Anthony Page
Community Member
Hello, I've been lurking R2R for a while but I figured I would start a build thread.
The tank has been up and running for 4 months now (well kind of). I took a decent amount of pictures so I'll try to create a timeline for my progress thus far.
Tank: 38g nuvo by innovative marine
- 24"x19"x19" (5 inch back section)
- 20"x16"x34" stand
Equipment:
Reef octopus 150int
Rio return pump
Eheim 150W heater with 50W backup heater
Coral box Moon LED plus light
Eshopps HOB overflow
Icecap 3k wavemaker
Tunze ATO
I'll start at the beginning. My friend, Will, and I have kept takes before but decided to take them down for college. When COVID became a thing and I got kicked out of my dorm, I decided to start up a new tank. The search began. I was looking on Facebook marketplace, craigslist, possibly a new tank that wasn't reef ready. My friend decided just to sell me his old setup. Got it home within 5 minutes, did a good clean, and was ready to start setting it up.
When I took down my last tank, I kept the live rock in my yard and just decided to leave it there. Right after I got my tank and equipment, less the light, I started cleaning off my old rocks. Plenty of spiders and nasty stuff in there (this was also Halloween night). Got the rock pretty clean with some hot water and a tooth brush and started filling the tank. Thankfully, my friend's dad, @TexasTodd (I hope he's okay with me calling him out) , lets me use his RO/DI system. I got some salt and sand and started pouring.
While it was cycling, I started up the skimmer in the tiny sump. I don't even want to think about it anymore. It was so hard to get that sump in there with the return pump and a baffle in the center. Lots of cut fingers and cursing.
I went through some diatoms after that, but not much was happening. The damsel I put in was doing okay but I put a green slimer acro in and it was skeleton within 3 days. Finally decided to go to my LFS and get my water tested. 1.044! No, that's not a typo. This was my first time using a refractometer and I decided to cheap out on the "amazon's recommended". It turned out to be a beer brewing refractometer and was not on the same scale. Oops! That will never happen again. With that all sorted out, I started to get some real growth. Ammonia, nitrates and phosphates were basically zero and my salinity was back down to ~1.025-1.026. My first (second) coral was some GSP and some brown nasty zoas. Once I was sure my water wasn't toxic, I started adding some better stuff. TexasTodd graciously gave me a piece of cornbred's flaming phoenix monti and some green slimer acro so I could get started. I added some more over the next month or so but didn't get any pictures.
After I redid my aquascape about 20 times, I landed on this one which I think is a keeper. I was messing around with rocks and lighting before this picture so everything was pretty ticked off. Here's a list of everything I added so far
Coral:
Green slimer acro
Cornbred flaming phoenix monti
GBTA
some green/purple warcoral
Trumpet coral
Everlasting gobstoppers
orange zoa (possibly utter chaos?)
A couple others that I couldn't possibly name
Livestock:
Ocellaris clown pair
Bicolor Blenny
Diamond Goby
3x Trochus snails
2x Nassarius snails
1x Tiger conch
3x Blue-leg hermits
1x Peppermint shrimp
Somewhere in all that, I decided to make an algae scrubber from some acrylic, mostly just to keep the sound down. It was going in my sump, so I didn't really have to worry about leaking too much so I used superglue and duct tape (definitely not the best idea but oh well). I got some knitting canvas and a $30 white LED light and it started up. Here's a picture of it but I am by no means proud of it lol.
I also decided to clean up the wiring jungle by making some supports in the stand that doubled as a shelf for a DJ strip. I got the $35 DJ strip from guitar center and it's great. I put some screws on the shelf so it doesn't slide back but is easy to pull out to access wire when necessary. It has made water changes and other maintenance much much much easier. It also fits perfectly in my stand, which makes it look great.
I participated in the WWC live sale over this past weekend so I have a few corals on the way shortly.
That's pretty much where I'm at right now. Not too exciting as it's still settling in. I plan on keeping this tank for the next few years and possibly moving it into an apartment when I'm done with college (Hook 'em). I'll try to keep taking pictures and update this thread. I look forward to growing this tank out and getting some awesome frags eventually!
The tank has been up and running for 4 months now (well kind of). I took a decent amount of pictures so I'll try to create a timeline for my progress thus far.
Tank: 38g nuvo by innovative marine
- 24"x19"x19" (5 inch back section)
- 20"x16"x34" stand
Equipment:
Reef octopus 150int
Rio return pump
Eheim 150W heater with 50W backup heater
Coral box Moon LED plus light
Eshopps HOB overflow
Icecap 3k wavemaker
Tunze ATO
I'll start at the beginning. My friend, Will, and I have kept takes before but decided to take them down for college. When COVID became a thing and I got kicked out of my dorm, I decided to start up a new tank. The search began. I was looking on Facebook marketplace, craigslist, possibly a new tank that wasn't reef ready. My friend decided just to sell me his old setup. Got it home within 5 minutes, did a good clean, and was ready to start setting it up.
When I took down my last tank, I kept the live rock in my yard and just decided to leave it there. Right after I got my tank and equipment, less the light, I started cleaning off my old rocks. Plenty of spiders and nasty stuff in there (this was also Halloween night). Got the rock pretty clean with some hot water and a tooth brush and started filling the tank. Thankfully, my friend's dad, @TexasTodd (I hope he's okay with me calling him out) , lets me use his RO/DI system. I got some salt and sand and started pouring.
While it was cycling, I started up the skimmer in the tiny sump. I don't even want to think about it anymore. It was so hard to get that sump in there with the return pump and a baffle in the center. Lots of cut fingers and cursing.
I went through some diatoms after that, but not much was happening. The damsel I put in was doing okay but I put a green slimer acro in and it was skeleton within 3 days. Finally decided to go to my LFS and get my water tested. 1.044! No, that's not a typo. This was my first time using a refractometer and I decided to cheap out on the "amazon's recommended". It turned out to be a beer brewing refractometer and was not on the same scale. Oops! That will never happen again. With that all sorted out, I started to get some real growth. Ammonia, nitrates and phosphates were basically zero and my salinity was back down to ~1.025-1.026. My first (second) coral was some GSP and some brown nasty zoas. Once I was sure my water wasn't toxic, I started adding some better stuff. TexasTodd graciously gave me a piece of cornbred's flaming phoenix monti and some green slimer acro so I could get started. I added some more over the next month or so but didn't get any pictures.
After I redid my aquascape about 20 times, I landed on this one which I think is a keeper. I was messing around with rocks and lighting before this picture so everything was pretty ticked off. Here's a list of everything I added so far
Coral:
Green slimer acro
Cornbred flaming phoenix monti
GBTA
some green/purple warcoral
Trumpet coral
Everlasting gobstoppers
orange zoa (possibly utter chaos?)
A couple others that I couldn't possibly name
Livestock:
Ocellaris clown pair
Bicolor Blenny
Diamond Goby
3x Trochus snails
2x Nassarius snails
1x Tiger conch
3x Blue-leg hermits
1x Peppermint shrimp
Somewhere in all that, I decided to make an algae scrubber from some acrylic, mostly just to keep the sound down. It was going in my sump, so I didn't really have to worry about leaking too much so I used superglue and duct tape (definitely not the best idea but oh well). I got some knitting canvas and a $30 white LED light and it started up. Here's a picture of it but I am by no means proud of it lol.
I also decided to clean up the wiring jungle by making some supports in the stand that doubled as a shelf for a DJ strip. I got the $35 DJ strip from guitar center and it's great. I put some screws on the shelf so it doesn't slide back but is easy to pull out to access wire when necessary. It has made water changes and other maintenance much much much easier. It also fits perfectly in my stand, which makes it look great.
I participated in the WWC live sale over this past weekend so I have a few corals on the way shortly.
That's pretty much where I'm at right now. Not too exciting as it's still settling in. I plan on keeping this tank for the next few years and possibly moving it into an apartment when I'm done with college (Hook 'em). I'll try to keep taking pictures and update this thread. I look forward to growing this tank out and getting some awesome frags eventually!
