I am slow panda, so it only took my 5 months to realize all this extra time on my hands from the COVID19 crisis means I can get back into reef keeping! I haven't kept a reef for 8 years, but did have a complete setup from before. So I go to the effort to bring my old 90G tank upstairs replete with dark wood stand, canopy, metal halide lights, power compacts, durso stand-pipe, etc.... I can see the dread in my wife's eyes every time I bring something up. If you don't know repeatedly flooding the living room with salt water onto hardwood floors can produce marriage hardships. My wife also knows from experience that aquariums can make a lot of noise (or a least mine can).
Anyway time to get the RO/DI running...so I am off to the LFS (Pure Reef). As I stepped into Tommorrowland I was bedazzled with all sorts of new equipment....open topped rimless tanks, controllers, programmable pumps, optical level sensors, programmable LED lights. I wandered further back into the store to see corals that glow so pink and yellow and purple they almost look fake. I was wearing a mask, but I am SURE this was when I caught a virus from one of those large shallow open top frag tanks. I left with only particulate, carbon, DI resin cartridges and a RO membrane, but it was only a matter of time before the virus became active. I started making water later that day. But like all old things my Kent RO/DI leaked a bit....so making water outside in the 94 degree late July Georgia swelter.
Later that night I had a feverish sweat and exotic dreams of corals and fish. The next day I convinced the wife to go to the store to see if she wanted an "updated look" in the living room. Of course she sees this coming a mile away, but agrees to go anyway. It takes the salesperson all of 5 minutes into his sales pitch on a 105G Planet Aquarium to mention the overflow box WITH COVERS and a Bean Animal which can make the tank very quiet.....BING! Wife smiling and sold.
A day later I am loading the tank and stand into the SUV.
Now ensues a multi-day slog of making water, sooo many 5 gallon jugs carried from outside to inside and down to the basement. I don't have the plumbing finished to the main tank so I am filling the 3 part sump/filtration system in the basement with the water I am making. It can hold 60 - 70 gallons so I fill this part while I work on the other parts of the system. I will have the tank on the main level of the house and have plumbed a large drain line, two return lines, and a cable conduit into the wall and down to the basement. (fair warning: colored PVC piping didn't exist when i built this and I obviously suck at cable management....one day maybe)
In the basement I have plumbed part of the drain to go to a sump with a filter sock, protein skimmer and other mechanical filtration.
Another line branches from the drain and feeds a 40 gallon tank that will house the refugium with chaeto. Both of these filters feed into a HDPE trashcan (yes I know, it's my ghetto and I live here, I may replace this with a polyethylene tank later)
I have an Little Giant 4MDQX-SC pump from 9 years ago still in the box, so I connect that up to the base of the trashcan; I am getting close to ready. I still have an empty tank sitting upstairs looking cool but NOTHING in it.
August 1: Off to the LFS again to see about an aquascape. Last time I did this we bought live rock from the lfs and stacked it up as best we could to make...a horrible jumble of rocks that touched the back and front glass making it impossible to scrape off coraline algae
At the LFS I am pointed to the bins of man-made rock and told to make something and they will come back and give me some tips on form and size. I create this at the shop:
The white tonga is from my previous tank and want to figure out a way to reuse it. It is super heavy and long so figuring out a way to make it vertical is hard. I will play around with this more at home. I buy some reef cement and head back home.
Turns out reconstructing this thing from just a picture is really hard. I mess around with the aquascape for a long while and get every opinion in the house. The reef cement is hard to work with at first, but I eventually get the hang of it with the right amount of water, mixing cup and chopsticks for mixing. I cement it all together and let it dry for 24+ hours.
.
Since I was a noob when I was first mixing the applying the cement on the lower level rocks it turns out I didn't use enough or apply it correctly to stand that test of moving to the tank. The arches all stayed together though and was able to finish the construction in the dry tank. (Follow instructions and work quickly with this cement). 3 more days of filling the tank with water, geting the plumbing right for the tank, and finally adding lots of salt gives me this cloudy start on August 4th.
My SALT FEVER is at and all time high and showing no sign of weakening.
Anyway time to get the RO/DI running...so I am off to the LFS (Pure Reef). As I stepped into Tommorrowland I was bedazzled with all sorts of new equipment....open topped rimless tanks, controllers, programmable pumps, optical level sensors, programmable LED lights. I wandered further back into the store to see corals that glow so pink and yellow and purple they almost look fake. I was wearing a mask, but I am SURE this was when I caught a virus from one of those large shallow open top frag tanks. I left with only particulate, carbon, DI resin cartridges and a RO membrane, but it was only a matter of time before the virus became active. I started making water later that day. But like all old things my Kent RO/DI leaked a bit....so making water outside in the 94 degree late July Georgia swelter.
Later that night I had a feverish sweat and exotic dreams of corals and fish. The next day I convinced the wife to go to the store to see if she wanted an "updated look" in the living room. Of course she sees this coming a mile away, but agrees to go anyway. It takes the salesperson all of 5 minutes into his sales pitch on a 105G Planet Aquarium to mention the overflow box WITH COVERS and a Bean Animal which can make the tank very quiet.....BING! Wife smiling and sold.
A day later I am loading the tank and stand into the SUV.
Now ensues a multi-day slog of making water, sooo many 5 gallon jugs carried from outside to inside and down to the basement. I don't have the plumbing finished to the main tank so I am filling the 3 part sump/filtration system in the basement with the water I am making. It can hold 60 - 70 gallons so I fill this part while I work on the other parts of the system. I will have the tank on the main level of the house and have plumbed a large drain line, two return lines, and a cable conduit into the wall and down to the basement. (fair warning: colored PVC piping didn't exist when i built this and I obviously suck at cable management....one day maybe)
In the basement I have plumbed part of the drain to go to a sump with a filter sock, protein skimmer and other mechanical filtration.
Another line branches from the drain and feeds a 40 gallon tank that will house the refugium with chaeto. Both of these filters feed into a HDPE trashcan (yes I know, it's my ghetto and I live here, I may replace this with a polyethylene tank later)
I have an Little Giant 4MDQX-SC pump from 9 years ago still in the box, so I connect that up to the base of the trashcan; I am getting close to ready. I still have an empty tank sitting upstairs looking cool but NOTHING in it.
August 1: Off to the LFS again to see about an aquascape. Last time I did this we bought live rock from the lfs and stacked it up as best we could to make...a horrible jumble of rocks that touched the back and front glass making it impossible to scrape off coraline algae
At the LFS I am pointed to the bins of man-made rock and told to make something and they will come back and give me some tips on form and size. I create this at the shop:
The white tonga is from my previous tank and want to figure out a way to reuse it. It is super heavy and long so figuring out a way to make it vertical is hard. I will play around with this more at home. I buy some reef cement and head back home.
Turns out reconstructing this thing from just a picture is really hard. I mess around with the aquascape for a long while and get every opinion in the house. The reef cement is hard to work with at first, but I eventually get the hang of it with the right amount of water, mixing cup and chopsticks for mixing. I cement it all together and let it dry for 24+ hours.
.
Since I was a noob when I was first mixing the applying the cement on the lower level rocks it turns out I didn't use enough or apply it correctly to stand that test of moving to the tank. The arches all stayed together though and was able to finish the construction in the dry tank. (Follow instructions and work quickly with this cement). 3 more days of filling the tank with water, geting the plumbing right for the tank, and finally adding lots of salt gives me this cloudy start on August 4th.
My SALT FEVER is at and all time high and showing no sign of weakening.
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