After moving to another province, I decided it was best that I break down my little JBJ Biocube 28 and sell it all off. I didn't have the ability or the finances at the time to move my tank to another province with me.
Well, I moved back, I'm back in University, and have settled down in a great house. I finally have stability back in my life, so I decided that it was time to get another tank.
I found this Red Sea Max 130 on a local reefing Facebook group. This guy bought a house, and the previous owner just left the tank there, set up and running. The new home owner tried to maintain it for a little while, but he didn't know what he was doing and soon his tank had a massive algae bloom from his tap water top offs. I wish I had taken a before photo, I'd never seen so much algae growth in my life. Every single surface in the tank was covered in a thick carpeting of various kinds of algae. I decided the best way to tackle this was to start completely from scratch. I re-homed the Bangaii Cardinal and the Ocellaris Clownfish who were occupying the tank to a good friend on the promise that I'd get some cool zoa frags from him once my tank is established.
So for $200, I got a Red Sea Max 130 with stand, the hood had been gutted and replaced with a 120 watt LED Current Ramp Pro Lighting setup, it also came with a Deltec 600MCE HOB Protein Skimmer, Eheim Jager 150 watt heater, a brand new bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, new refractometer, a Hanna Phosphate checker with a new box of reagents, and a bunch of other various assorted odds and ends.
I got rid of the small amount of live rock and sand that was in the tank. It was plagued with algae and an astronomical amount of bristleworms too. I spent a solid two days with a sponge, a razor blade and a whole lot of water and vinegar.
I got 30 pounds of cured live rock from a tank that was being broken down near me for $5/lb, which was the same price that LFS and other hobbyists were selling dry rock for, and I have about 2" of Carib-Sea Aragonite for my sand bed. I do miss the look of the Oolite sand bed in my old tank, but I couldn't find anything local, and the sand storms whenever I tried to do anything in my tank were rather annoying. Among the hitchhikers I spied while transferring over my tank, I noticed a couple of brittle stars and one of the rocks has a bunch of small polyps which I'm assuming are little button polyps. Hopefully they all survive the cycle
This will be a pretty slowly updated thread, because as a University student, let's face it. I have more time than money! And nothing good ever happens fast in a reef tank. Right now, I just dumped the rock into the tank. I am currently suffering from the plague. Once I am feeling better, I plan of doing my aquascape. I'll probably take some of the rock out, but I'm undecided yet.
Well, I moved back, I'm back in University, and have settled down in a great house. I finally have stability back in my life, so I decided that it was time to get another tank.
I found this Red Sea Max 130 on a local reefing Facebook group. This guy bought a house, and the previous owner just left the tank there, set up and running. The new home owner tried to maintain it for a little while, but he didn't know what he was doing and soon his tank had a massive algae bloom from his tap water top offs. I wish I had taken a before photo, I'd never seen so much algae growth in my life. Every single surface in the tank was covered in a thick carpeting of various kinds of algae. I decided the best way to tackle this was to start completely from scratch. I re-homed the Bangaii Cardinal and the Ocellaris Clownfish who were occupying the tank to a good friend on the promise that I'd get some cool zoa frags from him once my tank is established.
So for $200, I got a Red Sea Max 130 with stand, the hood had been gutted and replaced with a 120 watt LED Current Ramp Pro Lighting setup, it also came with a Deltec 600MCE HOB Protein Skimmer, Eheim Jager 150 watt heater, a brand new bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, new refractometer, a Hanna Phosphate checker with a new box of reagents, and a bunch of other various assorted odds and ends.
I got rid of the small amount of live rock and sand that was in the tank. It was plagued with algae and an astronomical amount of bristleworms too. I spent a solid two days with a sponge, a razor blade and a whole lot of water and vinegar.
I got 30 pounds of cured live rock from a tank that was being broken down near me for $5/lb, which was the same price that LFS and other hobbyists were selling dry rock for, and I have about 2" of Carib-Sea Aragonite for my sand bed. I do miss the look of the Oolite sand bed in my old tank, but I couldn't find anything local, and the sand storms whenever I tried to do anything in my tank were rather annoying. Among the hitchhikers I spied while transferring over my tank, I noticed a couple of brittle stars and one of the rocks has a bunch of small polyps which I'm assuming are little button polyps. Hopefully they all survive the cycle
This will be a pretty slowly updated thread, because as a University student, let's face it. I have more time than money! And nothing good ever happens fast in a reef tank. Right now, I just dumped the rock into the tank. I am currently suffering from the plague. Once I am feeling better, I plan of doing my aquascape. I'll probably take some of the rock out, but I'm undecided yet.
