my first build

Dreminon

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Hello everyone, having a salt water aquarium has been a dream of mine for over 20 years now. I have been dreaming reading books on owning a reef watching videos after that became popular. Always day dreaming about having a tank of my own, was unable to for one reason or another. Between not making very much money to being in the military constantly moving around and not having the time to devote to a tank. Well my waiting is almost over! me and my family moved to Florida a couple years ago. Well this past weekend I talked my wife into going to Wide World of Corals in Orlando just to look around. Well needless to say my wife fell in love with some of the corals and decided I could get a tank from them. After talking with Jake for awhile we all decided on a lot of the gear needless to say it will be rather expensive (you will see how much when you see the list). Went home got our ducks in a row now planning on going and picking it up and ordering the stuff tomorrow. The list so far is:

Tank: Waterbox 220.6 black stand
Lights: Ecotech Radion Gen6 XR30 Blue x3
Skimmer: Regal 250SSS 10" space saving protein skimmer
Power heads: Vortech MP40 x2
Pump: Vectra L2
Controller with gear: Apex A3 Pro, Neptune ddr and dos, Neptune Trident
Heaters: 600W BRS x2
about 100lbs of different types of Caribsea dry live rock.
10 20lbs bags of fiji pink sand
Testers: Hanna salinity, po4, no3
salifert ammo kit
a jump guard
7 stage RODI
and a few other odds and ends like super glue, epoxy, magnet scrapper.

Ill get pictures posted as soon as I can. and any opinions and anything be happy to hear.
The tank will be a mixed reef tank. So far for fish I plan on getting

Fish: Purple tang, pair of clownfish (not decided what type thou), Kole tang, lawnmower blennie, yellow watchman gobie with pistol shrimp, carpenters wrasse, longnose hawkfish, and a group of blue green chromis, copperband butterfly
 

Zach B

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Sounds like an awesome setup & stock list! Thank you for serving as well! Best of luck & looking forward to following along :)
 
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Dreminon

Dreminon

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Time for an update. So went and picked everything up. There where a couple little changes the two 600w heaters where changed to two 300w(don't even need them going to install just in case (temp in tank 78). the 250sss we changed to the 200sss (they figured out was to hard to get the collection cup out.) went and rented a jack to get tank on the stand to make it easy. (best thing I did made it a breeze to get the tank on the stand.) setup The RODI with two 44 gal brute trash cans, and got them making a bunch of water. While water was making I worked on my controller board and getting everything ready to install on the tank. My wife worked on the rock scape. Well now its all pretty much installed. (except for the Trident, dos, ddr, and heaters) did not see point in installing them yet will be getting them in in the next week thou. now time for some pictures:grinning-face-with-big-eyes:
IMG_1066.JPG

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Now the waiting game begins!
 
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Dreminon

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had to turn off all the alerts for probes where just started tank they where going crazy. low salt at first (don't even have a salinity probe so turned that off) then after dosing the tank with the microbacter7 the Orp and Ph both low. just turned them off for now figure ill start them back up in a few days.
 
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Dreminon

Dreminon

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Ok so a little adjustments to fish list now its:
Purple tang, pair of clownfish (mocha gladiator), yellow eye white tail Kole tang, yellow tang, lawnmower blennie, yellow watchman goby with pistol shrimp, Starry goby, carpenters wrasse, longnose hawkfish, and a group of blue green chromis(think 9), copperband butterfly, blue mandarin pair wife and daughter wanted a blue ribbon eel but I said no due planning on having the smaller fish and plan on having cleaner shrimp. does anyone see any problems with my list? trying to make sure they will all be ok together most I have read they will be ok. then i need to get a plan or which order to get the fish. will be a long process I am QT everything that I get. So will be a min of 30-60 days (depending on if they are sick and need treated) between groups of fish.
 

ilikefish69

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Time for an update. So went and picked everything up. There where a couple little changes the two 600w heaters where changed to two 300w(don't even need them going to install just in case (temp in tank 78). the 250sss we changed to the 200sss (they figured out was to hard to get the collection cup out.) went and rented a jack to get tank on the stand to make it easy. (best thing I did made it a breeze to get the tank on the stand.) setup The RODI with two 44 gal brute trash cans, and got them making a bunch of water. While water was making I worked on my controller board and getting everything ready to install on the tank. My wife worked on the rock scape. Well now its all pretty much installed. (except for the Trident, dos, ddr, and heaters) did not see point in installing them yet will be getting them in in the next week thou. now time for some pictures:grinning-face-with-big-eyes:
IMG_1066.JPG

IMG_1069.JPG IMG_1073.JPG
IMG_1076.JPG IMG_1077.JPG IMG_1079.JPG IMG_1080.JPG IMG_1081.JPG IMG_1084.JPG
Now the waiting game begins!
Loove the aquascape. Nice set up, you definitely starting off on the right foot! Lol!
 
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Dreminon

Dreminon

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put the first life into the tank today. put in about 15 various types of snails a stawberry conch and a bottle of tigger pods.
 
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Dreminon

Dreminon

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Second set of CUC going in today. couple more trochus and cerith snails and 3 emerald crabs(yes I know but wife wanted them) Rock white part is now looking dirty so ugly stage on the way.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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