sylvius
Active Member
I broke down my last tank (a cool peninsula 125) in 2007 before a long distance move. The youngest child’s pet hamster died of old age and she thought fish would be great new pets and is old enough to help with the process. That’s pretty much all I needed to hear. We started to research together and visited an LFS (I tried to use google reviews to find a reputable place). Long story short, there was a rimless 75 on a stand with a nice trigger 26 sump and some add ons and we worked out a deal. Unclear whether it was new old stock or a ridiculously clean used tank but either way it fit the bill. The stand needs some fresh paint and end panels but I can do that. Some drama with the LFS made things unpleasant but got the tank home around Thanksgiving. Took advantage of black friday sales to get a bunch of things I needed including a lot of dry rock and the aquascaping began using marco cement. I’m pretty happy with how the aquascape turned out but would welcome comments. It took a couple of weeks to get it all up and running with some ammonia and seed bacteria (I certainly didn’t believe the marketing on the bacteria bottle promising that one could add fish instantly, but I did think it would go a little faster...started with 2 ppm ammonia and 3+ weeks later down to between 0.5 and 1 ppm). Now we are impatiently waiting for the cycling to finish so we can add some fish. Only big mistake I made so far is neglecting to rinse the sand before adding so was a good 3 days of clouds and frequently rinsing sump filters.
Equipment list so far includes:
75 gal rimless with center overflow (only bummer is single 1” drain and 3/4” return, would have liked some redundancy)
Trigger sapphire 26 sump
Sicce xstream sdc
Sicce Syncra 6 return pump
Simplicity 120 skimmer
Marine IC light x2
Tunze osmolator
XP aqua marriage saver for RODI reservoir
14 gallon RODI reservoir (I travel a fair amount, or at least I did pre-COVID and hope to again soon and like the idea of being able to be away for a week or more without the RODI hooked up to minimize flood risk)
Since it’s been more than a decade since I have been playing with aquarium stuff the biggest changes seem to be the available automation and the approachability of lighting. I love being able to monitor pumps and temps remotely and am sure a controller is in my near-term future. Have been reading obsessively about profilux and apex. LED lighting seems so much easier than the expensive and very hot fixtures of the past. Really excited to dabble in corals which I never did before. My only reservation is that my favorite fish in the past was a really gorgeous lemon peel dwarf angel and by all accounts one wouldn’t be reef safe.
Planned stocking list:
Pair of ocellaris coming first (one regular, one ice storm), hopefully tank will be ready by this weekend
Yellow watchman goby and royal gramma hopefully done with quarantine and ready for pick up by late January. I can watch a goby sift sand all day.
Beyond those four not sure. Would like a Kole or white tail bristletooth tang but know the tank is marginal for that. Maybe a flame hawk and/or a reef safe wrasse. Maybe a smaller anthia. Green mandarin would be a dream someday if I could get pod culture going but wouldn’t consider it for a good year+. Not sure what else.
Once things are good and stable with a few fish time to start learning about and placing corals.
Equipment list so far includes:
75 gal rimless with center overflow (only bummer is single 1” drain and 3/4” return, would have liked some redundancy)
Trigger sapphire 26 sump
Sicce xstream sdc
Sicce Syncra 6 return pump
Simplicity 120 skimmer
Marine IC light x2
Tunze osmolator
XP aqua marriage saver for RODI reservoir
14 gallon RODI reservoir (I travel a fair amount, or at least I did pre-COVID and hope to again soon and like the idea of being able to be away for a week or more without the RODI hooked up to minimize flood risk)
Since it’s been more than a decade since I have been playing with aquarium stuff the biggest changes seem to be the available automation and the approachability of lighting. I love being able to monitor pumps and temps remotely and am sure a controller is in my near-term future. Have been reading obsessively about profilux and apex. LED lighting seems so much easier than the expensive and very hot fixtures of the past. Really excited to dabble in corals which I never did before. My only reservation is that my favorite fish in the past was a really gorgeous lemon peel dwarf angel and by all accounts one wouldn’t be reef safe.
Planned stocking list:
Pair of ocellaris coming first (one regular, one ice storm), hopefully tank will be ready by this weekend
Yellow watchman goby and royal gramma hopefully done with quarantine and ready for pick up by late January. I can watch a goby sift sand all day.
Beyond those four not sure. Would like a Kole or white tail bristletooth tang but know the tank is marginal for that. Maybe a flame hawk and/or a reef safe wrasse. Maybe a smaller anthia. Green mandarin would be a dream someday if I could get pod culture going but wouldn’t consider it for a good year+. Not sure what else.
Once things are good and stable with a few fish time to start learning about and placing corals.
