New to Reef Central - hello :). My 2-year reefing story and plans for the future.

[Chocobo]

Hello everybody!

I have been keeping fresh water tanks since I was a small child [and I'm no small child now, ha!] but only recently started a reef in early 2016.

As I was generally working with what I already had and the wife-at-the-time didn't really approve of much at all I started with a 29 Gallon standard run-of-the-mill aquarium.

I started simple by going to the LFS and picked up some live rock - I don't remember how much off-hand.

I was using a heater I had laying around and a few koralia pumps I had laying around from my fresh water setups. I did pick up a CPR Bak-Pak to use as a skimmer which you can see in the image.

This is day 6 of my very first reef set up back in 2016.

Day 13.

Day 20.

On day 23 I picked up a couple of percula clown fish for the tank as I was going to be doing dual 10G quarantine tanks and swapping the fish between them every 3 days to help make sure I don't bring ich into the tank.

My first coral was a green hammer coral I really liked at the LFS.

I followed up very shortly there after with a Kenya Tree [never again] and some green star polyps [which I really liked].

My drinking-water RO system wasn't keeping up and/or the wife-at-the-time was tired of me draining the RO tank leaving no water for the ice maker / to drink so I ordered a BRS 6-Stage 75GPD R/O system.

 

[Chocobo]

I didn't have anywhere to mount it nor did I have really any 'working' space so I built a 'fish bench' for the purpose of mounting the R/O, storing stuff, having somewhere to put my QTs, etc.

Here is the reef at day 32:

I added some frogspawn hoping that my clowns would host on it and they actually did after about a week which I was really happy about. If I reached in the tank and got anywhere near the frogspawn there were nippy-clowns to deal with .

I added a couple of scarlet shrimp because I really liked the way they looked and I figured they could help keep the tank clean. I really enjoyed watching them get excited when I would put food in the tank as well and they were always entertaining to watch.

The reef at ~7 months:

Happy clowns

Unfortunately I've lost most of the pictures taken after this point. My life got a bit ... 'interesting' and over the course of the next year or so my marriage basically came to an end. It's a long story but the short version is that it's better for me and my kids.

The really sad part is that I haven't been able to perform maintenance on this reef in about a year and haven't even been able to see it for about the last 6 months. I do know it is being topped off with R/O water but I am sure the D/I resin is probably shot. I also know that it's being fed occasionally but beyond that there has been no maintenance. 6 months ago when I was able to see the reef my scarlet shrimp were definitely dead and/or gone and the corals did not look very happy at all.

I am on an extremely tight budget, and most equipment is extremely expensive, but I'm trying to build a 45 Gallon setup to both rescue what I can from the old 29 when I get access to it but also because I really miss having a reef tank.

I went to the LFS and picked up 50 pounds of live rock, a 40 gallon breeder, 40 gallons of pre-mixed salt water [no R/O system where I am], and brought it home.

I don't have a stand right now or the means to build one - as I don't have access to any of my woodworking tools or really anything - so I just put it on the floor, poured in about 1/2 of the water, arranged the rocks so they can cure/get some light, and then filled it up.

I'm running a Kessil A360WE on the breeder on a 6 hour cycle that I figure I'll increase by 2 hours per week for 6 weeks. I'm going to go ahead and dose 2-part daily to try and help coraline grow I figure and stability for the first week.

 

[Chocobo]

My plan is to do a 20~25% water change per week at least until it's fully cycled/good to go.

This is where I stand right now. I am hoping to pick up a Cobalt Aquatics C-Vue 45 Aquarium + Stand sometime this week and plan on plumbing it for my first ever sump.

I have a short list of things I want to do with it but money will really determine what is possible:

• 2 x VORTECH MP40WQD
• 6 STAGE 150GPD PLUS WATER SAVER RO/DI SYSTEM - BULK REEF SUPPLY
• CRYSTAL ATO 10 GALLON RESERVOIR - TRIGGER SYSTEMS
• S-200 SPACE SAVING G4 PROTEIN SKIMMER - ESHOPPS

The cabinet should give me about 30 inches to work with height wise and about 24 inches wide and 23 inches deep so I am trying to figure out what sump I should get as well as what return pump. I think the skimmer should fit - the S-120 is only 2" shorter but there is the possibility I will upgrade to a larger setup in the future and would prefer not to replace the skimmer unless I have to when/if I do that.

I do plan on hopefully drilling the back of the C-Vue 45 for a Bean overflow setup - I figure 3 x 1" bulkheads for the drains and a 1" return for the pump.

That said - I've never run a sump before - I was looking at the Skimz UP22 SUMPRO SUMP as I know it should fit in the cabinet. I was not planning on using the sock filter in the sump because the C-Vue 45 has two sock filters behind the overflows from the main tank to the back portion where I will be plumbing my piping for drains/returns. I suppose I could set up a small refugium in that first compartment.

I was also looking at the SYNCRA SILENT 4.0 PUMP (951 GPH) for a return - while I'd really like to go with a DC pump the Vectra's seem to have terrible reviews and I've not really found anything else DC that looks good to me [but I have no experience with this, so I'm open to suggestions].

That said even though I kept a small reef alive for quite a while without a sump - I wouldn't call myself an expert. I'm definitely open to any and all suggestions / recommendations / advice / critiques / etc.

I imagine I'll start a 'build thread' or something similar - but I figure this thread should do a good introduction.

If you have any questions let me know .

 

[oldhead]

Not a very long story, nothing here.

 

[HBtank]

It's there, just w new member that needs approval I am guessing

 

[gargoylenest]

awesome emptiness! keep on the good work!

 

[SereneAquatic]

Greetings!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Chocobo]

Yeah I guess not all of it was showing up as I was new :shrug:.

 

[Reef noob_]

Yeah I guess not all of it was showing up as I was new :shrug:.

But none of it showed up. Try posting it again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HBtank]

Yeah I guess not all of it was showing up as I was new :shrug:.

It has pictures?

Just an FYI, nothing is showing up (no text either) until approved due to you being newer and mods having to threads with pictures until like 50 posts I think. They will get to it

 

[BrianD]

It should be fixed now. If not, report this post and I'll try again.

 

[Chocobo]

It should be fixed now. If not, report this post and I'll try again.

Thanks. Sorry I didn't notice the limitation. Most places don't let you post images at all if you can't.