So this might sound strange but I don’t actually have the tank yet. Actually, I have two tanks, but not “the” tank. I’m not sure what date I should set for the start of this build. I could go with June when I first plunked my dry rock into a bin of saltwater. Also August when I set up my conditioning tank. September I put a pair of clowns in there followed a few weeks later by a pistol shrimp goby pair. The most recent benchmark, and the second non-tank tank, is the 29 gallon that now houses the live rock I started with and 10lbs of gulf live rock. Anyway, pics or it didn’t happen right?
Cart-before-the-horse Waterbox build
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The first real project I completed was a gravity mixing station. Coming from a nano where everything was in buckets, this has been a huge luxury. To the right is a pipe plumbed near the top to flow into the sink if my shutoff valve eats it. The low pipe is for filling 5 gallon buckets.
The other day I received the very disappointing news that my Waterbox Marine X 90.3 was delayed until late November. Despite that, I kept the ball rolling by getting my lighting nailed down. I managed to score a good deal here on R2R on a Giesemann Infinity. This thing is built like a brick outhouse and is super bright. Can’t wait to see it mounted over some water!
For sure. Definitely gives me the time to make sure the biology is very stable before I even get the lights hooked up. I’ve been taking the multi pronged approach to that with natural sea water from Maine when I can get it, the live rock from the gulf, and some microbacter7 once and a while for good measure.
I suppose I should spend a second talking about my reefing philosophy right or wrong. First off, I’m not really a gear head. I want things to look nice but I don’t need gear for the sake of another phone app. I don’t know if this makes me an old school reefer, but I value simplicity over almost everything else. I chose halide/t5 lights because they work without the messing around with spectrum. I’ve made the controversial decision to go skimmerless. I constantly question the advice to use a protein skimmer to remove proteins (aka amino acids) and then dose amino acids (aka proteins). I’ve had success with refugiums and water changes in the past so we’ll see if I can keep it up with a larger system. I’m not really a controller guy so I don’t see an apex in my future. I figure the fewer things I have, the less there is to break. I’m also pretty budget minded, so there’s that too.
Another controversial choice. I plan to only do a conditioning/observation quarantine unless absolutely necessary. I’ve set up a small tank with live rock, low light, and sand. I’ve started culturing white worms and I regularly feed ground up live clams from the grocery store. When it comes to feeding I follow some of @Paul B ‘s advice, feeding foods with ‘da guts’. I have the ability to do medicated quarantine for fish but not to have a whole setup for invert and coral quarantine with lighting and filtration sufficient to keep the corals thriving for months. If I’m not willing to go all the way and practice ich eradication, I would rather manage it as best I can. The first pic is my qt followed by my worm setup.
McCarrick
Active Member
Allooks great! Enjoying all the updates even though theres no "tank". I am with you on the controllers, things break and can make things go backwards quickly. I hope to have the space for a water mixer like you've got set up!
The tank arrived just before thanksgiving weekend and we set it up over the next few days. Seeing as I’ve been cycling the rock for 6 months and I added ocean live rock during that time, I was able to add the clownfish and goby pistol shrimp pretty much right away. Oh and I cycled the sand, and added microbacter 7 too. Everything has been going well tank wise. One of the doors arrived dented and they sent a new one right away. On a low note, my wife splurged and bought me a Red Sea reefwave25 for Xmas. Unfortunately the thing sounded like a Mack truck in the tank. I’ve returned it to BRS and they’re going to see if it’s defective or just wicked loud. Has me trying to reevaluate flow in this tank. Noise is a really high priority for me. Anyway, here are some pics. Note: I know some people would think my sandbed is too deep. I know how to maintain it so it’s not a concern for me.
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