Besieged
Active Member
So. I have been out of reefing since 2008, when I had to move across country. I moved back a few years later to get married and have kids. As my spouse is disabled, I am the sole source of income for our family, and it's only been in the last few years where I've been blessed enough to have some disposable income to think about starting another reef. But, at that point, I also knew for a fact I'd be moving within a few years, and there was no point in me trying to build a reef tank into the wall of my office with a maintenance room behind.
Fast forward to spring of 2024, we finally moved to our new (to us) home... aaaaaaand there were a million other things to spend money on when buying a 20 year old house on 2 acres. In the process of moving, my 29 gallon bowfront freshwater tank was torn down, and the one plant and remaining fish in it were transferred to a 20 gallon. Ahah! Maybe it can be a reef now, I thought! Small, yes, but, doable. I worked in the livestock dept. of a pet store during highschool 'lo those many years ago, and I've always had fish, since I was 6 years old... I kind of know enough about what I'm doing. Right?
No. I goofed. I got the tank cycled, I bought 3 new skirt tetras so old One-Eye (who was on his last fins, and easily 5 years old) wouldn't die alone when he eventually passed, plus a couple of neons for the kids. Then my wife ordered some neocaridina shrimp. I decided I wanted to add some Amanos, and maybe a dwarf gourami. So, off to the store we go, and here comes my goof: I got a Pearl Gourami... which is definitely not a dwarf breed, and within days it was harassing the tetras into a corner of the tank. My wife insists I fix it. The best way I know how is increased volume, so, I get to work, finding all the misc. parts for the 29g that were spread all over the place, and using every trick I know from 30+ years of fish keeping - while buying nothing I didn't absolutely have to - I managed to cycle the 29 from empty, to water testing 0 NH3/4+, 0 NO2, and <20 NO3 in 13 days flat.
So... there went the 29g. Now I have an empty 20. Boo. Well, I guess I can make that work, I thought. Maybe. So one evening, I'm daydreaming of corals and marine inverts, and on a lark, go shopping for lights online for the 20g. I put one I liked in my wish list, and it kind of stops there.
Fast forward a few months later, and much to my surprise, I get said lights for Christmas. Okay, I probably could have chosen better for the price... I'd been out a long time, and was just looking around, trying to get a feel for what prices were and what options (especially for functionality) I had available. They seemed good enough for low-light SPS in that little 20 gallon. Now I realize, I could have gotten something like the Noopsyche K7 for less money and way more wattage, but it's too late to return them, and I just wasn't expecting anyone to spend $200+ on a single present for me.
Well, now I can't let the gift go to waste, and with that I have the excuse I need to convince myself to spend money getting a tank together. Off I go, shopping. I figure, with a 20 gallon and no sump, I'll need to filter the ever-living daylights out of it. I've been out of the reef scene for a while, but thinking back, and shopping around, it looks like I can't even build a decent bucket filter for less than I could buy a much better canister for the same price. At this same time, I went ahead and renewed my membership in the Atlanta Reef Club and start asking questions, and lamenting that between filter and skimmer alone, I'm looking at a little over $300 in filter.
Along comes a reef club member who offers me a Waterbox 50.3 AIO, original stand, 7-stage RO/DI, Mightyjet return pump and Apex controller with 3 probes for $500... which seemed hard enough to refuse that even my spouse insisted I take it, despite all the money we'd just spent for the holidays (with still yet more to spend on then-upcoming vacation). Even though I still need a skimmer, not spending $160+ on a canister filter (which I now know are passe) and a few hundred more on a new RO/DI system to finally get into a rimless, low-iron glass tank? Kind of a no-brainer, really. Sure, if I'd been more patient, Iprobably could have scored a bigger tank for free (I did wind up getting a standard 75g for free, but as a result of lack of space, had to pass last week on a free 120g with stand and hood, sadly). Big bonus? It's 35.5" wide... which means my 24" - 36" lights will work with it, even if they're a bit under-powered.
Now, however, I have a tank and stand that fits almost like it was designed for the space between the windows in my office, where I work 35 - 70 hours a week, not to mention the time I spend in here hiding from my kids when they're being too noisy. Since I can't have my drums in my office any more like I did at the old house, this will now be where I get my much needed cognitive relaxation from those vexing technical issues that sometimes the best way to solve is to stop thinking about it for a while and do something else.
(It's like it was made to go here - my desk is just to the right. Yes, that's a jar of green water I'm culturing in the window for my freshwater tanks - as of this writing, it's actually in my tank, under my reef lights, doing its thing. I guess if I can't grow corals, I might as well grow something?)
(It's pushed back against the wall correctly now, but this is more or less the angle I will view it from all day. Rule of Thirds grid laid out to help me visualize and plan aquascaping.)
(My little "Hero", that has been waiting for a new home so maybe it can once again be something special, for well over a decade now. I can't bear the thought of crushing it up to use in a reactor or something.)
(~150 lbs. of rock and ~60lbs. of black volcanic/basaltic sand acquired for free from local reef club members.)
(Black sand, CM scale. Is this too coarse for a pink wrasse, fighting conch, and other micro inverts? I can only guess that it is for sure too coarse for garden eels, if I ever decide to give them a try. Are there any fine black sands [like what I have in two of my freshwater tanks] that are reef compatible?)
(I got a pretty good deal on this 14 gallon already drilled and plumbed for remote refugium, I hope to pick up soon. Going to have to build a stand for it, though, to get the returns above the rim of the DT.)
I'm still trying to mount up my RO/DI unit - had to wait for a booster pump to come in because I was reading right at or a hair under 20psi. Still have to get plywood cut, but the weather has been miserable.
There's a small ~2" crack in the glass bulkhead to the filter section of my display tank that has spread from the circular return cutout to the top edge. Per advice from several others, I've got some thin superglue with precision tip applicators, and will hit it gently with a hair dryer and then said superglue to stabilize it.
All of the rock has been through at least one bath with sodium percarbonate, brushed, rinsed, and set out to dry in the sun. However I wasn't totally happy with the results (I expected it to bleach more), so I ordered more percarbonate, and instead of a 44-gallon trashcan, this time I'm going to use the totes I picked it up in, with only enough rock to cover the bottom (not stacked up like in the pics) so that it all can get UV from the sun while it's soaking. I've already got my Marco mortar and hopefully enough super glue to do what I want aquascaping wise - I just couldn't justify $100+ in epoxy sticks in order to save a little time waiting for mortar to dry.
I'm on the fence about the black sand now. I really like the look of it, but I worry what I have here might be too coarse and sharp for the sand-sifting/-dwelling things I want (for sure not the garden eels I might like to have one day), and that I'll be missing out on buffering from not having aragonite sand (I did a vinegar test on it, no fizz). However, the CaribSea black aragonite has too many reviews from people saying it was the source of element spikes like iron, aluminum, and silicon that they couldn't get rid of until they got rid of the sand - others say they've been using it fine for ages. To me, that screams QC issues (or no QC at all), and I don't think I'm willing to take the risk unless/until CaribSea starts including batch ICP-MS results on each bag, the way some salt suppliers do.
So, I'm wondering if I should give up black sand as a BadIdea™ - I'd love some advice borne of experience in this regard. I know not everyone who uses this sand has this problem, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk, unless there's an alternative I'm missing. I don't want to buy it, put it in a barrel with water, and then send the water off to be tested just to find out if it's safe to use.
I intend to run a remote 'fuge that will double as a secondary, reverse-lit display. I'm going to do a live start to the main tank, and don't want chaeto gobbling up all the nutrients that my handful of starter corals would want, so, while I will stand the fuge up at the same time (or shortly thereafter), it will have sand, rock, inverts, and I will add ornamental macros over time. I had originally considered a mangrove, but have written it off as more trouble than its worth if I have to disturb the fuge by uprooting it every time one outgrows the tank every couple of years. I usually walk into my office at about 9:45 EST, and work until about 7pm, and then I'm in and out the rest of the night until between 2am - 4am, so the reverse cycle ensures I always have something to look at.
I have a 20-gallon long dedicated solely to QT - I might pick up a second for TTM, but I don't have a good place for two right now. I have a spare 20 regular that, for the time being, will be used solely for invert QT and never have copper added to it.
As of this writing, I'm still buying misc. pieces and parts. I need 50-micron filter socks to replace the fleece ones that came with the tank. Various filter media. Lots of chemicals. A pair of powerheads. Ideally a roller filter that will fit in one of my filter sock wells. A skimmer (debating between Tunze Comline DOC 9004, and one from IOAOI that has a drain tube). Various filter media. Some extra heaters, fuge lights, QT lights (for corals), a few low-flow pumps (for mixing barrel and fuge), refractometer, a power supply for my Apex unit (I have an EB8 I picked up like-new for $50 yesterday), and on and on. Current figure has me at something over $1k worth of stuff left to buy (if I'm going to do this right) before I can put water in the tank... here's to hoping I'll have enough left over in my tax return.
Right now, I'm figuring I'm somewhere between 30 - 45 days out from filling - I want to take the time to do my aquascape right, as I'm aiming for HNSA.
Fast forward to spring of 2024, we finally moved to our new (to us) home... aaaaaaand there were a million other things to spend money on when buying a 20 year old house on 2 acres. In the process of moving, my 29 gallon bowfront freshwater tank was torn down, and the one plant and remaining fish in it were transferred to a 20 gallon. Ahah! Maybe it can be a reef now, I thought! Small, yes, but, doable. I worked in the livestock dept. of a pet store during highschool 'lo those many years ago, and I've always had fish, since I was 6 years old... I kind of know enough about what I'm doing. Right?
No. I goofed. I got the tank cycled, I bought 3 new skirt tetras so old One-Eye (who was on his last fins, and easily 5 years old) wouldn't die alone when he eventually passed, plus a couple of neons for the kids. Then my wife ordered some neocaridina shrimp. I decided I wanted to add some Amanos, and maybe a dwarf gourami. So, off to the store we go, and here comes my goof: I got a Pearl Gourami... which is definitely not a dwarf breed, and within days it was harassing the tetras into a corner of the tank. My wife insists I fix it. The best way I know how is increased volume, so, I get to work, finding all the misc. parts for the 29g that were spread all over the place, and using every trick I know from 30+ years of fish keeping - while buying nothing I didn't absolutely have to - I managed to cycle the 29 from empty, to water testing 0 NH3/4+, 0 NO2, and <20 NO3 in 13 days flat.
So... there went the 29g. Now I have an empty 20. Boo. Well, I guess I can make that work, I thought. Maybe. So one evening, I'm daydreaming of corals and marine inverts, and on a lark, go shopping for lights online for the 20g. I put one I liked in my wish list, and it kind of stops there.
Fast forward a few months later, and much to my surprise, I get said lights for Christmas. Okay, I probably could have chosen better for the price... I'd been out a long time, and was just looking around, trying to get a feel for what prices were and what options (especially for functionality) I had available. They seemed good enough for low-light SPS in that little 20 gallon. Now I realize, I could have gotten something like the Noopsyche K7 for less money and way more wattage, but it's too late to return them, and I just wasn't expecting anyone to spend $200+ on a single present for me.
Well, now I can't let the gift go to waste, and with that I have the excuse I need to convince myself to spend money getting a tank together. Off I go, shopping. I figure, with a 20 gallon and no sump, I'll need to filter the ever-living daylights out of it. I've been out of the reef scene for a while, but thinking back, and shopping around, it looks like I can't even build a decent bucket filter for less than I could buy a much better canister for the same price. At this same time, I went ahead and renewed my membership in the Atlanta Reef Club and start asking questions, and lamenting that between filter and skimmer alone, I'm looking at a little over $300 in filter.
Along comes a reef club member who offers me a Waterbox 50.3 AIO, original stand, 7-stage RO/DI, Mightyjet return pump and Apex controller with 3 probes for $500... which seemed hard enough to refuse that even my spouse insisted I take it, despite all the money we'd just spent for the holidays (with still yet more to spend on then-upcoming vacation). Even though I still need a skimmer, not spending $160+ on a canister filter (which I now know are passe) and a few hundred more on a new RO/DI system to finally get into a rimless, low-iron glass tank? Kind of a no-brainer, really. Sure, if I'd been more patient, I
Now, however, I have a tank and stand that fits almost like it was designed for the space between the windows in my office, where I work 35 - 70 hours a week, not to mention the time I spend in here hiding from my kids when they're being too noisy. Since I can't have my drums in my office any more like I did at the old house, this will now be where I get my much needed cognitive relaxation from those vexing technical issues that sometimes the best way to solve is to stop thinking about it for a while and do something else.
(It's like it was made to go here - my desk is just to the right. Yes, that's a jar of green water I'm culturing in the window for my freshwater tanks - as of this writing, it's actually in my tank, under my reef lights, doing its thing. I guess if I can't grow corals, I might as well grow something?)
(It's pushed back against the wall correctly now, but this is more or less the angle I will view it from all day. Rule of Thirds grid laid out to help me visualize and plan aquascaping.)
(My little "Hero", that has been waiting for a new home so maybe it can once again be something special, for well over a decade now. I can't bear the thought of crushing it up to use in a reactor or something.)
(~150 lbs. of rock and ~60lbs. of black volcanic/basaltic sand acquired for free from local reef club members.)
(Black sand, CM scale. Is this too coarse for a pink wrasse, fighting conch, and other micro inverts? I can only guess that it is for sure too coarse for garden eels, if I ever decide to give them a try. Are there any fine black sands [like what I have in two of my freshwater tanks] that are reef compatible?)
(I got a pretty good deal on this 14 gallon already drilled and plumbed for remote refugium, I hope to pick up soon. Going to have to build a stand for it, though, to get the returns above the rim of the DT.)
I'm still trying to mount up my RO/DI unit - had to wait for a booster pump to come in because I was reading right at or a hair under 20psi. Still have to get plywood cut, but the weather has been miserable.
There's a small ~2" crack in the glass bulkhead to the filter section of my display tank that has spread from the circular return cutout to the top edge. Per advice from several others, I've got some thin superglue with precision tip applicators, and will hit it gently with a hair dryer and then said superglue to stabilize it.
All of the rock has been through at least one bath with sodium percarbonate, brushed, rinsed, and set out to dry in the sun. However I wasn't totally happy with the results (I expected it to bleach more), so I ordered more percarbonate, and instead of a 44-gallon trashcan, this time I'm going to use the totes I picked it up in, with only enough rock to cover the bottom (not stacked up like in the pics) so that it all can get UV from the sun while it's soaking. I've already got my Marco mortar and hopefully enough super glue to do what I want aquascaping wise - I just couldn't justify $100+ in epoxy sticks in order to save a little time waiting for mortar to dry.
I'm on the fence about the black sand now. I really like the look of it, but I worry what I have here might be too coarse and sharp for the sand-sifting/-dwelling things I want (for sure not the garden eels I might like to have one day), and that I'll be missing out on buffering from not having aragonite sand (I did a vinegar test on it, no fizz). However, the CaribSea black aragonite has too many reviews from people saying it was the source of element spikes like iron, aluminum, and silicon that they couldn't get rid of until they got rid of the sand - others say they've been using it fine for ages. To me, that screams QC issues (or no QC at all), and I don't think I'm willing to take the risk unless/until CaribSea starts including batch ICP-MS results on each bag, the way some salt suppliers do.
So, I'm wondering if I should give up black sand as a BadIdea™ - I'd love some advice borne of experience in this regard. I know not everyone who uses this sand has this problem, but I'm not sure it's worth the risk, unless there's an alternative I'm missing. I don't want to buy it, put it in a barrel with water, and then send the water off to be tested just to find out if it's safe to use.
I intend to run a remote 'fuge that will double as a secondary, reverse-lit display. I'm going to do a live start to the main tank, and don't want chaeto gobbling up all the nutrients that my handful of starter corals would want, so, while I will stand the fuge up at the same time (or shortly thereafter), it will have sand, rock, inverts, and I will add ornamental macros over time. I had originally considered a mangrove, but have written it off as more trouble than its worth if I have to disturb the fuge by uprooting it every time one outgrows the tank every couple of years. I usually walk into my office at about 9:45 EST, and work until about 7pm, and then I'm in and out the rest of the night until between 2am - 4am, so the reverse cycle ensures I always have something to look at.
I have a 20-gallon long dedicated solely to QT - I might pick up a second for TTM, but I don't have a good place for two right now. I have a spare 20 regular that, for the time being, will be used solely for invert QT and never have copper added to it.
As of this writing, I'm still buying misc. pieces and parts. I need 50-micron filter socks to replace the fleece ones that came with the tank. Various filter media. Lots of chemicals. A pair of powerheads. Ideally a roller filter that will fit in one of my filter sock wells. A skimmer (debating between Tunze Comline DOC 9004, and one from IOAOI that has a drain tube). Various filter media. Some extra heaters, fuge lights, QT lights (for corals), a few low-flow pumps (for mixing barrel and fuge), refractometer, a power supply for my Apex unit (I have an EB8 I picked up like-new for $50 yesterday), and on and on. Current figure has me at something over $1k worth of stuff left to buy (if I'm going to do this right) before I can put water in the tank... here's to hoping I'll have enough left over in my tax return.
Right now, I'm figuring I'm somewhere between 30 - 45 days out from filling - I want to take the time to do my aquascape right, as I'm aiming for HNSA.
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!) to add to the 'fuge once my bottles of phyto arrive.
