My First Build

Jen1978

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Hello. Thanks for stopping in to check out my build. Forgive me, not everything is here yet but I have been planning for months now and I’m anxious. I was going to do a 20 gallon nano since I found my mom’s old freshwater tank from when I was a child, but my son moved and had two 55 gallon tanks and he gave me one free. I’m still waiting on my order from West Mariculture to finish my set up, but my QT is up and running. Yup, too lazy (nervous) to make a reefscape. Trying to keep it simple. Equipment list to date below.

Aqueon 55 gal tank - $0.00 (Thanks kid!) He’s a mamma’s boy
Blackout back – orcal car vinyl. No cost, I have a crap ton.
Lid – Aquenon versa $41.99 My livingroom gets to be only 67 at night. Want to try this.
Monarch Cabinet Stand - $199.99
Lights – Current Marinex2 - $207.89 (send the light police, I bought cheap ones).
Filtration – AquaMaxx HOB w/Skimmer (HF-M) $245.91
Heater & Controller – BRS 200W Titanium Heater System $92.99
Heater (Spare) BRS 200W Titanium Heater $47.99
Circulation Fans (2) – Current USA $139.70
RO/DI System – BRS 5 stage premium 75GPD $199.99
Aquascape – West Mariculture $395.00

WOW!! Wait, what? This comes to over $1,500.00 and it’s just the tip of iceberg. I didn’t count test kits, sand, cleaning utensils, salt, brute can, blah, blah, blah. I might have to get a job. My husband won’t be able to afford my habit.

My Empty Tank :rolleyes::(
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My scape I'm waiting on
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Tank is up and ready, just waiting on that aquascape. Picture of progress so far attached and the two scape pieces I ordered. So looking forward to the journey. My first young clowns are living in the 10 gal. QT for now and I love them to pieces. They seem to really like people.

Later updates to follow.
 

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That is going to be one beautiful tank!
 

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Hello. Thanks for stopping in to check out my build. Forgive me, not everything is here yet but I have been planning for months now and I’m anxious. I was going to do a 20 gallon nano since I found my mom’s old freshwater tank from when I was a child, but my son moved and had two 55 gallon tanks and he gave me one free. I’m still waiting on my order from West Mariculture to finish my set up, but my QT is up and running. Yup, too lazy (nervous) to make a reefscape. Trying to keep it simple. Equipment list to date below.

Aqueon 55 gal tank - $0.00 (Thanks kid!) He’s a mamma’s boy
Blackout back – orcal car vinyl. No cost, I have a crap ton.
Lid – Aquenon versa $41.99 My livingroom gets to be only 67 at night. Want to try this.
Monarch Cabinet Stand - $199.99
Lights – Current Marinex2 - $207.89 (send the light police, I bought cheap ones).
Filtration – AquaMaxx HOB w/Skimmer (HF-M) $245.91
Heater & Controller – BRS 200W Titanium Heater System $92.99
Heater (Spare) BRS 200W Titanium Heater $47.99
Circulation Fans (2) – Current USA $139.70
RO/DI System – BRS 5 stage premium 75GPD $199.99
Aquascape – West Mariculture $395.00

WOW!! Wait, what? This comes to over $1,500.00 and it’s just the tip of iceberg. I didn’t count test kits, sand, cleaning utensils, salt, brute can, blah, blah, blah. I might have to get a job. My husband won’t be able to afford my habit.

My Empty Tank :rolleyes::(
20200603_182708.jpg


My scape I'm waiting on
20200601_184033.jpg
Looks good. What about a controller?
 
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Jen1978

Jen1978

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Looks good. What about a controller?
Not in the budget at the moment. I left my job early February to move to my elderly mother's house (put a livingroom, bathroom, and two bedrooms in basement) to take care of her and to help with my twin grandson's that were born in March. With COVID husband lost his job shortly after. Trying to get the necessities for now as I'm usually home with my mom anyway. Things like controllers, ATO and such are just not needed at the moment.
 
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Jen1978

Jen1978

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What do you plan to keep in your tank?
small fish - clowns, 6 line wrasse, royal gramma basslet, lawnmower blenny. Would love zoa's, maybe a pulsing xenia. Considering a yellow tang as they are a great utilitarian. My LFS does take them back when they get too big.
 

New&no clue

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small fish - clowns, 6 line wrasse, royal gramma basslet, lawnmower blenny. Would love zoa's, maybe a pulsing xenia. Considering a yellow tang as they are a great utilitarian. My LFS does take them back when they get too big.

Fish wont care what kind of light you get, and if the corals you are looking at are zoas and xenia then you should have no problem with that light.
 
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Jen1978

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What a day! The aquascape finally came from West Mariculture. It's later than I expected, A little bit of it was broken and I had to glue it. Really? It seemed slightly larger than advertised. Barley fit it in the tank. Got it in and the shelves on and got all my sand in. Have tank almost full so I decided to begin to fill up the HOB skimmer. Of course, it has a crack and is leaking. Husband to the rescue. Now I have to wait overnight for it's seal on the crack to dry before I try that again. Murphy's law today. At least the tank is holding water I guess. LOL. Can't wait for the "dust to settle" so I can see my finished product.

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Jen1978

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Tank is finally almost cycled. Fill up date was July 3. The clownfish, particularly the orange, love it! One of their favorite things to do is ride the current from the wave maker across the top of the tank. Their next friends (orchid dottyback and a cardinal) are in the QT waiting for the tank to finish stabalizing before being moved over.

My next project will be taking an empty 10 gallon my son gave me and start doing my own copepods and phytoplankton to someday add a green mandarin.

20200724_111907.jpg
 
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Jen1978

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Donald (Cardinal) and Melania (Dottyback) graduated from QT today and are quickly making friends with the clown posse in my DT. The clowns also seem to be very welcoming of their new friends.
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revhtree

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Tank is finally almost cycled. Fill up date was July 3. The clownfish, particularly the orange, love it! One of their favorite things to do is ride the current from the wave maker across the top of the tank. Their next friends (orchid dottyback and a cardinal) are in the QT waiting for the tank to finish stabalizing before being moved over.

My next project will be taking an empty 10 gallon my son gave me and start doing my own copepods and phytoplankton to someday add a green mandarin.

20200724_111907.jpg

Very cool start!
 
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Jen1978

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Just a little DIY project. Fuge & Copepod breeding tank lights made today. Never soldered before today. Wasn't that hard. Hopefully on Tuesday I get to the LFS (not so local, nearest one hour and 15 minutes) to get some cheato and try it out. Next project will be small 10 gallon tank to breed copepods so I can have a mandarin in the future.


When old and blind
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Here is the link on how to do the DIY light
 
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Jen1978

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Haven't updated for a while. The ugly phase has hit somewhat and I am working to get past it. It has been under control the last few weeks with decreased lighting and changing my filter pad 2X daily to get out what yucks I can. This was my tank a few weeks ago but now you can barely tell I had an issue. I ordered a small UV steralizer (Green Killing Machine) from Chewy and put it in today to hopefully keep this issue at bay until my tank is more established. I know, the uglies are normal but I don't like it.
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Jen1978

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Update 2 for the day. I have finally started my pod and Phyto culture area. I dumped half my pods into my tank and the ultra small fuge area it does have and put the rest in my culture tank. All seems to be doing well. You can somewhat see in the video clip the pods jumping around the blue lights on the grow light. I even see pods in my display tank at night now if I turn all lights off and stay up a bit. I will be doing an in depth you tube video of this at some point and will add a link incase anyone is interested in culturing pods and phyto outside of their tank. This hobby sure does keep me busy.
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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 63 36.6%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 34.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 24 14.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 15.1%
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