Hey there everyone. Thought I'd post this up here because I have some spare time right now.
Starting out with a little background. I have been keeping freshwater fish for 2.5 - 3 years now, my biggest tank at one point being a 90g and the most tanks being about 10. Ever since coming across our local reefing forum about 1.5 years ago, I have wanted a saltwater tank but I never had the time or money to do it until fall 2007. I came across a good deal on a 33g tank with a stand that would perfectly fit a 10g sump as well as a CPR HOB overflow. From then on I began slowly gathering the pieces for this system. Because I had fairly little knowledge at the time, I started with all the newbie equipment (Seaclone skimmer, PC lighting, etc). Not long later, "stuff" happened and I ran out of motivation, money and time to finish the project.
Then, this past spring, a local reefer who was moving to Calgary, AB had to unload his nano aquarium so I got 70 lbs of LR, a 10g sump, a 10g nano (36x9x9), nice 36" 2x 39w T5 lighting and a bunch more stuff for a good deal. Once again, I ran out of time so set it up so that system sat dormant UNTIL (yes, again) another local reefer was giving away a custom, drilled 30" long 25 gallon nano. Because I wanted to go a little bigger than a 10g tank right from the start, I picked up this tank and built a nice black stand for it. That is currently my tank that has been set up since September 1, 2008 and STILL has no fish in it. Again, a time thing. My goal for this tank was to start out by doing everything as good as possible so I splurged and bought a Euro-reef RS-80 to go along with the internally drilled (not HOB) overflow and 10g sump. I am using the T5 lighting (again, good lighting with individual reflectors) and have a good return pump and about 60 lbs of live rock in this 35 gallon system.
Even before I had fish in the aquarium, I got bitten by the saltwater bug. One thing that really got me was the complexity (that's right, complexity) of a saltwater system verses a freshwater system that's simply heater, bubbler, HOB filter and any old light. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you I'm really into the equipment side of things. The other thing that was really cool to see was all the life in a saltwater system even before you actually put life in! Seeing all the worms skittering around when I flicked on the light was so cool as well as the feather dusters randomly growing here, there and everywhere. I was hooked.
Just recently, I was thinking about it one day and it just clicked. I knew I had to go bigger. So I'd have to scrimp and save and bike to work. So be it. Looking online one day, I found a local 125g setup (originally FW, with stand, two big AC110s, FW T8 lights and a bunch of gravel and rocks for FW) for $600, a good deal up here. After gathering together all the money I could, then borrowing $20 here and there (and a little more than $20 from the ever sympathetic Grandma :lol: ) I forced a friend into coming with me to help move it. After getting it home safely and maneuvering it VERY carefully into the room where it would reside, I started deciding on equipment and the like.
I knew right off that Euro-reef was the way to go so I came on here and found a used RS-180. But here's the full system outline I chose.
125 gallon aquarium
* Rear Panel Drilled - two overflow boxes with two 1″ drains plus one emergency drain
* Drilled for three 1″ returns, reduces down to three 3/4″ Loc-Line adjustable outputs
* 72Ã"”18.5Ã"”22 (LxWxH) with 1/2″ thick glass
55 gallon custom sump/refugium
Euro-Reef RS-180 protein skimmer
Mag 12 or 18 return pump
2x 250w HQI - 15,000k
1x 400w Mogul - 15,000k
2x 48″ 54w T5HO Actinic (staggered)
I have since dug up a brand new 2x (2' or 3') T5 ballast I was going to use on a freshwater tank awhile back so I'll probably stick a couple of 2' T5 Actinics in there so I've got two full 6' strips.
So tonight I have spent drilling the aquarium. Pretty scary when you don't know for sure that it's not tempered! Luck was on my side, though, and it was a successful modification.
I GUESS I should get back to studying (haha) so more details tomorrow but I will leave you with a few pictures:
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Starting out with a little background. I have been keeping freshwater fish for 2.5 - 3 years now, my biggest tank at one point being a 90g and the most tanks being about 10. Ever since coming across our local reefing forum about 1.5 years ago, I have wanted a saltwater tank but I never had the time or money to do it until fall 2007. I came across a good deal on a 33g tank with a stand that would perfectly fit a 10g sump as well as a CPR HOB overflow. From then on I began slowly gathering the pieces for this system. Because I had fairly little knowledge at the time, I started with all the newbie equipment (Seaclone skimmer, PC lighting, etc). Not long later, "stuff" happened and I ran out of motivation, money and time to finish the project.
Then, this past spring, a local reefer who was moving to Calgary, AB had to unload his nano aquarium so I got 70 lbs of LR, a 10g sump, a 10g nano (36x9x9), nice 36" 2x 39w T5 lighting and a bunch more stuff for a good deal. Once again, I ran out of time so set it up so that system sat dormant UNTIL (yes, again) another local reefer was giving away a custom, drilled 30" long 25 gallon nano. Because I wanted to go a little bigger than a 10g tank right from the start, I picked up this tank and built a nice black stand for it. That is currently my tank that has been set up since September 1, 2008 and STILL has no fish in it. Again, a time thing. My goal for this tank was to start out by doing everything as good as possible so I splurged and bought a Euro-reef RS-80 to go along with the internally drilled (not HOB) overflow and 10g sump. I am using the T5 lighting (again, good lighting with individual reflectors) and have a good return pump and about 60 lbs of live rock in this 35 gallon system.
Even before I had fish in the aquarium, I got bitten by the saltwater bug. One thing that really got me was the complexity (that's right, complexity) of a saltwater system verses a freshwater system that's simply heater, bubbler, HOB filter and any old light. Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you I'm really into the equipment side of things. The other thing that was really cool to see was all the life in a saltwater system even before you actually put life in! Seeing all the worms skittering around when I flicked on the light was so cool as well as the feather dusters randomly growing here, there and everywhere. I was hooked.
Just recently, I was thinking about it one day and it just clicked. I knew I had to go bigger. So I'd have to scrimp and save and bike to work. So be it. Looking online one day, I found a local 125g setup (originally FW, with stand, two big AC110s, FW T8 lights and a bunch of gravel and rocks for FW) for $600, a good deal up here. After gathering together all the money I could, then borrowing $20 here and there (and a little more than $20 from the ever sympathetic Grandma :lol: ) I forced a friend into coming with me to help move it. After getting it home safely and maneuvering it VERY carefully into the room where it would reside, I started deciding on equipment and the like.
I knew right off that Euro-reef was the way to go so I came on here and found a used RS-180. But here's the full system outline I chose.
125 gallon aquarium
* Rear Panel Drilled - two overflow boxes with two 1″ drains plus one emergency drain
* Drilled for three 1″ returns, reduces down to three 3/4″ Loc-Line adjustable outputs
* 72Ã"”18.5Ã"”22 (LxWxH) with 1/2″ thick glass
55 gallon custom sump/refugium
Euro-Reef RS-180 protein skimmer
Mag 12 or 18 return pump
2x 250w HQI - 15,000k
1x 400w Mogul - 15,000k
2x 48″ 54w T5HO Actinic (staggered)
I have since dug up a brand new 2x (2' or 3') T5 ballast I was going to use on a freshwater tank awhile back so I'll probably stick a couple of 2' T5 Actinics in there so I've got two full 6' strips.
So tonight I have spent drilling the aquarium. Pretty scary when you don't know for sure that it's not tempered! Luck was on my side, though, and it was a successful modification.
I GUESS I should get back to studying (haha) so more details tomorrow but I will leave you with a few pictures:
