ndrwater
2500 Club Member
Bigger is better. Always... Right?
Little back story, then on to the pix.
I have a 240 already. SPS dominated, and doing well. The tank has been up and running for about 3 years. I ALSO have a 60. More or less my wife's tank. It is an LPS tank, and I hate it.
The 60 was more or less an impulse buy that I got from a local reefer who was moving. My wife likes the movement of Euphillia, so why not..
Set the 60 up and it has been going for almost 2 years. I built the skins for both tanks to kindof tie the room together.
The 60 has developed a nasty case of Aptasia, and part of the major reason I hate that tanks so much.
There was a time when that tank actually was doing really well. Few really big acan colonies, some Torches, Hammers etc. Then the Aptasia showed up one day so I (mistakenly) added a couple peppermint shrimp to take care of the problem. Well, they did... And got the Acans, all of em, Zoas gone too. Torch... Yup. Gone too. The only real nice Coral they didn't touch was my branching hammer.
I finally got the stupid shrimps out and fed them to my Harlequin Tusk in the 240. I thought about setting them on fire, but I wanted them gone forever and not have the fire department show up.. Would have been a HUGE bonfire.. I hated them that much.
So...
A LFS not far from me was blowing out a few used tanks and they had a 120 that i felt would replace the 60 nicely and give me an opportunity to reboot and rid myself of Aptasia hopefully once and for all.
Got the tank, for cheap and brought it home. Everything in thought was great until my wife pointed an accusing finger at one corner of the tank. "What is THAT?!?"
I had cracked the tank while bringing it home. The crack wasn't there when picked it up.
Fortunately, I have friends in the industry, and was able to get the tank repaired. New Starfire front panel, couple holes drilled in then back for returns. Only cost me double for what I paid for the tank in the 1st place. ... So much for cheap..
I got some dry rock from a great guy in my local club that he had used in one of his setups previously. I decided to go all mideval on this rock to hopefully prevent the dreaded Aptasia and to also eliminate the possibility of any major unwanted pests coming in on any live rock I might add to help get things going. So..
A 20 minute acid bath followed by a good scrub and rinse, I was ready to soak for a few days in some RODI.
Testing Phosphate 3 days into the fresh water soak have a result of .25 ppm. Not horrible, but not good either. A water change and a few more days got me to a manageable .03.
This time, the water change was done with fresh salt water. Added an ammonia source
Added a powerheads and a heater and set to cook.
I am not going to go off half cocked with the 120 like I did the 60. Plan is to cycle the rock in the barrel and do a one day swap when all is good in the Ammonia/Nitrite department. None of the rock or sand from the existing tank will go into the 120.
Since I have been into this project for a few weeks now, I have also picked up a few new toys that will go into the 120
These are NIB G3 Pro's. Got a better price than I would have in G4's, plus I already have 5 G3's in the 240. Going to run the same program via my Reeflink to keep thing simple for my simple brain.
Now just going to wait.... Hopefully have it swapped out in about a month. Besides... An empty tank in the garage is no fun...
Little back story, then on to the pix.
I have a 240 already. SPS dominated, and doing well. The tank has been up and running for about 3 years. I ALSO have a 60. More or less my wife's tank. It is an LPS tank, and I hate it.
The 60 was more or less an impulse buy that I got from a local reefer who was moving. My wife likes the movement of Euphillia, so why not..
Set the 60 up and it has been going for almost 2 years. I built the skins for both tanks to kindof tie the room together.
The 60 has developed a nasty case of Aptasia, and part of the major reason I hate that tanks so much.
There was a time when that tank actually was doing really well. Few really big acan colonies, some Torches, Hammers etc. Then the Aptasia showed up one day so I (mistakenly) added a couple peppermint shrimp to take care of the problem. Well, they did... And got the Acans, all of em, Zoas gone too. Torch... Yup. Gone too. The only real nice Coral they didn't touch was my branching hammer.
I finally got the stupid shrimps out and fed them to my Harlequin Tusk in the 240. I thought about setting them on fire, but I wanted them gone forever and not have the fire department show up.. Would have been a HUGE bonfire.. I hated them that much.
So...
A LFS not far from me was blowing out a few used tanks and they had a 120 that i felt would replace the 60 nicely and give me an opportunity to reboot and rid myself of Aptasia hopefully once and for all.
Got the tank, for cheap and brought it home. Everything in thought was great until my wife pointed an accusing finger at one corner of the tank. "What is THAT?!?"
I had cracked the tank while bringing it home. The crack wasn't there when picked it up.
Fortunately, I have friends in the industry, and was able to get the tank repaired. New Starfire front panel, couple holes drilled in then back for returns. Only cost me double for what I paid for the tank in the 1st place. ... So much for cheap..
I got some dry rock from a great guy in my local club that he had used in one of his setups previously. I decided to go all mideval on this rock to hopefully prevent the dreaded Aptasia and to also eliminate the possibility of any major unwanted pests coming in on any live rock I might add to help get things going. So..
A 20 minute acid bath followed by a good scrub and rinse, I was ready to soak for a few days in some RODI.
Testing Phosphate 3 days into the fresh water soak have a result of .25 ppm. Not horrible, but not good either. A water change and a few more days got me to a manageable .03.
This time, the water change was done with fresh salt water. Added an ammonia source
Added a powerheads and a heater and set to cook.
I am not going to go off half cocked with the 120 like I did the 60. Plan is to cycle the rock in the barrel and do a one day swap when all is good in the Ammonia/Nitrite department. None of the rock or sand from the existing tank will go into the 120.
Since I have been into this project for a few weeks now, I have also picked up a few new toys that will go into the 120
These are NIB G3 Pro's. Got a better price than I would have in G4's, plus I already have 5 G3's in the 240. Going to run the same program via my Reeflink to keep thing simple for my simple brain.
Now just going to wait.... Hopefully have it swapped out in about a month. Besides... An empty tank in the garage is no fun...
