Bluetangclan
New Member
As the topic says I am an older reefer that had SW tanks from 2000-2011. Got married and life happened and have only been raising and breeding African cichlids in the mean time and have two tanks running right now, a 75 with a 20 gal sump, and a 120 with a 40 breeder sump. I am one of the few people I know of that likes sumps in freshwater, plus its easy to catch babies when they inevitably go through the over flow and live in the sump. I have some back pay from the VA coming in and I was considering turning my 120gal into a salt water tank. I have a cervical collar on for another couple months so I am in the planning stages. Also trying odds and ends out that work for both FW and SW tanks.
In regards to fishkeeping (both FW and SW) living in Orlando has some nice benefits, there are two great regular fish stores that I frequent(and sell to) and additionally WWC and Top Shelf Aquatics are here. I remember when WWC was one little back shop in an industrial area and I used to fight traffic to get to it after work. Crazy to see how big its gotten. Also Tampa Bay Saltwater is about an hour and a half down the road.
Wow fish prices have gone to ridiculous levels. Fish I was paying $29 for like convict tangs, or $14.99 for percula clowns are $100 or $50+. Might just be the stores I have looked at.
I am on well water. I checked my water parameters yesterday for the first time since I moved into this house 14 years ago. PH is 8.4, alk is very high, zero nitrates, ammonia and nitrite. TDS to me is high at 282 but thats normal for well tapwater. I have never treated the water for my cichlids and just use a python and water spigot and they seem very happy. Happy to the point I need to get in my 120 once this collar is off and remove about 25 "babies" and bring them to the store. I cant even drive legally with this stupid cone of shame.
Current plans as in what I am working on right now where I can:
UV light filter in line. -Right now I need to install one on my 75 and seeing if I notice any difference. If I like it I will add one to my 120.
Auto-top off- these things are cool. I dont recall them existing back when I was doing salt water. It definitely will be useful on my 120. This is where my first real question comes in. My 120 during most of the year loses about 35 gallons a week to evaporation. This 120 is in my living room but I do have space for a reservoir on one side. What I was thinking was some sort of large container for the auto-top off and then hide it with a veneer that matches my tank stand. Just need to come up with what kind of container to use. I am thinking maybe finding one of those rain barrels thats sub three feet tall. I would like it to be at least 40 gallons, more if preferable but it has to fit without blocking my view on that side.
On to my plans for the reef tank itself:
I am thinking to keep the current aragonite cichlid sand. I have about 2.5 to three inches depending on where the engineers in there have moved it(its a cichlid thing). I was going to order about 10 pounds of live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater as a topping that will eventually mix into the existing sand.
For LR I was thinking the old mix of some base and flat marco rocks along with a mix of TBS LR on the top. I am not planning on having a wall of rock. I want a more spread out, three island kind of thing with some smaller islands spread in the sand for corals I want to keep separated. Maybe some cool arches in between the bigger islands. Looks pretty good in my head.
Overall the plan is for a mostly Softy and LPS tank with maybe the occasional easy SPS like monties. I mostly prefer inverts as opposed to the fish and plan on a variety of crabs, shrimp and snails. For fish I was thinking a maroon clown, a possum wrasse and possibly a 4 line wrasse, a blenny of some sort, a clown toby as small as possible(to start), and some sort of file fish. Maybe in the future a marine betta, I used to have one and he was great. Never been a fan of tangs aside from Jester tangs and convict tangs and for sure there wont be space for the Jester I think, its been awhile since I looked up convict specs.
I notice no one recommends Sally Lightfoots anymore for cleaning crews. Those used to be the standard, are they just hard to get now or have people just changed their minds on them? Boxer shrimp still a questionable pick?
Questions that I have:
Whats a good RODI system that I can tack to a piece of plywood and hook up and disconnect from a spigot so I can refill the auto-top off tank without spending all day babysitting it?
What is a decent lighting set up that would be appropriate for various softies and LPS? I know LEDs are so much cheaper than they used to be. I just use some cheap Chinese ones on my current tanks since they are fish only. Back in my reef days LEDs were just coming out and cost more than metal halide set ups or they were DIY systems and most people used multiple power compacts unless they had SPS. Not that I want them but are halides, VHO and PCs still things people use? Its a 4 foot tank, 2 feet wide and deep for reference.
Skimmer, what's a decent skimmer I can put in the sump? I know next to nothing about current styles of skimmers. I dont even remember what I used to have except it was a knock off of a major expensive one. Might actually still have it so I might have answered my own question.
Water movement- What kind of movement do I want? Even back in the day this was an issue as I was always buying those magnetized powerheads which lasted a year or so and died(I was in college and was cheap). Wavemakers were just coming around and were more expensive than we really wanted to spend. Also these were the days of "whats an app?" and texting with an actual key pad was rare and usually consisted of pushing actual buttons multiple times to types different letters(got really good at doing this without looking). Controllers were programmed with the devices themselves, not remotely. This and lighting is something that is probably most different than 15 years ago(aside from fish prices.)
These are my initial plans and questions. In the past I had a grassbed tank with pipefish and no need of a skimmer. Multiple iterations of reef tanks over the years, usually with just LR, sand and a skimmer. I never even got an RODI system(I dont have it any more) until the brief period I was on city water and had Discus(most boring fish I have ever kept).
In regards to fishkeeping (both FW and SW) living in Orlando has some nice benefits, there are two great regular fish stores that I frequent(and sell to) and additionally WWC and Top Shelf Aquatics are here. I remember when WWC was one little back shop in an industrial area and I used to fight traffic to get to it after work. Crazy to see how big its gotten. Also Tampa Bay Saltwater is about an hour and a half down the road.
Wow fish prices have gone to ridiculous levels. Fish I was paying $29 for like convict tangs, or $14.99 for percula clowns are $100 or $50+. Might just be the stores I have looked at.
I am on well water. I checked my water parameters yesterday for the first time since I moved into this house 14 years ago. PH is 8.4, alk is very high, zero nitrates, ammonia and nitrite. TDS to me is high at 282 but thats normal for well tapwater. I have never treated the water for my cichlids and just use a python and water spigot and they seem very happy. Happy to the point I need to get in my 120 once this collar is off and remove about 25 "babies" and bring them to the store. I cant even drive legally with this stupid cone of shame.
Current plans as in what I am working on right now where I can:
UV light filter in line. -Right now I need to install one on my 75 and seeing if I notice any difference. If I like it I will add one to my 120.
Auto-top off- these things are cool. I dont recall them existing back when I was doing salt water. It definitely will be useful on my 120. This is where my first real question comes in. My 120 during most of the year loses about 35 gallons a week to evaporation. This 120 is in my living room but I do have space for a reservoir on one side. What I was thinking was some sort of large container for the auto-top off and then hide it with a veneer that matches my tank stand. Just need to come up with what kind of container to use. I am thinking maybe finding one of those rain barrels thats sub three feet tall. I would like it to be at least 40 gallons, more if preferable but it has to fit without blocking my view on that side.
On to my plans for the reef tank itself:
I am thinking to keep the current aragonite cichlid sand. I have about 2.5 to three inches depending on where the engineers in there have moved it(its a cichlid thing). I was going to order about 10 pounds of live sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater as a topping that will eventually mix into the existing sand.
For LR I was thinking the old mix of some base and flat marco rocks along with a mix of TBS LR on the top. I am not planning on having a wall of rock. I want a more spread out, three island kind of thing with some smaller islands spread in the sand for corals I want to keep separated. Maybe some cool arches in between the bigger islands. Looks pretty good in my head.
Overall the plan is for a mostly Softy and LPS tank with maybe the occasional easy SPS like monties. I mostly prefer inverts as opposed to the fish and plan on a variety of crabs, shrimp and snails. For fish I was thinking a maroon clown, a possum wrasse and possibly a 4 line wrasse, a blenny of some sort, a clown toby as small as possible(to start), and some sort of file fish. Maybe in the future a marine betta, I used to have one and he was great. Never been a fan of tangs aside from Jester tangs and convict tangs and for sure there wont be space for the Jester I think, its been awhile since I looked up convict specs.
I notice no one recommends Sally Lightfoots anymore for cleaning crews. Those used to be the standard, are they just hard to get now or have people just changed their minds on them? Boxer shrimp still a questionable pick?
Questions that I have:
Whats a good RODI system that I can tack to a piece of plywood and hook up and disconnect from a spigot so I can refill the auto-top off tank without spending all day babysitting it?
What is a decent lighting set up that would be appropriate for various softies and LPS? I know LEDs are so much cheaper than they used to be. I just use some cheap Chinese ones on my current tanks since they are fish only. Back in my reef days LEDs were just coming out and cost more than metal halide set ups or they were DIY systems and most people used multiple power compacts unless they had SPS. Not that I want them but are halides, VHO and PCs still things people use? Its a 4 foot tank, 2 feet wide and deep for reference.
Skimmer, what's a decent skimmer I can put in the sump? I know next to nothing about current styles of skimmers. I dont even remember what I used to have except it was a knock off of a major expensive one. Might actually still have it so I might have answered my own question.
Water movement- What kind of movement do I want? Even back in the day this was an issue as I was always buying those magnetized powerheads which lasted a year or so and died(I was in college and was cheap). Wavemakers were just coming around and were more expensive than we really wanted to spend. Also these were the days of "whats an app?" and texting with an actual key pad was rare and usually consisted of pushing actual buttons multiple times to types different letters(got really good at doing this without looking). Controllers were programmed with the devices themselves, not remotely. This and lighting is something that is probably most different than 15 years ago(aside from fish prices.)
These are my initial plans and questions. In the past I had a grassbed tank with pipefish and no need of a skimmer. Multiple iterations of reef tanks over the years, usually with just LR, sand and a skimmer. I never even got an RODI system(I dont have it any more) until the brief period I was on city water and had Discus(most boring fish I have ever kept).
