This is my first post, hopefully, I don't screw anything up...
After a 20+ years away from the hobby, I have taken the plunge to get back in. As a student in the 1990's I had a very homemade reef tank--55 gallon long, with homemade stand, hood, sump, protein skimmer (out of schedule 40 PVC and a wooden air stone), etc. It was fun but awful and not at all elegant. I wish I had pictures of that setup. I was renting apartments, moving regularly, and didn't have much $$ which ultimately caused me to leave the hobby until I had a more stable location and the money to create something I would really enjoy. I'm also really happy to see how many corals and fish are available now that have been tank raised. Here is the basic equipment to start with:
The BRS160 series, BRS 5 minute videos, and Reef2Reef were really helpful for me to quickly assimilate how much has changed in 20 years with equipment, lighting, etc.
I really liked this approach. My tank in the 1990's was basically a pile of base rock along the back wall of the tank which made it impossible to clean, had awful flow, and wasn't visually as beautiful as it could have been. I ended with a more dense/traditional? aquascape, but really liked the methodology of superglue/accelerator and the Marco cement kit. I purchased 75 pounds of Marco Rock and I broke it up as described in the NSA videos and I used the super glue and accelerator to put the rocks together initially. I used a pastry bag to inject the Marco cement in the existing holes between the rocks to minimize the amount of cement that showed and covered that cement immediately with dust from breaking up the rocks. I'll describe the approach used for the aquascape next, I attached a video showing the aquascape on my workbench prior to installation in the tank. The blue tape generally marks the perimeter of the RedSea 300XL it will go into. There are some static pictures below too since I'm not sure I understand how to upload video files effectively yet.
After a 20+ years away from the hobby, I have taken the plunge to get back in. As a student in the 1990's I had a very homemade reef tank--55 gallon long, with homemade stand, hood, sump, protein skimmer (out of schedule 40 PVC and a wooden air stone), etc. It was fun but awful and not at all elegant. I wish I had pictures of that setup. I was renting apartments, moving regularly, and didn't have much $$ which ultimately caused me to leave the hobby until I had a more stable location and the money to create something I would really enjoy. I'm also really happy to see how many corals and fish are available now that have been tank raised. Here is the basic equipment to start with:
- RedSea Reefer 300XL (65 gallon with 15 gallon sump) with the RedSea Net kit for a lid. I really like the RS 300XL so far and its really quiet.
- Two RedSea ReefLED 90. I like these, very clean look. Love the tilt up feature and the app works ok for me so far.
- Two RedSea ReefWave 25. I like these--they are silent.
- RedSea RSK-300 Skimmer. Haven't used this much.
- Neptune APEX, ATK, DOS, COR-15 Pump for return
- RODI, ATK reservoir (10 Gallon Brute) and salt water tank (44 Gallon Brute) in basement
- FINNEX HMX TITANIUM 300 WATT AQUARIUM HEATER W/ DIGITAL CONTROLLER. I'm not real thrilled with this one, and, consistent with what I've read, it is really inaccurate--I set it to 83 or 84F to achieve 78F. I'm still evaluating how precise this controller is and if I'll keep it. Assuming it can maintain a temp, I'll keep it (with the APEX babysitting it)
- Plan a small refugium in the existing refugium compartment in the standard RS Sump to grow Chaeto algae
- QT tank (20 gallon long with two old biowheel hang on the back filters, heaters, and an air stone) near my RODI station
The BRS160 series, BRS 5 minute videos, and Reef2Reef were really helpful for me to quickly assimilate how much has changed in 20 years with equipment, lighting, etc.
I really liked this approach. My tank in the 1990's was basically a pile of base rock along the back wall of the tank which made it impossible to clean, had awful flow, and wasn't visually as beautiful as it could have been. I ended with a more dense/traditional? aquascape, but really liked the methodology of superglue/accelerator and the Marco cement kit. I purchased 75 pounds of Marco Rock and I broke it up as described in the NSA videos and I used the super glue and accelerator to put the rocks together initially. I used a pastry bag to inject the Marco cement in the existing holes between the rocks to minimize the amount of cement that showed and covered that cement immediately with dust from breaking up the rocks. I'll describe the approach used for the aquascape next, I attached a video showing the aquascape on my workbench prior to installation in the tank. The blue tape generally marks the perimeter of the RedSea 300XL it will go into. There are some static pictures below too since I'm not sure I understand how to upload video files effectively yet.