dwilliams87
Valuable Member
As some of you know, my wife and I had our first child back at the end of October last year. For those of you that dont, her name is Madison Elisabeth Williams. We call her Madi. She is a very easy child to keep entertained thus far. We found out early on that just like other babies, she loves lights. We can sit her in front of one of my tanks and she will either stare at the lights are follow fish around the aquarium with her eyes. Well, this gave me the perfect oppurtunity to add another tank. I have convinced my wife that we need a Madi tank. This wasnt very easy since I already have three tanks and spend a fair amount of time keeping up with them. Over the Past year I have noticed my wife gaining a little more interest though, even to the point of occasionally finding a coral she thinks would be nice in one of the tanks.
Obviously a three month old child doesnt have a whole lot of interest in a reef tank, but her 25 year old father has a lot. So, I'm going to do some things in the tank that would be "childish" and also set it up to be perfect for my fastly growing LPS and zoa collection. I will be using mostly things I already have around the house with very little to buy.
The tank will be a 40b with a 20L sump which i already have. I will light it with a 4 bulb T5 fixture I already have. I have a HOB protein skimmer i will be using and i have 4 koralia powerheads. I already have 45 lbs of sand. What I plan on buying extra is a GFO reactor, as I have had good luck with my other tanks using it, an Eshopps overflow, and a return pump. I will have to buy rock, but I will buy dry rock as I've never had any problem with it. Now to make it kid friendly, I have a pirates of the caribbean Black Pearl lego ship that my wife bought me for Christmas. I am going to clearcoat it and cut it in half. I am going to use my dremmel to cut the middle where it is cut in half to make it look as if a shark has sunk the ship. I am going to lay the peices in to where they are dug down into the sand as if it was under the water for some time. I will mount zoas all along the ship. I am going to have an acan garden to one side of it and scatter my chalices across the tank. Because of the sweepers that favias put out, I am going to mount them on various rocks throughout the tank where they cant sting the others as easy. Finally, my wife wants something large in the back corner that sways with the flow so Im thinking either a large frogspawn or hammer coral. I will be building my stand but do not intend on spending alot of money on this project. I can make the stand look good without a lot of money invested. I think total cost before adding fish will be roughly $175.00
As soon as I get started putting it all together I will be taking pics of the entire build. Thanks for looking and let me know if you have any ideas or things i should consider doing differently.
Oh, and here is a pic of the ship I've built.
Obviously a three month old child doesnt have a whole lot of interest in a reef tank, but her 25 year old father has a lot. So, I'm going to do some things in the tank that would be "childish" and also set it up to be perfect for my fastly growing LPS and zoa collection. I will be using mostly things I already have around the house with very little to buy.
The tank will be a 40b with a 20L sump which i already have. I will light it with a 4 bulb T5 fixture I already have. I have a HOB protein skimmer i will be using and i have 4 koralia powerheads. I already have 45 lbs of sand. What I plan on buying extra is a GFO reactor, as I have had good luck with my other tanks using it, an Eshopps overflow, and a return pump. I will have to buy rock, but I will buy dry rock as I've never had any problem with it. Now to make it kid friendly, I have a pirates of the caribbean Black Pearl lego ship that my wife bought me for Christmas. I am going to clearcoat it and cut it in half. I am going to use my dremmel to cut the middle where it is cut in half to make it look as if a shark has sunk the ship. I am going to lay the peices in to where they are dug down into the sand as if it was under the water for some time. I will mount zoas all along the ship. I am going to have an acan garden to one side of it and scatter my chalices across the tank. Because of the sweepers that favias put out, I am going to mount them on various rocks throughout the tank where they cant sting the others as easy. Finally, my wife wants something large in the back corner that sways with the flow so Im thinking either a large frogspawn or hammer coral. I will be building my stand but do not intend on spending alot of money on this project. I can make the stand look good without a lot of money invested. I think total cost before adding fish will be roughly $175.00
As soon as I get started putting it all together I will be taking pics of the entire build. Thanks for looking and let me know if you have any ideas or things i should consider doing differently.
Oh, and here is a pic of the ship I've built.
