JohnnyHildo
Member
hey everybody,
i figured since i was getting into something new after keeping freshwater tanks for 30+ years that i'd try and document my journey along the way as well.
the story starts with my 77 gallon tropheus tank of 10 years springing a leak which inspired me to try to strip it apart and re-silicone it.
unfortunately for my wallet it still leaked slightly after so i deciding i'd like a bigger tank anyway and knowing that my local reef store had far better quality tanks than the big box stores around town i headed over.
when i left i bought a 48x24x24 120 gallon tank and a 45 gallon sump to go with it. also, after seeing everything at the store i went home with a huge man-crush on the marine corals and fish.
for a couple weeks i researched what it would take to get a nice system going and started slowly as i didn't have a stand or any idea how this stuff really worked.
some s4s pine 2x4's and off i went...
after that i set off to assemble the plumbing i decided on and went with an 1.5" durso standpipe and a 1" return using the appropriate unions and valves to control the flow.
i bought about 20 pounds of dry pukani and popped it in thinking i could sit on it like this for a couple more weeks.
yea... it didn't really go that way for even 12 hours. i realized by adding rock or substrate incrementally i was just going to sustain my cycling process so by morning i was off to buy the remaining rock and aragonite i needed. in the same breath i also picked up a refractometer, reef salt and my RO system.
for a day and a half i mixed salt with the very slowly trickling RO water but eventually came up with a hazy but full tank.
as of now this is where i sit. tank is clearing over the past 2 days and to help with the cycle i have a single uncooked shrimp hanging in the tank to get some ammonia going. over the next month i will be picking up some better lighting and a protein skimmer while i wait for things to become a little more stable.
i figured since i was getting into something new after keeping freshwater tanks for 30+ years that i'd try and document my journey along the way as well.
the story starts with my 77 gallon tropheus tank of 10 years springing a leak which inspired me to try to strip it apart and re-silicone it.
unfortunately for my wallet it still leaked slightly after so i deciding i'd like a bigger tank anyway and knowing that my local reef store had far better quality tanks than the big box stores around town i headed over.
when i left i bought a 48x24x24 120 gallon tank and a 45 gallon sump to go with it. also, after seeing everything at the store i went home with a huge man-crush on the marine corals and fish.
for a couple weeks i researched what it would take to get a nice system going and started slowly as i didn't have a stand or any idea how this stuff really worked.
some s4s pine 2x4's and off i went...
after that i set off to assemble the plumbing i decided on and went with an 1.5" durso standpipe and a 1" return using the appropriate unions and valves to control the flow.
i bought about 20 pounds of dry pukani and popped it in thinking i could sit on it like this for a couple more weeks.
yea... it didn't really go that way for even 12 hours. i realized by adding rock or substrate incrementally i was just going to sustain my cycling process so by morning i was off to buy the remaining rock and aragonite i needed. in the same breath i also picked up a refractometer, reef salt and my RO system.
for a day and a half i mixed salt with the very slowly trickling RO water but eventually came up with a hazy but full tank.
as of now this is where i sit. tank is clearing over the past 2 days and to help with the cycle i have a single uncooked shrimp hanging in the tank to get some ammonia going. over the next month i will be picking up some better lighting and a protein skimmer while i wait for things to become a little more stable.
