty much had tanks from 20g to 120g ( not reef ready ). and after a tank crash in the office ( i was away for a 3 week trip in tibet, my co-worker forgot to add water to my top off reservoir ) I pretty much got depressed and stayed away for a while.

so fast forward 10 years, and a wife later, I wanted to start a tank again, but the wife knows how expensive it is, she just veto the idea, so I told her that I can keep the cost to minimal or free, with that, I began to look for free tanks on Craigslist and a long time friend pointed me to here and joining the BAR community and boy I was so happy that I found you guys. so fast foward a year later, I have my 55g long with customized hood and diy lights, 30g long sump and mostly free or cheap. I will get to my frugal gears soon.

here's the oveall shot of my tank ( im going to add the photo on iPhone through tapatalk, somehow the desktop site wont let me add photos )

Hardware:

  • Tank : 55g glass reef ready [ from boun11 -> travis ]
  • Sump: 30g long glass [ from xcaret ]
  • Rock + sand [ craigslist free ]
  • Hood [ craigslist free wood + diy ]
  • Light: 4x30w LED Flood Light, 5x10w SMD LED [ used 2 from my old terrarium and got 2 from amazon reward + aliexpress for the LED chip ]
  • Skimmer: EuroReef RS80 [ from xcaret]
  • Return pump: Jebao DCS-9000 [ amazon reward points ]
  • Wavemaker: Jebao PP-20 [ amazon reward points ]
  • diy ATO with TOM lifter pump [ amazon reward points for TOM, and aliexpress for the float switch ]
  • 20g bucket with RO/DI reservoir, with shutoff valve once water is full ( ATO gets water from here, so I never have to worry about filling it up ) [ from Cymen ]
  • 15g salt mix bucket [ ericflynnster ]

Corals:

  • green palys [ spurgeon.eric ]
  • Blue Clues Zoa
  • Rasta Zoa
  • Alien eyes BPE Zoa
  • Blue Tubs Zoa
  • Indonesian toadstool
  • Rose BTA [ Newjack ] [ committed suicide in my circulation pump after a tank move ]
  • Rose BTA [ Zach S ]
  • Green Leather toadstool [ Zach S ]
  • Palau Nephthea [ RandyC ]
  • Vamp in Drag [ RandyC ]
  • Mohawk [ RandyC ]
  • Coco's Pink Paly
  • Blue Clues Zoa

Live stocks:

  • Single OC clown [ boun11 ]

In the beginning before there were sand ( cycle ) and never get that point of sale powerhead, it's cheap but it breaks faster than you can image ( returned to amazon )

2c8dbe1d84673dac25e787117df51dd9.jpg


And the a lot of LRs/sands later

038cc0f20c011a726d14e2836b5b30ef.jpg


After lights change

520ac93cc465762cd561ca88cd0e53fa.jpg

and once again, thanks goes to those who gave out free frags and equipment !! without you, I wont have a tank this nice today.
 
Coming from a 120g, i know that i want to keep a smaller tank this time around.

I will add more photo later with my other setup. and just got a smaller 12g ( or 8? it's 24x12x8) shallow frag tank.
 
I've updated my post with sources for my tank, so you can see 'free' tank does happen if you work for it. and which shows how awesome this club is.
 
New Additions

  • Palau Nephthea [ RandyC ]
  • Vamp in Drag [ RandyC ]
  • Mohawk [ RandyC ]
 
frag in sump was a pretty bad idea and since then I'm having some GHA growing on the frag plugs. now moving the plugs to the frag tank and hopefully to fight this GHA out with proper treatments.
 
empty frags are out of tank. i've grouped those infested with GHA in a group for a target attack. luckily no GHA on rocks so far, just frags.
 
Shrimp is in the frag tank and tang is in the DT. That tang wasn’t well treated in his last tank, not sure what happened to his tail fin. He was like this when I got him.
 
Ok this tank is going to be upgraded to a 90g reef ready. Water testing the new tank now.
 
frag in sump was a pretty bad idea and since then I'm having some GHA growing on the frag plugs. now moving the plugs to the frag tank and hopefully to fight this GHA out with proper treatments.
I recently tried this as well. I have a algae reactor that grows GHA incredibly well. I have tons of par (I use an MQ510) in my display with (knock on wood) no GHA. I put 25 frags in my sump with an AI 16HD and I created a GHA science project in my sump. I've since abandoned that idea.
 

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