- Joined
- Mar 10, 2014
- Messages
- 898
- Reaction score
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Hello!
I've been mostly out of the hobby for a couple of years, and told myself when I decided to set up a new tank I would create a build thread to document progress and what not. I've had a few tanks (at my house) in the past my last being a 30gallon cube. I was also taking care of my boss's 150gal and a 65gallon at work, and coupling that with a small child and moving plans, I got kind of burnt out. Fortunately I was able to sell all of my corals to my boss, so they basically remained mine. Unfortunately while i was out of town, someone topped off the office tank with a few gallons of saltwater from a previous water change. All SPS dead... Both tanks went on cruise control for a couple of years.
Current FTS:
12/19/19
Current Fish list:
2xBlack Ice Clowns
Flame Hawkfish
Powder Blue Tang
Kole Tang
Mystery Wrasse
Orange Back Fairy Wrasse
Labouti Fairy Wrasse
Midas Blenny
Banggai Cardinal
File Fish
Magnificent Foxface
Equipment rundown:
Lights-T5 Hybrid w/3X Hydra 26HD
Sump-40 breeder with room for a huge refugium that I may turn into a frag area down the road
Skimmer-Eshopps Axium X-160
Return- DCP1200
Powerheads- 2x Gyre XF250
Controller-Apex Classic
ATO-Tunze
Avast Kalk Stirrer
Old Tanks:
24gallon aquapod circa 2013
30gallon cube circa 2014. this was a while before i broke it down, but I can't find any later pics. Unfortunate because my acros really started taking off shortly after...
Fast forward a couple of years...
My boss is trying to sell his house, so we go ahead and breakdown his tank. This had the unintended consequence of rekindling my passion for the hobby. The original plan was to set up something in the 180-300gallon range. I don't intend to be in our current house forever though, so I settled for something a little more manageable/movable. I started slowly collecting parts that I knew I would be able to use down the road, and planned on making it happen 6 months to a year down the road. That didn't happen. I happened to see a guy selling a complete 120gallon setup local for a price I couldn't refuse. That brings us up to last month. I had a bunch of rock curing already, so things moved fast.
Less words, more pictures...
June 1
In the Garage, and Cleanish
June 12
We have a sump!
June 14
Plumbing done
June 15
Aquascaping
July 9
Water!!
As I stated before, I had a bunch of cured live rock, and on top of that, I used a couple different bottles of bacteria. Fully cycled in nine days.
July 24
First fish! (excellent pic)
Aug 9
Still not sure exactly what this was, but it completely covered the tank in a matter of days.
August 17
Almost gone...
August 19
Completely Clean! Whatever it was, My powder blue tang loved it!
I also added a couple different euphyllias and zoas when I added the first fish to test the waters. I purposely chose ones that weren't doing so well in the tank at work to see how they fared. All are flourishing.
A week or so after that, I added an almost dead bonsai frag, and faded frag of CB maleficent(duplicate freebie) to see if they would live. I had PE on both within a couple days, and they are both really starting to look like they are supposed to. More to come...
I've been mostly out of the hobby for a couple of years, and told myself when I decided to set up a new tank I would create a build thread to document progress and what not. I've had a few tanks (at my house) in the past my last being a 30gallon cube. I was also taking care of my boss's 150gal and a 65gallon at work, and coupling that with a small child and moving plans, I got kind of burnt out. Fortunately I was able to sell all of my corals to my boss, so they basically remained mine. Unfortunately while i was out of town, someone topped off the office tank with a few gallons of saltwater from a previous water change. All SPS dead... Both tanks went on cruise control for a couple of years.
Current FTS:
12/19/19
Current Fish list:
2xBlack Ice Clowns
Flame Hawkfish
Powder Blue Tang
Kole Tang
Mystery Wrasse
Orange Back Fairy Wrasse
Labouti Fairy Wrasse
Midas Blenny
Banggai Cardinal
File Fish
Magnificent Foxface
Equipment rundown:
Lights-T5 Hybrid w/3X Hydra 26HD
Sump-40 breeder with room for a huge refugium that I may turn into a frag area down the road
Skimmer-Eshopps Axium X-160
Return- DCP1200
Powerheads- 2x Gyre XF250
Controller-Apex Classic
ATO-Tunze
Avast Kalk Stirrer
Old Tanks:
24gallon aquapod circa 2013
30gallon cube circa 2014. this was a while before i broke it down, but I can't find any later pics. Unfortunate because my acros really started taking off shortly after...
Fast forward a couple of years...
My boss is trying to sell his house, so we go ahead and breakdown his tank. This had the unintended consequence of rekindling my passion for the hobby. The original plan was to set up something in the 180-300gallon range. I don't intend to be in our current house forever though, so I settled for something a little more manageable/movable. I started slowly collecting parts that I knew I would be able to use down the road, and planned on making it happen 6 months to a year down the road. That didn't happen. I happened to see a guy selling a complete 120gallon setup local for a price I couldn't refuse. That brings us up to last month. I had a bunch of rock curing already, so things moved fast.
Less words, more pictures...
June 1
In the Garage, and Cleanish
June 12
We have a sump!
June 14
Plumbing done
June 15
Aquascaping
July 9
Water!!
As I stated before, I had a bunch of cured live rock, and on top of that, I used a couple different bottles of bacteria. Fully cycled in nine days.
July 24
First fish! (excellent pic)
Aug 9
Still not sure exactly what this was, but it completely covered the tank in a matter of days.
August 17
Almost gone...
August 19
Completely Clean! Whatever it was, My powder blue tang loved it!
I also added a couple different euphyllias and zoas when I added the first fish to test the waters. I purposely chose ones that weren't doing so well in the tank at work to see how they fared. All are flourishing.
A week or so after that, I added an almost dead bonsai frag, and faded frag of CB maleficent(duplicate freebie) to see if they would live. I had PE on both within a couple days, and they are both really starting to look like they are supposed to. More to come...
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