After far too long of telling myself "one day, one day," I can finally say I have started the path down owning a reef tank! This will be a rather slow build, as I won't be buying the tank until April/May, but I have already started buying equipment and just today I went out and bought what I needed to start building two separate stands. One will be for my quarantine tanks and the other will be for my future SCA 150g tank.
All of my experience up to this has been fresh water, both planted and not tanks. From the smallest 5g build to a 100g I looked after for family for about five years. This will be the biggest tank I've put together to date, and I'm excited! I've reading and researching just about everything I can get my hands on. Not only do I feel well prepared, but I'm also finally in a position I can get what I really want. I was originally considering starting with something much smaller - in the 30-50g size range - but I know myself. If I got the smaller tank, I'd want to upgrade at some point. So I've finally decided on the SCA 150g tank. It's 5ftx2ftx2ft and it's the biggest tank I feel comfortable starting with. I had originally decided on the RS 525 XL, but after looking at the SCA tanks and getting the bug to build my own stand, I'll be saving money AND getting a bigger tank AND getting the stand designed the way I want it. Win-win, I think!
So what's my plan? First off, getting most of what I need before I get the tank. This includes all equipment, rock, sand, water station built, quarantine tanks, plumbing planned and parts bought and two stands built. The idea is the moment that tank comes through the door, I'm primed to set it up and get the cycle started. And that's in full swing as of last week! Pictures will follow in a separate post!
What's the long term plan? I will be starting with a fishless cycle by dosing DrTim's Ammonia to 2ppm. I will be adding a bottle of Biospira to kick start the cycle, but I expect the tank to run fishless for at least a month, possibly two. I will be adding live rock but the majority will be dry rock. For the first month or so, I will be watching what crawls out of the live rock and taking anything bad out. Algae management will be a wait and see approach. I know about and expect the tank to go through its ugly stages and I've already warned my roommate that we'll have a fancy box with rocks for a while in the beginning. This was met with utter, genuine disbelief which gave me a good laugh.
Once I'm sure the water parameters have stabilized out and I'm set in a routine for testing the water, and doing water changes, I will likely be starting with two or three small fish set up in a 10g quarantine. I'll be doing a short observation period to allow the fish to calm down and get them eating good before treatment. I'm still on the fence on copper treatment, but I will most likely be doing that with other treatments before or after. There's a lot of good info and quarantine procedures here so I feel confident I can be reasonably successful. Which fish, you ask? Either a pair of Purple Firefish, or a pair of Black Photon Clowns. Leaning toward the Firefish because I want them to be able to claim territory without having to fight for it. I doubt a pair of clowns would claim an entire 150g tank, but knowing my luck, I get the pair that does.
I'll be attempting to go from most peaceful through to the few fish I have planned that need to be added last. My aim was for interesting behaviors, and a rainbow of colors. Pretty sure I nailed it! Consider the four listed above a sneak peak into my fish list.
I think I'm done rambling now, though! Expect a few pictures in my next post, and then even more tomorrow when I start building my quarantine stand! At some point, I'll be getting my stand build plans posted as well!
Equipment List
(Italicized items are bought already)
All of my experience up to this has been fresh water, both planted and not tanks. From the smallest 5g build to a 100g I looked after for family for about five years. This will be the biggest tank I've put together to date, and I'm excited! I've reading and researching just about everything I can get my hands on. Not only do I feel well prepared, but I'm also finally in a position I can get what I really want. I was originally considering starting with something much smaller - in the 30-50g size range - but I know myself. If I got the smaller tank, I'd want to upgrade at some point. So I've finally decided on the SCA 150g tank. It's 5ftx2ftx2ft and it's the biggest tank I feel comfortable starting with. I had originally decided on the RS 525 XL, but after looking at the SCA tanks and getting the bug to build my own stand, I'll be saving money AND getting a bigger tank AND getting the stand designed the way I want it. Win-win, I think!
So what's my plan? First off, getting most of what I need before I get the tank. This includes all equipment, rock, sand, water station built, quarantine tanks, plumbing planned and parts bought and two stands built. The idea is the moment that tank comes through the door, I'm primed to set it up and get the cycle started. And that's in full swing as of last week! Pictures will follow in a separate post!
What's the long term plan? I will be starting with a fishless cycle by dosing DrTim's Ammonia to 2ppm. I will be adding a bottle of Biospira to kick start the cycle, but I expect the tank to run fishless for at least a month, possibly two. I will be adding live rock but the majority will be dry rock. For the first month or so, I will be watching what crawls out of the live rock and taking anything bad out. Algae management will be a wait and see approach. I know about and expect the tank to go through its ugly stages and I've already warned my roommate that we'll have a fancy box with rocks for a while in the beginning. This was met with utter, genuine disbelief which gave me a good laugh.
Once I'm sure the water parameters have stabilized out and I'm set in a routine for testing the water, and doing water changes, I will likely be starting with two or three small fish set up in a 10g quarantine. I'll be doing a short observation period to allow the fish to calm down and get them eating good before treatment. I'm still on the fence on copper treatment, but I will most likely be doing that with other treatments before or after. There's a lot of good info and quarantine procedures here so I feel confident I can be reasonably successful. Which fish, you ask? Either a pair of Purple Firefish, or a pair of Black Photon Clowns. Leaning toward the Firefish because I want them to be able to claim territory without having to fight for it. I doubt a pair of clowns would claim an entire 150g tank, but knowing my luck, I get the pair that does.
I'll be attempting to go from most peaceful through to the few fish I have planned that need to be added last. My aim was for interesting behaviors, and a rainbow of colors. Pretty sure I nailed it! Consider the four listed above a sneak peak into my fish list.
I think I'm done rambling now, though! Expect a few pictures in my next post, and then even more tomorrow when I start building my quarantine stand! At some point, I'll be getting my stand build plans posted as well!
Equipment List
(Italicized items are bought already)
Sump: Trigger Systems Sapphire Sump - 39 inch
Return Pump: VarioS 8
Lights: Hydra 52's x3
Skimmer: Nyos 160
Powerheads: Gyre 350's x2
ATO: Tunze 3155
ATO Reservoir: Trigger Systems Sapphire - 10 Gallon
RODI Unit: 6 Stage Deluxe Plus
Heater: Jager TruTemp 250 x2
Refractometer: MD Refractometer
Algae Scrubber: RAIN2 or DIY
UV: ???
Reactor: Standard Aquamaxx GFO/Carbon x2
Controller: Neptune Systems Apex
Doser: Neptune Systems DOS+DDR
Also Needed:Return Pump: VarioS 8
Lights: Hydra 52's x3
Skimmer: Nyos 160
Powerheads: Gyre 350's x2
ATO: Tunze 3155
ATO Reservoir: Trigger Systems Sapphire - 10 Gallon
RODI Unit: 6 Stage Deluxe Plus
Heater: Jager TruTemp 250 x2
Refractometer: MD Refractometer
Algae Scrubber: RAIN2 or DIY
UV: ???
Reactor: Standard Aquamaxx GFO/Carbon x2
Controller: Neptune Systems Apex
Doser: Neptune Systems DOS+DDR
Fish Quarantine: Tank + Equipment
Coral/Invert Quarantine: Tank + Equipment (Everything but filter bought)
Rock: 100lbs of ReefCleaners Dry Rock + 30-40lbs of LFS live rock
Sand: CaribSea Dry Aragonite Special Grade 40lb Bags x3
Testers: Hanna Checkers (Alk, Calcium, Phosphate, Copper) + Amm/Nitrite/Nitrate test kit
Coral/Invert Quarantine: Tank + Equipment (Everything but filter bought)
Rock: 100lbs of ReefCleaners Dry Rock + 30-40lbs of LFS live rock
Sand: CaribSea Dry Aragonite Special Grade 40lb Bags x3
Testers: Hanna Checkers (Alk, Calcium, Phosphate, Copper) + Amm/Nitrite/Nitrate test kit
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