55g Build (First SW tank)

[CRC88]

Hello All! This is my grand introduction to Reef Central. I've been an innocent bystander looking at posts for quite some time, but this is the first time I've ever jumped in the fray with a post of my own.

A little of my background; I've kept some form of aquatic life for almost 15 years (which says a lot seeing as I'm only 23). Goldfish (5yrs) to Tropical fish (3yrs) to African Cichlids (7 years). My largest tank to date has been a 30 gallon Cichlid tank which I broke down 6 months ago and I sadly sold my breeding pair of Brichardi to the LFS.

I've always wanted a Saltwater tank and this is my first venture into it! I found a GREAT deal off craigslist... 55g tank, stand, hood, pumps, wet/dry filter, overflow, test chemicals, all sorts of fittings, fixtures, and decorations as well as a 10g thrown in for good measure - all for only $150. I was thrilled. I decided to jump on it and start the SW tank.

The plan is to convert the wet/dry into a LR refugium filter with some form of Macro Algae and then to hook it up to the 10 gallon as the sump. Total volume should be around 70g.

One of the keys to this whole setup is to make it as cheaply as possible! I know that's somewhat of an oxymoron in this hobby...but I'd like to see how far I get. I also plan on getting corals at one point, so I want to buy everything right the first time with that in mind (lights mainly).

SoOoOo onto pictures! (assuming this works ) Right now I setup my 20g with a Marine Glow bulb with about 10 pounds of LR, and 25+ of lace rock from my cichlid tanks. My hope is that the LR seeds the Lace rock and then I'll have 35+ pounds of LR...thus saving even more $$$ After letting the tank cycle for about 3 weeks, I put three blue damsels in to further the cycling. These may or may not make it into my main tank...I'm open to suggestions on that one.

Here is the quarrantine wtih LR just cycling

Here is the Addition of some more LR with Damsels

Here is the Tank setup in the garage (for a 'wet' trial run) with the sump underneath. I'm still working on modifying the wet/dry so it's not installed yet.

Please excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. I'll post more pictures and comments as the build comes along, but I figured some of you out there may be interested in this.

I'm totally open to questions / comments / concerns or any pieces of advice you have for me! Thanks & enjoy!

 

[BubbaBoBobBrain]

Good luck with the build. Looks like you have a pretty good start. You are definitely going to need a protein skimmer. Im not sure what you have for room in your sump, but if you can't fit one in your sump they have one that hang onto the tank. "ESHOPPS" makes a good skimmer considering I have one on my 220g and have never had a problem with it. What do you have, or are you gonna get for lights. If you don't have any now, I would recommend getting a T5 setup with at least 4 bulbs, or if you can afford it go the DIY route with the free 3 watt led lights from www.rapidled.com they are a little more expensive but you wont have to worry aboutbulb changes for a few years at least. Once again good luck with the build and keep posting pics along your salt water adventure. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to post them, there are many people here that are very knowledgeable and love to help. Good luck

Bob

 

[CRC88]

So tonight I finished modifying and setting up my refugium. We're still on the 'wet run' phase here so no saltwater yet.

Dry Refugium. I'm putting LR where the bio-balls usually go.

This is a detail of the screen I drilled and put in place to keep any macro algae from clogging the drain. An overflow is a nightmare I'm trying to avoid.

This is the refugium in place with the light attached. It's just a standard 100W equivalent bulb. I've seen these used on here a few times to grow some macroalgae....does it make a difference if the bulb is CFL or Incandescent?

Full setup with everything in place...this is basically the final plan, except for lights and the protein skimmer.

As for lights, I'm getting a 4-bulb T5 setup. Nothing super fancy, but four bulbs with individual reflectors 2x 10k and 2x Actinic. I'll add fans if heat becomes an issue, but my mother LOVES to keep our house like an Igloo, so I don't think that should be a problem.

My LFS also carries MTX skimmers. Are they a good brand across the board or is there a certain model I should / shouldn't buy....or perhaps another brand altogether? Thanks!

 

[CRC88]

Moved the tank up to my bedroom and filled with water!

Water: Check

Salinity: Check

Sand: SloOoOoOoOoOowly settling.....

Thinking of getting an AquaEuro Classic 135 skimmer. I'm open to suggestions thou. Not really looking to spend more than $250 on a skimmer. Anyone have other ideas? My LFS carries the ASM skimmers. Are they good?

 

[yellowRubi]

looks good, hows the sound level of the water commin out of the fuge and goin in sump? u might want to look into makin it out of pvc to quiet it down a bit...

 

[CRC88]

The Sound is OK. I found that if I put a very small piece of airline tubing halfway into the hose it quiets it down a lot with the gurgling / slurping noises due to the vacuum - but you still get the slight trickle of water. Then it becomes roughly equal to the noise of the pump and overflow.

If I wanted to make the tank any quieter I'd have to change all three things to notice a difference I think. I'd def consider making it out of PVC...I'm just more concerned about getting a Protein skimmer first.

 

[CRC88]

Refugium setup with more LR

Refugium setup with more LR

So this weekend I spent a little time setting up the refugium and started to aquascape the DT.

So to the pictures....

#1 is my display tank with the refugium and sump all setup

#2 is my Green Mushroom

#3 is my Quarantine tank that I'm slowly transferring the rock over to the DT

#4 is a closeup of my refugium. I saw several copeopods when I brought the macro algae home, but I haven't seen them since. I eventually want to get a Mandarin....how do I encourage those little guys to breed? (the pods...not the fish.)

#5 is my two ORA bred clownfish. They decided to hold a TINY bit still so I managed a quasi decent shot of them. My friend decided to name them Winston and Broski. Let's hope they survive!


Hope you enjoy. All questions / comments / concerns / outrage is welcome!

 

[CRC88]

Heat Problems

Heat Problems

So I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I got my protein skimmer in the mail yesterday and set it up with much enthusiasm. Unfortunately getting it dialed in took forever...and I ended up modifying my sump so I'll have to do it again tomorrow. Any advice on how to make this go quicker?

Also...had a HUGE heat spike today. For some reason my temp was at 86 when I got home. How harmful is this to the fish / corals (aka a freebie mushroom the guy at the LFS gave me)? The A/C was turned off so I think that was the cause. But I also now have 4 pumps / power heads in the tank...do they produce enough heat to raise the temp that much?!

I'll post some updated pics tomorrow...I redid the 'scape and I'm rather pleased with it! I'll be interested to hear your thoughts!

 

[WetShepherd]

Ideally someone else will chime in on the temp - but I believe that you're pretty lucky that your fish are still alive. I'd assume the same for the coral. Absolutely something to avoid If you have snails be sure to check on them - they can be even more sensitive to heat.

Regarding the skimmer - remember you will have a break in period so keep an eye on it - you will probably have additional adjustments.

GL!

 

[CRC88]

So the temperature is under control. My mom is super happy because it gives her an excuse to keep the A/C on - probably until October :-/

I think I've finalized everything hardware related...at least for now. The two major changes were to add baffles to the sump, and then to redirect the drain flow. I added a Y-valve so that instead of 100% going through the refugium, now only 25% goes into the refugium and 75% goes straight to the skimmer. I also redirected the refugium to drain straight to the return pump instead of passing through the skimmer chamber first - in the hope that all those goodies from the fuge make it to the DT. This will help my eventual goal of supporting a Mandarin.

I also re-aquascaped. It's on the sparse side for now but I'm hoping the corals will fill it in over time. Let me know what you think. Now the best part - Pictures!!

Fuge - you can see the Y-split
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Sump with added baffles.
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Display
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v671/crizman88/?action=view&current=DSC_7577.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/crizman88/DSC_7577.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[maybeshewill]

I think the new scape is MUCH better mate. Corals will fill up space. Tank looks awesome!

 

[WetShepherd]

Looking good

 

[lordofthereef]

With the way that light is (and the acrylic "screen" to keep the macro out from flowing into the sump, you are likely going to run into issues by running an unintended turf scrubber. Macro is likely going to grow on that acrylic sheet with all the holes drilled in it and that will be what causes your clog. Just something to pay attention to, because once it starts growing it can cause clogs pretty quick!

 

[CRC88]

@LordofTheReef...what did you mean by a turf scrubber? The flow through there is pretty small - I figured that it only takes about 5 holes to fully handle that flow, and I have around 80 so that should be plenty!

@WetShepherd - I would love to see your 55 and how you've aquascaped it! I've read a lot on here people have trouble with them because they're so narrow. I tried to arrange mine to give it the illusion of depth, but I'd always love to change it around if I get other ideas!

Thanks for the help!

 

[WetShepherd]

@WetShepherd - I would love to see your 55 and how you've aquascaped it! I've read a lot on here people have trouble with them because they're so narrow. I tried to arrange mine to give it the illusion of depth, but I'd always love to change it around if I get other ideas!

Thanks for the help!

You can find my build in my RC blog (that's all that's in it)
It's a pain but it makes it interesting at the same time. I started with the concession that I would sacrifice the back wall to coraline algae and keep the front and sides clean. This let me lean rock against the back for stability and assisted in making caves which the fish and shrimp seen to enjoy.

The major downside is that aside from the many 'caves', it's just not that interesting - one strip of sand across the front is what remains and even that begins to dwindle with corals. I'm currently trying to come up with something that provides adequate hiding places but leaves me some center area for just sand and possibly frees up the back glass for cleaning.

 

[CRC88]

Thanks WetShepherd! Your tank looks really good! I noticed your caves are much bigger than mine...I'm wondering if I'll have to re-arrange mine once I get bigger fish. I'm used to cichlids which will jam themselves into the tiniest crevices...not sure how much space saltwater fish like.

With the tank, I'm currently having a few problems. My macroalgae seems to be dying off (10 days old). I'm not sure if it gets too much light...or not enough...? Is it possible to blow out the algae from too much light? I'm just running a "100W" CFL.

My skimmer isn't consistently producing skimmate. Is this normal? Sometimes it's cranking away and producing lots of skimmate, and other times, without touching anything, it just doesn't do anything and bubbles away for HOURS without producing a drop. I'm used to freshwater so I really have no concept of how consistently a skimmer is supposed to produce skimmate and what subtle things can affect it.

Also, I added a CUC of 20 snails today. Varying sizes and types: Astraea, Nassarius, Cerith, and one small-ish Turbo. It was quite comical to see my O. Clown swim up to the largest Nassarius with its siphon out and just stare at it for a solid 20 seconds! Seems he didn't know what to do with it!!

Yellow Gobies (sold as a trio) were on sale at my LFS and I almost broke down and bought them, BUT I remembered all the great advice I've gotten from RC about how "Patience is a Virtue" in this hobby or that "Nothing good happens fast." So needless to say - I resisted and passed on the Gobies...I may or may not have gotten a few extra snails to make up for it thou.

Thanks for reading along! If anyone has any advice or suggestions about the algae or skimmer please let me know!

 

[a.browning]

This is looking really good! I have a 55 as well with a similar sump setup as you-- Reef octopus and I turned a wet dry into my fuge as well. I'm looking forward to your progress, keep up the good work!

 

[WetShepherd]

I'm totally useless on the algae and skimmer - currently I don't have a fuge and am trying to decide between adding a small one into my current sump or just building a whole new sump in the 'wet room'. In other words - zero experience there. As for the skimmer, I'm having similar issues. I know that it takes at least a week to break it in, and min ran great after that until recently. Seems I either get nothing or I try to work in an adjustment and it get a cup full of water. The new plan is to make the most minor adjustments possible and wait a day between adjusting again - back to the old proverb about patience

edit: About the caves. I have lots of small ones two, which are the ones they use to hide in if needed. Really, the only fish that hang out in caves in my tank are my royal gramma and the male Ocellaris, and he may change as they finish bonding. The larger caves just provide a quick get-away for any fish who gets in a tiff and wants out of there. So far, all that seems necessary to end a fight is for one of the fish to go around a corner and pop back out somewhere else. As soon as the aggressor looses sight - fight over.

 

[CRC88]

Reef Cost

Reef Cost

So out of curiosity, and to keep a handle on my expenses, I've added up how much my build has cost me so far. I post it here to give any new guys a reference point as to how much it (could) cost.

When I set out on this venture, in my mind, I figured I could buy, setup, and stock a tank for around $500-$600. So far my total cost is about DOUBLE that, and I haven't even really stocked my tank a whole lot. Here are the numbers. How do others compare?

<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v671/crizman88/?action=view&current=ReefCosts.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/crizman88/ReefCosts.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[WetShepherd]

If you post your excel doc I'll fill it out if you want to compare - but you kicked the ever living crap out of me lol.