Hello, I am new to reefcentral but not reefing. Before I get into plans and ask for advice Ill introduce myself a little. As time progresses I will also make a blog thread for the actual build.
My name is Chris and I have kept fish since I was basically a baby. Of course it started out with my dad tending the little 10 gallon FW tanks I always had and then progressed as I got older. By the time I was in high school I had a 33gallon and then a 55gallon tnak in my room and was responsible for the majority of the care. As I reached college I had to downsize to a 5gallon but got into live plants more. I couldnt stand the size restrictions so ended up using rubbermaid totes as aquariums to keep cichlids. At that point my cichlid phase grew out of control and after graduating I set up a medium african cichlid setup where I bred and raised fry. Finally i got married and rented a house with my wife and it didnt take long for the fish bug to hit me again.
My wife never appreciated my FW setups planted or not and was not fond of a tank in the living room of the house. I always liked SW and reefs but growing up was never exposed to anything other thank they are a lot of work, they are very expensive, they are very difficult to maintain, etc etc. She did of course see finding nemo and had been to several pet stores with me that had saltwater sections. She agreed that a saltwater tank would be nice and we compromised. I could have a tank in the living room only if it was SW! At thsi time I decided to really research into it and try to figure out what I would need to do. I started thinking I would get a small little tank for a nemo and rock only to wanting all kidns of fish and basic corals and even ended up liking a lot of sps. I made a setup with a 46bowfront, all dry rock and sand, a HOB filters and T5HO lights. I stocked 5 fish and ended up with countless coral colonies and it flourished. I even have success keeping the elegance coral and a few sps. I took pride in having a very clean, low tech reef.
Of course all great things have to get better! The 46bow was up for about 20 months when we decided to buy a house and moved. I figured the easiest way to move a reef would be to have another tank set up to move to and took advantage of this time as a chance to upgrade. After having a bowfront, no matter how much my wife loves the bow and hates rectangles, I swore never again!! I always had an issue getting flow right where It would be to weak or to strong in different areas. Cleaning the curved glass proved to be a nightmare as well so I bought a 65gallon. Kept the tank at 3ft so I could keep all my equipment but added the extra depth and height for aquascaping. The move went great with no losses. My few sps were growing like crazy and I had to add CA and ALK dosers. I had a HOB skimmer I used for a few months to prevent any mini cycles and that worked great.
Then the problems. We bought a fixer upper so after the intial move the tank got a little neglected and I had to spend so much time on the house. I never got a new sandbed established and kept having cyano issues only on the new sandbed. After 10months or so I happened to see the fish breathing a little heavy and one looked dead. I investiagted and sure enough my little flame angel had parished and my HOB filter had failed causing a cesspool that spilled into the reef like a toxic sludge. I dosed some Prime and got a new filter and carbon online immediatly and hoped f or the best. The other 4 fish all pulled through fine but the corals slowly dwindled to nothing. First the sps then the lps. Now all the remains are mushrooms and softies. The rockwork and sandbed get covered with all kinds of algae and I am sure the rocks are probably filled with nitrates and phosphates. EVen after testing my parameters seem to be ok but not as great as they used to be. I got sick every time I walked into my den and saw the now gross looking reef and came to a point that I told my wife I was going to just take it down and sell off the remaining fish.
Sorry for the long back story but we finally come to the conclusion. She conviced me that I do love the reef and she misses the tank as it used to be. Made a good point that once I take it down, after we have kids who knows when Ill set it up again. I am not about to battle toxic rocks and algae issues for months on end so decided a whole new setup is the way to go. After the 46gal was up and running I learned a lot from the following 20 months and I plan on makign some adjustments. The biggest being its time to have a sump! With that decision was the choice to either drill my current tank, or buy a predrilled one. Hello 40% off xmas sales and goodbye 65gallon! Time to upgrade again to a 90gallon RR setup! Having a 4ft tank over a 3ft tank is going to be amazing and open up so many choices for different fish as well as coral placement and aquascaping nevermind being so much larger to allow for more fish. Also having a sump is going to make a world of difference. Having to find all HOB equipment go old fast and being unable to use a lot of media reactors really sucked. I took pride in the low tech no sump no skimmer tap water success before but am really looking forward to having a sump with a protein skimmer and down the road maybe some reactors.
Long enough introduction, Ill make a seperate thread with plans and questions. Thanks for reading!
My name is Chris and I have kept fish since I was basically a baby. Of course it started out with my dad tending the little 10 gallon FW tanks I always had and then progressed as I got older. By the time I was in high school I had a 33gallon and then a 55gallon tnak in my room and was responsible for the majority of the care. As I reached college I had to downsize to a 5gallon but got into live plants more. I couldnt stand the size restrictions so ended up using rubbermaid totes as aquariums to keep cichlids. At that point my cichlid phase grew out of control and after graduating I set up a medium african cichlid setup where I bred and raised fry. Finally i got married and rented a house with my wife and it didnt take long for the fish bug to hit me again.
My wife never appreciated my FW setups planted or not and was not fond of a tank in the living room of the house. I always liked SW and reefs but growing up was never exposed to anything other thank they are a lot of work, they are very expensive, they are very difficult to maintain, etc etc. She did of course see finding nemo and had been to several pet stores with me that had saltwater sections. She agreed that a saltwater tank would be nice and we compromised. I could have a tank in the living room only if it was SW! At thsi time I decided to really research into it and try to figure out what I would need to do. I started thinking I would get a small little tank for a nemo and rock only to wanting all kidns of fish and basic corals and even ended up liking a lot of sps. I made a setup with a 46bowfront, all dry rock and sand, a HOB filters and T5HO lights. I stocked 5 fish and ended up with countless coral colonies and it flourished. I even have success keeping the elegance coral and a few sps. I took pride in having a very clean, low tech reef.
Of course all great things have to get better! The 46bow was up for about 20 months when we decided to buy a house and moved. I figured the easiest way to move a reef would be to have another tank set up to move to and took advantage of this time as a chance to upgrade. After having a bowfront, no matter how much my wife loves the bow and hates rectangles, I swore never again!! I always had an issue getting flow right where It would be to weak or to strong in different areas. Cleaning the curved glass proved to be a nightmare as well so I bought a 65gallon. Kept the tank at 3ft so I could keep all my equipment but added the extra depth and height for aquascaping. The move went great with no losses. My few sps were growing like crazy and I had to add CA and ALK dosers. I had a HOB skimmer I used for a few months to prevent any mini cycles and that worked great.
Then the problems. We bought a fixer upper so after the intial move the tank got a little neglected and I had to spend so much time on the house. I never got a new sandbed established and kept having cyano issues only on the new sandbed. After 10months or so I happened to see the fish breathing a little heavy and one looked dead. I investiagted and sure enough my little flame angel had parished and my HOB filter had failed causing a cesspool that spilled into the reef like a toxic sludge. I dosed some Prime and got a new filter and carbon online immediatly and hoped f or the best. The other 4 fish all pulled through fine but the corals slowly dwindled to nothing. First the sps then the lps. Now all the remains are mushrooms and softies. The rockwork and sandbed get covered with all kinds of algae and I am sure the rocks are probably filled with nitrates and phosphates. EVen after testing my parameters seem to be ok but not as great as they used to be. I got sick every time I walked into my den and saw the now gross looking reef and came to a point that I told my wife I was going to just take it down and sell off the remaining fish.
Sorry for the long back story but we finally come to the conclusion. She conviced me that I do love the reef and she misses the tank as it used to be. Made a good point that once I take it down, after we have kids who knows when Ill set it up again. I am not about to battle toxic rocks and algae issues for months on end so decided a whole new setup is the way to go. After the 46gal was up and running I learned a lot from the following 20 months and I plan on makign some adjustments. The biggest being its time to have a sump! With that decision was the choice to either drill my current tank, or buy a predrilled one. Hello 40% off xmas sales and goodbye 65gallon! Time to upgrade again to a 90gallon RR setup! Having a 4ft tank over a 3ft tank is going to be amazing and open up so many choices for different fish as well as coral placement and aquascaping nevermind being so much larger to allow for more fish. Also having a sump is going to make a world of difference. Having to find all HOB equipment go old fast and being unable to use a lot of media reactors really sucked. I took pride in the low tech no sump no skimmer tap water success before but am really looking forward to having a sump with a protein skimmer and down the road maybe some reactors.
Long enough introduction, Ill make a seperate thread with plans and questions. Thanks for reading!
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