This all started from Santa bringing a 2.5 gallon betta tank.
I have two daughters (11 and 8) and the plan was for them to share the betta tank. Well, that didn’t go as planned. We were in the store and I'm trying to now please 3 women. The wife is already wanting a larger tank, the oldest wants a fancy gold fish which needs a min 10g and the little one wants a little fish like her. So, we ended up with 2 completely different gold fish and the larger 10 gallon tank. Multi-tank syndrome kicked in early, lol.
Then on to the next chapter. How do you set all this up for success. I've always been a bit of an overachiever which you are about to witness as you continue to read. My job at this point was to have a level of understanding and confidence that I could insure my little girls fish didn’t die. That’s when the excitement and addiction started kicking in. I couldn't stop. Its like being strung out on crack (not that I would truly know what that's like), I just couldn't get enough. I soon started researching larger tanks as I would prefer to combine the 10g and the 2.5g. And while I was at it, I could even add a few more fish to the tank. That started at the local Petsmart where Santa picked up the original betta tank but soon lead me to a reef shop here in Dallas called “Dallas North Aquarium”. That hit the spot, well at least temporary.
After about a month of reading and searching around I ended up buying this aquarium. I bought it with built in overflow just in case I was to ever do salt.
This tank checked off all the requirements at the time. Those were
- I wanted the viewing window tall so that it was more comfortable for me or the girls to watch the fish.
- I needed it to look nice to fit the house decor
- I wanted a good size area underneath to store all the supplies
- I also didn't want the tank to protrude to far away from the wall as it will be in the formal dinning room which also has a 10 top table.
So, I get it home and immediately start setting it up. Another negative trait of mine, sometimes I tend to rush into things and then have to research as I am trying to prefect the desired outcome. During that research I typically switch gears because the new knowledge has altered my thoughts. You would think at 43 years old, I would've learned to slow down by now, but I haven't.
Now we have the tank at home and setup in the dinning room. At this point I am trying to figure out how I am going to aquascape it for my fresh water paradise. I'm thinking a sunken ship and airplane, some plants and rocks. During all this research I keep finding myself being pulled to the colorful world of salt water. But that world appeared to be intimidating, harder and quite frankly over-whelming. After a few weeks of absorbing everything thing I could find, I decided I wanted to reef and I was up for the challenge!
Thankfully the local shop allowed me to return the freshwater items I had bought and I picked out a few saltwater items. I picked up a Trigger 36" sump and a Red Sea Skimmer. Both of these items were purely based upon the recommendations of the sales rep. I told the rep that I wanted a white, fine sand substrate and he recommended the Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand. He then went on to tell me that I needed to go set it up and then fill with RO water. This was easy since I already had an RO system.
The picture above shows where I was at on Feb 12, 2020. I had a 50' hose running from my RO faucet in the kitchen and it was going to take 3 days to fill. During those 3 days I started reading more about RO and discovered salt mixing stations. I quickly realized that I really should have the DI on the RO, and that a salt mixing station was going to be a must have. And why stop there, I'm going to need some automation to streamline all this stuff. That's when the bomb went off.
If I was going to have a mixing station, it was going to have to be in the garage. Luckily it was on the other side of the wall behind the tank. But if I was going to have a mixing station, then I was going to have to do some upgrades to the garage. I needed a sink and an area to put the tanks. My garage was in need of some love. It was like most garages with 15yrs of stuff built up. As I started cleaning the garage to make room for the mixing station, I thought to myself. Sure would be nice if the floors were epoxied. And if I'm going to do that, then might as well repaint the walls.
Before
Disregard the side by side in the photo (its the only before pic I could quickly find). Just wanted to give you an idea
Before the final clear coat on the floor
During final Clear Coat
Now its time to start putting everything together. I bought two clear 75g tanks for the mixing station, all the plumbing materials to hard plumb the sump and a Apex w/ Trident, Dos and Wav.
I went ahead and drained the tank to do my aquascape. After reading about aquascapes I taped out an area on the floor in the garage to stack rocks. I bought the Caribsea Life Rock.
I divided the tank into thirds like the recommendations and started trying to recreate the setup in the tank. This was tough as I quickly realized that lack of depth and the overflow boxes got in the way.
Once I get the mixing station together I will drain the tank again and add the RODI water.
I plan on adding the APEX system to the right side of the cabinet.
Here are the 3 questions I have so far....
1. Should I change the sand? I'm wondering this because of the lack of DI and since I plan on having 4 wav's. I want good flow but I don't want to have issues with dust or sand blowing around.
2. There is about 10" of space between the Trigger sump and the wall I will install to separate the APEX compartment. Would you guys leave that space open for additional equipment or get a larger sump? I am already thinking that I want a larger sump for more options down the road. And if I am going to be draining the tank one more time, then now would be the time to add the larger sump.
Trigger Triton Sump
3. I painted the back of the tank with spray paint. Would you guys recommend using a black out film?
Update... 3/15/2020
so I finished the saltwater mixing station.
Update 4/11/20
The tank is up and going. I ended up making a new canopy soI could get the lights higher and have a more user friendly door.
Still moving along. Just tweaking now and finishing up little odds and ends. Ran all the dose tubes last night. Not even sure what I’m going to dose. Lol
Also, I added a stand alone flow meter to my RODI tank. This will make calculations for salt super quick.
I have two daughters (11 and 8) and the plan was for them to share the betta tank. Well, that didn’t go as planned. We were in the store and I'm trying to now please 3 women. The wife is already wanting a larger tank, the oldest wants a fancy gold fish which needs a min 10g and the little one wants a little fish like her. So, we ended up with 2 completely different gold fish and the larger 10 gallon tank. Multi-tank syndrome kicked in early, lol.
Then on to the next chapter. How do you set all this up for success. I've always been a bit of an overachiever which you are about to witness as you continue to read. My job at this point was to have a level of understanding and confidence that I could insure my little girls fish didn’t die. That’s when the excitement and addiction started kicking in. I couldn't stop. Its like being strung out on crack (not that I would truly know what that's like), I just couldn't get enough. I soon started researching larger tanks as I would prefer to combine the 10g and the 2.5g. And while I was at it, I could even add a few more fish to the tank. That started at the local Petsmart where Santa picked up the original betta tank but soon lead me to a reef shop here in Dallas called “Dallas North Aquarium”. That hit the spot, well at least temporary.
After about a month of reading and searching around I ended up buying this aquarium. I bought it with built in overflow just in case I was to ever do salt.
This tank checked off all the requirements at the time. Those were
- I wanted the viewing window tall so that it was more comfortable for me or the girls to watch the fish.
- I needed it to look nice to fit the house decor
- I wanted a good size area underneath to store all the supplies
- I also didn't want the tank to protrude to far away from the wall as it will be in the formal dinning room which also has a 10 top table.
So, I get it home and immediately start setting it up. Another negative trait of mine, sometimes I tend to rush into things and then have to research as I am trying to prefect the desired outcome. During that research I typically switch gears because the new knowledge has altered my thoughts. You would think at 43 years old, I would've learned to slow down by now, but I haven't.
Now we have the tank at home and setup in the dinning room. At this point I am trying to figure out how I am going to aquascape it for my fresh water paradise. I'm thinking a sunken ship and airplane, some plants and rocks. During all this research I keep finding myself being pulled to the colorful world of salt water. But that world appeared to be intimidating, harder and quite frankly over-whelming. After a few weeks of absorbing everything thing I could find, I decided I wanted to reef and I was up for the challenge!
Thankfully the local shop allowed me to return the freshwater items I had bought and I picked out a few saltwater items. I picked up a Trigger 36" sump and a Red Sea Skimmer. Both of these items were purely based upon the recommendations of the sales rep. I told the rep that I wanted a white, fine sand substrate and he recommended the Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand. He then went on to tell me that I needed to go set it up and then fill with RO water. This was easy since I already had an RO system.
The picture above shows where I was at on Feb 12, 2020. I had a 50' hose running from my RO faucet in the kitchen and it was going to take 3 days to fill. During those 3 days I started reading more about RO and discovered salt mixing stations. I quickly realized that I really should have the DI on the RO, and that a salt mixing station was going to be a must have. And why stop there, I'm going to need some automation to streamline all this stuff. That's when the bomb went off.
If I was going to have a mixing station, it was going to have to be in the garage. Luckily it was on the other side of the wall behind the tank. But if I was going to have a mixing station, then I was going to have to do some upgrades to the garage. I needed a sink and an area to put the tanks. My garage was in need of some love. It was like most garages with 15yrs of stuff built up. As I started cleaning the garage to make room for the mixing station, I thought to myself. Sure would be nice if the floors were epoxied. And if I'm going to do that, then might as well repaint the walls.
Before
Disregard the side by side in the photo (its the only before pic I could quickly find). Just wanted to give you an idea
Before the final clear coat on the floor
During final Clear Coat
Now its time to start putting everything together. I bought two clear 75g tanks for the mixing station, all the plumbing materials to hard plumb the sump and a Apex w/ Trident, Dos and Wav.
I went ahead and drained the tank to do my aquascape. After reading about aquascapes I taped out an area on the floor in the garage to stack rocks. I bought the Caribsea Life Rock.
I divided the tank into thirds like the recommendations and started trying to recreate the setup in the tank. This was tough as I quickly realized that lack of depth and the overflow boxes got in the way.
Once I get the mixing station together I will drain the tank again and add the RODI water.
I plan on adding the APEX system to the right side of the cabinet.
Here are the 3 questions I have so far....
1. Should I change the sand? I'm wondering this because of the lack of DI and since I plan on having 4 wav's. I want good flow but I don't want to have issues with dust or sand blowing around.
2. There is about 10" of space between the Trigger sump and the wall I will install to separate the APEX compartment. Would you guys leave that space open for additional equipment or get a larger sump? I am already thinking that I want a larger sump for more options down the road. And if I am going to be draining the tank one more time, then now would be the time to add the larger sump.
Trigger Triton Sump
3. I painted the back of the tank with spray paint. Would you guys recommend using a black out film?
Update... 3/15/2020
so I finished the saltwater mixing station.
Update 4/11/20
The tank is up and going. I ended up making a new canopy soI could get the lights higher and have a more user friendly door.
Still moving along. Just tweaking now and finishing up little odds and ends. Ran all the dose tubes last night. Not even sure what I’m going to dose. Lol
Also, I added a stand alone flow meter to my RODI tank. This will make calculations for salt super quick.
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