Greeting and welcome to my “long winded” introduction to my first ever tank build thread. WARNING: it’s gonna be slow..... I am self employed as a full time Taxidermist and am quite busy keeping my clients satisfied and content so reefing can and does come last. My clients are the ones who allow me to enjoy the hobby so I owe them a lot!!
After about 25 years away from reefing I stepped back in about a year and a half back. It’s been an almost overwhelming experience trying to catch up on technology and advancements in this hobby to say the least. You have probably read about how things were back then so I will spare you the details accept to say it was hard.
First tank I got running as an introduction back to the hobby was a used 30cube with a hang on the back power filter. Used a couple small powerheads inside to get good flow going. Cycled the dry rock using bacteria in a bottle and ammonia which went rather well. Went through the algae bloom and survived. Using the reef breeders led ( good lights but couldn’t get them dialed in) light to provide the necessary illumination I added some soft corals once the tank had cycled. Also added some snails and blue legged crabs to help keep the bare bottom clean. About once a week I preformed the 50% water change I felt was needed to keep things fresh. Reef Chrystals by instant ocean is my preferred salt and I seem to get good results to this point. After a bit I finally added a purple fire fish to provide some interest in the tank. Gradually added some mushrooms and hard corals as well. At the time of this tanks inception Dragons Breath algae was becoming very popular so I added some to the tank via a rubber band and a rock to anchor it. I absolutely loved the stuff and was very successful at growing it. One of the few things which did well in the tank actually. I ran this tank for about 8-10 months before tiring of the lack of coral growth and the mess and labor involved in the weekly water changes which had to be brought up from the basement in 5 gallon buckets. Algae returned somewhere along the way and low and behold along comes Vibrant ! This stuff did a great job of ridding my hair algae issue and along with the occasional use of peroxide the problem was solved. I gave thought to drilling the tank and adding a sump but just didn’t think it would be worth the trouble hence the “upgrade”. Something we all seem to like the idea of.
My first upgrade tank purchase was a used 120 rr tank with stand and screen top. It is actually the subject of the upcoming build so will ignore it for now.
Next came the chance to purchase a 70 gal. tank and complete setup from someone semi local. I was all in for that so away I went to capture this great deal. The tank had some issues as did the equipment but all in all it was a good start. After cleaning it out and transporting it home I got busy cleaning and refiguring the equipment and adding a proper overflow ( reef Synergy) to the back of the tank. Next came an upgrade to the return pump in the 30 long homemade sump underneath the tank. Quick rework of the plumbing provided had me up and running in short order. This tank is in my unfinished basement/ tomb! It’s an older basement that is just dreary and unpleasant, especially as I had spent about 5 years working at my trade in it before getting a new shop built and moving upground where you can see the sun!! Gave thought to moving it to our living room but in the end it’s staying in the basement till it’s useful days are done. I must admit that it’s just too easy for me to make a mess around my tanks so why bring that mess to our living room carpet?! Ok tank is ready and up to salinity and temp so off we go. Added the rock which came from the tank along with more bacteria in a bottle to get the cycle going. Mission accomplished. Over time I learned of these wonderful places that had such amazing selections of corals and fish that could be bought and or viewed that some road trips became necessary. So did the need for money! Ouch goes the wallet!
Will not bore you with the details of the next year but let’s just abbreviate..... killed fish, killed corals, restarted with fish and had some success. Repurchased corals and had some success and some failures. Took everything out of the 30cube and added it to my 55 gallon refugium- misc. tank or the 70. Firefish had died so the only livestock left was snails and crabs. Found a guy near by who was getting out and bought several corals from him along with some equipment to help improve my set up.
Finally got some things going in the right direction and had some nice fish in the display too.
As things progressed my business , which demands lots of my time, had kept me very busy, like 60 hours a week busy, maybe more at times so things fell by the way side. The 120 got drilled for the overflow and the pre- installed overflows were taken out( greatly disliked those black columns in the back of the tank). As of today that’s where the tank sits.
Started to see growth in the corals in the 70 so the next step was to dose. I guess nows a good time to say “ I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF WATER CHANGES” , just don’t get them done so dosing was very needed. Let me say this also “ DO NOT FORGET TO DOSE EVERY DAY”! So guess who got too busy and started to get lax on his dosing schedule? Guess who lost almost all his sps corals? Guess who didn’t know how susceptible sps corals were to alk swings? Guess who almost threw in the towel?
Guess who had BRS Dosers in a drawer in the fish room and just didn’t get them installed ? Guess who lost a lot of hard earned cash as he threw those dead corals out in the garbage?
Oh my! That was a very hard learned lesson folks, very hard. If it were not for fish that still needed attention I probably would have called it quits right there. One more lesson learned this past winter and we can get past this history lesson.... I love my brain corals, really like viewing them a lot. So I had several nice ones on the tank bottom including a bleeding apple and a wonderful trachy which was stunning....
This picture just doesn’t do it justice. It was big and flashy and just beautiful! Well it started to recede from the skeleton a bit. I had no idea what was wrong but eventually all my brains were doing the same thing. Sadly this guy just wasted away over about two weeks time. I tried dipping in iodine a couple time but alas to no avail. As a last resort I took all that were left and threw them in the 55 refugium/ misc tank. Several died but a couple made it in that tank. What I eventually found was that my nitrates were very, very high. Why, I don’t know. At one time I was dosing stump remover to get them up a bit as they would be at 0 all the time but now they were off the charts. Through the help of a person who had a small reef shop and I had come to know a bit I learned about vodka dosing and how it would help lower my no3. Ah, one more of those BRS Dosers has found a use! As the numbers came down my corals responded and started to grow a bit or at least color up more. As of today my no3 runs around 10 and phosphates are around .03-07 and controlled through lanth. chloride . Sump has Chaeto now so hoping it will pick up some of the slack.
These guys survived!!
These guys have survived and are now re-acquainted with the 70 gallon reef and doing well. Here is one of the montipora that was completely browned out and, I thought, dead....
Nice recovery!
More of the 70’s residents....
These Favia had all but died and now have rebounded.
There are more but good pictures just don’t exist yet. My camera is my phone so many of the pictures are not yet transferred to the tablet. Will get more for later. I always like seeing other reefers pictures so will keep you somewhat satiated. Somewhat!
Sorry, tried to delete the last picture but it won’t go away.
This build will be continued on the next disc.....
After about 25 years away from reefing I stepped back in about a year and a half back. It’s been an almost overwhelming experience trying to catch up on technology and advancements in this hobby to say the least. You have probably read about how things were back then so I will spare you the details accept to say it was hard.
First tank I got running as an introduction back to the hobby was a used 30cube with a hang on the back power filter. Used a couple small powerheads inside to get good flow going. Cycled the dry rock using bacteria in a bottle and ammonia which went rather well. Went through the algae bloom and survived. Using the reef breeders led ( good lights but couldn’t get them dialed in) light to provide the necessary illumination I added some soft corals once the tank had cycled. Also added some snails and blue legged crabs to help keep the bare bottom clean. About once a week I preformed the 50% water change I felt was needed to keep things fresh. Reef Chrystals by instant ocean is my preferred salt and I seem to get good results to this point. After a bit I finally added a purple fire fish to provide some interest in the tank. Gradually added some mushrooms and hard corals as well. At the time of this tanks inception Dragons Breath algae was becoming very popular so I added some to the tank via a rubber band and a rock to anchor it. I absolutely loved the stuff and was very successful at growing it. One of the few things which did well in the tank actually. I ran this tank for about 8-10 months before tiring of the lack of coral growth and the mess and labor involved in the weekly water changes which had to be brought up from the basement in 5 gallon buckets. Algae returned somewhere along the way and low and behold along comes Vibrant ! This stuff did a great job of ridding my hair algae issue and along with the occasional use of peroxide the problem was solved. I gave thought to drilling the tank and adding a sump but just didn’t think it would be worth the trouble hence the “upgrade”. Something we all seem to like the idea of.
My first upgrade tank purchase was a used 120 rr tank with stand and screen top. It is actually the subject of the upcoming build so will ignore it for now.
Next came the chance to purchase a 70 gal. tank and complete setup from someone semi local. I was all in for that so away I went to capture this great deal. The tank had some issues as did the equipment but all in all it was a good start. After cleaning it out and transporting it home I got busy cleaning and refiguring the equipment and adding a proper overflow ( reef Synergy) to the back of the tank. Next came an upgrade to the return pump in the 30 long homemade sump underneath the tank. Quick rework of the plumbing provided had me up and running in short order. This tank is in my unfinished basement/ tomb! It’s an older basement that is just dreary and unpleasant, especially as I had spent about 5 years working at my trade in it before getting a new shop built and moving upground where you can see the sun!! Gave thought to moving it to our living room but in the end it’s staying in the basement till it’s useful days are done. I must admit that it’s just too easy for me to make a mess around my tanks so why bring that mess to our living room carpet?! Ok tank is ready and up to salinity and temp so off we go. Added the rock which came from the tank along with more bacteria in a bottle to get the cycle going. Mission accomplished. Over time I learned of these wonderful places that had such amazing selections of corals and fish that could be bought and or viewed that some road trips became necessary. So did the need for money! Ouch goes the wallet!
Will not bore you with the details of the next year but let’s just abbreviate..... killed fish, killed corals, restarted with fish and had some success. Repurchased corals and had some success and some failures. Took everything out of the 30cube and added it to my 55 gallon refugium- misc. tank or the 70. Firefish had died so the only livestock left was snails and crabs. Found a guy near by who was getting out and bought several corals from him along with some equipment to help improve my set up.
Finally got some things going in the right direction and had some nice fish in the display too.
As things progressed my business , which demands lots of my time, had kept me very busy, like 60 hours a week busy, maybe more at times so things fell by the way side. The 120 got drilled for the overflow and the pre- installed overflows were taken out( greatly disliked those black columns in the back of the tank). As of today that’s where the tank sits.
Started to see growth in the corals in the 70 so the next step was to dose. I guess nows a good time to say “ I AM NOT A BIG FAN OF WATER CHANGES” , just don’t get them done so dosing was very needed. Let me say this also “ DO NOT FORGET TO DOSE EVERY DAY”! So guess who got too busy and started to get lax on his dosing schedule? Guess who lost almost all his sps corals? Guess who didn’t know how susceptible sps corals were to alk swings? Guess who almost threw in the towel?
Guess who had BRS Dosers in a drawer in the fish room and just didn’t get them installed ? Guess who lost a lot of hard earned cash as he threw those dead corals out in the garbage?
Oh my! That was a very hard learned lesson folks, very hard. If it were not for fish that still needed attention I probably would have called it quits right there. One more lesson learned this past winter and we can get past this history lesson.... I love my brain corals, really like viewing them a lot. So I had several nice ones on the tank bottom including a bleeding apple and a wonderful trachy which was stunning....
This picture just doesn’t do it justice. It was big and flashy and just beautiful! Well it started to recede from the skeleton a bit. I had no idea what was wrong but eventually all my brains were doing the same thing. Sadly this guy just wasted away over about two weeks time. I tried dipping in iodine a couple time but alas to no avail. As a last resort I took all that were left and threw them in the 55 refugium/ misc tank. Several died but a couple made it in that tank. What I eventually found was that my nitrates were very, very high. Why, I don’t know. At one time I was dosing stump remover to get them up a bit as they would be at 0 all the time but now they were off the charts. Through the help of a person who had a small reef shop and I had come to know a bit I learned about vodka dosing and how it would help lower my no3. Ah, one more of those BRS Dosers has found a use! As the numbers came down my corals responded and started to grow a bit or at least color up more. As of today my no3 runs around 10 and phosphates are around .03-07 and controlled through lanth. chloride . Sump has Chaeto now so hoping it will pick up some of the slack.
These guys survived!!
These guys have survived and are now re-acquainted with the 70 gallon reef and doing well. Here is one of the montipora that was completely browned out and, I thought, dead....
Nice recovery!
More of the 70’s residents....
These Favia had all but died and now have rebounded.
There are more but good pictures just don’t exist yet. My camera is my phone so many of the pictures are not yet transferred to the tablet. Will get more for later. I always like seeing other reefers pictures so will keep you somewhat satiated. Somewhat!
Sorry, tried to delete the last picture but it won’t go away.
This build will be continued on the next disc.....