speedpacer
New member
Anyone who's been in this hobby for a while knows that a basement set-up is the way to go if you have one, and up until just recently, I was among the many who wished they had one.
Well, thanks to the combination of a marriage and a recent non-traveling job offer that landed me here in the Rocket City, I now have one! Plus, I have enough time and a little extra money to invest in such a set-up and finally have that big beautiful SPS dominant coral reef tank in my living room that I always dreamed of. You know the one I'm talking about. Shock and Awe.
On the flip side of this of course, is the fact that I am married now and I can't go throwing money around like I used to. While spending large sums of cash on fish and corals is a much more acceptable alternative to drugs and hookers, my other half still insists that I exercise some degree of restraint in funding this new project, in hopes that we can avoid rolling pennies for Ramen noodles by the end of the month.
So this blog will serve as my daily... ish journal into the depths of my newly acquired basement and the saltwater aquarium hobby, while maintaining a budget-minded conscience and hopefully avoiding starvation and/or a divorce.
To provide a little background, I got started in the coral reef hobby roughly 7-8 years ago while living near Clearwater Beach, Florida for a few years. That in no way, shape, or form, qualifies me as a long term "expert", considering I never really had what I felt was a high quality thriving reef tank, certainly not by my own standards and obviously not by those of the "Tank of The Month" judging outfit.
I started out with a standard 10 gallon tank after overhearing some people at work talking about this new "nano reef" phenomenon. It sounded like something that would be fun to try and wouldn't cost a lot of money. Unfortunately, nobody was there to caution me that it had the same addictive qualities one might find in Warcraft, gambling, or crack cocaine.
After a 50 gallon and then up to a 90 gallon VHO lit euphyllia dominated tank, followed abruptly by 5 hurricanes, flooding, several power outages and a recession that put me out of a job, I decided it was time to take a break from my hobbies and break out the suitcase once again.
Over the years, I'd settle in one place or another from six months to a few years and set up a little nano tank here and there but nothing too elaborate. My most recent tank was a little Finnex M30, basically a 30 gallon tank with a built-in fuge and sump in the back.
This tank used to look half-way decent before several power outages last summer and a move to another state, which leads me to present day, circa fed up and on the verge of putting my hands in the air and backing away slowly.
What I've decided to do in contrast, now that I have a basement and a reasonable budget to work with, is dedicate more time and effort into the hobby and expand my system. I'll be working with a budget of roughly $500/month, give or take a little. I'm about two months into it and so far, I've purchased a few used tanks and built some shelves for the sumps in the basement.
As I'm writing this, my main display tank is nearly half-way full of RO/DI water.
This is a used 100 gallon tank that I snagged up on Craig's List. Along with the stand and canopy, two sumps, a 40-gallon rimless cube, the U-haul trailer and a tank of gas, I think I paid in the neighborhood of $500-$600.
Luckily, I didn't have to do a lot of drilling. There just happened to be a vent on the wall where a 90-120 gallon tank would look nice that led right down into the basement.
All I had to do was disconnect the vent and cap it off. I also had a certified Electrician install new outlets in the basement on their own circuit to support the system.
I'm planning on having a 2-sump system, if it works. Theoretically, the first and upper sump will be for drainage, bio balls and a protein skimmer, sock filters, carbon, etc.
The other secondary (lower) sump will host the return pumps and (once again) theoretically, serve as a temporary holding area for water changes... more on that later.
The refugium is setting above the secondary sump and will drain directly into it so the pods don't get stuck in the filters. I'm hoping that once I turn the return pumps off, the water will rise enough in the lower sump to give me the 30 or so gallons I'll need for water changes. I'm estimating a total volume of 300 gallons.
Well, thanks to the combination of a marriage and a recent non-traveling job offer that landed me here in the Rocket City, I now have one! Plus, I have enough time and a little extra money to invest in such a set-up and finally have that big beautiful SPS dominant coral reef tank in my living room that I always dreamed of. You know the one I'm talking about. Shock and Awe.
On the flip side of this of course, is the fact that I am married now and I can't go throwing money around like I used to. While spending large sums of cash on fish and corals is a much more acceptable alternative to drugs and hookers, my other half still insists that I exercise some degree of restraint in funding this new project, in hopes that we can avoid rolling pennies for Ramen noodles by the end of the month.
So this blog will serve as my daily... ish journal into the depths of my newly acquired basement and the saltwater aquarium hobby, while maintaining a budget-minded conscience and hopefully avoiding starvation and/or a divorce.
To provide a little background, I got started in the coral reef hobby roughly 7-8 years ago while living near Clearwater Beach, Florida for a few years. That in no way, shape, or form, qualifies me as a long term "expert", considering I never really had what I felt was a high quality thriving reef tank, certainly not by my own standards and obviously not by those of the "Tank of The Month" judging outfit.
I started out with a standard 10 gallon tank after overhearing some people at work talking about this new "nano reef" phenomenon. It sounded like something that would be fun to try and wouldn't cost a lot of money. Unfortunately, nobody was there to caution me that it had the same addictive qualities one might find in Warcraft, gambling, or crack cocaine.
After a 50 gallon and then up to a 90 gallon VHO lit euphyllia dominated tank, followed abruptly by 5 hurricanes, flooding, several power outages and a recession that put me out of a job, I decided it was time to take a break from my hobbies and break out the suitcase once again.
Over the years, I'd settle in one place or another from six months to a few years and set up a little nano tank here and there but nothing too elaborate. My most recent tank was a little Finnex M30, basically a 30 gallon tank with a built-in fuge and sump in the back.
This tank used to look half-way decent before several power outages last summer and a move to another state, which leads me to present day, circa fed up and on the verge of putting my hands in the air and backing away slowly.
What I've decided to do in contrast, now that I have a basement and a reasonable budget to work with, is dedicate more time and effort into the hobby and expand my system. I'll be working with a budget of roughly $500/month, give or take a little. I'm about two months into it and so far, I've purchased a few used tanks and built some shelves for the sumps in the basement.
As I'm writing this, my main display tank is nearly half-way full of RO/DI water.
This is a used 100 gallon tank that I snagged up on Craig's List. Along with the stand and canopy, two sumps, a 40-gallon rimless cube, the U-haul trailer and a tank of gas, I think I paid in the neighborhood of $500-$600.
Luckily, I didn't have to do a lot of drilling. There just happened to be a vent on the wall where a 90-120 gallon tank would look nice that led right down into the basement.
All I had to do was disconnect the vent and cap it off. I also had a certified Electrician install new outlets in the basement on their own circuit to support the system.
I'm planning on having a 2-sump system, if it works. Theoretically, the first and upper sump will be for drainage, bio balls and a protein skimmer, sock filters, carbon, etc.
The other secondary (lower) sump will host the return pumps and (once again) theoretically, serve as a temporary holding area for water changes... more on that later.
The refugium is setting above the secondary sump and will drain directly into it so the pods don't get stuck in the filters. I'm hoping that once I turn the return pumps off, the water will rise enough in the lower sump to give me the 30 or so gallons I'll need for water changes. I'm estimating a total volume of 300 gallons.