Hi everyone!
I'm very excited to begin the build thread for my very first saltwater tank ever! I have been keeping freshwater tanks for the last 20 years or so, ever since I was a kid. As I advanced in the hobby, got a little older and began to make more money, I transitioned into higher tech planted tanks with high light and Co2 injection.
I have noticed over the last few years that I tend to get bored very quickly with my freshwater tanks, at risk of sounding arrogant, I felt as tho I had mastered freshwater tanks and they just weren't rewarding to keep anymore. I considered it a long time if a tank was up and running for more than 6 months before I tore it down to try something else. Never satisfied.
Keeping a salt water tank was as much a fantasy as going to the moon to me, I simply thought it was just unobtainable, never going to happen. I always thought tho that mayybeeee one day, just maybe, I could have a saltwater tank.
About 5 months ago, I started the research process of getting into saltwater. I think with the experience of 20 years in freshwater, I was feeling pretty confident that now was the time to make the jump.
Before we begin, I did want to show a few of my previous freshwater tanks that I'm particularly proud of!
75 Gallon high tech planted
5 Gallon high tech planted
Low tech 75 gallon
Low tech 30 gallon
Low tech 40 gallon breeder
So here is the current setup.
This was a previous freshwater planted 55 gallon that I tore down and transitioned to saltwater. As unfortunte as it is that I used a 55 gallon, I couldn't have anything deeper than 12", and 48" was about as wide as I could go, so a Petco 55 gallon was the way to go.
The plan is to keep it as a FOWLR for the first few months while I get the hang of keeping a saltwater tank, till I get in a groove. This will also let the tank establish itself and get super balanced before I start putting corals in.
I am also thinking of keeping this as a soft coral tank only. I actually really like soft corals, I like things that have motion, that move and sway in the flow of the water, to me, THAT is what a coral is. The fact they tend to be easier to care for, often cost less and are more tolerant of mistakes make them that much more appealing to me. I know there is an unspoken "stigma" in the hobby that soft corals are for noobs, and are less impressive than a SPS tank, however I really like them and I think that's what I'm going to go with.
Current stocking is:
1x Absolute zero Clown fish
1x Snowflake Clown fish
1x Royale Gramma Dottyback
3x Hermet crabs
Here is a video I took too, it's in 4k
Now lets take a look under the hood... I think this is where a lot of you reefers are going to scratch your head and think, "what the heck is this guy doing".
So, under the blanket is a SunSun 704B Canister filter, rated at 525GPH, chalked full of golfball sized lava rock and some mechanical filtration. It's under the blanket because my tank is in my front room and I wanted to make it as inaudible as possible. There are also a few towels under the blanket as well, wrapped all around the canister filter.
I didn't go with a sump for a few reasons.... I didn't want to drill my tank, I didn't want to use an overflow box, I don't think it's possible to get a sump as quiet as the canister filter under the towels and blankets - tho I imagine some will disagree with that statement; this setup is absolutely inaudible, I already had the canister filter and I don't plan on stocking too heavily, I didn't want to deal with all the cost associated with a sump... Lots of reasons, hopefully I don't get beat up for using a canister filter.
Next to the blanket is my 20G tall freshwater / salt mixing tank. Again, I imagine this is something that few of you have seen before. This tank is both my freshwater top off reservoir and my saltwater mixing tank for water changes. 90% of the time it is holding freshwater that I use for topping off evaporated water, for now I'm doing this manually instead of with an ATO, I do it once a day and it takes me less time than it does to feed the fish. I imagine when I get annoyed with it I will switch to a proper ATO. I'll get into how I do my top off and water changes momentarily.
The reason for this 20G tank under the display tank is because I live in a TINY 300sq/ft studio apartment in Pasadena, I simply do not have any room for a proper saltwater storage/mix station.
This tank has a 700gph inline pump with an elbow I designed and 3D printed to get as much of the water in the tank out as possible. This pump is used for both top offs and water changes.
When I last drained my tank, I took a gallon of water out at a time and used a sharpie to mark each gallon on the side of the tank. When I want to do a water change, I drain the display tank down 20 gallons, then flip a switch pumping saltwater I made a day or two in advance. When the 20G tank is empty, I refill it with freshwater, which now becomes my top off reservoir. With the 3D printed elbow, I'm able to get almost every last drop out of the reservoir, leaving the freshwater truly fresh.
Here we can see the "brains" of my operation. I used this 8 outlet powerstrip, each plug with it's own switch. When the display tank needs some topping off, I flip the "WC/ATO" switch for a few seconds and all is well. When I need to mix salt water, I flip the "mix pump" switch. Water change I turn the "filter", "WV MKR" and "Climate" switch off, flip the "WC/ATO" switch - turn the "Mix pump" off. When Water change is done, turn the filter, climate and wave maker back on.
It's a pretty streamlined system that I put an immense amount of thought and effort into.
The "Climate" is an "Ink Bird" controller, it has both a "cooling" and "heating" outlet that it controls. Since it's summer here in SoCal, I have it controlling the two fans on top of the tank, during the winter, it will control a heater.
Whew.... that was a long one. I hope I explained myself well enough and I look forward to comments, questions, concerns and feedback.
Thank you for your time, I'm excited to be here.
I'm very excited to begin the build thread for my very first saltwater tank ever! I have been keeping freshwater tanks for the last 20 years or so, ever since I was a kid. As I advanced in the hobby, got a little older and began to make more money, I transitioned into higher tech planted tanks with high light and Co2 injection.
I have noticed over the last few years that I tend to get bored very quickly with my freshwater tanks, at risk of sounding arrogant, I felt as tho I had mastered freshwater tanks and they just weren't rewarding to keep anymore. I considered it a long time if a tank was up and running for more than 6 months before I tore it down to try something else. Never satisfied.
Keeping a salt water tank was as much a fantasy as going to the moon to me, I simply thought it was just unobtainable, never going to happen. I always thought tho that mayybeeee one day, just maybe, I could have a saltwater tank.
About 5 months ago, I started the research process of getting into saltwater. I think with the experience of 20 years in freshwater, I was feeling pretty confident that now was the time to make the jump.
Before we begin, I did want to show a few of my previous freshwater tanks that I'm particularly proud of!
75 Gallon high tech planted
5 Gallon high tech planted
Low tech 75 gallon
Low tech 30 gallon
Low tech 40 gallon breeder
So here is the current setup.
This was a previous freshwater planted 55 gallon that I tore down and transitioned to saltwater. As unfortunte as it is that I used a 55 gallon, I couldn't have anything deeper than 12", and 48" was about as wide as I could go, so a Petco 55 gallon was the way to go.
The plan is to keep it as a FOWLR for the first few months while I get the hang of keeping a saltwater tank, till I get in a groove. This will also let the tank establish itself and get super balanced before I start putting corals in.
I am also thinking of keeping this as a soft coral tank only. I actually really like soft corals, I like things that have motion, that move and sway in the flow of the water, to me, THAT is what a coral is. The fact they tend to be easier to care for, often cost less and are more tolerant of mistakes make them that much more appealing to me. I know there is an unspoken "stigma" in the hobby that soft corals are for noobs, and are less impressive than a SPS tank, however I really like them and I think that's what I'm going to go with.
Current stocking is:
1x Absolute zero Clown fish
1x Snowflake Clown fish
1x Royale Gramma Dottyback
3x Hermet crabs
Here is a video I took too, it's in 4k
Now lets take a look under the hood... I think this is where a lot of you reefers are going to scratch your head and think, "what the heck is this guy doing".
So, under the blanket is a SunSun 704B Canister filter, rated at 525GPH, chalked full of golfball sized lava rock and some mechanical filtration. It's under the blanket because my tank is in my front room and I wanted to make it as inaudible as possible. There are also a few towels under the blanket as well, wrapped all around the canister filter.
I didn't go with a sump for a few reasons.... I didn't want to drill my tank, I didn't want to use an overflow box, I don't think it's possible to get a sump as quiet as the canister filter under the towels and blankets - tho I imagine some will disagree with that statement; this setup is absolutely inaudible, I already had the canister filter and I don't plan on stocking too heavily, I didn't want to deal with all the cost associated with a sump... Lots of reasons, hopefully I don't get beat up for using a canister filter.
Next to the blanket is my 20G tall freshwater / salt mixing tank. Again, I imagine this is something that few of you have seen before. This tank is both my freshwater top off reservoir and my saltwater mixing tank for water changes. 90% of the time it is holding freshwater that I use for topping off evaporated water, for now I'm doing this manually instead of with an ATO, I do it once a day and it takes me less time than it does to feed the fish. I imagine when I get annoyed with it I will switch to a proper ATO. I'll get into how I do my top off and water changes momentarily.
The reason for this 20G tank under the display tank is because I live in a TINY 300sq/ft studio apartment in Pasadena, I simply do not have any room for a proper saltwater storage/mix station.
This tank has a 700gph inline pump with an elbow I designed and 3D printed to get as much of the water in the tank out as possible. This pump is used for both top offs and water changes.
When I last drained my tank, I took a gallon of water out at a time and used a sharpie to mark each gallon on the side of the tank. When I want to do a water change, I drain the display tank down 20 gallons, then flip a switch pumping saltwater I made a day or two in advance. When the 20G tank is empty, I refill it with freshwater, which now becomes my top off reservoir. With the 3D printed elbow, I'm able to get almost every last drop out of the reservoir, leaving the freshwater truly fresh.
Here we can see the "brains" of my operation. I used this 8 outlet powerstrip, each plug with it's own switch. When the display tank needs some topping off, I flip the "WC/ATO" switch for a few seconds and all is well. When I need to mix salt water, I flip the "mix pump" switch. Water change I turn the "filter", "WV MKR" and "Climate" switch off, flip the "WC/ATO" switch - turn the "Mix pump" off. When Water change is done, turn the filter, climate and wave maker back on.
It's a pretty streamlined system that I put an immense amount of thought and effort into.
The "Climate" is an "Ink Bird" controller, it has both a "cooling" and "heating" outlet that it controls. Since it's summer here in SoCal, I have it controlling the two fans on top of the tank, during the winter, it will control a heater.
Whew.... that was a long one. I hope I explained myself well enough and I look forward to comments, questions, concerns and feedback.
Thank you for your time, I'm excited to be here.
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