Well….after 6+ years of “I’m done with this hobby” (for the third time), I made the stereotypical OCD mistake of “I just want to look around” at one of the fairly new LFS establishments in my area.
And while I was completely stunned by how incredibly expensive SW fish and corals have become since last I was in the hobby (and mean stunned…like crazy expensive), I still couldn’t resist the unholy temptation of just “one more time”…..oh geez what was I thinking???!!!
Thankfully, like any other overly obsessed and financially irresponsible reefer, I still own an inordinate amount of equipment from years gone by.
So, out of storage comes my once elegant, and long since discontinued Elos Mini 20 setup.
With tons of dry CaribSea Seaflor Special Aragonite Aquarium Sand and dry rock on hand, I went about the boring process of bleach curing both. I selected three perfect dry rock pieces to create a “center piece” layout and glued them together to avoid any chance of movement in the future.
I elected to install a piece of white eggcrate diffuser along the bottom of the tank to act as a base for the rocks to “lock into” and hopefully reduce or even eliminate the possibility of the rocks shifting from side to side or front to back.
I then applied the sand in a tapered fashion from 1” depth in the front to 2” depth in the back.
Elos Sump consists of just a Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5, Marineland Precision 100W heater as well as a Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO and 2 additional pieces of dry rock.
Lighting was originally to be my old AI Nano SOL but I was fortunate enough to find a very reasonably priced pre-owned AI Prime Reef 16HD with flexible arm, so that will be my lighting.
On 07/02/25 I made 20+ gallons of RODI water and mixed in my Seachem ReefSalt as directed……and yes…..I still have two perfectly good 160 gal buckets on Seachem ReefSalt, lol….
SG at 1.026
Temp at 78F
On 07/03/25 I made the decision (not sure it was the right choice) to order a Brightwell Microbacter Dry Rock Bacteria Starter Kit from BRS…
On 07/08/25 I dosed the tank with Microbacter QuikCycl and Start XLM as directed.
Tested for pH, Ammonia and Nitrite on days 2 thru 5 with all tests resulting with the same results: pH 7.8, Ammonia 2ppm and Nitrite 0ppm.
Had to leave out of town for 5 days and today I tested with the same exact results as before.
So here I wait……………..
And while I was completely stunned by how incredibly expensive SW fish and corals have become since last I was in the hobby (and mean stunned…like crazy expensive), I still couldn’t resist the unholy temptation of just “one more time”…..oh geez what was I thinking???!!!
Thankfully, like any other overly obsessed and financially irresponsible reefer, I still own an inordinate amount of equipment from years gone by.
So, out of storage comes my once elegant, and long since discontinued Elos Mini 20 setup.
With tons of dry CaribSea Seaflor Special Aragonite Aquarium Sand and dry rock on hand, I went about the boring process of bleach curing both. I selected three perfect dry rock pieces to create a “center piece” layout and glued them together to avoid any chance of movement in the future.
I elected to install a piece of white eggcrate diffuser along the bottom of the tank to act as a base for the rocks to “lock into” and hopefully reduce or even eliminate the possibility of the rocks shifting from side to side or front to back.
I then applied the sand in a tapered fashion from 1” depth in the front to 2” depth in the back.
Elos Sump consists of just a Sicce Syncra Silent 1.5, Marineland Precision 100W heater as well as a Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO and 2 additional pieces of dry rock.
Lighting was originally to be my old AI Nano SOL but I was fortunate enough to find a very reasonably priced pre-owned AI Prime Reef 16HD with flexible arm, so that will be my lighting.
On 07/02/25 I made 20+ gallons of RODI water and mixed in my Seachem ReefSalt as directed……and yes…..I still have two perfectly good 160 gal buckets on Seachem ReefSalt, lol….
SG at 1.026
Temp at 78F
On 07/03/25 I made the decision (not sure it was the right choice) to order a Brightwell Microbacter Dry Rock Bacteria Starter Kit from BRS…
On 07/08/25 I dosed the tank with Microbacter QuikCycl and Start XLM as directed.
Tested for pH, Ammonia and Nitrite on days 2 thru 5 with all tests resulting with the same results: pH 7.8, Ammonia 2ppm and Nitrite 0ppm.
Had to leave out of town for 5 days and today I tested with the same exact results as before.
So here I wait……………..
