Hello,
my name is Marc, I will start by talking about my SW experiences. My first experience was a desaster for a few reasons. I used tap water, didnt have a skimmer, too little rock, bad measuring equipment and too many fish. I expected it to be as easy as freshwater...
My second experience was a nano reef. It went well for 8 months with little to no mortalities, had no skimmer and relied on weekly water changes and some liverock for filtration. As a result of me skipping a few water changes and a coral eating worm, I lost some corals. After some equipment failures, I decided to go with a FO aquarium for a while. Ive now had my 77G FO aquarium for about a year. Its time to go bigger and back to reef!
Biggest lessons learned:
- Automade what you can, carrying buckets is a PITA and ruins hard wood floors.
- Skimming makes your life much easiers
- Live rock is a must, but hitchhikers must not be let in the tank.
I will be talking alot about budgetting, my main concern about building this tank is being able to afford it. (I wont be adding this one to a credit card)
Originally, I wanted a 300g+ system thinking that I would run out of space too soon, but after a few calculations, I decided to limit my aquarium size to a 72x24x24.
My budget:
I have 600$ in my bank account and am expecting to spend approx. 100$/week over a period of 9 to 11 months. I am also anticipating approximatly 40$/month on electricity and 25$/month on water changes once the system is running.
The plan in one paragraph.
Make a base, buy an aquarium, use my 77G as a sump/refuge. I'll add some rock, a DIY skimmer or two, pumps and piping. Then all I have to do is make a hole in a load bearing wall and install my aquarium in it.
Heres the first drawing:
It will be flush with the wall in the living room and protruding 19inches in my office.
Its getting late, Ill write more on this tomorrow. Peace.
my name is Marc, I will start by talking about my SW experiences. My first experience was a desaster for a few reasons. I used tap water, didnt have a skimmer, too little rock, bad measuring equipment and too many fish. I expected it to be as easy as freshwater...
My second experience was a nano reef. It went well for 8 months with little to no mortalities, had no skimmer and relied on weekly water changes and some liverock for filtration. As a result of me skipping a few water changes and a coral eating worm, I lost some corals. After some equipment failures, I decided to go with a FO aquarium for a while. Ive now had my 77G FO aquarium for about a year. Its time to go bigger and back to reef!
Biggest lessons learned:
- Automade what you can, carrying buckets is a PITA and ruins hard wood floors.
- Skimming makes your life much easiers
- Live rock is a must, but hitchhikers must not be let in the tank.
I will be talking alot about budgetting, my main concern about building this tank is being able to afford it. (I wont be adding this one to a credit card)
Originally, I wanted a 300g+ system thinking that I would run out of space too soon, but after a few calculations, I decided to limit my aquarium size to a 72x24x24.
My budget:
I have 600$ in my bank account and am expecting to spend approx. 100$/week over a period of 9 to 11 months. I am also anticipating approximatly 40$/month on electricity and 25$/month on water changes once the system is running.
The plan in one paragraph.
Make a base, buy an aquarium, use my 77G as a sump/refuge. I'll add some rock, a DIY skimmer or two, pumps and piping. Then all I have to do is make a hole in a load bearing wall and install my aquarium in it.
Heres the first drawing:
It will be flush with the wall in the living room and protruding 19inches in my office.
Its getting late, Ill write more on this tomorrow. Peace.
