Tiberia
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2026
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 2
- What state or country do you live in
- Canada
Okay. Hello hi. I am up to nonsense.
As far as introductions go- I am a career construction nerd, and I kept a freshwater tank a few years ago. I recently moved to the coast, and was left unsupervised on facebook marketplace and general online shopping. I now have;
A ~30 gallon bowfront tank
a ~20 gallon long (oversized sump for enormous refugium and room for Gear)
100w TI heater
RoDI 50 Gal/Day unit
Return pump
testing stuff
plumbing stuff
aquascape stuff
some other misc stuff
I have been scavenging wood scraps from work and am building a custom curvy cabinet that matches the curve of the bowfront tank, with room for shelving for Things in the sides, and room for the 20 gallon long underneath.
I have drilled the bowfront tank for an intake, and it went.. mediumly. There was a bit of a blowout on the backside of the cut, so I've gotten a conical diamond glass bit and an adaptor so I can put it on my drill (so i can run it at low enough rpm to not just shatter the glass).
The sump is oversized because I hope to have a lot of filter feeders and I want them to be happy and well fed xD
As far as sump gear, the current plan is RODI, ATO, skimmer, temp, room for future dosing and sensors. The refugium will have ball media, coarse filter foam/spounge to keep chato from escaping into pump zone, funny chaeto and the water velocity (~0.1 inch/s) should allow for most things to settle out rather than be recirculated- the hope is easy cleaning of gunk. The refugium compartment will be 8h x 12 w x 15 L.
I have the ball media already cycling with salt and flow in a rubbermaid tub, the hope is that the tank will have a head start cuz the aquascape is going to be dry rock. I hope to include some live rock and sand as well as we go.
The overarching goal is- pretty, cool, somewhat low maintenance tank for lots of invertebrates (hermit crabs, shrimp, one of those little 6" clams eventually), soft corals and an anemone, a few goldies, some other cool small fish. (cool color theme, blue-purple-etc) I'm sure the plan will evolve from there, but for now I am still picking away at my to do list that's not quite in order;
- Chamfer the glass blowout so it isn't sketchy (biggest chip is 1mmx4mm (the shallow way), most are 1mmx1mm in 6mm glass)
- Paint, assemble and insulate cabinet
- Plumb everything, water test, install gear
- Make a cool aquascape out of all of my newly smashed marco rock rubble
- saltify things, continue testing water and maybe introduce some very light stocking
- pick a light to suit livestock plan, further research required on both fronts
- Make my living room not look like a gosh darn construction site
- (more steps to be figured out as things go wrong)
But- yes. Hello hi, welcome to the nonsense~
As far as introductions go- I am a career construction nerd, and I kept a freshwater tank a few years ago. I recently moved to the coast, and was left unsupervised on facebook marketplace and general online shopping. I now have;
A ~30 gallon bowfront tank
a ~20 gallon long (oversized sump for enormous refugium and room for Gear)
100w TI heater
RoDI 50 Gal/Day unit
Return pump
testing stuff
plumbing stuff
aquascape stuff
some other misc stuff
I have been scavenging wood scraps from work and am building a custom curvy cabinet that matches the curve of the bowfront tank, with room for shelving for Things in the sides, and room for the 20 gallon long underneath.
I have drilled the bowfront tank for an intake, and it went.. mediumly. There was a bit of a blowout on the backside of the cut, so I've gotten a conical diamond glass bit and an adaptor so I can put it on my drill (so i can run it at low enough rpm to not just shatter the glass).
The sump is oversized because I hope to have a lot of filter feeders and I want them to be happy and well fed xD
As far as sump gear, the current plan is RODI, ATO, skimmer, temp, room for future dosing and sensors. The refugium will have ball media, coarse filter foam/spounge to keep chato from escaping into pump zone, funny chaeto and the water velocity (~0.1 inch/s) should allow for most things to settle out rather than be recirculated- the hope is easy cleaning of gunk. The refugium compartment will be 8h x 12 w x 15 L.
I have the ball media already cycling with salt and flow in a rubbermaid tub, the hope is that the tank will have a head start cuz the aquascape is going to be dry rock. I hope to include some live rock and sand as well as we go.
The overarching goal is- pretty, cool, somewhat low maintenance tank for lots of invertebrates (hermit crabs, shrimp, one of those little 6" clams eventually), soft corals and an anemone, a few goldies, some other cool small fish. (cool color theme, blue-purple-etc) I'm sure the plan will evolve from there, but for now I am still picking away at my to do list that's not quite in order;
- Chamfer the glass blowout so it isn't sketchy (biggest chip is 1mmx4mm (the shallow way), most are 1mmx1mm in 6mm glass)
- Paint, assemble and insulate cabinet
- Plumb everything, water test, install gear
- Make a cool aquascape out of all of my newly smashed marco rock rubble
- saltify things, continue testing water and maybe introduce some very light stocking
- pick a light to suit livestock plan, further research required on both fronts
- Make my living room not look like a gosh darn construction site
- (more steps to be figured out as things go wrong)
But- yes. Hello hi, welcome to the nonsense~
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