Hello everyone I am finally getting around to posting the progress on my 37 gallon bow front tank with a custom built stand by my grandfather. I started the build in mid April and have been working consistently since then to get it to where it is. I have been around the hobby for a long time but only fish not reef tanks. I had taken a break for a while when life got busy but am ready to get back into the hobby.
The goal for this tank is for it to be a softie tank with a few fish here and there just to get my feet wet again in the hobby and then set up a 90 gallon tank that I have had since I was young once I feel comfortable and space allows.
We started at the LFS trying to pick out some reef rock. I liked the look of the Coraline rock rather than the white rock I have had in previous tanks. Oh and the dog had to throw his 2 cents in on aquascaping.... he's an expert
Next came the aquascaping and water. I chose to buy water from my LFS but have since mad a reef mixing station and gotten an RODI that I will update with later. For filtration I am using a Fluval canister and although I know it is far from the ideal filtration method I don't want to drill and sump the tank when I plan on moving up to the 90 gallon sooner than later. Because we are planning on moving up to a bigger tank and wanting to make sure we like the hobby the wife and I chose a Current USA IC for lighting. Again not the most ideal lighting but I have researched and it should sustain softies like we would like. Eventually we plan on upgrading with the tank.
After a proper cycling procedure we began to stock the tank. For fish we had a clown fish, swallow tail angle, and flame angel as well as a healthy clean up crew of blue legged hermits. We loved having the tank finally stocked but unfortunately an outbreak of ick and the swallow tail jumping out of the tank cleared out all the fish. We also started with a few frags.
After the outbreak we left the tank empty for over a month to let any possible ick spores run their course before restocking. We attended Reefapalooza in August to resupply and we were really happy with the show. We were able to get 3 clowns ( not ideal but the third snuck into the bag and I can't bring myself to get rid of it). We also were able to stock up on some corals including a zoa rock, clam, torch, and hammer which we have loved. Unfortunately the torch didn't fair well in our tank mostly because I think that I had it too high up thinking it would need a lot of light. Everything else seems to being doing really well with the hammer breaking off into more heads, the clam being fully open all day, and zoos starting to spread to other areas in the tank as well.
Sorry if this is long winded this is my first build thread and I have a bunch of pictures I wanted to share. I plan on keeping this thread updated as we continue to explain and hopefully move into a bigger tank at some point!
Thanks for reading!
The goal for this tank is for it to be a softie tank with a few fish here and there just to get my feet wet again in the hobby and then set up a 90 gallon tank that I have had since I was young once I feel comfortable and space allows.
We started at the LFS trying to pick out some reef rock. I liked the look of the Coraline rock rather than the white rock I have had in previous tanks. Oh and the dog had to throw his 2 cents in on aquascaping.... he's an expert
Next came the aquascaping and water. I chose to buy water from my LFS but have since mad a reef mixing station and gotten an RODI that I will update with later. For filtration I am using a Fluval canister and although I know it is far from the ideal filtration method I don't want to drill and sump the tank when I plan on moving up to the 90 gallon sooner than later. Because we are planning on moving up to a bigger tank and wanting to make sure we like the hobby the wife and I chose a Current USA IC for lighting. Again not the most ideal lighting but I have researched and it should sustain softies like we would like. Eventually we plan on upgrading with the tank.
After a proper cycling procedure we began to stock the tank. For fish we had a clown fish, swallow tail angle, and flame angel as well as a healthy clean up crew of blue legged hermits. We loved having the tank finally stocked but unfortunately an outbreak of ick and the swallow tail jumping out of the tank cleared out all the fish. We also started with a few frags.
After the outbreak we left the tank empty for over a month to let any possible ick spores run their course before restocking. We attended Reefapalooza in August to resupply and we were really happy with the show. We were able to get 3 clowns ( not ideal but the third snuck into the bag and I can't bring myself to get rid of it). We also were able to stock up on some corals including a zoa rock, clam, torch, and hammer which we have loved. Unfortunately the torch didn't fair well in our tank mostly because I think that I had it too high up thinking it would need a lot of light. Everything else seems to being doing really well with the hammer breaking off into more heads, the clam being fully open all day, and zoos starting to spread to other areas in the tank as well.
Sorry if this is long winded this is my first build thread and I have a bunch of pictures I wanted to share. I plan on keeping this thread updated as we continue to explain and hopefully move into a bigger tank at some point!
Thanks for reading!
