ahlebik
New member
Installed the RODI FIRST! why have a tank if you cannot produce the water to fill it? Dont get me wrong if I was in ELP I am sure I would have hit up a LFS for water but I am glad I got my own means early on.
120gal 3 side starfire from glass cages with a 40g breeder.
200lbs of live rock. Mixed it up with Fiji, branching, and something else... I wanted to be sure I could mix and match rocks that I liked. At the time I didnt know the difference between them anyway... I just went expensive and with 200lbs I should have enough to do what I wanted. Before putting the rock in I laid down egg crate on the bottom of my tank. I was afraid I would drop a rock and crack the tank. It also helped in the way that the rock didnt slide around while I was setting stuff up.
First try at the sump. I was uneducated on skimmers and went with what was recommended by a LFS. It was nothing but trouble from the start. I blame my lack of knowledge and the skimmer being a piece of crap. I now use a extreme 200.
When the sump was running I used acrylic rod to form my rock structure. Depending on the piece of rock I drilled in about a inch on both rocks and put a piece of rod between. On some I used putty, on rocks that just stacked I let the rocks touch and the rod was just there to keep it from sliding.
I tried to use all the rock at first hiding the less desirable rocks around back or as base rocks. I dumped in a few bags of sand and let everything sit for a month. (this picture was taken after that but the rocks were in this state)
About a month in with the setup circulating I added the MP40. I had flow now and started to turn on the light some during the day (Nova Extreme 8x54). It was a exciting time with the light on. My rock had a bumblee snail and a lot of neat things growing that I later learned were feather dusters and aiptasia!
A month and twoish weeks in: I started testing and it looked like my tank was almost done swinging and started to stabilize. When tests started to read more to my liking for more than a day I added a cleanup crew. There was a nice post at the time in the newbie forum that recommended X of each type of snail depending on size of snail and where they hung out. I will say I learned alot browsing the newbie forum.
The 60ish snails I added started another cycle... when that was complete I added my first fish. This was two months in plus a few days. I still considered him cleanup crew but he would soon turn out to be the master of the tank...
I let it do its thing for about another month. Snails came and went. Rocks started to grow one type of algae, It would die off, another would take its place. I removed a few rocks that were aiptasia breeding grounds. I noticed this helped the flow alot and made the tank look more open. Of the 200lbs I am now using about 120lbs. (I still have that rock I removed cooking in the garage).
The added flow and opening up the rocks put a stop to the algae. On a snail restocking I added my first coral. A blue green duncan. I was on the phone with live aquaria discussing how long my tank was up and what would be a good permanent cleanup crew and they threw in the duncan for free. I wish I could remember the persons name I talked to but he was a really nice guy and was unable to comprehend why I didnt have more in my tank at this point. I was just slow and steady... with a free coral.
I took to heart all the talk about mature tanks and didnt want to add livestock to quick to my tank. I wanted to grasp what I learned at this point and keep the diamond goby and duncan alive. I let the coralline algae grow. I learned that im better off with pinpoint test kits that have a digital readout. I learned aiptasia X will remove the pests that pop up from time to time if you follow the directions. I learned that boiling water does NOT work on removing pests, just gives you blisters when you are not paying attention.
The fourth and fifth month were playing with the light cycle, refuge, dialing in the skimmer further. I spend time looking into what corals and fish I eventually wanted in my tank. I was investing money into this tank and didnt want to get discouraged because I made a silly mistake. The knowledge was in the forums and I was digging it out.
(At this point I may have found the club forum)
At about the six month mark I was ready to start adding the corals and fish I had been researching. I still kept going slow, but after six months, and with success with everything that I added I will admit I broke my regiment and added a few things a month.
120gal 3 side starfire from glass cages with a 40g breeder.
200lbs of live rock. Mixed it up with Fiji, branching, and something else... I wanted to be sure I could mix and match rocks that I liked. At the time I didnt know the difference between them anyway... I just went expensive and with 200lbs I should have enough to do what I wanted. Before putting the rock in I laid down egg crate on the bottom of my tank. I was afraid I would drop a rock and crack the tank. It also helped in the way that the rock didnt slide around while I was setting stuff up.
First try at the sump. I was uneducated on skimmers and went with what was recommended by a LFS. It was nothing but trouble from the start. I blame my lack of knowledge and the skimmer being a piece of crap. I now use a extreme 200.
When the sump was running I used acrylic rod to form my rock structure. Depending on the piece of rock I drilled in about a inch on both rocks and put a piece of rod between. On some I used putty, on rocks that just stacked I let the rocks touch and the rod was just there to keep it from sliding.
I tried to use all the rock at first hiding the less desirable rocks around back or as base rocks. I dumped in a few bags of sand and let everything sit for a month. (this picture was taken after that but the rocks were in this state)
About a month in with the setup circulating I added the MP40. I had flow now and started to turn on the light some during the day (Nova Extreme 8x54). It was a exciting time with the light on. My rock had a bumblee snail and a lot of neat things growing that I later learned were feather dusters and aiptasia!
A month and twoish weeks in: I started testing and it looked like my tank was almost done swinging and started to stabilize. When tests started to read more to my liking for more than a day I added a cleanup crew. There was a nice post at the time in the newbie forum that recommended X of each type of snail depending on size of snail and where they hung out. I will say I learned alot browsing the newbie forum.
The 60ish snails I added started another cycle... when that was complete I added my first fish. This was two months in plus a few days. I still considered him cleanup crew but he would soon turn out to be the master of the tank...
I let it do its thing for about another month. Snails came and went. Rocks started to grow one type of algae, It would die off, another would take its place. I removed a few rocks that were aiptasia breeding grounds. I noticed this helped the flow alot and made the tank look more open. Of the 200lbs I am now using about 120lbs. (I still have that rock I removed cooking in the garage).
The added flow and opening up the rocks put a stop to the algae. On a snail restocking I added my first coral. A blue green duncan. I was on the phone with live aquaria discussing how long my tank was up and what would be a good permanent cleanup crew and they threw in the duncan for free. I wish I could remember the persons name I talked to but he was a really nice guy and was unable to comprehend why I didnt have more in my tank at this point. I was just slow and steady... with a free coral.
I took to heart all the talk about mature tanks and didnt want to add livestock to quick to my tank. I wanted to grasp what I learned at this point and keep the diamond goby and duncan alive. I let the coralline algae grow. I learned that im better off with pinpoint test kits that have a digital readout. I learned aiptasia X will remove the pests that pop up from time to time if you follow the directions. I learned that boiling water does NOT work on removing pests, just gives you blisters when you are not paying attention.
The fourth and fifth month were playing with the light cycle, refuge, dialing in the skimmer further. I spend time looking into what corals and fish I eventually wanted in my tank. I was investing money into this tank and didnt want to get discouraged because I made a silly mistake. The knowledge was in the forums and I was digging it out.
(At this point I may have found the club forum)At about the six month mark I was ready to start adding the corals and fish I had been researching. I still kept going slow, but after six months, and with success with everything that I added I will admit I broke my regiment and added a few things a month.
