It is amazing to see how many reefers are contributing to this forum and everyday I am learning something new about this hobby. The idea of sharing my tank details has never been in my mind until my search brought me to this forum and started loving it.
Since my old tank Boyu 33 gallon was crashed for unknown reason and lost all the lives, I was in a dilemma whether to restart or give up this hobby, but one of my friends gave me a tank he wanted to get rid of it, so I decided to give another try on this, then I slowly started building budget accessories, nothing fancy but the list goes.
54 Gallon Bow Front Tank
CPR 90 Overflow Box
Return pump: Ocean Runner OR3500
Skimmer: Aqua medic Multi SL
Wave maker: basic model (planning to change to crossflow in future)
Sump 10 Gallon (roughly)
Light: Radion Gen 3 Pro
What do you think I should add more for better stability.
Initial set up would look like this.
The problem with CPR90 over flow box is that a lifter pump is required to work well; I did not find anything in the market yet, so for the time being I need to observe every day if the air is trapped in the water column.
I know that the most of you have the Sump built under the tank itself; however the sump tank I had was bigger than the tank cabinet so I decided to put in a separate Cabinet.
So after the basic parameters are all set good (Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20,PH 8.2) I decided to buy pair of clown fishes to start with, my LFS did not have stock of clown fish so instead I ended up buying Red Scooter dragonet without knowing its care level, this only came to my attention when the dragonet did not eat pellets, being anxious and little bit of search I ordered live cope pods, while my conversation with the LFS keeper, He assured this was trained to eat frozen Mysis and pellet so I also bought Mysis. So far he has been doing OK, always pecking on the rock and eating frozen Mysis, so I am assuming he is having his share of food, probably I will trade him in the future.
Current Livestock:
1 Yellow Tank
1 Blue Damsel
1 Red dragonet
2 Turbo Snails
1 Scarlet skunk Cleaner shrimp
2 Clown Fishes (Future)
What fish/es do you think I should add more and CUC perhaps.
Rocks: Mix of Live and dry rocks
Corals
Ultimately, I will turn this tank in to a reef so, currently having Zoas, need to select in future while the tank matures, Unsure the list though.
I use API master test Kit, I find this kit very difficult to measure ammonia because the chart does not accurately represent the colour that I get, it was always showing me Mountain Dew colour instead of colour to that of in the chart, so now I take photo of the colour result, increase the exposure that would closely matches with the colour chart, I did not have much difficulty to measure Nitrite, nitrate and PH.
After 6 months of set up, the tank is now covered with Green Algae which I hope will complete it's life cycle in 3- 4 weeks time, initially the dry rocks were covered with very bright neon green and became dark green, so currently I am not doing anything except water changes weekly. There are some redspots on the green coralline so I think the red or purple will surpass the green, Do you think I should reduce light intensity to reduce the green algae and to have more of red or purple, I really love the red coralline colouration, is there way to have more red algae than green or purple?.
After some rock adjustments, now the the tank looks like this,
Since my old tank Boyu 33 gallon was crashed for unknown reason and lost all the lives, I was in a dilemma whether to restart or give up this hobby, but one of my friends gave me a tank he wanted to get rid of it, so I decided to give another try on this, then I slowly started building budget accessories, nothing fancy but the list goes.
54 Gallon Bow Front Tank
CPR 90 Overflow Box
Return pump: Ocean Runner OR3500
Skimmer: Aqua medic Multi SL
Wave maker: basic model (planning to change to crossflow in future)
Sump 10 Gallon (roughly)
Light: Radion Gen 3 Pro
What do you think I should add more for better stability.
Initial set up would look like this.
The problem with CPR90 over flow box is that a lifter pump is required to work well; I did not find anything in the market yet, so for the time being I need to observe every day if the air is trapped in the water column.
I know that the most of you have the Sump built under the tank itself; however the sump tank I had was bigger than the tank cabinet so I decided to put in a separate Cabinet.
So after the basic parameters are all set good (Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 20,PH 8.2) I decided to buy pair of clown fishes to start with, my LFS did not have stock of clown fish so instead I ended up buying Red Scooter dragonet without knowing its care level, this only came to my attention when the dragonet did not eat pellets, being anxious and little bit of search I ordered live cope pods, while my conversation with the LFS keeper, He assured this was trained to eat frozen Mysis and pellet so I also bought Mysis. So far he has been doing OK, always pecking on the rock and eating frozen Mysis, so I am assuming he is having his share of food, probably I will trade him in the future.
Current Livestock:
1 Yellow Tank
1 Blue Damsel
1 Red dragonet
2 Turbo Snails
1 Scarlet skunk Cleaner shrimp
2 Clown Fishes (Future)
What fish/es do you think I should add more and CUC perhaps.
Rocks: Mix of Live and dry rocks
Corals
Ultimately, I will turn this tank in to a reef so, currently having Zoas, need to select in future while the tank matures, Unsure the list though.
I use API master test Kit, I find this kit very difficult to measure ammonia because the chart does not accurately represent the colour that I get, it was always showing me Mountain Dew colour instead of colour to that of in the chart, so now I take photo of the colour result, increase the exposure that would closely matches with the colour chart, I did not have much difficulty to measure Nitrite, nitrate and PH.
After 6 months of set up, the tank is now covered with Green Algae which I hope will complete it's life cycle in 3- 4 weeks time, initially the dry rocks were covered with very bright neon green and became dark green, so currently I am not doing anything except water changes weekly. There are some redspots on the green coralline so I think the red or purple will surpass the green, Do you think I should reduce light intensity to reduce the green algae and to have more of red or purple, I really love the red coralline colouration, is there way to have more red algae than green or purple?.
After some rock adjustments, now the the tank looks like this,
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