jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
After a 2 year break from the hobby I was really anxious to start a reef again. I missed the smell of fresh cut acros:fun2: I didn't want to go too small, but I didn't want to go too big. I settled up on the decision of a 60 cube because it was compact and easy to light.
Equipment
- ATI 6x24 Sunpower
- Skimz SK 181 Skimmer
- 2 Vortech MP10
- Eshopps rs-100 sump
- Bubble Magnus doser
- Reefkeeper light (will eventually upgrade)
- tunze osmolator top off
- misc reactors, heater, thermometer etc.
I wanted to get things going in a hurry so I knew that I would need quality rock. I wanted good bacterial populations from the getgo so I can begin stocking right away and have a mature looking reef rather quickly. By the time I received all my equipment I saw ReefBum was tanking down his reef. Immediately I PMed him and asked to purchased rock. He's about a 2 hr ride from me but boy was it worth it. I cherry picked 65lbs of rock from his amazing reef. The coralline was thick and the rock was loaded with life!
The take was made by Deep Blue Professional. No complaints other than the annoying overflow adjustment screws that sick out and make water splash.
The stand is a Marineland ventura. It came in black and I painted it white. I also added a piece of granite to raise the tank a little + dress it up.
Leak test
Aquascaped
The water was crystal clear the very next day. There were quite a few encrusted bases still alive on this rock from Reefbums tank. After a fees days they were still alive so I decided to add a few feeler corals. They did well and I began stocking
The tank never did go through a cycle. It was ready from the start due to the good rock. It was more like a tank transfer rather than a new cycle.
This is the tank after being setup almost 1 month. Coralline spots were already growing on the overflow and frags were growing. This was Oct 28th
At this time the big hype was about an approaching hurricane Sandy. Seemed like it was going to be pretty bad so I prepared a little. I hooked up a vortech battery backup and had 2 charged UPS batteries. I also had battery operated bubblers. I live 100ft from the beach so ocean flooding was a concern.
The storm hit. We all know how bad it was. I watched sections of the beach boardwalk come down my street taking cars, vans, and telephone poles with it. I smelled electrical burning and saw orange glows throughout the sky. At this moment the storm became real to me.
We lost power around 8pm on the day of the storm. When I took a walk around and assessed the damage, I realized that I would be without utilities for several weeks if not months. This was more than downed power lines. I didn't even have concrete left in the street! I was not going to deal with running the tank off a generator. I had to worry about our living situation so I reached out to a buddy who still had power. I brought the contents of the reef to him.
Just to show the level of damage
Equipment
- ATI 6x24 Sunpower
- Skimz SK 181 Skimmer
- 2 Vortech MP10
- Eshopps rs-100 sump
- Bubble Magnus doser
- Reefkeeper light (will eventually upgrade)
- tunze osmolator top off
- misc reactors, heater, thermometer etc.
I wanted to get things going in a hurry so I knew that I would need quality rock. I wanted good bacterial populations from the getgo so I can begin stocking right away and have a mature looking reef rather quickly. By the time I received all my equipment I saw ReefBum was tanking down his reef. Immediately I PMed him and asked to purchased rock. He's about a 2 hr ride from me but boy was it worth it. I cherry picked 65lbs of rock from his amazing reef. The coralline was thick and the rock was loaded with life!
The take was made by Deep Blue Professional. No complaints other than the annoying overflow adjustment screws that sick out and make water splash.
The stand is a Marineland ventura. It came in black and I painted it white. I also added a piece of granite to raise the tank a little + dress it up.
Leak test
Aquascaped
The water was crystal clear the very next day. There were quite a few encrusted bases still alive on this rock from Reefbums tank. After a fees days they were still alive so I decided to add a few feeler corals. They did well and I began stocking
The tank never did go through a cycle. It was ready from the start due to the good rock. It was more like a tank transfer rather than a new cycle.This is the tank after being setup almost 1 month. Coralline spots were already growing on the overflow and frags were growing. This was Oct 28th
At this time the big hype was about an approaching hurricane Sandy. Seemed like it was going to be pretty bad so I prepared a little. I hooked up a vortech battery backup and had 2 charged UPS batteries. I also had battery operated bubblers. I live 100ft from the beach so ocean flooding was a concern.
The storm hit. We all know how bad it was. I watched sections of the beach boardwalk come down my street taking cars, vans, and telephone poles with it. I smelled electrical burning and saw orange glows throughout the sky. At this moment the storm became real to me.
We lost power around 8pm on the day of the storm. When I took a walk around and assessed the damage, I realized that I would be without utilities for several weeks if not months. This was more than downed power lines. I didn't even have concrete left in the street! I was not going to deal with running the tank off a generator. I had to worry about our living situation so I reached out to a buddy who still had power. I brought the contents of the reef to him.
Just to show the level of damage
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. I couldn't sell off all this equipment that I just bought so I just upgraded stuff 
