I'm back....and ready to jump back in, feet first in the deep end, speedo, everything!

[Niven]

Years ago, back in 2000 AD, I had a 120g tank with a hang on overflow that drained to my basement sump. My tank had a plenum, 4-6 inches of sand covering an inch or so of space for anaerobic bacteria to break everything down. Metal halides surrounded by actinic vho's in a Hamilton lighting setup. After a few years of forgetting to turn the rodi water off and dumping 55g trash cans in the living room and not having the cash to keep it going, I decided to piece it out and sell it.

My last tank was a 60g cube back in 2011. My wife and I had just gotten married and bought a house. Then we proceeded to have 2 kids a year apart, waited 2 years and had 2 more a year and a half apart.....needless to say, the tank did not thrive and was removed from the house.
Well, its been long enough, there's no more diapers and formula to buy, my youngest is 10 and I'm ready to start again!

I've already ordered a 120 Planet aquarium with an external overflow box. I also realized I could put the sump in the basement in a storage room with water and drain access. I think I have two and half weeks to wait for the tank....so I have time to dream about the setup.

Lights (the app integration on these looks impressive)
2 AI Hydra?
Radion?
Reef Breeders?


Protein Skimmer
Bubble Magnus Curve 3?
Reef Octopus?
(What's with the extra electronics on these now?)

Return pump
Iwaki?

Filter socks are new to me. We avoided all mechanical filtration (at least I did)
Are the fleece rollers worth it?

How much sand?
I imagine and inch or two? Just enough to hold the live rock up.

And live rock....can't seem to buy it anymore? I mentioned bristle worms to the LFS guy today and he seemed surprised I wanted some. Does the Tropic Eden stuff workout pretty good?

Powerheads
Vortech still some of the best?

A lot has changed and I look forward to learning more about it all. I've been reading through here the last month or so, its great to see some of the same people here from years ago. I'll try to keep this build updated.
Thank you!
Niven

 

[griss]

Oh my, holy hell, Niven is back!!!!! Welcome back my friend. I'm still mostly old school so, a lot of your questions I cannot answer but I'll try. I think a lot of this will depend on your budget.

I'm just dipping my toes into LED lighting. Up until recently, I was still using MH. But, the slow phase out of bulbs and ballasts made me decide to switch. A group of us bought some old/new stock of Euroquatics LEDs off of eBay and I'm currently using them on my 40B and will use them on my 150 once the upgrade is complete. So, I can't offer a whole lot of insight on LED but, @oreo57 and @Reefing102 seem to have a good handle on LED. I know @Nanook likes the Radions and has great success with SPS with those lights.

I don't know about the skimmers either. I'm still using an old eShopps Gen 1 cone skimmer lol. A lot of people (like @Timfish)these days run skimmerless with great success.

Iwaki are still a good pump but, it seems a lot of people are going with DC controllable pumps these days. I got a used Jebao with a lot of used equipment I bought and plan on using that on the upgrade. Jebao is a budget (Chinese) brand that actually has a pretty damn good reputation in the hobby.

I'm still using filter socks but, I change the out frequently. Never used the fleece rollers. IMO, neither are needed.

Live sand is still a debate in the hobby...you've got your bare bottom people, shallow bed people and mid bed people. I haven't seen a lot of deep beds these days, if any. I plan to go with mid depth as I do want to have Jawfish.

Live rock is very limited. Tampa Bay Saltwater and Gulf Live Rock have Gulf of Mexico aquacultured rock that I've heard good things about. KP Aquatics has Fl Keys aquacultured rock that I used for the current 40B and have been extremely happy with. Livestock USA sells Walt Smith man-made rock that is aquacultured in Fiji. And Aquarium Specialty sells Australian live rock that is stunning but, it's $25/lb and I've heard (not sure) they only ship it ground.

Powerheads, as I mentioned, Jebao is a solid budget brand. However, I'm going with Reef Octopus controlled by a Hydros Wave Engine on the upgrade. I got a really good deal on a used Hydros system from a friend who left the hobby. If you're curios about Hydros controllers, reach out to Carlos at CoralVue. Yes, the same Carlos who used to participate here (and chat) back in the day with the soccer ball avatar. He quit participating in boards when he went to work for CoralVue as he didn't want to appear biased.

Yes, a LOT has changed and a lot has stayed the same. The worst these days is the prices. Everything is scary expensive.

One of the biggest changes IMO, is that we no longer strive to keep Nitrate and Phosphate at zero. Here's a handy chart I use when testing.