Or should I say rebuild??
Some of you may remember my initial 46 build over on 3reef many years ago. Had a really nice mixed reef that did extremely well with minimal equipment. Was my first saltwater tank after many years of freshwater, but with the help from forum members and research I figured it out.
Unfortunately moving into a fixer upper the tank got put on the back burner and I ended up losing all my coral after a filter malfunction. For years I have been working on the house, had my first child, and waiting to start over again. Still have 2 clowns in a 29 gallon aptasia reef. They have thousands of anemones to choose from but still chose to lay eggs in the corner of the glass instead
Now my son is almost 3 and loves going to the pet stores to look at all things fish. Reminds me of how I got started in the hobby years ago with my dad always having a freshwater tank and taking weekend trips to the stores. I've been lurking around here the past year or so to see what I missed and what's new since I went dormant in the hobby. Unfortunately corals have gotten outrageous and I have no clue how I'm going to stock my tank up again. Most of my old lfs closed but The Reef Gallery has just re-opened and I'm excited to see what kind of corals they start getting in!
Enough back story time for the build!
Tank is the original 46 gallon bowfront, I added some fresh silicone for extra support and leak tested in the garage, looks good to go! I ditched the old particle board stand and built my own. Pretty sure it could hold closer to the weight of a car but it is solid and will last for generations.
Equipment wise I have 3 vortech mp10 from the previous build, 2 have brand new wetsides. I upgraded the lighting from a quad bulb t5ho to dual kessil 360x with controller. Pretty excited about this as the colors always seemed to pop so much better with the LEDs at the lfs compared to the t5ho I had. I also decided to try the finnex hpg series heater, like that it has a separate temperature probe and control outside the tank. I am going to stick with a hob filter to use carbon and phosguard in as I did with the previous setup. I never did use a skimmer and found weekly 5-10 gallon water changes to be sufficient. I thought about ditching a hob filter all together but without a sump it's nice for surface agitation.
The rockwork is all pukani from brs with a couple tonga branch pieces. Half from the previous build that I bleach and vinager acid bathed and the other half new. Been cycling in a tub for the last 11 months with no light. Few pellets every now and then to feed the bacteria testing shows 0 across the board except for some phosphates, hence the plan for phosguard. Glad I purchased when I did since I know cant get any with the export bans.
Plan is for another mixed reef focused heavily on lps. I love euphyllia corals and will probably have a few hammer and frogspawns. Also want some bubble coral, trumpets, goniopora, and aveopora. Will add a few sps pieces as the system matures. Probably mostly stylophora and birdsnest coral but maybe a few acro or montipora as well.
Fish wise the clowns are going to be transferred. Also have a coral beauty angel to transfer. After that looking for some smaller stuff like wrasse and goby, maybe a hawkfish.
I started building the stand last winter but it got put on hold with summer as woodworking is a winter hobby for me. Summer is all about the outdoors and gardening with indoor projects consisting of on going maintenance only. I finished the stand earlier this winter and have finally stained and polyurethaned the entire thing. Been sitting complete in the basement to off gas some of those fumes before setting up upstairs. Took a little longer since I have 10+ coats of wipe on on the stand and 15 on the top. A little over kill but wanted to make sure itll stand up to saltwater.
Currently making rodi water to get this thing wet in the next week or 2. Have a 6 stage unit. I need to replace the carbon, sediment block, and di resin as it is changing color in 1 of the 2 canisters and it's all years old but the TDS meter still reads 0 so itll work for now. User tap water with my last build and never had major issues but decided to so it right this time.
This is still only a temporary build as I have a brand new drilled 90 gallon with stand in the basement. Just not ready to set it up yet.
Pictures to follow.
Some of you may remember my initial 46 build over on 3reef many years ago. Had a really nice mixed reef that did extremely well with minimal equipment. Was my first saltwater tank after many years of freshwater, but with the help from forum members and research I figured it out.
Unfortunately moving into a fixer upper the tank got put on the back burner and I ended up losing all my coral after a filter malfunction. For years I have been working on the house, had my first child, and waiting to start over again. Still have 2 clowns in a 29 gallon aptasia reef. They have thousands of anemones to choose from but still chose to lay eggs in the corner of the glass instead
Now my son is almost 3 and loves going to the pet stores to look at all things fish. Reminds me of how I got started in the hobby years ago with my dad always having a freshwater tank and taking weekend trips to the stores. I've been lurking around here the past year or so to see what I missed and what's new since I went dormant in the hobby. Unfortunately corals have gotten outrageous and I have no clue how I'm going to stock my tank up again. Most of my old lfs closed but The Reef Gallery has just re-opened and I'm excited to see what kind of corals they start getting in!
Enough back story time for the build!
Tank is the original 46 gallon bowfront, I added some fresh silicone for extra support and leak tested in the garage, looks good to go! I ditched the old particle board stand and built my own. Pretty sure it could hold closer to the weight of a car but it is solid and will last for generations.
Equipment wise I have 3 vortech mp10 from the previous build, 2 have brand new wetsides. I upgraded the lighting from a quad bulb t5ho to dual kessil 360x with controller. Pretty excited about this as the colors always seemed to pop so much better with the LEDs at the lfs compared to the t5ho I had. I also decided to try the finnex hpg series heater, like that it has a separate temperature probe and control outside the tank. I am going to stick with a hob filter to use carbon and phosguard in as I did with the previous setup. I never did use a skimmer and found weekly 5-10 gallon water changes to be sufficient. I thought about ditching a hob filter all together but without a sump it's nice for surface agitation.
The rockwork is all pukani from brs with a couple tonga branch pieces. Half from the previous build that I bleach and vinager acid bathed and the other half new. Been cycling in a tub for the last 11 months with no light. Few pellets every now and then to feed the bacteria testing shows 0 across the board except for some phosphates, hence the plan for phosguard. Glad I purchased when I did since I know cant get any with the export bans.
Plan is for another mixed reef focused heavily on lps. I love euphyllia corals and will probably have a few hammer and frogspawns. Also want some bubble coral, trumpets, goniopora, and aveopora. Will add a few sps pieces as the system matures. Probably mostly stylophora and birdsnest coral but maybe a few acro or montipora as well.
Fish wise the clowns are going to be transferred. Also have a coral beauty angel to transfer. After that looking for some smaller stuff like wrasse and goby, maybe a hawkfish.
I started building the stand last winter but it got put on hold with summer as woodworking is a winter hobby for me. Summer is all about the outdoors and gardening with indoor projects consisting of on going maintenance only. I finished the stand earlier this winter and have finally stained and polyurethaned the entire thing. Been sitting complete in the basement to off gas some of those fumes before setting up upstairs. Took a little longer since I have 10+ coats of wipe on on the stand and 15 on the top. A little over kill but wanted to make sure itll stand up to saltwater.
Currently making rodi water to get this thing wet in the next week or 2. Have a 6 stage unit. I need to replace the carbon, sediment block, and di resin as it is changing color in 1 of the 2 canisters and it's all years old but the TDS meter still reads 0 so itll work for now. User tap water with my last build and never had major issues but decided to so it right this time.
This is still only a temporary build as I have a brand new drilled 90 gallon with stand in the basement. Just not ready to set it up yet.
Pictures to follow.
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