five.five-six
Well-known member
I left reefing in 2007. At the time I had a very nice 180 gallon SPS factory but for several reasons I stepped away, never to return again.
Then one morning last month, I awoke and announced that I was going to get a reef tank. It was to be a 200+ gallon system installed in the dining room window with a shed built up against our home to house the tank, equipment and supplies. My wife was horrified.
As a compromise, I found a BC29 with an unused lighting hood offered by a local reefer "ready to go". As it turns out, and as I had forgotten, "ready to go" doesn't really mean "ready to go". In this thread I will attempt to chronicle my journey from "ready to go" to whatever it turns out to be.
One of my challenges in this build, and this is a good thing, is that my wife remembers all the money I spent on the last tanks. This is why I am useing mostly old to rather old equipment. Cheep, traded and donated supplies are being used to build equity for when I announce in 6 months that the original light bulbs have worn out and I need to replace them with a steve's retrofit LED system.
I did start with a bag of live sand bought retail and about 2 pounds of live rock. The rest is dead rock which can be had on the cheep.
About a week later I added 2 perculas. Within a few days, many of the things you don't want growing in a reef tank started flourishing
We have since had a family discussion about how fish don't "look" hungry.
Then one morning last month, I awoke and announced that I was going to get a reef tank. It was to be a 200+ gallon system installed in the dining room window with a shed built up against our home to house the tank, equipment and supplies. My wife was horrified.
As a compromise, I found a BC29 with an unused lighting hood offered by a local reefer "ready to go". As it turns out, and as I had forgotten, "ready to go" doesn't really mean "ready to go". In this thread I will attempt to chronicle my journey from "ready to go" to whatever it turns out to be.
One of my challenges in this build, and this is a good thing, is that my wife remembers all the money I spent on the last tanks. This is why I am useing mostly old to rather old equipment. Cheep, traded and donated supplies are being used to build equity for when I announce in 6 months that the original light bulbs have worn out and I need to replace them with a steve's retrofit LED system.
I did start with a bag of live sand bought retail and about 2 pounds of live rock. The rest is dead rock which can be had on the cheep.
Front view
Top down view
About a week later I added 2 perculas. Within a few days, many of the things you don't want growing in a reef tank started flourishing
We have since had a family discussion about how fish don't "look" hungry. 
I am rather pleased with how the aquascape worked out myself. The only issue is the one branch midway up on the right ended up right in the way of where I wanted to put the 6055 tunze. I had to adjust and now there is a small bare spot on the bottom of the aquarium. If all goes well, it will be covered in corraline algae soon enough. 
