mik3c
Community Member
Hi Reefers,
New member in the S. Bronx here. I’m looking forward to being a part of this community but, you know, I could use a little advice (and maybe moral support) while I set up this tank.
I’ve kept freshwater fish for a long time, I also do plants. I have run sump/refugiums before but I’m not really an expert there. I’ve always wanted a reef tank, I’ve tried keeping saltwater fish when I was younger and it didn’t really go well so I gave up on it for a while but… I’m going to try this again. I’ve learned a lot since then (I think the hobby itself has actually developed a lot as well.) I'm thinking if it all goes REALLY BAD, then I will have blown a grand or so on reef stuff I don't need but even then I'll be left with some new skills and a really first-rate freshwater set up if I have to fall back to that.
I have a few things going for me, I’m a software engineer but I do have some fair DIY experience, I have some woodworking/carpentry skills and I’ve done some welding of metals, but I don’t have a lot of experience working with plastics or glass, I have drilled a dozen tanks -even if you’ve never done it it’s the easiest thing this hobby is ever going to ask you to do, once you establish that the glass isn’t tempered you have nothing to fear, get in there and put a hole in it- but not really anything like cutting or bonding glass. I could also stand to learn more about water engineering in general so I’ve tried to do that. I also have some other skills that I think might come in handy down the road, I can work effectively with things like DC Pumps (if a DC pump is anything at all like a DC motor… which it is) and motion controllers, LEDs. Sensors, Raspberry Pi, things like that. I have a fair amount of background in chemistry and some microbiology as well and of course that never hurts. I have a lab-quality microscope here in case something is ever growing in one of my tanks and idk what it is, that’s actually come in handy once or twice.
Also, a few things going against me… I’m not the most patient person and you know, that doesn’t help but I have strategies to mitigate that (more about that later. I’m not a rich guy either, I do OK but you know, this is isn’t an economically responsible decision at all given the current situation. However, if the economy is just going to suffer some devastating collapse every few years like it has since I was 20 and never give me a chance to catch up then then it can eat butts. If I’m gonna lose my job and be broke then it just gets harder and I might as well have a nice fishtank to stare at while I wonder where all my dreams went. In short… saw the tank… want the tank… the tank is mine. So here’s where we are NOW:
I set up 2 55 gallon water barrels & RODI (coming) in the laundry room with a water hookup and a drain, about 12’ away, I could theoretically run some plumbing into this room under the floor and put some extra gear in there, maybe an automated water change system down the road (I do have some questions about that.) I’m definitely not into carrying water around in buckets but for now I can just use a pump and hose to move water around.
I’m definitely more into running multiple tanks than one single massive one so I’m thinking a lot about things like scaling out and plumbing more than one tank into the same system, being able to run smaller, sometimes temporary or project tanks that can share that support system. I also tend to run some extra water ballast, ie: water outside the display tank. Increasinhg the ratio of “invisible” to “visible” water seems to make the system more stable and make my display tanks healthier, I’ve never had it do anything but good for my freshwater systems so I’m thinking I want to do this with salt water as well. I have an older 55g that is a little beat up for a display but I could easily stash it in a corner, fill it and maybe load it up with live rock and connect it to the rest of the system if I needed to right?
I purchased a nice new 120g main tank, I kind of wanted something bigger but this tank looked good, it’s nice clear glass, it’s all drilled, it’s 2’x4’ it’s got that familiar “breeder tank” aspect ratio. As I’ve mentioned I’ll probably (definitely) want to run multiple tanks so if I want more, I could always get another 120g (or whatever) and connect it to the same water system. Plus I think at that size, with some difficulty I could drain and move the tank if I needed to. 120 is widely recommended, I think I probably made a good choice. In any case I think purchasing the tank and having it on-hand should be all the pressure I need to complete this project.
I can build the stand, I’m not really worried about this part. 2X4s, 2x6s, carriage bolts, some birch ply and the plan may involve some pourable leveling compound. I’m thinking I would want some kind of foam for the top too so I’ll cut that out of a roll of neoprene. Maybe I’ll paint it.
I don’t think I need to spend a lot of money on a sump. My plan involves a series of 10 or 20 Gallon tanks, oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the main tank and stacked horizontally beneath it, drilled an plumbed together with wide pipes. This way I can swap them in and out, they’re easy to get in/out of the stand, I can add more if I need them, add additional chambers for live rock, extra water ballast, etc. If I need to add or create specialized modules with sections and chambers I can. The most successful sump/refugium I ever ran was made out of 3 rectangular cat litter buckets under a 75g, I feel like this will work and it gives me a lot of the modularity/scalability I like to build into my engineering projects. If I want to support multiple tanks, all of my instincts are telling me this is the way to go.
For practice, I drilled, plumbed and connected a few freshwater plant and fish tanks together, turned an old 40g breeder into a sump. Not what one would call a “handsome” sump, but it sumps and refuges. And, for that matter, it seems pretty effective. I also just played around with solvent welding PVC fittings and took practice runs at some of the parts I would need. I am actually kind of enjoying that, when working with metals I always really liked the “permanence” of the pieces that were made and there’s something satisfying about the way the plastic melts together and loses all memory of the fact that it was ever two seperate pieces. It’s actually very satisfying. ANYWAY… I made sure I understood all the physics involved, siphons and such so I think I’m good here. I'm about to start setting up this tank and adding livestock.
I do want to mention up front that I consider “livestock” pets (even the plants kind of) and while I don’t have the same relationship with them that I have with some of my other (ie: feline) pets I recognize full well that they have needs beyond clean water and light, I care for them, I feel a lot of responsibility TO them and I try provide a healthy happy environment for them as best I can. I recognize full well also that they are individuals with distinct personalities and unique needs(fish definitely, plants and corals maybe kinda idk.)
So… I have boxes of salt, I just bought reef crystals and I have a bunch of it. If it turns out my pets like a different salt, I’ll learn that. I have barrels for water. I have a RODI system and a big tank on a truck en route. I built up some experience working with the materials with which I’ll need to be familiar. I more or less have a plan. I think I’ve learned as much as I can from research and it’s time to start getting experience. I have also depleted Kings County NY of and cornered the market on PVC union fittings, which I am now convinced are the currency of the future. Now I'm thinking about live rock, aquascaping and cycling the tank.
Why am I so afraid of rocks? I can’t really explain it. So, when it comes to selecting live rock and aquascaping this tank, I’ve given a lot of thought to this and I think what I’m going to do is aquascape the tank with dry rock and load the sump and other containers with Live Rock. This live rock is really expensive, I’m going to be REALLY particularlar about the aquascape (I also have never done a marine aquascape) and I’m probably going to want to drill some of them, for me stacking these rocks could take 3 weeks before I’m satisfied and even then I’m probably going to tear it all down and redo it 4 times. I’m thinking dry rock for the display tank is the way to go. As I mentioned before I have a 55g tank that I might just plumb into the system and use for live rock storage & filtration. I’m guessing also once that’s going any dry rock I throw in there eventually BECOMES live rock so I can kind of cultivate some in there as well. I do have some questions about what kind of lighting conditions (or maybe complete darkness) I would want in this tank.
I would set up some nutrient export in thew sump right from the get-go and then I would cycle the tank with a small tang and maybe a pair of clownfish HOWEVER… I may put the clownfish in a smaller, connected tank that I could light and look at for a few months while the main, larger display tank sits in the dark (I don’t think I even want to purchase lights for the main tank right away, lets eliminate that temptation). Is there any reason why that wouldn’t work if they’re all connected to the same water system? I’m actually thinking that 3 small fish might not be enough biomass to effectively cycle the tank with ~200g in flow.
So that's where I am now and kind of what I'm planning to do., and we're moving pretty quickly out of the "planning" and into the "enacting" stage, really excited, REALLY nervous and definitely looking forward to the journey!
Thanks!
P.S. I'll get a few pictures once I've un-wrecked my apt.
New member in the S. Bronx here. I’m looking forward to being a part of this community but, you know, I could use a little advice (and maybe moral support) while I set up this tank.
I’ve kept freshwater fish for a long time, I also do plants. I have run sump/refugiums before but I’m not really an expert there. I’ve always wanted a reef tank, I’ve tried keeping saltwater fish when I was younger and it didn’t really go well so I gave up on it for a while but… I’m going to try this again. I’ve learned a lot since then (I think the hobby itself has actually developed a lot as well.) I'm thinking if it all goes REALLY BAD, then I will have blown a grand or so on reef stuff I don't need but even then I'll be left with some new skills and a really first-rate freshwater set up if I have to fall back to that.
I have a few things going for me, I’m a software engineer but I do have some fair DIY experience, I have some woodworking/carpentry skills and I’ve done some welding of metals, but I don’t have a lot of experience working with plastics or glass, I have drilled a dozen tanks -even if you’ve never done it it’s the easiest thing this hobby is ever going to ask you to do, once you establish that the glass isn’t tempered you have nothing to fear, get in there and put a hole in it- but not really anything like cutting or bonding glass. I could also stand to learn more about water engineering in general so I’ve tried to do that. I also have some other skills that I think might come in handy down the road, I can work effectively with things like DC Pumps (if a DC pump is anything at all like a DC motor… which it is) and motion controllers, LEDs. Sensors, Raspberry Pi, things like that. I have a fair amount of background in chemistry and some microbiology as well and of course that never hurts. I have a lab-quality microscope here in case something is ever growing in one of my tanks and idk what it is, that’s actually come in handy once or twice.
Also, a few things going against me… I’m not the most patient person and you know, that doesn’t help but I have strategies to mitigate that (more about that later. I’m not a rich guy either, I do OK but you know, this is isn’t an economically responsible decision at all given the current situation. However, if the economy is just going to suffer some devastating collapse every few years like it has since I was 20 and never give me a chance to catch up then then it can eat butts. If I’m gonna lose my job and be broke then it just gets harder and I might as well have a nice fishtank to stare at while I wonder where all my dreams went. In short… saw the tank… want the tank… the tank is mine. So here’s where we are NOW:
I set up 2 55 gallon water barrels & RODI (coming) in the laundry room with a water hookup and a drain, about 12’ away, I could theoretically run some plumbing into this room under the floor and put some extra gear in there, maybe an automated water change system down the road (I do have some questions about that.) I’m definitely not into carrying water around in buckets but for now I can just use a pump and hose to move water around.
I’m definitely more into running multiple tanks than one single massive one so I’m thinking a lot about things like scaling out and plumbing more than one tank into the same system, being able to run smaller, sometimes temporary or project tanks that can share that support system. I also tend to run some extra water ballast, ie: water outside the display tank. Increasinhg the ratio of “invisible” to “visible” water seems to make the system more stable and make my display tanks healthier, I’ve never had it do anything but good for my freshwater systems so I’m thinking I want to do this with salt water as well. I have an older 55g that is a little beat up for a display but I could easily stash it in a corner, fill it and maybe load it up with live rock and connect it to the rest of the system if I needed to right?
I purchased a nice new 120g main tank, I kind of wanted something bigger but this tank looked good, it’s nice clear glass, it’s all drilled, it’s 2’x4’ it’s got that familiar “breeder tank” aspect ratio. As I’ve mentioned I’ll probably (definitely) want to run multiple tanks so if I want more, I could always get another 120g (or whatever) and connect it to the same water system. Plus I think at that size, with some difficulty I could drain and move the tank if I needed to. 120 is widely recommended, I think I probably made a good choice. In any case I think purchasing the tank and having it on-hand should be all the pressure I need to complete this project.
I can build the stand, I’m not really worried about this part. 2X4s, 2x6s, carriage bolts, some birch ply and the plan may involve some pourable leveling compound. I’m thinking I would want some kind of foam for the top too so I’ll cut that out of a roll of neoprene. Maybe I’ll paint it.
I don’t think I need to spend a lot of money on a sump. My plan involves a series of 10 or 20 Gallon tanks, oriented perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the main tank and stacked horizontally beneath it, drilled an plumbed together with wide pipes. This way I can swap them in and out, they’re easy to get in/out of the stand, I can add more if I need them, add additional chambers for live rock, extra water ballast, etc. If I need to add or create specialized modules with sections and chambers I can. The most successful sump/refugium I ever ran was made out of 3 rectangular cat litter buckets under a 75g, I feel like this will work and it gives me a lot of the modularity/scalability I like to build into my engineering projects. If I want to support multiple tanks, all of my instincts are telling me this is the way to go.
For practice, I drilled, plumbed and connected a few freshwater plant and fish tanks together, turned an old 40g breeder into a sump. Not what one would call a “handsome” sump, but it sumps and refuges. And, for that matter, it seems pretty effective. I also just played around with solvent welding PVC fittings and took practice runs at some of the parts I would need. I am actually kind of enjoying that, when working with metals I always really liked the “permanence” of the pieces that were made and there’s something satisfying about the way the plastic melts together and loses all memory of the fact that it was ever two seperate pieces. It’s actually very satisfying. ANYWAY… I made sure I understood all the physics involved, siphons and such so I think I’m good here. I'm about to start setting up this tank and adding livestock.
I do want to mention up front that I consider “livestock” pets (even the plants kind of) and while I don’t have the same relationship with them that I have with some of my other (ie: feline) pets I recognize full well that they have needs beyond clean water and light, I care for them, I feel a lot of responsibility TO them and I try provide a healthy happy environment for them as best I can. I recognize full well also that they are individuals with distinct personalities and unique needs(fish definitely, plants and corals maybe kinda idk.)
So… I have boxes of salt, I just bought reef crystals and I have a bunch of it. If it turns out my pets like a different salt, I’ll learn that. I have barrels for water. I have a RODI system and a big tank on a truck en route. I built up some experience working with the materials with which I’ll need to be familiar. I more or less have a plan. I think I’ve learned as much as I can from research and it’s time to start getting experience. I have also depleted Kings County NY of and cornered the market on PVC union fittings, which I am now convinced are the currency of the future. Now I'm thinking about live rock, aquascaping and cycling the tank.
Why am I so afraid of rocks? I can’t really explain it. So, when it comes to selecting live rock and aquascaping this tank, I’ve given a lot of thought to this and I think what I’m going to do is aquascape the tank with dry rock and load the sump and other containers with Live Rock. This live rock is really expensive, I’m going to be REALLY particularlar about the aquascape (I also have never done a marine aquascape) and I’m probably going to want to drill some of them, for me stacking these rocks could take 3 weeks before I’m satisfied and even then I’m probably going to tear it all down and redo it 4 times. I’m thinking dry rock for the display tank is the way to go. As I mentioned before I have a 55g tank that I might just plumb into the system and use for live rock storage & filtration. I’m guessing also once that’s going any dry rock I throw in there eventually BECOMES live rock so I can kind of cultivate some in there as well. I do have some questions about what kind of lighting conditions (or maybe complete darkness) I would want in this tank.
I would set up some nutrient export in thew sump right from the get-go and then I would cycle the tank with a small tang and maybe a pair of clownfish HOWEVER… I may put the clownfish in a smaller, connected tank that I could light and look at for a few months while the main, larger display tank sits in the dark (I don’t think I even want to purchase lights for the main tank right away, lets eliminate that temptation). Is there any reason why that wouldn’t work if they’re all connected to the same water system? I’m actually thinking that 3 small fish might not be enough biomass to effectively cycle the tank with ~200g in flow.
So that's where I am now and kind of what I'm planning to do., and we're moving pretty quickly out of the "planning" and into the "enacting" stage, really excited, REALLY nervous and definitely looking forward to the journey!
Thanks!
P.S. I'll get a few pictures once I've un-wrecked my apt.
