Nano -> 50G in a health food store. (upgrade)

cherubfish pair

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I started planing and setting up this system just a month ago after my 33 gallon long sprung a leak while I was redoing some plumbing work. Next time I'll let the professionals do the drilling. The crack made a total loss of a display tank, it did happen to occur the same time I wanted to move it out of my bedroom to a storage room in our family's health food store.

This setup is inspired by LA Fishguy's in that I saw some of his tanks setup in businesses. Those tanks seemed to get a lot of attention and gave owners, maintainence people, and customers something to look at and admire. There are a lot of children who come in with adults and this will be a little bit of education for them.

For the tank, I bought two today at Petco in Kalispell. They are an Aqueon 29 gallon and a 10 gallon Aqueon for sump. The seem like a well-built aquarium with a good reputation. I will be getting an Aquatic Fundamentals stand which will be over-sized; either a 50 gallon or 75 gallon. Right now I will use an old Wal*Mart stand. I have some of the rest of the equipment I will need.

Equipment is, but not limited to: Azoo fans, Mag-drive 250 return, Hydor inline heater, ReefKeeper Elite, Vortech MP10 ES, and an Eclipse 3 hood (which is not conventional reef equipment). Here I will explain the eclipse. It serves as an enclosed lid that prevents fish from jumping out, keeps heat in, puts the lighting in and enclosed splash guard, surges 350 gph of water movement, and provides a place to put media/carbon.

And now for the livestock. The sky is the limit! I like just about all fish/corals/inverts so the only plan is I buy whatever tickles my fancy at the moment. There is a catch though: the rules are to purchase only the animals I am knowledgable in how to take care of, the setup needs to be compatable to where the animals came from, and the tank mates have to be compatable with each other. I was originally going to include the words "Captive-Bred" in the title of this thread but in the past some of my purchases were the result of impluse buying and these very animals might end up in my tank. I like tank bred stuff because they are already eating prepared foods and they are comfortable to confined spaces.

So that's the plan I came up with so far. I will be adding to the thread as it is implemented.
 
Just my opinion, but to be consistent with the healthy store image you need to go all captive propagated fish/corals. Aquacultured rock should also be in the mix. Then to take it to the next step all equipment could be energy efficient and have a minimal carbon footprint.

Just to prove I'm serious my latest tank has 12 of 15 corals that are captive propagated (the other three were gotten from LFSs with frag trades), fish are ORA captive bred, and all the equipment running the 33.9 gallon tank uses less electricity than a 100 watt light bulb. 20# of rock is cured base rock with only 5# of real live rock (which I already owned). Sadly, captive bred CUCs are hard to come by so I had to get most of it wild caught.

Just a thought to raise the bar for you cherubfish ;)
 
I'm not too thrilled about the position of the power center. I can forsee spills being a problem. Not only that, with 4-8 lit up switches, it may be hard to keep little children's fingers from turning them off and on. Parents can have a hard time watching kids all the time, and a large red candy-like button can be too much of a temptation some times.

Other than those concerns, it looks like a decent start.
 
as a father of a 3 year old....you would HAVE to put some type of plexiglass cover on the switches or move them out of access completely...I keep a good eye on my kids and demand they follow rules but bright red switches....under a cool reef tank...no way
 
you are gonna want a sealed lid and a lock on the cabinet too because little kids (like me when i was little) like to feed the fish ALL the time
 
Just my opinion, but to be consistent with the healthy store image you need to go all captive propagated fish/corals. Aquacultured rock should also be in the mix. Then to take it to the next step all equipment could be energy efficient and have a minimal carbon footprint.

Just to prove I'm serious my latest tank has 12 of 15 corals that are captive propagated (the other three were gotten from LFSs with frag trades), fish are ORA captive bred, and all the equipment running the 33.9 gallon tank uses less electricity than a 100 watt light bulb. 20# of rock is cured base rock with only 5# of real live rock (which I already owned). Sadly, captive bred CUCs are hard to come by so I had to get most of it wild caught.

Just a thought to raise the bar for you cherubfish ;)
Way to go Agu. Mine will be an organic reef tank too. Fits right in with the store. :)
 
Just my opinion, but to be consistent with the healthy store image you need to go all captive propagated fish/corals. Aquacultured rock should also be in the mix. Then to take it to the next step all equipment could be energy efficient and have a minimal carbon footprint.

Just to prove I'm serious my latest tank has 12 of 15 corals that are captive propagated (the other three were gotten from LFSs with frag trades), fish are ORA captive bred, and all the equipment running the 33.9 gallon tank uses less electricity than a 100 watt light bulb. 20# of rock is cured base rock with only 5# of real live rock (which I already owned). Sadly, captive bred CUCs are hard to come by so I had to get most of it wild caught.

Just a thought to raise the bar for you cherubfish ;)

very cool idea!
 
This is some quick cheap marketing . LOL
LOL The only problem is, as far as I know, I'm the only reefer in this little town. That means there won't be any exposure to prospective customers from this thread about our store.... as far as I know.

Although.... for our mail order customers (reefers included). We sell some earth friendly laundry powder for your drain socks.*

*limited supply
 
I'm not too thrilled about the position of the power center. I can forsee spills being a problem. Not only that, with 4-8 lit up switches, it may be hard to keep little children's fingers from turning them off and on. Parents can have a hard time watching kids all the time, and a large red candy-like button can be too much of a temptation some times.

Other than those concerns, it looks like a decent start.
I agree. I won't be using that power strip on the new stand.
 
as a father of a 3 year old....you would HAVE to put some type of plexiglass cover on the switches or move them out of access completely...I keep a good eye on my kids and demand they follow rules but bright red switches....under a cool reef tank...no way
Instead of the power panel, I'll be using two ReefKeeper power bars. There is still a red lighted switch on each power bar that I'll put a piece of duct tape across. It's not completely kid proof, but it will deter a great many of little curious fingers
 
you are gonna want a sealed lid and a lock on the cabinet too because little kids (like me when i was little) like to feed the fish ALL the time
There is a high shelf above the tank for food. Locks for cabinet doors are easy to come by and for the lid, it should be too high for that certain age group that is most guilty. :uhoh2:
 
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My equipment fits pretty tight and I still haven't got the IceProbe in yet. Hopefully I will get by with just fans for cooling.

On the far side of the pic is the drop-in wet/dry trickle filter for ten gallon sump from Poor Boy Aquatics. Not standard for reef tanks, I know, but the nitrate factory it is will have the bulk of it's nitrate denitrified by the deep sand bed (DSB) through natural nitrate reduction (NNR). A six inch deep sand bed should be enough and if it traps too much crud, I can always reduce the depth of sand or take it out completely.

In the middle of the pic is the protein skimmer. An Eshopps PSK-75 in-sump. Can't wait to see it in action!

Left side front of pic, Mag-drive 2 for return that runs through a media reactor before being pumped back to the display. It's a DIY kit from Avast and just the reaction chamber and top plate show in the picture. I haven't started building it yeti. It will house granulated activated carbon (GAC).
 
Looking really exciting. 29's are very hard to aqua scape due to the tall tank and shallow depth. I'm excited to see what you come up with.

Aaron
 
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Top photo: Culligan drinking water
10 ppm Total Dissolved Solids

Middle photo: city water
47 ppm TDS

Bottom photo: water from our ranch
200 ppm TDS

These are the choices for the sources of purifiying through rodi for water change water.

The Culligan is the puriest but most expensive it's low enough that I wouldn't necessarily have to do any more purifiying. The city water is next puriest but it has chlorine and requires both RO and DI. The ranch water is very hard but probably would only need the DI and not the RO.

I've never purified my water because I haven't set up my The Filter Guys rodi yet. Can anyone give me some advice here?
 
Set up your RO/DI where you have the largest tank. If the store tank is your only tank set it up there. Hauling water around is a pain in the behind.

In any case set up the whole system, carbon and micron filters are cheap, not so RO and DI.
 
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