NoChickenStrips
New member
Trash bin FTW!!! refugium/back-chamber/whatever you call it
Been Lurking for the longest time. Finally created an account here.
FTS 10/23/2011
Display: 36"x18"x16" Standard 40 Breeder
Biological Filtration: 30Lbs Live rock, 2" Sandbed, Back Chamber with chaetomorpha/Red Mangrove,
Chemical Filtration: AC 50 with Carbon/GFO
Lighting: 36" 4x39 Watt T5, R2 moon light, cheap LED desk lamp for the back chamber.
Skimmer: Modified Seaclone 100
Heater: ViaAqua 250w Titanium
Circulation: koralia E 1050, Maxijet 900(return pump from back chamber)
Back Chamber: DYI, cut from a trash bin.
Established: March 2011
One day, I'd love to build a proper tank/setup with all the bells and whistles. For the time being, this is what you'd call a "Budget" tank. My focus is to use what I have laying around, buy used equipment, and DYI as much as i can. Especially using a 5 dollar "Trash Bin". I was stumped on what type of filtration to use. I've had a BC14 before and I really liked the all in one concept.
Water Parameters
Lighting:
I'm happy with this T5 setup. A little too much light. Currently using a 4 bulb 36" 39watt TEK fixture. However, I am only running 2 bulbs 6 inches above the water surface. 4 bulbs will and have bleached my softies. Though SPS do look amazing, i have no intentions of keeping SPS. This is a LPS/Softie dominant tank.
Goal
Main goal for the first year is to collect as many different species/color as I can through trading. This sucks especially with local fish stores because you will not get a one for one" trade. I will give 10 frags and get 4 back in return. Many of my colonies do not get very big because as soon as they get to a decent size, i'll have to frag them up for trade. For the second year, I will let things grow out and mature.
Feeding
I feed twice daily, morning and before bed time. Most of my lps remain open with feelers even in the day time. I feed a variety of frozen foods. Rod's original food, Hikari Bio Pure Mysis Shrimp, Cyclop eeze Freezer bar, Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast Live. Primarily for my LPS because I do not have the patience or luck to get both of my Mandarins to eat frozen food. For that, I culture Tiger pods in a Tubaware container in which I replenish the display tank every week. Both Mandarins are nice and fat. All they do is eat and poop all day. I'm thinking of cutting down on feeding them extra pods. Still keeping a decent culture of pods on hand just in case.
Maintenance
For my daily routine, I feed, empty skimmer, manual topoff, add 1 tsp Phytoplankton, and dose 5 drops of Kent Iodide.
For my weekly, I clean the filter pad, add home cultured pods to the display, clean glass, stare at the tank forever, and do a 5 gallon water change. I usually premix 15 gallons or more of saltwater and store them in a few water tight 5 gallon buckets. This way, all i'll have to do is throw in a heater/pump for 30 minutes instead of waiting for the salt to mix overnight. Also a good practice in case you have one of those "emergency/help me guys what do i do" situations.
Filtration
For the longest time, I went skimmerless. I also did not run any carbon and only changed the water every 2 weeks. As my bioload got bigger and feeding more often, i was pushing my system's limit. Seeing a friend's tank crash first hand really hit me. I am currently running a POS SeaClone 100 skimmer, AquaClear 50 with Carbon/GFO. The back chambers have Chaetomorpha and Mangroves. Ghetto rigged if you must say. This cheap POS SeaClone 100 skimmer from craiglist gets the job done, after some modifications that is. The AquaClear 50 is used primarily for carbon and GFO. Too poor to afford a reactor.
Been Lurking for the longest time. Finally created an account here.
FTS 10/23/2011
Display: 36"x18"x16" Standard 40 Breeder
Biological Filtration: 30Lbs Live rock, 2" Sandbed, Back Chamber with chaetomorpha/Red Mangrove,
Chemical Filtration: AC 50 with Carbon/GFO
Lighting: 36" 4x39 Watt T5, R2 moon light, cheap LED desk lamp for the back chamber.
Skimmer: Modified Seaclone 100
Heater: ViaAqua 250w Titanium
Circulation: koralia E 1050, Maxijet 900(return pump from back chamber)
Back Chamber: DYI, cut from a trash bin.
Established: March 2011
One day, I'd love to build a proper tank/setup with all the bells and whistles. For the time being, this is what you'd call a "Budget" tank. My focus is to use what I have laying around, buy used equipment, and DYI as much as i can. Especially using a 5 dollar "Trash Bin". I was stumped on what type of filtration to use. I've had a BC14 before and I really liked the all in one concept.
Water Parameters
- Salinity: 1.026sg (35ppt)
- Temp: 78F-80F
- PH: 8.0-8.2
- Calcium: 440
- Ammonia: 0
- Nitrate: 0
Lighting:
I'm happy with this T5 setup. A little too much light. Currently using a 4 bulb 36" 39watt TEK fixture. However, I am only running 2 bulbs 6 inches above the water surface. 4 bulbs will and have bleached my softies. Though SPS do look amazing, i have no intentions of keeping SPS. This is a LPS/Softie dominant tank.
Goal
Main goal for the first year is to collect as many different species/color as I can through trading. This sucks especially with local fish stores because you will not get a one for one" trade. I will give 10 frags and get 4 back in return. Many of my colonies do not get very big because as soon as they get to a decent size, i'll have to frag them up for trade. For the second year, I will let things grow out and mature.
Feeding
I feed twice daily, morning and before bed time. Most of my lps remain open with feelers even in the day time. I feed a variety of frozen foods. Rod's original food, Hikari Bio Pure Mysis Shrimp, Cyclop eeze Freezer bar, Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast Live. Primarily for my LPS because I do not have the patience or luck to get both of my Mandarins to eat frozen food. For that, I culture Tiger pods in a Tubaware container in which I replenish the display tank every week. Both Mandarins are nice and fat. All they do is eat and poop all day. I'm thinking of cutting down on feeding them extra pods. Still keeping a decent culture of pods on hand just in case.
Maintenance
For my daily routine, I feed, empty skimmer, manual topoff, add 1 tsp Phytoplankton, and dose 5 drops of Kent Iodide.
For my weekly, I clean the filter pad, add home cultured pods to the display, clean glass, stare at the tank forever, and do a 5 gallon water change. I usually premix 15 gallons or more of saltwater and store them in a few water tight 5 gallon buckets. This way, all i'll have to do is throw in a heater/pump for 30 minutes instead of waiting for the salt to mix overnight. Also a good practice in case you have one of those "emergency/help me guys what do i do" situations.
Filtration
For the longest time, I went skimmerless. I also did not run any carbon and only changed the water every 2 weeks. As my bioload got bigger and feeding more often, i was pushing my system's limit. Seeing a friend's tank crash first hand really hit me. I am currently running a POS SeaClone 100 skimmer, AquaClear 50 with Carbon/GFO. The back chambers have Chaetomorpha and Mangroves. Ghetto rigged if you must say. This cheap POS SeaClone 100 skimmer from craiglist gets the job done, after some modifications that is. The AquaClear 50 is used primarily for carbon and GFO. Too poor to afford a reactor.
Not my fault though, they were dead on arrival.
I am a roadracer...
