esshoes
New member
Hello,
After a too-long hiatus of 3 years, I'm finally starting up another tank. I went with a reef-ready Deep Blue Sea 21 gallon tank this time around - 20x20x12. I had a lot of hardware left over from my last build, and purchased some new things for this one, as well.
This is actually my first build with a sump; my other tanks were AIO's, but I like the idea of a more stable tank with the added water volume, and the added benefit of a cleaner look of the display tank. I know I have a long way to go, but I'm very excited to get this tank up and running, and hopefully housing some nice sps, acans, and a couple fish soon!
My old tank in its heyday:
New Setup:
Don't mind the bulk of wires - they will be moved and mounted behind the stand - needed to make sure everything still worked first!
Tank - Deep Blue Sea reef-ready 21 gallon tank
Stand - JBJ 28 Gallon stand (IIRC)
Light - AI Prime HD
Sump - Eshopps Cube Nano Refugium
Pump -
Heater - Eheim Jager 100W
Powerhead - MP10
Skimmer - Aquatic Wildlife 115 skimmer
ReefKeeper Lite w/ pH and temp probes, ATO via SL1
I bought Bahamas Oolite Live sand and "live water" to help speed up the process of getting the tank up and going.
After remembering some little details the hard way (like not to put the ATO tubing into the water in the sump unless you want a lot of water on the floor, plugging in the ATO pump to an 8 amp plug on the PC4 so it doesn't stay on from residual, etc), I think I'm on my way.
I had to get a Two Little Fishes ball valve to turn the flow down on the return pump, and now that that's installed, the sand isn't blowing around everywhere, which is good. I need to find and bake my old rock, and seed with a new live rock. I'm going to try and give things a while to settle in, as my hope is to keep maintenance needed to a minimum. I'll eventually get a doser to help with that. I plan on running carbon, Chemipure Elite, and a phosphate reducer in the filter sock, chaeto in the fuge, and kalk in the ATO water.
I'm also very impressed with the light so far - it's easily programmed via Wi-Fi, and can be adjusted from anywhere, at any time; and it supplies more than enough light for a tank my size.
I'll do my best to keep this thread updated as I go along, but I wanted to say "hi" again, and look forward to sharing this journey with you (and learning more from this group, as well)!
Ben
After a too-long hiatus of 3 years, I'm finally starting up another tank. I went with a reef-ready Deep Blue Sea 21 gallon tank this time around - 20x20x12. I had a lot of hardware left over from my last build, and purchased some new things for this one, as well.
This is actually my first build with a sump; my other tanks were AIO's, but I like the idea of a more stable tank with the added water volume, and the added benefit of a cleaner look of the display tank. I know I have a long way to go, but I'm very excited to get this tank up and running, and hopefully housing some nice sps, acans, and a couple fish soon!
My old tank in its heyday:
New Setup:
Don't mind the bulk of wires - they will be moved and mounted behind the stand - needed to make sure everything still worked first!
Tank - Deep Blue Sea reef-ready 21 gallon tank
Stand - JBJ 28 Gallon stand (IIRC)
Light - AI Prime HD
Sump - Eshopps Cube Nano Refugium
Pump -
Heater - Eheim Jager 100W
Powerhead - MP10
Skimmer - Aquatic Wildlife 115 skimmer
ReefKeeper Lite w/ pH and temp probes, ATO via SL1
I bought Bahamas Oolite Live sand and "live water" to help speed up the process of getting the tank up and going.
After remembering some little details the hard way (like not to put the ATO tubing into the water in the sump unless you want a lot of water on the floor, plugging in the ATO pump to an 8 amp plug on the PC4 so it doesn't stay on from residual, etc), I think I'm on my way.
I had to get a Two Little Fishes ball valve to turn the flow down on the return pump, and now that that's installed, the sand isn't blowing around everywhere, which is good. I need to find and bake my old rock, and seed with a new live rock. I'm going to try and give things a while to settle in, as my hope is to keep maintenance needed to a minimum. I'll eventually get a doser to help with that. I plan on running carbon, Chemipure Elite, and a phosphate reducer in the filter sock, chaeto in the fuge, and kalk in the ATO water.
I'm also very impressed with the light so far - it's easily programmed via Wi-Fi, and can be adjusted from anywhere, at any time; and it supplies more than enough light for a tank my size.
I'll do my best to keep this thread updated as I go along, but I wanted to say "hi" again, and look forward to sharing this journey with you (and learning more from this group, as well)!
Ben
