My journey started 30 years ago...

[Osidedude]

I joined SCMAS in the mid 80's and at one point my now ex-wife and I had 7 tanks (all saltwater) set up in a 1 bedroom apartment in Cucamonga CA. If we were not working we were visiting fish stores from Ventura to San Diego and all points in between. If we traveled the first thing we would do is look up the local fish stores. Living in Cucamonga our 2 favorites were close to each other in Orange County about a 25 mile drive but could take up to 2 hours depending on traffic...you could say we were dedicated...some might say a little strange!

30+ years later (divorced a long time ago) and here I am...My 140 gal tank officially started May 18th when I won a cleanup crew and porcelain crab at SCMAS. My tank had water and was aquascape but I had not turned on my heater as it was going through its cycle and I was too embarrassed to say anything at the raffle so took a chance. 21 of the 25 hermits are still around (one was DOA).

Stats
140 gal 60"L x 18"W x 30"H Acrylic Aquarium made by West Coast Aquarium Industries and first installed at a Rubio's here in the San Diego area. I bought from a guy on Craig's list with the stand and a few other things that have all gone to the trash can.

60 gal converted acrylic aquarium into a sump.

2 four inch filter socks

Bubble Magus curve 7 skimmer

800 watt Finnex titanium heater

Somatic reactor with Vertex Bio pellets

Refugium with Cato, and live rock

Aquastation DC 12000 controllable wavemaker return pump 3100GPH (over kill but love its features)

Hydor ATO controller

2 x 1300GPH circulation pumps

2 wattshine 140 watt LED lights but added a Toplanet 165 watt WiFi LED light last week

I also have a RODI system for my ATO, 3 55 gal drums for ATO, Scripps water and one for moving the water.

Yes I use Scripps water and have found no issues to date. My sand is from Oceanside Beach near life guard station #9 (I live less then 1000 steps from there)

Pictures and more later today...

My attempt at aquascape

My actual aquascape

Sump & Refuguim

At this point you might be asking where my tank is located??? Well once I brought it home my GF thought it was too big and it had to be set up in the garage. For me this was great now I could get plumbing to the garage and plumb my tank so water changes go straight to a drain. I also could add as many outlets as I wanted and never have to worry about water spills...lol

Cleanup crew just starting out

Pair of Misbar clowns added 6/22 with small bubble anenome

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R! You've been reefing longer than I've existed thanks for introducing yourself and take lots of pictures

#welcometor2r

 

[Fudsey]

Welcome to R2R ! ! !

 

[Osidedude]

Welcome to R2R! You've been reefing longer than I've existed thanks for introducing yourself and take lots of pictures

#welcometor2r

Thanks!!!

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Welcome to R2R

 

[SPR1968]

That’s a great write up and pictures, and welcome to R2R!

 

[DEWreefing]

Do you still go to the scmas meetings in Santa Ana if you do I'll see you there and welcome back.

 

[Osidedude]

Yes...been to the last 3...will be donating to the raffle for the first time in Aug

See you there

 

[DEWreefing]

Have we met? I am shaddow_wolf169 that the guys was looking for me. Also the one that work for airgas. I won that bag of carbon from vertex rep.

 

[Osidedude]

Welcome to R2R! You've been reefing longer than I've existed thanks for introducing yourself and take lots of pictures

#welcometor2r

Thanks...everyone has been friendly and nice.

 

[Badguy]

@Osidedude Any updates ,really interest in knowing if your Aquastation DC 12000 has kept up

 

[Osidedude]

1 year back in the hobby and wanted to do a tank update...

140 gal acrylic tank (60" x 24" x 30")
60 gallon home made sump/refugium
Bubble Magus Curve 7 skimmer
2 somatic media filters (Bio pellets & carbon)
2 filter socks
DC 12000 wavemaker pump
800 watt Finnex heater
3 black box lights
2 1300 GPH power heads
Natural sand from Oceanside
Use Birch Aquarium sand filtered water (Scripps)

Fish - 1 Misbar clown (male died a few months back), 3 Lyretail Anthias, Potters Angel, Pygmy Angel, Fire fish, Royal Gramma, 2 clown blennies, Pseudochromis aldaraensis, Watchman goby, Diamond goby, Starry blenny, Six line Wrasse, Orange spotted goby, Rose goby, (several gobies have pistol shrimps), Spotted Mandrian

Inverts - As mentioned several pistol shrimps, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, 4 sexy shrimp, 3 porcelain crabs, 1 coral crab (lives in the birds nest), many different snails (large kind that have multiplied to maybe 50), several different hermits, coco worm, 1 small carpet anemone (lost a fight today with an Acan Lord which I found fascinating as I did not know could happen) You can see the carpet with Porcelain crap which moved to back wall after defeat in full tank pic along with Acan Lord. The crab tore off and ate dead part of anemone

Corals - Lots of different Acans, Several hammer corals, frogspawn, 4 different chalice, many different shrooms & zoas. 4 different leathers, a moon coral, Bowerbanki and several I don't know the names...

Feed the tank Reef Nutrition TDO, Phyto, Oyster feast and occasionally reefroids. Raise my own pods and brine shrimp. Feed anemone, acans, bowerbanki and scoly thawed pcs of cooked shrimp

I have seen the greatest growth in the corals after using trace elements from "Coral Essentials" it is pricey but I highly recommend this product along with anything Reef Nutrition sales. Start with the building blocks as in trace elements, phyto plankton, pods and great food and you will see happy, healthy fish and corals.

I would do some things differently such as a glass tank vs acrylic and I certainly would not do a 30" high tank as you can see from my pics the bottom part only gets cleaned from the snails as I cant reach even with a long handled scrapper.

Overall I am very happy with the tank and watching the maturity of fish and corals has me fascinated and keeps me wanting more so I have started planning my next build. I am in the process of building a 20' by 12' reef room with a 10' tank from Crystal Dynamics (either a 312 or 375 gallon tank). Hope to have it up and running by the end of this year...

 

[Bleigh]

1 year back in the hobby and wanted to do a tank update...

140 gal acrylic tank (60" x 24" x 30")
60 gallon home made sump/refugium
Bubble Magus Curve 7 skimmer
2 somatic media filters (Bio pellets & carbon)
2 filter socks
DC 12000 wavemaker pump
800 watt Finnex heater
3 black box lights
2 1300 GPH power heads
Natural sand from Oceanside
Use Birch Aquarium sand filtered water (Scripps)

Fish - 1 Misbar clown (male died a few months back), 3 Lyretail Anthias, Potters Angel, Pygmy Angel, Fire fish, Royal Gramma, 2 clown blennies, Pseudochromis aldaraensis, Watchman goby, Diamond goby, Starry blenny, Six line Wrasse, Orange spotted goby, Rose goby, (several gobies have pistol shrimps), Spotted Mandrian

Inverts - As mentioned several pistol shrimps, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, 4 sexy shrimp, 3 porcelain crabs, 1 coral crab (lives in the birds nest), many different snails (large kind that have multiplied to maybe 50), several different hermits, coco worm, 1 small carpet anemone (lost a fight today with an Acan Lord which I found fascinating as I did not know could happen) You can see the carpet with Porcelain crap which moved to back wall after defeat in full tank pic along with Acan Lord. The crab tore off and ate dead part of anemone

Corals - Lots of different Acans, Several hammer corals, frogspawn, 4 different chalice, many different shrooms & zoas. 4 different leathers, a moon coral, Bowerbanki and several I don't know the names...

Feed the tank Reef Nutrition TDO, Phyto, Oyster feast and occasionally reefroids. Raise my own pods and brine shrimp. Feed anemone, acans, bowerbanki and scoly thawed pcs of cooked shrimp

I have seen the greatest growth in the corals after using trace elements from "Coral Essentials" it is pricey but I highly recommend this product along with anything Reef Nutrition sales. Start with the building blocks as in trace elements, phyto plankton, pods and great food and you will see happy, healthy fish and corals.

I would do some things differently such as a glass tank vs acrylic and I certainly would not do a 30" high tank as you can see from my pics the bottom part only gets cleaned from the snails as I cant reach even with a long handled scrapper.

Overall I am very happy with the tank and watching the maturity of fish and corals has me fascinated and keeps me wanting more so I have started planning my next build. I am in the process of building a 20' by 12' reef room with a 10' tank from Crystal Dynamics (either a 312 or 375 gallon tank). Hope to have it up and running by the end of this year...

Those are some amazing aussie lord colonies!