sde1500
Active member
So I enjoy following along and reading about others' progress on their tanks, and figured I could chronicle my build here as well. Who knows, maybe a few people will enjoy reading this noobs journey.
I had on and off kept fish for a number of years, all freshwater though. Poking around on Reddit led me to the reeftank sub, and from there I found this site and soon was ready to start up a tank in my house for saltwater. I didn't have any tanks set up at the time, but had an old 10 gallon tank sitting dry in storage. Broke it out, cleaned it and set it up. Pretty simplistic set up, just a HOB filter and 2 T5 light. It's cool, but really small. Set up in April and I'm already tired of it. So started looking for a new tank, found a good deal on a used tank through a friend, and there we have it. 65 gallon tank and stand purchased. Sat dry for a few months til I went on a spending frenzy for Black Friday :uzi:.
Since I don't know if the tank is tempered or not, I decided to play it safe and not drill it. EShopps HOB overflow always seemed well reviewed, so went with that. Eshopps PF-800, for the sump I went with Eshopps RS-100, paired with a Reef Octopus classic 110int, and a Sicce Syncra silent 3.0 return pump. For powerheads I went with two Tunze Turbelle Nano Stream 6025.
Set up hasn't been too bad so far, though wish I knew how to plumb better. I've made a half dozen mistakes, and trips to Home Depot. First time ever doing something like this so not surprised haha. Trip tonight should be the final one to get it running.
Added dry rock and live sand about a week ago now before I thought my plumbing sucked. So doing work on the plumbing as water is in the tank makes for a bit more of a challenge, but isn't bad. Taking my time with this to make sure everything is done right. Added one big live rock from my current tank, it was pretty covered in algae, and had one aptasia on it, burned the aptasia off and did a peroxide dip that seems to have taken care of most of the algae. I also added some of my sand from the established tank to help with the cycle. I have more rock and sand to add from the running tank, but there is a decent number of aiptasia on it, including some rather large ones, so not sure if I want to add them or not. I probably will burn the ones I can see, and if they come back up I'll get some nudibranches to eat them. I am pretty happy with the current aquascape, though any thoughts are appreciated. Pictures to follow.
I had on and off kept fish for a number of years, all freshwater though. Poking around on Reddit led me to the reeftank sub, and from there I found this site and soon was ready to start up a tank in my house for saltwater. I didn't have any tanks set up at the time, but had an old 10 gallon tank sitting dry in storage. Broke it out, cleaned it and set it up. Pretty simplistic set up, just a HOB filter and 2 T5 light. It's cool, but really small. Set up in April and I'm already tired of it. So started looking for a new tank, found a good deal on a used tank through a friend, and there we have it. 65 gallon tank and stand purchased. Sat dry for a few months til I went on a spending frenzy for Black Friday :uzi:.
Since I don't know if the tank is tempered or not, I decided to play it safe and not drill it. EShopps HOB overflow always seemed well reviewed, so went with that. Eshopps PF-800, for the sump I went with Eshopps RS-100, paired with a Reef Octopus classic 110int, and a Sicce Syncra silent 3.0 return pump. For powerheads I went with two Tunze Turbelle Nano Stream 6025.
Set up hasn't been too bad so far, though wish I knew how to plumb better. I've made a half dozen mistakes, and trips to Home Depot. First time ever doing something like this so not surprised haha. Trip tonight should be the final one to get it running.
Added dry rock and live sand about a week ago now before I thought my plumbing sucked. So doing work on the plumbing as water is in the tank makes for a bit more of a challenge, but isn't bad. Taking my time with this to make sure everything is done right. Added one big live rock from my current tank, it was pretty covered in algae, and had one aptasia on it, burned the aptasia off and did a peroxide dip that seems to have taken care of most of the algae. I also added some of my sand from the established tank to help with the cycle. I have more rock and sand to add from the running tank, but there is a decent number of aiptasia on it, including some rather large ones, so not sure if I want to add them or not. I probably will burn the ones I can see, and if they come back up I'll get some nudibranches to eat them. I am pretty happy with the current aquascape, though any thoughts are appreciated. Pictures to follow.
