College Reef Tank

[carlson]

Y all should post o is of your tanks I'm curious now lol there's four people in this thread in college

 

[Foxy-88]

I have a long ways to go [emoji47]

That's a bummer I'm 23 but I was fulltime at night with a full time job and at the time I was leaving at my parents house working on my first project which was a mustang. I had to stop spending a ton of money so I took up reef keeping hahaha

 

[Foxy-88]

Y all should post o is of your tanks I'm curious now lol there's four people in this thread in college

I think you actually might be following along on my tank thread haha

 

[carlson]

Yeah I am I forgot I was like..I think that tank looks familiar lol I like the scape it kinda reminds me off the brs 160 but it's cool!Theres a lot of different ways you could go with it

 

[carlson]

That's a bummer I'm 23 but I was fulltime at night with a full time job and at the time I was leaving at my parents house working on my first project which was a mustang. I had to stop spending a ton of money so I took up reef keeping hahaha

Reefing has a lot of potential to be a ton of money too though

 

[Foxy-88]

Reefing has a lot of potential to be a ton of money too though

This I know but I haven't spent like 45k like I did building my car in 4 years haha

 

[Foxy-88]

Yeah I am I forgot I was like..I think that tank looks familiar lol I like the scape it kinda reminds me off the brs 160 but it's cool!Theres a lot of different ways you could go with it

I liked the cave look in the 160. I think it's awesome you compared it to that because this is only the second salt tank I've ever had haha.

 

[carlson]

Well if thats what you were going for then it looks like it! And I guess it depends on whether or not your going for a much bigger tank one day when you get a house like I am. When I get my first actual house it has to be designed for my tank I'm thinking i'll probably get a 650-800 and I'll have my own room just for the tank and all that. I've alway wanted my own large stainless steel sink just for a fish tank lol

 

[Foxy-88]

Well if thats what you were going for then it looks like it! And I guess it depends on whether or not your going for a much bigger tank one day when you get a house like I am. When I get my first actual house it has to be designed for my tank I'm thinking i'll probably get a 650-800 and I'll have my own room just for the tank and all that. I've alway wanted my own large stainless steel sink just for a fish tank lol

Ya I'm definitely going for a bigger tank in the future maybe an in wall tank with my own fish room and a sump behind the tank. I'm thinking a 250 maybe for me. Nothing to outrageous. However a dream tank for me would be like a 500 gallon with like a 250 sump!! More water the better right

 

[carlson]

not sure if this will be a good bulb for me fuge or not but I'll see

 

[Katrina71]

Jisko has a nice tank. I think he/she? Is in college.

 

[Foxy-88]

not sure if this will be a good bulb for me fuge or not but I'll see

Worth a shot, if not brs sells a led bulb as well if you are using one of the clip on lights. It has different leds in it that's meant to grow algae. I don't know if you watched the brs investigates on chaeto and different lights. Very informative!

 

[carlson]

This is the refugium section of my tank. It's going to be filled up to the top of the plastic section (which is there to keep sand from getting sucked into the other tank) with miracle mud, covered with a top layer of sand. It will have 10 - 15 mangroves in one side and other types of algae in the other. It will look a lot better when it's full.

This is the other section. The blue (somewhat wall shaped) thing you see is there to stop microbubbles from getting in the tank. You can also see the type of fish food I feed my fish is Sera Marin. I like the list of ingredients that it has and my fish like it too. I still have to add an ato and a couple reactors and dosing pumps along with my new lights I have yet to buy [emoji25] but I will be buying all those things soon! I went on a mini vacation over the weekend and the tank was left alone for a few days but I came back and it looked perfect with no algae on the glass whatsoever which surprised me because the lights have been on a regular cycle. I'm also starting to see a little bit of coraline start to grow on the glass which is good news to me! I added the fish as well because the small but of ammonia I had the first week disappeared and now my nitrates are undetectable.
My Ph is 8.3, calcium 430, and kh is 10. Everything is coming along well and I'm ready to buy the rest of the things I need!

 

[carlson]

Btw I used to have a protein skimmer but I removed it a year ago and had absolutely no effect on the tank so I'm not still not using one, as you can tell I like to keep things as simple as possible [emoji28]

 

[Foxy-88]

This is the refugium section of my tank. It's going to be filled up to the top of the plastic section (which is there to keep sand from getting sucked into the other tank) with miracle mud, covered with a top layer of sand. It will have 10 - 15 mangroves in one side and other types of algae in the other. It will look a lot better when it's full.

This is the other section. The blue (somewhat wall shaped) thing you see is there to stop microbubbles from getting in the tank. You can also see the type of fish food I feed my fish is Sera Marin. I like the list of ingredients that it has and my fish like it too. I still have to add an ato and a couple reactors and dosing pumps along with my new lights I have yet to buy [emoji25] but I will be buying all those things soon! I went on a mini vacation over the weekend and the tank was left alone for a few days but I came back and it looked perfect with no algae on the glass whatsoever which surprised me because the lights have been on a regular cycle. I'm also starting to see a little bit of coraline start to grow on the glass which is good news to me! I added the fish as well because the small but of ammonia I had the first week disappeared and now my nitrates are undetectable.
My Ph is 8.3, calcium 430, and kh is 10. Everything is coming along well and I'm ready to buy the rest of the things I need!

What lights are you going with and what are your plans for the ato?

 

[Foxy-88]

Btw I used to have a protein skimmer but I removed it a year ago and had absolutely no effect on the tank so I'm not still not using one, as you can tell I like to keep things as simple as possible [emoji28]

Had to put one on my 75. When I had my 24 I would do 20 percent water changes every week with everything at 0 ppm and still have crazy algae on the glass and back panel. Got to hard to handle so I parted the whole thing out. Did make as much as I put in to it but at least everything sold!!

 

[carlson]

just a couple pics, and I'm going with two viraspectra fixtures, I think I posted them earlier and a smart ato

 

[carlson]

Had to put one on my 75. When I had my 24 I would do 20 percent water changes every week with everything at 0 ppm and still have crazy algae on the glass and back panel. Got to hard to handle so I parted the whole thing out. Did make as much as I put in to it but at least everything sold!!

Yeah I guess it depends on your bio load. I'm only going to have four fish and I'm very careful to not waste any food into the tank. The fuge is also going to help.

 

[Foxy-88]

Yeah I guess it depends on your bio load. I'm only going to have four fish and I'm very careful to not waste any food into the tank. The fuge is also going to help.

I'm very strict on my feeding and I change my filter socks daily and that skimmer still pulls so gross stuff but I clean like once every 2 weeks. I had an algae fuge but it never grew, stayed green, but never grew any bigger. Plus it would fall apart and go through the return and the get stuck in my powerheads. Took out and filled it with more live rock. Every tank is different though.

 

[carlson]

I'm very strict on my feeding and I change my filter socks daily and that skimmer still pulls so gross stuff but I clean like once every 2 weeks. I had an algae fuge but it never grew, stayed green, but never grew any bigger. Plus it would fall apart and go through the return and the get stuck in my powerheads. Took out and filled it with more live rock. Every tank is different though.

Wow that's interesting but your right every tank is different