XNavyDiver
Insightful answer loading... please wait.
Originally posted on the Tucson reef club forum but looks like I may be the only one there... Sigh.
Hello all, my name is Jeff (hi jeff!) and I'm a (reef) addict. I've lived in Southern Arizona (SE of Tucson) for about 16 years now. I started in the saltwater aquarium hobby some time in the early 90's, but have been dormant for some time until now because of career. Finally got the go ahead from the wife to start up a new reef tank. I bought a used tank and 40 gallon sump from the manager of Fishy Bizness as it was one of his old personal tanks and I liked the dimensions of it (34X36X20), almost a cube "peninsula" with a built in center overflow.
I went ahead and built my own stand for it, and built it slightly larger than the footprint of the tank so as to leave lots of room for sump, skimmer, ATO, dosers, electronic gizmos and the like... As it's orientated in the house as a peninsula, the sump can be accessed from all three sides.
As of now, it really has just finished cycling (did a fishless cycle) so there's really not anything in it except about 75 lbs of Pukani and as of a few days ago a small clean up crew.
As far as equipment goes, it has a 40 gallon sump which I hard plumbed with pvc, a RO 3000SSS skimmer, Vectra M1 return pump, 2 Radion XR30w G4's, Apex controller, Tunze ATO, 2 Vortech mp40's, Kessil refugium light.
There's been a bit of a learning curve for me with the LED lights and especially the Apex. As I'm in the 50+ age group and the last time I was doing reef tanks I was in college. The advantage this time around is age and patients... and oh yeah... I'm no longer a poor, starving college student.
I guess my plans for the tank is SPS. Of course the wife has a say also, but her interests lie mainly with cute pretty fishies. And that's all right by me as long as I can keep her pointed to the reef appropriate species, I'll count that as a win.
The main difference this time around compared to the last time I had reef tanks, is that this time around, I'm designing the system for ease and automation. Also, back in the dark ages of my college years I didn't have the coin to drop on a MH lighting system to do the corals I wanted, so it was a mixed softie tank with an anemone (what a disaster that was, no more anemones for me please!).
I guess that's about it for now.
Hello all, my name is Jeff (hi jeff!) and I'm a (reef) addict. I've lived in Southern Arizona (SE of Tucson) for about 16 years now. I started in the saltwater aquarium hobby some time in the early 90's, but have been dormant for some time until now because of career. Finally got the go ahead from the wife to start up a new reef tank. I bought a used tank and 40 gallon sump from the manager of Fishy Bizness as it was one of his old personal tanks and I liked the dimensions of it (34X36X20), almost a cube "peninsula" with a built in center overflow.
I went ahead and built my own stand for it, and built it slightly larger than the footprint of the tank so as to leave lots of room for sump, skimmer, ATO, dosers, electronic gizmos and the like... As it's orientated in the house as a peninsula, the sump can be accessed from all three sides.
As of now, it really has just finished cycling (did a fishless cycle) so there's really not anything in it except about 75 lbs of Pukani and as of a few days ago a small clean up crew.
As far as equipment goes, it has a 40 gallon sump which I hard plumbed with pvc, a RO 3000SSS skimmer, Vectra M1 return pump, 2 Radion XR30w G4's, Apex controller, Tunze ATO, 2 Vortech mp40's, Kessil refugium light.
There's been a bit of a learning curve for me with the LED lights and especially the Apex. As I'm in the 50+ age group and the last time I was doing reef tanks I was in college. The advantage this time around is age and patients... and oh yeah... I'm no longer a poor, starving college student.
I guess my plans for the tank is SPS. Of course the wife has a say also, but her interests lie mainly with cute pretty fishies. And that's all right by me as long as I can keep her pointed to the reef appropriate species, I'll count that as a win.
The main difference this time around compared to the last time I had reef tanks, is that this time around, I'm designing the system for ease and automation. Also, back in the dark ages of my college years I didn't have the coin to drop on a MH lighting system to do the corals I wanted, so it was a mixed softie tank with an anemone (what a disaster that was, no more anemones for me please!).
I guess that's about it for now.
