AbdominalSnowman
Community Member
I guess it’s about time I start this thread… Sorry for the diatribe!
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by aquariums, and anything to do with underwater life. I have trouble remembering a point in my childhood when I didn’t have some sort of fish bowl or small aquarium, or wasn’t constantly thinking about setting up an aquarium; as you can suspect, not much has changed into my adult life.
Our story begins about three and a half years ago when my wife and I began looking for a new home. After years of living in a small condo, and pining over my dream aquarium, but stopping myself because I knew it was a waste of money as I would only be disappointed due to size limitations, our home search presented me with a blank canvas. Like many of you, the search for a new home involves surveying your options for where a current or future tank can go, and fortunately for me, my wife was of great assistance in this task. We found a floor plan and a lot in a new construction community that we loved, and had an obvious spot for where to put a tank; we were all set. I worked with the builder to run four GFCI circuits and two CAT 6 lines to the location of the tank, and to include a utility sink in the garage. Everything was falling into place perfectly, until life decided to throw a few curve balls, which resulted in us having to back out of that contract.
The saying, “Some things in life happen for a reason”, could not be truer in this instance. While the home that we were building was beautiful, it was nothing compared to the home we eventually purchased. With the living situation sorted out, it was time to starting thinking about the aquarium again. This home did not have an obvious spot for where to put an aquarium (thanks a lot open concept living) but I was determined to find a location. After months of rearranging furniture and switching the location of the family room with the dining room multiple times, I had come to the conclusion that the only viable option was to utilize a peninsula tank as a room divider. I gathered up as many cardboard boxes as I could find, we had tons left over from the move, and with the help of my cousin, I built a 3D footprint of the tank I wanted to build. My wife quickly said, “No”. After some modifications I got her to agree to a tank that was 60” long, 30” wide, and 20” tall (thanks @Greybeard and @JoshH for the inspiration). With the approval having been received, I quickly rushed to my local LFS to begin the process of ordering a custom tank. I decided to go acrylic which saved some on the cost, but after the initial joy of receiving the tank, and seeing some of the beautiful glass tanks on this site, I began to notice the lack of attention to detail in my tanks build. While the seams are structurally sound, the spillover of solvent at a lot of the joints is not very visually appealing, not to mention the fact that I ordered a tank that was 20” tall and received a tank that was 24” tall. Having stupidly only measured the length and the width of the tank upon arrival to ensure it would fit the stand I made, I didn’t think to measure the height. A quick search to ensure that the extra height was within tolerance for the acrylic thickness, which it was, coupled with the facts that the euro brace was wider than what was quoted, and I did not notice the discrepancy for longer than I’m proud to admit, I decided to keep my mouth shut and live with the extra water volume. Up to this point, all of the equipment I had bought was with the intention of being able to include in an upgrade if all goes well, so the extra 40ish gallons was no issue.
The tank sat as an empty room divider for about a year and a half after being received, which resulted in repeated heckling from family, friends, and neighbors. It got to the point that I would just say, “No”, every time I heard the words, “Have you…”, to which the inevitable question was, “Have you worked on your aquarium at all?”. While the tank sat empty I went through stages of deciding to move forward with the build, and periods where I just wanted to list everything for sale and forget that I ever decided to do this. During the periods where I was all-in with completing the set-up of the tank, I had amassed a significant amount of equipment, listed below:
On a Friday night this past January, I was watching aquarium YouTube videos while lying in bed, and the idea struck me to finally make the drive to WWC the following morning. They are a few hours away, so I had never went since the tank was not set-up. I asked my wife if she would be interested in joining me, and not surprisingly she was down; she’s the best! The next morning we woke up early, picked up breakfast and coffee, and off we went.
Upon walking in to WWC, I knew in an instant that I was moving forward with the tank. We got there shortly after they opened, and were lucky enough to be shown the coral farm and the massive mixed reef tanks they have right as you walk through the doors to the farm. My wife and I stared in amazement at what was possible to have in our own tank. After viewing the farm, we perused the rest of the store, taking note of the vats containing curing Real Reef Rock, the surplus of dry goods, the sheer volume of coral, and of course, Casper! Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your thoughts on artwork, my wife had developed an eye for the florescent paintings by Rachel Fogel, also known as ReefWeeds.
We went home that day recharged, and ready to make this happen. I had a little more work to do on the plumbing, but that didn’t take long. I took a day or two to think through exactly how I was going to finish the plumbing, taking into account valves and unions for future expansions or modifications. Next up was the substrate decision. There was no way I was putting sand in this acrylic tank, but I had to do something as I could not stand looking at the print on the foam board insulation that was under the tank. I thought through the usual suspects that one thinks of when considering a bare bottom tank, and ultimately settled on an idea that is not mentioned too often as an option, travertine tiles. As travertine is very similar in composition and porosity to lime stone, I figured it would be a good choice. I searched for an all-natural tile with no sealant, and found a viable option. As an added precaution I soaked the tiles in RODI for a week before placing them in my tank. To my knowledge there have been no negative impacts from utilizing the tiles, although I am taking the “ignorance is bliss” approach at this point; I have not ran an ICP test on the leftover water from soaking the tiles.
What I believe to be my biggest hang-up on the build of the tank, up to this point, was the decision of what rock to use. I know everyone in this hobby has an opinion about rock when starting a tank, and so does everyone who knows someone with a saltwater tank, but we all know what they say about opinions, right? I know mine stinks! After kicking the can on every school of thought, and almost pulling the trigger on each, I had settled on TBS rock or the Real Reef Rock that was curing at WWC. A quick visit to TBS’ website quickly informed me that they were closed (the new owners had not arrived on the scene at this point), which instead had me looking at KP Aquatics. I had the wife on Board to take the following Monday and Tuesday off work for an impromptu trip to the Keys to purchase the rock for our tank. All systems were go. After doing a little more research on the process and curing time utilized in the production of Real Reef Rock, coupled with the fact that it was continuing to cure in the vats at WWC, and it presented to risk of no pests, our Keys trip was off. We ended up going to WWC with a well thought out aquascape plan which I had drawn to scale for the available space in our tank. We had a rough idea of the shape and size each rock needed to be to achieve the desired outcome. We worked with a few WWC employees and built the aquascape on the table scale they have, taping off the available footprint on the scale. After only an hour and a half, we had built a scape that almost exactly reflected our original design. This was only possible due to the amount of rock they keep curing in the store. Tons of pictures were taken to ensure we had every angle possible to refer back to when we assembled the scape back home. We separated the different structures into induvial totes, ensuring that the base rocks went on the bottom of the totes, followed by subsequent layers stacked on top of the rocks they would go on in the tank, and all rocks remained in the correct direction. This additional time spent on package the rocks in the store, along with the surplus of photos, made it very easy to reassemble the exact design in our tank.
While I understand that the decision to go Real Reef Rock over KP Aquatics presents a different set of challenges, they were challenges that I was willing to work with. The principal challenge in this decision was clearly the lack of biodiversity, or microbiome, that the KP Aquatics rocks would have provided. I am a firm believer that the microbiome of not just the tanks bacteria, but also the fish’s digestive system, are the most commonly overlooked aspects of fish keeping. I prescribe to a lot of the ideas that @PaulB presents, and while I do not have empirical data to back up his claims, the research (granted some of this is anecdotal, which I try to avoid or validate through reviews of multiple respected hobbyists) and forum sifting I have done over the last few years tend to point to the thought that he is on to something. I note that my acceptance of his theories comes on the heels of advancements in the field of aquatic microbiomes, along with on a personal level starting to have a better understanding of how our own digestive system and gut bacteria impacts us on a daily basis. Had he tried to sell me this snake oil 30 years ago, I probably would have told him to take a hike. With all of that in mind, in addition to the cured Real Reef Rock, I introduced MicroBacter 7, FritzZyme 9, a few pieces of live rock from an LFS’ aquaculture system, and multiple species of pods. I plan to keep introducing new diverse bacteria to the tank on a regular basis, in larger quantities than frag plugs and coral. My thought process here comes from preliminary research performed by @AquaBiomics that points to the theory that while live rock provides an initial diverse bacteria population, there is a continual decline in the biodiversity baring no continual introduction; granted this research may have been superseded since my last review.
Now comes the fun part, livestock. Many moons ago, my wife told me that if I was ever to set up this tank, it would need to be large enough for a Blue Hippo Tang. No need to argue there, I believe the minimum “recommended” size was a 120, or at least that’s what I told her. At this point in the tank, we have a Blue Hippo Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, and a Ruby Scooter Blenny. All three are eating like pigs, and getting along relatively well.
That pretty much brings us to today. Thanks if you stuck around. I will try to add more as we go forward, as I am about to set up my ATO and GHL Profilux4. I am waiting on adding any more fish at this point, but am starting to explore coral.
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by aquariums, and anything to do with underwater life. I have trouble remembering a point in my childhood when I didn’t have some sort of fish bowl or small aquarium, or wasn’t constantly thinking about setting up an aquarium; as you can suspect, not much has changed into my adult life.
Our story begins about three and a half years ago when my wife and I began looking for a new home. After years of living in a small condo, and pining over my dream aquarium, but stopping myself because I knew it was a waste of money as I would only be disappointed due to size limitations, our home search presented me with a blank canvas. Like many of you, the search for a new home involves surveying your options for where a current or future tank can go, and fortunately for me, my wife was of great assistance in this task. We found a floor plan and a lot in a new construction community that we loved, and had an obvious spot for where to put a tank; we were all set. I worked with the builder to run four GFCI circuits and two CAT 6 lines to the location of the tank, and to include a utility sink in the garage. Everything was falling into place perfectly, until life decided to throw a few curve balls, which resulted in us having to back out of that contract.
The saying, “Some things in life happen for a reason”, could not be truer in this instance. While the home that we were building was beautiful, it was nothing compared to the home we eventually purchased. With the living situation sorted out, it was time to starting thinking about the aquarium again. This home did not have an obvious spot for where to put an aquarium (thanks a lot open concept living) but I was determined to find a location. After months of rearranging furniture and switching the location of the family room with the dining room multiple times, I had come to the conclusion that the only viable option was to utilize a peninsula tank as a room divider. I gathered up as many cardboard boxes as I could find, we had tons left over from the move, and with the help of my cousin, I built a 3D footprint of the tank I wanted to build. My wife quickly said, “No”. After some modifications I got her to agree to a tank that was 60” long, 30” wide, and 20” tall (thanks @Greybeard and @JoshH for the inspiration). With the approval having been received, I quickly rushed to my local LFS to begin the process of ordering a custom tank. I decided to go acrylic which saved some on the cost, but after the initial joy of receiving the tank, and seeing some of the beautiful glass tanks on this site, I began to notice the lack of attention to detail in my tanks build. While the seams are structurally sound, the spillover of solvent at a lot of the joints is not very visually appealing, not to mention the fact that I ordered a tank that was 20” tall and received a tank that was 24” tall. Having stupidly only measured the length and the width of the tank upon arrival to ensure it would fit the stand I made, I didn’t think to measure the height. A quick search to ensure that the extra height was within tolerance for the acrylic thickness, which it was, coupled with the facts that the euro brace was wider than what was quoted, and I did not notice the discrepancy for longer than I’m proud to admit, I decided to keep my mouth shut and live with the extra water volume. Up to this point, all of the equipment I had bought was with the intention of being able to include in an upgrade if all goes well, so the extra 40ish gallons was no issue.
The tank sat as an empty room divider for about a year and a half after being received, which resulted in repeated heckling from family, friends, and neighbors. It got to the point that I would just say, “No”, every time I heard the words, “Have you…”, to which the inevitable question was, “Have you worked on your aquarium at all?”. While the tank sat empty I went through stages of deciding to move forward with the build, and periods where I just wanted to list everything for sale and forget that I ever decided to do this. During the periods where I was all-in with completing the set-up of the tank, I had amassed a significant amount of equipment, listed below:
- Trigger Triton 44 V2 Sump
- eShopps S-200 4th Generation Skimmer
- 3 Orphek Atlantik V4 Compacts
- Sicce SDC-9 Return Pump
- Reef Octopus Varios 4 Return Pump
- Pentair 40 Watt UV (Varios 4 is dedicated to the UV)
- CoralVue Hydro Wave Engine (Ecotech Marine Capable)
- Maxspect Gyre XF-350
- BRS 300 Watt Heater and Controller
- BRS 6-Stage RODI Filter
On a Friday night this past January, I was watching aquarium YouTube videos while lying in bed, and the idea struck me to finally make the drive to WWC the following morning. They are a few hours away, so I had never went since the tank was not set-up. I asked my wife if she would be interested in joining me, and not surprisingly she was down; she’s the best! The next morning we woke up early, picked up breakfast and coffee, and off we went.
Upon walking in to WWC, I knew in an instant that I was moving forward with the tank. We got there shortly after they opened, and were lucky enough to be shown the coral farm and the massive mixed reef tanks they have right as you walk through the doors to the farm. My wife and I stared in amazement at what was possible to have in our own tank. After viewing the farm, we perused the rest of the store, taking note of the vats containing curing Real Reef Rock, the surplus of dry goods, the sheer volume of coral, and of course, Casper! Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your thoughts on artwork, my wife had developed an eye for the florescent paintings by Rachel Fogel, also known as ReefWeeds.
We went home that day recharged, and ready to make this happen. I had a little more work to do on the plumbing, but that didn’t take long. I took a day or two to think through exactly how I was going to finish the plumbing, taking into account valves and unions for future expansions or modifications. Next up was the substrate decision. There was no way I was putting sand in this acrylic tank, but I had to do something as I could not stand looking at the print on the foam board insulation that was under the tank. I thought through the usual suspects that one thinks of when considering a bare bottom tank, and ultimately settled on an idea that is not mentioned too often as an option, travertine tiles. As travertine is very similar in composition and porosity to lime stone, I figured it would be a good choice. I searched for an all-natural tile with no sealant, and found a viable option. As an added precaution I soaked the tiles in RODI for a week before placing them in my tank. To my knowledge there have been no negative impacts from utilizing the tiles, although I am taking the “ignorance is bliss” approach at this point; I have not ran an ICP test on the leftover water from soaking the tiles.
What I believe to be my biggest hang-up on the build of the tank, up to this point, was the decision of what rock to use. I know everyone in this hobby has an opinion about rock when starting a tank, and so does everyone who knows someone with a saltwater tank, but we all know what they say about opinions, right? I know mine stinks! After kicking the can on every school of thought, and almost pulling the trigger on each, I had settled on TBS rock or the Real Reef Rock that was curing at WWC. A quick visit to TBS’ website quickly informed me that they were closed (the new owners had not arrived on the scene at this point), which instead had me looking at KP Aquatics. I had the wife on Board to take the following Monday and Tuesday off work for an impromptu trip to the Keys to purchase the rock for our tank. All systems were go. After doing a little more research on the process and curing time utilized in the production of Real Reef Rock, coupled with the fact that it was continuing to cure in the vats at WWC, and it presented to risk of no pests, our Keys trip was off. We ended up going to WWC with a well thought out aquascape plan which I had drawn to scale for the available space in our tank. We had a rough idea of the shape and size each rock needed to be to achieve the desired outcome. We worked with a few WWC employees and built the aquascape on the table scale they have, taping off the available footprint on the scale. After only an hour and a half, we had built a scape that almost exactly reflected our original design. This was only possible due to the amount of rock they keep curing in the store. Tons of pictures were taken to ensure we had every angle possible to refer back to when we assembled the scape back home. We separated the different structures into induvial totes, ensuring that the base rocks went on the bottom of the totes, followed by subsequent layers stacked on top of the rocks they would go on in the tank, and all rocks remained in the correct direction. This additional time spent on package the rocks in the store, along with the surplus of photos, made it very easy to reassemble the exact design in our tank.
While I understand that the decision to go Real Reef Rock over KP Aquatics presents a different set of challenges, they were challenges that I was willing to work with. The principal challenge in this decision was clearly the lack of biodiversity, or microbiome, that the KP Aquatics rocks would have provided. I am a firm believer that the microbiome of not just the tanks bacteria, but also the fish’s digestive system, are the most commonly overlooked aspects of fish keeping. I prescribe to a lot of the ideas that @PaulB presents, and while I do not have empirical data to back up his claims, the research (granted some of this is anecdotal, which I try to avoid or validate through reviews of multiple respected hobbyists) and forum sifting I have done over the last few years tend to point to the thought that he is on to something. I note that my acceptance of his theories comes on the heels of advancements in the field of aquatic microbiomes, along with on a personal level starting to have a better understanding of how our own digestive system and gut bacteria impacts us on a daily basis. Had he tried to sell me this snake oil 30 years ago, I probably would have told him to take a hike. With all of that in mind, in addition to the cured Real Reef Rock, I introduced MicroBacter 7, FritzZyme 9, a few pieces of live rock from an LFS’ aquaculture system, and multiple species of pods. I plan to keep introducing new diverse bacteria to the tank on a regular basis, in larger quantities than frag plugs and coral. My thought process here comes from preliminary research performed by @AquaBiomics that points to the theory that while live rock provides an initial diverse bacteria population, there is a continual decline in the biodiversity baring no continual introduction; granted this research may have been superseded since my last review.
Now comes the fun part, livestock. Many moons ago, my wife told me that if I was ever to set up this tank, it would need to be large enough for a Blue Hippo Tang. No need to argue there, I believe the minimum “recommended” size was a 120, or at least that’s what I told her. At this point in the tank, we have a Blue Hippo Tang, Blonde Naso Tang, and a Ruby Scooter Blenny. All three are eating like pigs, and getting along relatively well.
That pretty much brings us to today. Thanks if you stuck around. I will try to add more as we go forward, as I am about to set up my ATO and GHL Profilux4. I am waiting on adding any more fish at this point, but am starting to explore coral.
