Back in the hobby after 6 year hiatus

websiteworld

websiteworld

In Memoriam
Hey guys when I moved from Maryville to Knoxville I sold my 120 and never set it back up. I have been itching to get something set back up again, and I found a 46 Gallon Bow with matching stand on Craigslist for 150.00 so I snagged it.

This house has a basement, so I went out on a limb and drilled into the basement and put the sump down there. For now I am keeping the old Sealife 150 Wet/Dry system.

Unfortunately all my expensive live rock is now dead rock, but I did properly preserve it in Rubbermaid containers so it is at least usable, I am hoping over time it will get growth.

This time around I used my Supreme 2400/GPH pump. It appears to be handling the 12 foot rise well. I also opted to use live sand from a guy I found on the forum, and ironically he lives like 3 miles from me. I also put down some "egg crate" plastic on the bottom, put in my rock, and then my sand, this worked out nicely. I purchased some Enkamat PF4 Mesh Mod Material to put inside my pump for my protein skimmer, apparently people report this makes the skimmer a beast.


When I had my tanks everyone was using the compact fluorescents. I have a Moon lite 6' light in my basement now that was over 500.00 but is useless for this tank. I went ahead and started out with a Zoo Med AquaSun T5-HO Double Light which I got on Amazon for 82.00/free shipping/no tax and they gave me free 2 day shipping!

I am hoping some folks will help me get going again with some frags, I am not picky, nor greedy, I like to start out small and watch it grow.
Pics:
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My Old Tank:
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Looks like you are off to a good start. There are a few people on this board who have had basement sump setups, so I'll let them speak to that as I have no experience. And to the dead rock/live rock.

My only comments would be about the light. T5HO is a good choice, IMO. Only better choice is LED, but that is really expensive up front unless you DIY. Two tubes of T5HO is probably good for low-light stuff, but I'd go with 4 tubes in that tank if you are going to grow many of the zoanthids out there or LPS. So another 2-tube fixture or trade up for a 4-tube fixture. To maximize light from the T5HO tubes to the tank, look for individual reflectors for each bulb.
 
Got my first Damsel in there. Too bad all my expensive live rock is now base rock, at least it is really nice rock.

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Nice rockscape. I think you are far better off using "dead" rock, at least you won't be introducing any unwelcomed critters. I've had great luck using it and adding Brightwells Microbacter 7 along with a cup of live sand from an established tank to jump start the cycle. The rock will come to life in no time.
 
planejane said:
I've had great luck using it and adding Brightwells Microbacter 7 along with a cup of live sand from an established tank to jump start the cycle. The rock will come to life in no time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. My parents were in the pet business and a distributor for Fritz Pet so I am very fond of the Fritz Zyme Nitrifying bacteria. I know first hand this product has been used in large commercial aquariums like Disney. It's an amazing product, and has been around 30 years.

It is unfortunate that there is no distributors in our area, but now we have the internet so I order trace elements etc online.

I bought that sand from a guy here locally, it was in buckets wet, so i think i ended up with not only a cup of live sand but 100 pounds!
 
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Got my first T5HO light, they did not have these back when I had my last tank, they had the compact fluorescent. Amazing how much better the lighting is than those cheapo factory lights!
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Close ups of Rockscape, this was from Dr. Macs and was high dollar stuff when I bought it live. Got some really nice pieces.
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albano said:
looks good...are you really sure you want a damsel in there?
Click to expand...

He's just on the front lines. I bought a clown that died and wasn't sure why, turned out my heater was shorted out. Need to find my ground probe.

I will give him back soon. 3.00 well spent. Thanks for the feedback!

Sent from my EVO 3d using tapatalk
 
Okay the Damsel has been captured and is going back today! In case you are wondering how I caught him in all that rock, I drained the tank into a rubbermaid container.

Man-1
Fish-0
 
websiteworld said:
Okay the Damsel has been captured
Click to expand...

Heck yeah! Good deal.

I'd try clowns again, man. They're as tough as a damsel (same group of fish really) and if you eventually want to have them in there anyway...may as well go ahead. Well, I should say, I'd test my tank first and see where I'm at...maybe get some dirty water from someone else's water change too...THEN get the clowns if you want them.

I don't necessarily think that every tank HAS to have a pair of clowns but if you like them, now's the time to get them. Hollar at me if you want some dirty water. I'm water changing tonight (I think).
 
I bought 100 pounds of live sand from someone and just added some live rock rubble to seed the base rock. I use live nitrifying bacteria from fritz to cycle the tank. Also picked up two fancy ocallaris clowns at coral reef. We will see how it goes.

Thanks for offering the cycled water!

Sent from my EVO 3d using tapatalk
 
Well so far two pieces of equipment I had give off voltage! My catalina protein skimmer pump, and a titanium heater. The good news is I found out that Catalina has a needle wheel for that pump now.

I also am trying to figure out why the ground light tester I have indicated none of my basement plugs are grounded, when I test it on other outlets in the house it shows they are grounded.
 
Uh oh, already getting algae! Crazy I used RO/DI water! On a good note, I think that purple growth there is a good thing! Wonder where that came from? I am looking for a used UV sterilizer.

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