Dridenour223
New Member
So after wanting to set up a salt water tank for quite some time I finally took the plunge. I was looking around at the lfs and was eyeballing a cobalt c-vue, but my gf saw the flex and we ended up getting it instead. It's been up and running for about a month now, kinda jumped the gun and added two black ice snowflake clowns. They seem to be doing fine but I'm holding off on anything else going in for awhile.
I ended up going with 40lbs of bimini pink sand and 40lbs of caribsea liferock and used Dr. Tim's one and only to start the cycle. Not all 40lbs of the rock are in the tank but that might possibly change, I'm still not sure on the scape and it may be getting shifted around a little. The goal is for this to be a mixed reef, mostly lps and softies, possibly some sps later on towards the top of the tank. I haven't decided on the rest of the livestock yet or the cuc either. I'm basically just going to finish getting the rest of the equipment and ride out the rest of the cycle before anything else goes in. So far I'm just running the stock jank light, but it is going to possibly be getting swapped out for a couple AI primes or Kessil a160s. I'm not 100% on lights yet, I have also thought about trying to find a couple of used hydra 26s. It's still running the stock pump for the time being, if I even change it. The stock foam bocks have been swapped out for Intank media baskets. I will be running filter floss in the top chamber, seachem matrix in the middle chambers and some form of chemical media in the bottom chamber on one side. The bottom chamber on the other is going to possibly get a homemade pod hotel. I'm most likely going to be getting at least one mp10 to start off with for flow and add a second later if need be. An ato is also on the list and eventually the plan is to get an apex.
I ended up going with 40lbs of bimini pink sand and 40lbs of caribsea liferock and used Dr. Tim's one and only to start the cycle. Not all 40lbs of the rock are in the tank but that might possibly change, I'm still not sure on the scape and it may be getting shifted around a little. The goal is for this to be a mixed reef, mostly lps and softies, possibly some sps later on towards the top of the tank. I haven't decided on the rest of the livestock yet or the cuc either. I'm basically just going to finish getting the rest of the equipment and ride out the rest of the cycle before anything else goes in. So far I'm just running the stock jank light, but it is going to possibly be getting swapped out for a couple AI primes or Kessil a160s. I'm not 100% on lights yet, I have also thought about trying to find a couple of used hydra 26s. It's still running the stock pump for the time being, if I even change it. The stock foam bocks have been swapped out for Intank media baskets. I will be running filter floss in the top chamber, seachem matrix in the middle chambers and some form of chemical media in the bottom chamber on one side. The bottom chamber on the other is going to possibly get a homemade pod hotel. I'm most likely going to be getting at least one mp10 to start off with for flow and add a second later if need be. An ato is also on the list and eventually the plan is to get an apex.
