Hello I'm new to the forum. I'm beginning my second reef aquarium- I started out a couple years ago with a second-hand 90 gallon mixed reef. After buying a house and moving last fall I had to take everything down as I didn't have the time or money to keep everything going. Now that I'm settled in a little bit I've decided to get started again.
I decided on an ELOS System 160 as a centerpiece for the living room area. The room's layout is such that I had to order a custom aquarium with a left hand overflow. After being delayed by hurricane Sandy, being repackaged after forklift damage, and tipping over during unloading, it's been a rough ride. Luckily everything looks great.
I'm still in the early stages of setup. I went with Pukani Dry Rock from Bulk Reef Supply because of its light weight and large surface area. I also think its some of the best looking rock you can buy. After receiving the rock, I dug out a fairly large crispy critter- I think it was a brittle star- which prompted me to give the rock a 24 hour bleach, followed by a 3 hour acid bath and plenty of rinsing to get rid of the dead stuff.
I have an early aquascape set up, but I have a lot of time to scrutinize during the cycle, so we'll see if it stays. I'm using CaribSea's AragAlive Fiji Pink, which has a nice consistent grain size and some great color. Hoping it won't blow around too much when I get some more flow going. I'm inoculating with Prodibio BioDigest and Bioptim to get everything going.
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 86ºF
Cooking it clean
Sand storm after 8 bags
The PS2000 Skimmer started up right away- no break in for this guy
Next morning everything was settled down. Low iron glass is a beautiful thing.
I decided on an ELOS System 160 as a centerpiece for the living room area. The room's layout is such that I had to order a custom aquarium with a left hand overflow. After being delayed by hurricane Sandy, being repackaged after forklift damage, and tipping over during unloading, it's been a rough ride. Luckily everything looks great.
I'm still in the early stages of setup. I went with Pukani Dry Rock from Bulk Reef Supply because of its light weight and large surface area. I also think its some of the best looking rock you can buy. After receiving the rock, I dug out a fairly large crispy critter- I think it was a brittle star- which prompted me to give the rock a 24 hour bleach, followed by a 3 hour acid bath and plenty of rinsing to get rid of the dead stuff.
I have an early aquascape set up, but I have a lot of time to scrutinize during the cycle, so we'll see if it stays. I'm using CaribSea's AragAlive Fiji Pink, which has a nice consistent grain size and some great color. Hoping it won't blow around too much when I get some more flow going. I'm inoculating with Prodibio BioDigest and Bioptim to get everything going.
Salinity: 1.025
Temperature: 86ºF
Cooking it clean
Sand storm after 8 bags
The PS2000 Skimmer started up right away- no break in for this guy
Next morning everything was settled down. Low iron glass is a beautiful thing.