Greetings everyone. After a couple years without a tank, I'm back in the hobby. My first saltwater tank was a JBJ Biocube 28 which I decided to break down and sell when I needed to move across the country. Because I had been moving so much, I decided that it was best to not have a tank. Now that I'm back in one place and finally settled, I decided it was time to get back into the hobby.
I snagged a used Red Sea Max 130D used off of the classifieds. It was left in a house this guy purchased and had no clue how to maintain. Topping off the water with tap water led to a HUGE algae bloom overtaking every surface of the tank and the bristle worm population had reached epic proportions. He just wanted the thing gone and was offering $200 for the whole deal. I basically bought the tank sight unseen. When I got there, I found out that the hood lights had been gutted and replaced with a 120W LED Current Ramp Timer Pro system, and it also came with a Deltec MCE600 protein skimmer, a full bucket of instant ocean reef crystals, a Hanna phosphate checker along with a new box of reagents, a brand new refractometer, and a bunch of other various odds and ends.
I ended up re-homing the Bangaii Cardinal and the Ocellaris Clownfish who were inhabiting the tank to a good friend on the promise of some zoa frags from him later on. I decided that a ground up approach was the only way to tackle this neglected monstrosity of a tank. I turfed the small chunk of live rock and live sand that was in the tank and began to scrub. Seriously, I wish I took a before photo of the tank. I spent a solid two days with water, vinegar, a sponge and a razor blade.
I picked up 30 pounds of cured live rock from a reefer who was breaking down their tank and have begun the cycle for $5 a pound (the same cost that all my LFS and fellow hobbyists were selling dry rock for). Living in Canada means that I just don't have the same access to all those amazing online deals I always see advertised. I picked off all the visible bristle worms as I transferred over the rock, and among the hitchhikers that I didn't evict, I noted a pair of little bristle stars and a couple of what I believe to be button polyps.
Being that I decided to go back to University last year and finish my degree means that right now I have more time than money, which is fine. I am a very patient person when I need to be. This thread will likely not be updated very frequently, simply because nothing will be happening with the tank all that often. As they say, nothing good happens in a reef tank fast!
I snagged a used Red Sea Max 130D used off of the classifieds. It was left in a house this guy purchased and had no clue how to maintain. Topping off the water with tap water led to a HUGE algae bloom overtaking every surface of the tank and the bristle worm population had reached epic proportions. He just wanted the thing gone and was offering $200 for the whole deal. I basically bought the tank sight unseen. When I got there, I found out that the hood lights had been gutted and replaced with a 120W LED Current Ramp Timer Pro system, and it also came with a Deltec MCE600 protein skimmer, a full bucket of instant ocean reef crystals, a Hanna phosphate checker along with a new box of reagents, a brand new refractometer, and a bunch of other various odds and ends.
I ended up re-homing the Bangaii Cardinal and the Ocellaris Clownfish who were inhabiting the tank to a good friend on the promise of some zoa frags from him later on. I decided that a ground up approach was the only way to tackle this neglected monstrosity of a tank. I turfed the small chunk of live rock and live sand that was in the tank and began to scrub. Seriously, I wish I took a before photo of the tank. I spent a solid two days with water, vinegar, a sponge and a razor blade.
I picked up 30 pounds of cured live rock from a reefer who was breaking down their tank and have begun the cycle for $5 a pound (the same cost that all my LFS and fellow hobbyists were selling dry rock for). Living in Canada means that I just don't have the same access to all those amazing online deals I always see advertised. I picked off all the visible bristle worms as I transferred over the rock, and among the hitchhikers that I didn't evict, I noted a pair of little bristle stars and a couple of what I believe to be button polyps.
Being that I decided to go back to University last year and finish my degree means that right now I have more time than money, which is fine. I am a very patient person when I need to be. This thread will likely not be updated very frequently, simply because nothing will be happening with the tank all that often. As they say, nothing good happens in a reef tank fast!
