dgruic0712
Community Member
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2018
- Messages
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Hello everyone, appreciate whoever takes time out of their day to go through this thread and give feedback toward this very slow process of building one of the crazier ideas I've had.
To start off, a little about me and my reef keeping past. I started this hobby when I was 13, after an older friend of mine talked me into ditching my freshwater tank and getting into saltwater. As any curious 13 year old would do I took to youtube, to see what saltwater aquariums were all about. After being extremely intrigued at all the beautiful reef tanks I was watching, I decided a change was necessary. With the help and guidance of my older friend, my very first 30 breeder saltwater tank was born. That 30 gallon lasted me about 3 months before I decided it was too small, so I upgraded to a 58 gallon Oceanic tank. This tank taught me a lot about the hobby, and was around the time I started reading other reefing forums and learning all sorts of things related to reefing. I grew to loooooove coral, and cared and tended for them for every minute I had available. Unfortunately wasn't very much time at all. While still being in Jr. High and always going out of town for soccer tournaments, my tank slowly died off. After almost all the coral had died I decided to get rid of the tank. I was torn because I really enjoyed my tank, but I knew I had to give it up.
Fast forward to 15 years old, I am in High School and have a decent amount of graduation money saved up. I was playing soccer for HS but not going out of town, so ultimately decided on getting another tank. This time, I went with a 125 gallon 6 foot tank. I finally got a tank I felt I could really do some damage with and have all sorts of coral and fish and really enjoy myself. I had great success with the tank, learned how to program an apex, learned how to frag, dip corals, all sorts of useful tools that deepened my reefing experience. I was even able to grow SPS coral at at 15-16! I was really proud of my tank. Then while everything was going great, something had to go wrong. To begin, I had a nasty byropsis outbreak. To try and prevent it from further spreading, I used Kent Tech-M to raise to mag so the byropsis would die. The only thing it killed was my SPS. After I quit trying to kill the byropsis, my tank started to get infested my bubble algae, and after bubble algae, came Dinos. Dinos covered every single piece of coral in my tank and eventually killed them. Broken-hearted I let the tank on cruise control and just fed the fish and added water to the ATO. This went on until one day I was in a fish store and spotted a DSA Neo 190 Pro. This was a beast of a tank. 5' x 27" x 27". I had to have this tank. My parents refused to let me to get this tank because it was an expensive tank, and it would require me to start everything over from scratch ( New rock, new sand, bigger skimmer, bigger reactors, bigger wave makers). But one day my dad and I had a bet, If I could score 3 or more goals in my next soccer game, he would buy me the tank. I obviously took the bet and eagerly waited until the game. To make the story short, I make quick work of the team scoring 5 goals total. After the game my dad refused to say a word to me, drove to the fish store, and put in the order for the 190 gallon tank and stand. That was the last time my dad made a bet with me
.
So I have the tank of my dreams, I ordered all new equipment, cycled the tank, transferred over my 125 fish and nems, and let it run for about a month. Everything was going great so I slowly started adding corals and fish. I had two of my dream fish, blue throat trigger and a harlequin tusk. I was extremely happy with this tank for about 5 months until disaster struck yet again. Velvet. Within 4 days all of my fish died except for a formosa wrasse and a lawnmower blenny. This completely destroyed me. I gave up and once again left my tank on cruise control. This leads until present day, a 190 gallon tank running for a couple of zoas, 4 sunburst nems, and 2 fish.
Today: I am now 20 years old, have a very good job as an electrician at a steel mill, and have more free time at home to build the most bullet-proof system I can try and create.
The Plan: After seeing all different types of tanks, I've decided on the shallow rimless look is my favorite. My 190 taught me having a tall tank is a major PIA. Im 6 foot tall, and it is actually ridiculous trying to scrape the glass with a 27" tall tank. So for my main display tank, Ill be going with the DB 80 gallon rimless frag tank (48 x 24 x 16).
Multiple Displays?: On both ends of the 80, will be a DB 30 gallon rimless frag tank (24 x 24 x 12). I plan on 1 being a display frag tank and the other, an anemone tank.
Filtration: I have gotten the go ahead from my dad to use the addition to our house to for the tanks, the fun part? FISH ROOM! The wall where I plan to put the tank backs up to our old pool filter room, we no longer have a pool so it is just being used as storage. In this room I plan on having my big sump and existing equipment from the 190. I also decided on having a 29 gal refugium. My mixing station will also be feet away from the sump to allow for quick and easy water changes so anything within the fish room including the QT systems.
QT: I want to stress that I will put more effort into my Qt than anything else, I refuse to let anything pest related into my system. So my plan is 2 40 breeders, 1 for fish, 1 for coral. The coral QT will have a sump and skimmer, while the fish qt will have a canister and HOB filter. I plan on being extremely aggressive on the QT process, waiting a full month before anything goes into the DT.
Controller/ Automation: Being an electrician means doing the least amount of work, and letting your equipment do the work for you. I will be using an apex system to monitor literally everything going on in the fish room.
Thanks for reading so far, I will be updating very frequently as everyday I have new ideas and constantly collecting more and more equipment for the build. We have to insulate and heat the fish room and it does get pretty cold in Illinois during the winter.
Thanks again, Danny!
To start off, a little about me and my reef keeping past. I started this hobby when I was 13, after an older friend of mine talked me into ditching my freshwater tank and getting into saltwater. As any curious 13 year old would do I took to youtube, to see what saltwater aquariums were all about. After being extremely intrigued at all the beautiful reef tanks I was watching, I decided a change was necessary. With the help and guidance of my older friend, my very first 30 breeder saltwater tank was born. That 30 gallon lasted me about 3 months before I decided it was too small, so I upgraded to a 58 gallon Oceanic tank. This tank taught me a lot about the hobby, and was around the time I started reading other reefing forums and learning all sorts of things related to reefing. I grew to loooooove coral, and cared and tended for them for every minute I had available. Unfortunately wasn't very much time at all. While still being in Jr. High and always going out of town for soccer tournaments, my tank slowly died off. After almost all the coral had died I decided to get rid of the tank. I was torn because I really enjoyed my tank, but I knew I had to give it up.
Fast forward to 15 years old, I am in High School and have a decent amount of graduation money saved up. I was playing soccer for HS but not going out of town, so ultimately decided on getting another tank. This time, I went with a 125 gallon 6 foot tank. I finally got a tank I felt I could really do some damage with and have all sorts of coral and fish and really enjoy myself. I had great success with the tank, learned how to program an apex, learned how to frag, dip corals, all sorts of useful tools that deepened my reefing experience. I was even able to grow SPS coral at at 15-16! I was really proud of my tank. Then while everything was going great, something had to go wrong. To begin, I had a nasty byropsis outbreak. To try and prevent it from further spreading, I used Kent Tech-M to raise to mag so the byropsis would die. The only thing it killed was my SPS. After I quit trying to kill the byropsis, my tank started to get infested my bubble algae, and after bubble algae, came Dinos. Dinos covered every single piece of coral in my tank and eventually killed them. Broken-hearted I let the tank on cruise control and just fed the fish and added water to the ATO. This went on until one day I was in a fish store and spotted a DSA Neo 190 Pro. This was a beast of a tank. 5' x 27" x 27". I had to have this tank. My parents refused to let me to get this tank because it was an expensive tank, and it would require me to start everything over from scratch ( New rock, new sand, bigger skimmer, bigger reactors, bigger wave makers). But one day my dad and I had a bet, If I could score 3 or more goals in my next soccer game, he would buy me the tank. I obviously took the bet and eagerly waited until the game. To make the story short, I make quick work of the team scoring 5 goals total. After the game my dad refused to say a word to me, drove to the fish store, and put in the order for the 190 gallon tank and stand. That was the last time my dad made a bet with me
. So I have the tank of my dreams, I ordered all new equipment, cycled the tank, transferred over my 125 fish and nems, and let it run for about a month. Everything was going great so I slowly started adding corals and fish. I had two of my dream fish, blue throat trigger and a harlequin tusk. I was extremely happy with this tank for about 5 months until disaster struck yet again. Velvet. Within 4 days all of my fish died except for a formosa wrasse and a lawnmower blenny. This completely destroyed me. I gave up and once again left my tank on cruise control. This leads until present day, a 190 gallon tank running for a couple of zoas, 4 sunburst nems, and 2 fish.
Today: I am now 20 years old, have a very good job as an electrician at a steel mill, and have more free time at home to build the most bullet-proof system I can try and create.
The Plan: After seeing all different types of tanks, I've decided on the shallow rimless look is my favorite. My 190 taught me having a tall tank is a major PIA. Im 6 foot tall, and it is actually ridiculous trying to scrape the glass with a 27" tall tank. So for my main display tank, Ill be going with the DB 80 gallon rimless frag tank (48 x 24 x 16).
Multiple Displays?: On both ends of the 80, will be a DB 30 gallon rimless frag tank (24 x 24 x 12). I plan on 1 being a display frag tank and the other, an anemone tank.
Filtration: I have gotten the go ahead from my dad to use the addition to our house to for the tanks, the fun part? FISH ROOM! The wall where I plan to put the tank backs up to our old pool filter room, we no longer have a pool so it is just being used as storage. In this room I plan on having my big sump and existing equipment from the 190. I also decided on having a 29 gal refugium. My mixing station will also be feet away from the sump to allow for quick and easy water changes so anything within the fish room including the QT systems.
QT: I want to stress that I will put more effort into my Qt than anything else, I refuse to let anything pest related into my system. So my plan is 2 40 breeders, 1 for fish, 1 for coral. The coral QT will have a sump and skimmer, while the fish qt will have a canister and HOB filter. I plan on being extremely aggressive on the QT process, waiting a full month before anything goes into the DT.
Controller/ Automation: Being an electrician means doing the least amount of work, and letting your equipment do the work for you. I will be using an apex system to monitor literally everything going on in the fish room.
Thanks for reading so far, I will be updating very frequently as everyday I have new ideas and constantly collecting more and more equipment for the build. We have to insulate and heat the fish room and it does get pretty cold in Illinois during the winter.
Thanks again, Danny!
