neltel_7
Active Member
I am relatively new to this hobby but have been researching for years and planing what I am going to do when I finally start up a tank. 4 months ago I started the build on my dream budget tank and wanted to share it with all of you.
Buying the tank:
I went on letgo and after 5 months of searching, I finally found the deal I was looking for. A lady really needed to get rid of her tank as it was costing her too much to maintain. I paid 250 for a 100 gallon tank with a Aqua top uv 4 stage canister filter(with ceramic rings, bio balls, tons of fillterpads, filter floss and tons of pure carbon), Fluval Marine and Reef 2.0 light, 2 powerhead 3200 GPH, 180 pounds of live rock, 160 pounds of live sand, and a tank stand and a tank lid with glass sliders. She also provided me with about 200 dollars worth of food and medications. I was really blessed and am so grateful for everything shes done for me.
Equipment:
I had money to spare because I paid so little for the tank but I still wanted to make this a budget build. I wanted to make this as self-sustaining as possible so I added a Penn-Plax internal filter, a surface skimmer, an autotop off system, a heater, some phytoplankton dosing bottles, packs of fillterfloss, some nitrifying bacteria bottles, and an all in one trace element dosing.
All in all, I paid about 400 dollars for about 2,000 dollars worth of stuff because I was patient.
Live stock:
I let the tank settle for about 3 weeks before I put anything, but as any new tank would, I got some diatom blooms. I found that the best way to combat this was by dosing the nitrifying bacteria into the main display tank and into the canister filter (not sure how effective this was) and also increasing the flow around the tank. Within 2 days the diatoms went away for good and have not returned. After the 3 weeks, I added 2 ocellaris clownfish, 5 red clawed hermit crabs and dosed 2 bottles of tiger pods ( I plan on adding a mandarin goby in about 8 months and thought it would be going to establish the population early). About 2 weeks after that I found that my parameters were looking really good so I added some GSP on an isolated rock and som xenia on another isolated rock (I plan on keeping them trimmed back form other rocks and the glass when they start growing fast. About 2 weeks after that I added about 8 margarita snails and a paired YWG with a tiger pistol shrimp. They right away found a very porous rock and made about 8 entrances and exits ( they open and cover them up throughout the day). About 2 months after that I added a baby sebae anemone (a deal I could not pass up) and this past month I have been nursing it back to health. Through daily feeding of misis shrimp, brine shrimp and scallops it is regaining this brownish coloration and its tentacles have almost doubled in length. I plan on getting some sand sifting gobies and a tomini tang tomorrow with zoanthids, hammer coral, monti cap, birdsnest, ricordia, blastomussa and some other mushrooms.
Thanks for reading if you've read this far, please comment any suggestions you have for me going forward.
P.S.
The anemone is already in my tank and thriving so please do not criticize, I understand it was not the wisest decisions but im sure we've all done something thats not exactly recommended when it comes to reefing.
Have a great day and keep on reefing!!!
Buying the tank:
I went on letgo and after 5 months of searching, I finally found the deal I was looking for. A lady really needed to get rid of her tank as it was costing her too much to maintain. I paid 250 for a 100 gallon tank with a Aqua top uv 4 stage canister filter(with ceramic rings, bio balls, tons of fillterpads, filter floss and tons of pure carbon), Fluval Marine and Reef 2.0 light, 2 powerhead 3200 GPH, 180 pounds of live rock, 160 pounds of live sand, and a tank stand and a tank lid with glass sliders. She also provided me with about 200 dollars worth of food and medications. I was really blessed and am so grateful for everything shes done for me.
Equipment:
I had money to spare because I paid so little for the tank but I still wanted to make this a budget build. I wanted to make this as self-sustaining as possible so I added a Penn-Plax internal filter, a surface skimmer, an autotop off system, a heater, some phytoplankton dosing bottles, packs of fillterfloss, some nitrifying bacteria bottles, and an all in one trace element dosing.
All in all, I paid about 400 dollars for about 2,000 dollars worth of stuff because I was patient.
Live stock:
I let the tank settle for about 3 weeks before I put anything, but as any new tank would, I got some diatom blooms. I found that the best way to combat this was by dosing the nitrifying bacteria into the main display tank and into the canister filter (not sure how effective this was) and also increasing the flow around the tank. Within 2 days the diatoms went away for good and have not returned. After the 3 weeks, I added 2 ocellaris clownfish, 5 red clawed hermit crabs and dosed 2 bottles of tiger pods ( I plan on adding a mandarin goby in about 8 months and thought it would be going to establish the population early). About 2 weeks after that I found that my parameters were looking really good so I added some GSP on an isolated rock and som xenia on another isolated rock (I plan on keeping them trimmed back form other rocks and the glass when they start growing fast. About 2 weeks after that I added about 8 margarita snails and a paired YWG with a tiger pistol shrimp. They right away found a very porous rock and made about 8 entrances and exits ( they open and cover them up throughout the day). About 2 months after that I added a baby sebae anemone (a deal I could not pass up) and this past month I have been nursing it back to health. Through daily feeding of misis shrimp, brine shrimp and scallops it is regaining this brownish coloration and its tentacles have almost doubled in length. I plan on getting some sand sifting gobies and a tomini tang tomorrow with zoanthids, hammer coral, monti cap, birdsnest, ricordia, blastomussa and some other mushrooms.
Thanks for reading if you've read this far, please comment any suggestions you have for me going forward.
P.S.
The anemone is already in my tank and thriving so please do not criticize, I understand it was not the wisest decisions but im sure we've all done something thats not exactly recommended when it comes to reefing.
Have a great day and keep on reefing!!!
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