pdiehm
Valuable Member
"If at first you do not succeed, try try again...." That's the saying right?
I don't want to say that I failed the first 2 times, because I learned something that I can take with me in the future. Failure is when you do something and gain nothing of value.
The first time, I set up with sand and pukani rock. I couldnt keep anything alive. I had no coralline algae growth, but I could grow algae on the sand, on the rocks like it was no one's business. One day, I woke up and said, I have a 60" tank...I have 2 clowns in it. Let's just take them out, and start all over. I bleached and acid bathed the rock. I removed the sand. I saw why I couldn't keep anything alive....
Take 2 was the barebottom version. I had coralline, I had actual SPS success, but I put in an additive and essentially killed everything I had, except for 1 acropora. The fish were unaffected. Things were going really well, until I took out a rock to clean all the crap that got caught inside the rock....I saw thorns, except these were vermetid snails. I had thousands of them all over my rocks...mostly on the bottom of the rocks. After giving it long thought, and being jealous at how my biocube 29 was doing with Marco rocks, I decided to start over....new rock, a new T5 light....
that leads us to today. On 10/7, I started the cycle. On 11/9/2018, I was able to dose 1ml ammonia on 11/8/2018 and test 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrite today. The cycle is complete! Well the initial cycle.
As for the tank, it's a basic marineland 60x18x26. I drilled it for a beananimal, and an internal coast to coast overflow. The drains are 1" red pvc into a 302 aquatics sump that is 40x16x18...into 3 4" filter socks, into the skimmer, into a refugium (although it's really small), and into the return.
The stand is something I made, and while not perfect, and a million things I would do differently with it...it's functional, and would hold a tank...literally.
Lighting the tank is a 6x80W T5 ATI Sunpower with 4 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 1 actinic (I have a purple plus as well in the closet). It's mounted using an aluminum contraption I saw online somewhere, and works really well since I can't hang from the ceiling or from the wall.
Flow is in the form of a Sicce 5.0 return pump, and a pair of mp40QDs which run on 100% reef crest until midnight when they kickdown into 65% reef crest.
Filtration is in the form of 120 lbs of reefcleaners rock, a Reef Octopus classic 200INT skimmer, and a CW-100 Algae Scrubber.
Salt being used is the Red Sea blue bucket, and in time, will be using the ATI Essentials (eventually Pro) dosing program.
The plan is to have an SPS dominated tank, with some encrusting SPS on the bottom class, maybe some lower light branching colonies...that's the plan at least. If this doesn't work, I'll probably work on an LPS dominated system with the MP40's running Lagoon or Tidal Swell.
I'll update with pictures later today or this weekend. LET'S GET THIS STARTED!
I don't want to say that I failed the first 2 times, because I learned something that I can take with me in the future. Failure is when you do something and gain nothing of value.
The first time, I set up with sand and pukani rock. I couldnt keep anything alive. I had no coralline algae growth, but I could grow algae on the sand, on the rocks like it was no one's business. One day, I woke up and said, I have a 60" tank...I have 2 clowns in it. Let's just take them out, and start all over. I bleached and acid bathed the rock. I removed the sand. I saw why I couldn't keep anything alive....
Take 2 was the barebottom version. I had coralline, I had actual SPS success, but I put in an additive and essentially killed everything I had, except for 1 acropora. The fish were unaffected. Things were going really well, until I took out a rock to clean all the crap that got caught inside the rock....I saw thorns, except these were vermetid snails. I had thousands of them all over my rocks...mostly on the bottom of the rocks. After giving it long thought, and being jealous at how my biocube 29 was doing with Marco rocks, I decided to start over....new rock, a new T5 light....
that leads us to today. On 10/7, I started the cycle. On 11/9/2018, I was able to dose 1ml ammonia on 11/8/2018 and test 0 ammonia, and 0 nitrite today. The cycle is complete! Well the initial cycle.
As for the tank, it's a basic marineland 60x18x26. I drilled it for a beananimal, and an internal coast to coast overflow. The drains are 1" red pvc into a 302 aquatics sump that is 40x16x18...into 3 4" filter socks, into the skimmer, into a refugium (although it's really small), and into the return.
The stand is something I made, and while not perfect, and a million things I would do differently with it...it's functional, and would hold a tank...literally.
Lighting the tank is a 6x80W T5 ATI Sunpower with 4 blue plus, 1 coral plus and 1 actinic (I have a purple plus as well in the closet). It's mounted using an aluminum contraption I saw online somewhere, and works really well since I can't hang from the ceiling or from the wall.
Flow is in the form of a Sicce 5.0 return pump, and a pair of mp40QDs which run on 100% reef crest until midnight when they kickdown into 65% reef crest.
Filtration is in the form of 120 lbs of reefcleaners rock, a Reef Octopus classic 200INT skimmer, and a CW-100 Algae Scrubber.
Salt being used is the Red Sea blue bucket, and in time, will be using the ATI Essentials (eventually Pro) dosing program.
The plan is to have an SPS dominated tank, with some encrusting SPS on the bottom class, maybe some lower light branching colonies...that's the plan at least. If this doesn't work, I'll probably work on an LPS dominated system with the MP40's running Lagoon or Tidal Swell.
I'll update with pictures later today or this weekend. LET'S GET THIS STARTED!
