pheinzig
Member
Who doesn't love a documented build from scratch ^_^
There may be some people reading this who could be in a similar situation or can learn from my success/failures with this journey so I bear it all for the community to grow from. Most certainly I will read all posts and take everything with an understanding that I will get mostly good and some bad advice/comments. I don't mind any input, please feel free to let me know if you spot anything dumb I am about to do. I would rather go into a situation with a warning than without!
With that in mind, a little history/intro:
Due to work/life adjustments I had to leave the hobby a decade ago and have been patiently waiting for career and housing to reach stable cruising altitude.
Well the stars have finally aligned, wife said she wanted a tropical and organic feel in our house. Warning her this hobby isn't cheap she is going in eyes wide open muahahaha. I can begin this re-entry to the hobby with a significant boost to my funding and space allowed. I have an idea to start small with this 22g SPS build in the entrance to the house; then move on to a medium size 150gtank in the living room next summer. Long term I have plans for a 500g lagoon in either the basement lounge or the sunroom off our backyard deck. But that is years from now so don't hold your breath. Like many of you, I have been apart of various reef forums for a large chunk of my life. So here's to many more years of our community!
Why 22g long as first tank?
a) I've been gone a decade...much has changed since then.
Practices I used a decade ago are probably now considered terrible ideas.
I have to relearn much and refine even more, so lets start small.
b) I'm re-building a foundation for the hobby, gear and equipment can be used tank to tank.
c) Screwing up with a 22g wont sting nearly as much as a 150 or 500g
d) House is being remodeled... along with that comes new flooring later this year.
Breaking down a 22g and moving it to another room for a couple days will be pretty easy to accomplish.
150g not so much. 500g is pretty much a permanent structure till the day I die or retire in the Philippines.
Lets get started!
Over the next year this will end up as an LPS focus build with half dozen fish and a few shrimp.
Nothing set in stone and am open to ideas.
Fish ideas thus far: 2 clowns, 1 wrasse, 1 goby, 2 blennies.
Shrimp: 1 cleaner, 1 pistol , 1 fire shrimp.
For cuc a mixed bag of the standard nothing special.
I might get a few ornamental hermits on top of the standard mix.
Might even possibly add something sand sifting one day (starfish/urchin).
Substrate and Aquascape will be Aragonite and Marco rock. Fiji pink was heavily considered because I want a potential sand sifting goby to be happy. But Aragonite I think will be fine for him to sift though should I choose a species that does that. I will be using a Dr Tim's cycling method/product so I am inserting dead rock/sand and will let the biome be based off controlling as much as I can rather than gambling with someone else's live rock. Been there done that, no thanks!
I plan to farm my own Mysis and copepods so Ill set up a station for that at a much later date.
The display area for the 22g build will be at the entryway to the home in the highest traffic area. Pros/Cons I know...that's why I choose to put only 22g here.
I picked up a nice heavy console from Costco that can double as a sump/filtration space if ever needed (more on that later).
It's also is long enough that I can comfortably fit a 10g cube on each end which will be QT tanks while I stock the 22g.
The frame of cardboard will act as a rough reference frame for my aquascape that I will be building this week.
I studied basic principles for the rule of 1/3rds; while I am not an architect or artistic really at all...I did a modified version as you see below:
Rule of 1/6? At any rate, the concept is to have the left side of the display taller and bridge over to the middle and drop sharply to the sand with a lone island/cave on the far right. It wont be a pile of rocks...more hybrid NSA/Shelf look. The larger area on the far right will allow for a greater swimming lane, the areas on the left will allow for more hiding/sleeping space. Overall I wanted the eye to draw in the right and slope upward then choose to focus on far right or far left; choose either open swimming area or heavy coral population with a balance of the two in the middle of the tank. Im really trying to put a functional approach but also allow for artistic as well.
For now, I think I can do just fine with a sump less system and no HOB. I was never in the habit of over feeding to begin with and with basic cleaning principles of disturbing sand part of the sand bed and flushing rock surface with power head a couple times a month when doing water changes, this tank should be able to function with minimalist equipment. With that in mind, would put such equipment on the far left of the tank so it can be disguised behind the taller portion of the aqua scape.
*Full disclosure....I got enough rock and mortar that I can do a full on Rockwall as a background but haven't committed to it yet. I would leave a lip on one end to allow an HOB to mount and spill over. Thoughts?
If anyone is interested in the current shopping list, let me know...otherwise Ill just post things as I go along
About $1400 thus far spent, I didn't go all out cheap but I didn't go ecotech expensive either.
More to come in the following days and weeks, please do enjoy this build and any more I put up in the years to come!
There may be some people reading this who could be in a similar situation or can learn from my success/failures with this journey so I bear it all for the community to grow from. Most certainly I will read all posts and take everything with an understanding that I will get mostly good and some bad advice/comments. I don't mind any input, please feel free to let me know if you spot anything dumb I am about to do. I would rather go into a situation with a warning than without!
With that in mind, a little history/intro:
Due to work/life adjustments I had to leave the hobby a decade ago and have been patiently waiting for career and housing to reach stable cruising altitude.
Well the stars have finally aligned, wife said she wanted a tropical and organic feel in our house. Warning her this hobby isn't cheap she is going in eyes wide open muahahaha. I can begin this re-entry to the hobby with a significant boost to my funding and space allowed. I have an idea to start small with this 22g SPS build in the entrance to the house; then move on to a medium size 150gtank in the living room next summer. Long term I have plans for a 500g lagoon in either the basement lounge or the sunroom off our backyard deck. But that is years from now so don't hold your breath. Like many of you, I have been apart of various reef forums for a large chunk of my life. So here's to many more years of our community!
Why 22g long as first tank?
a) I've been gone a decade...much has changed since then.
Practices I used a decade ago are probably now considered terrible ideas.
I have to relearn much and refine even more, so lets start small.
b) I'm re-building a foundation for the hobby, gear and equipment can be used tank to tank.
c) Screwing up with a 22g wont sting nearly as much as a 150 or 500g
d) House is being remodeled... along with that comes new flooring later this year.
Breaking down a 22g and moving it to another room for a couple days will be pretty easy to accomplish.
150g not so much. 500g is pretty much a permanent structure till the day I die or retire in the Philippines.
Lets get started!
Over the next year this will end up as an LPS focus build with half dozen fish and a few shrimp.
Nothing set in stone and am open to ideas.
Fish ideas thus far: 2 clowns, 1 wrasse, 1 goby, 2 blennies.
Shrimp: 1 cleaner, 1 pistol , 1 fire shrimp.
For cuc a mixed bag of the standard nothing special.
I might get a few ornamental hermits on top of the standard mix.
Might even possibly add something sand sifting one day (starfish/urchin).
Substrate and Aquascape will be Aragonite and Marco rock. Fiji pink was heavily considered because I want a potential sand sifting goby to be happy. But Aragonite I think will be fine for him to sift though should I choose a species that does that. I will be using a Dr Tim's cycling method/product so I am inserting dead rock/sand and will let the biome be based off controlling as much as I can rather than gambling with someone else's live rock. Been there done that, no thanks!
I plan to farm my own Mysis and copepods so Ill set up a station for that at a much later date.
The display area for the 22g build will be at the entryway to the home in the highest traffic area. Pros/Cons I know...that's why I choose to put only 22g here.
I picked up a nice heavy console from Costco that can double as a sump/filtration space if ever needed (more on that later).
It's also is long enough that I can comfortably fit a 10g cube on each end which will be QT tanks while I stock the 22g.
The frame of cardboard will act as a rough reference frame for my aquascape that I will be building this week.
I studied basic principles for the rule of 1/3rds; while I am not an architect or artistic really at all...I did a modified version as you see below:
Rule of 1/6? At any rate, the concept is to have the left side of the display taller and bridge over to the middle and drop sharply to the sand with a lone island/cave on the far right. It wont be a pile of rocks...more hybrid NSA/Shelf look. The larger area on the far right will allow for a greater swimming lane, the areas on the left will allow for more hiding/sleeping space. Overall I wanted the eye to draw in the right and slope upward then choose to focus on far right or far left; choose either open swimming area or heavy coral population with a balance of the two in the middle of the tank. Im really trying to put a functional approach but also allow for artistic as well.
For now, I think I can do just fine with a sump less system and no HOB. I was never in the habit of over feeding to begin with and with basic cleaning principles of disturbing sand part of the sand bed and flushing rock surface with power head a couple times a month when doing water changes, this tank should be able to function with minimalist equipment. With that in mind, would put such equipment on the far left of the tank so it can be disguised behind the taller portion of the aqua scape.
*Full disclosure....I got enough rock and mortar that I can do a full on Rockwall as a background but haven't committed to it yet. I would leave a lip on one end to allow an HOB to mount and spill over. Thoughts?
If anyone is interested in the current shopping list, let me know...otherwise Ill just post things as I go along
About $1400 thus far spent, I didn't go all out cheap but I didn't go ecotech expensive either.
More to come in the following days and weeks, please do enjoy this build and any more I put up in the years to come!
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