Well I guess it's time for me to finally start a build thread. I'll start off with a brief history of what led me to my current tank. I always loved animals over my life, I had every kind of pet you could imagine. Chameleons, snakes, turtles, cats, dogs, rabbits, and bugs. I never really considered fish until my mom's boyfriend at the time moved into her house with his 55gal freshwater tank. I fell in love with it, watching the fish for hours when I visited. It was at that point I decided I wanted a fish tank of my own.
Since I decided to start a saltwater tank, It's been a long journey starting back in 2012 with my first 60 gallon sumpless FOWLR. Over the next 6 years from that tank I learned a lot. I ended up building a DIY sump and adding a couple soft corals. I moved twice in this time span and my same tank moved with me. Sadly I don't have any pictures that I can find from this time frame. It was a time without auto cloud picture back-ups and my old phone is long gone. It wasn't until my recent move in February of 2018 that I wanted to apply everything I learned over the years and buy a proper reef tank set-up.
I left my old tank set-up and running at my old place until I could get the new tank built. I bought this set-up because I planned to eventually add a Apex and dosing system to run a full Triton method. Of course after a move and limited budget I started with the basic things needed to get a tank running to move all my livestock over until I could afford the rest. In this initial build thread post I"ll start with pictures from that first month of moving in(02-18-2018).
Marineland 75gal display, Trigger Triton 34 sump, H80 refuge light, Reef-Octopus return pump, E-Shoppes S-200 skimmer
Painted the back flat black, drilled holes and mounted overflow and return.
Drilled a hole for a float valve for a future ATO system
Return pump in, temporary temp probe in.
Temporary power strip mounted. Connected overflow piping. Mixing 30 gallons of fresh salt to add into system along with existing salt water from my old tank. I will be bringing in my old rock and livestock in several buckets and trashcans. I'll use most of my old tank water along with the fresh water for a total system volume of 100 gallons.
I added about 80% new cleaned sand mixed with sand from my old tank. Dropped the rocks and livestock in the tank in a span of about 4 hours. All livestock lived and seemed stress free. The move went much more smooth than my previous moves over the years. I brought over my old light too, it is way under powered for a glass top. Something I didn't realize when I took this. I ended up replacing the light down the road.
Shots of the livestock.
I'll be posting other pictures from down the road as the tank evolved from this initial build. Time for lunch though ;Brb
Since I decided to start a saltwater tank, It's been a long journey starting back in 2012 with my first 60 gallon sumpless FOWLR. Over the next 6 years from that tank I learned a lot. I ended up building a DIY sump and adding a couple soft corals. I moved twice in this time span and my same tank moved with me. Sadly I don't have any pictures that I can find from this time frame. It was a time without auto cloud picture back-ups and my old phone is long gone. It wasn't until my recent move in February of 2018 that I wanted to apply everything I learned over the years and buy a proper reef tank set-up.
I left my old tank set-up and running at my old place until I could get the new tank built. I bought this set-up because I planned to eventually add a Apex and dosing system to run a full Triton method. Of course after a move and limited budget I started with the basic things needed to get a tank running to move all my livestock over until I could afford the rest. In this initial build thread post I"ll start with pictures from that first month of moving in(02-18-2018).
Marineland 75gal display, Trigger Triton 34 sump, H80 refuge light, Reef-Octopus return pump, E-Shoppes S-200 skimmer
Painted the back flat black, drilled holes and mounted overflow and return.
Drilled a hole for a float valve for a future ATO system
Return pump in, temporary temp probe in.
Temporary power strip mounted. Connected overflow piping. Mixing 30 gallons of fresh salt to add into system along with existing salt water from my old tank. I will be bringing in my old rock and livestock in several buckets and trashcans. I'll use most of my old tank water along with the fresh water for a total system volume of 100 gallons.
I added about 80% new cleaned sand mixed with sand from my old tank. Dropped the rocks and livestock in the tank in a span of about 4 hours. All livestock lived and seemed stress free. The move went much more smooth than my previous moves over the years. I brought over my old light too, it is way under powered for a glass top. Something I didn't realize when I took this. I ended up replacing the light down the road.
Shots of the livestock.
I'll be posting other pictures from down the road as the tank evolved from this initial build. Time for lunch though ;Brb