After being out of the hobby for the past few years I have decided to jump back in. I ended up finding a really nice used SCA starfire 50 gal cube. It came with 2 mp10s, maxspect 27 inch razor 15,000k led light fixture - 180 watt, 2 protein skimmers (magus curve 5 & sca 301), cheap led sump light, a digital aquatics controller and a few extras odd and ends.
After getting it home and doing some research I decided on reefclearer dry rock. I ordered the 50lb box and asked for medium size rocks. As some of you guys may have seen in an earlier post what I got was definitely not medium sized rocks. My tank is 24in wide and one of the rocks was by it self was 20in long along with several large round rocks and 2 small rocks and a few I would call medium. After a massive freak out I contacted John at reef cleaners and customer service was awesome. I played with different aquascaping for several days and finally found a layout that I was pleased with.
Next I ordered my spectrapure rodi and instant ocean reef crystals. I have been working on filling the tank up for several days due to my psi being low and not wanting to order a booster at the current moment. Only to discover the over flow had a small leak in one of the plumbing brackets. I silicone the blacket and thought I had fixed the issue only to have it return. After a lot of silicone around the bracket the problem was fixed. (Only a small drip leak it wasnt worth replumping the line). Which will happen in time but not today
I'm still working on filling the tank and should have it filled tonight. Next were my mp10s one works good with the exception that it a little load. The other one is completely shot. It sounds like a rocket is trying to take off and the controller is completely busted. It turn on but that pretty much it. So I will be replacing that pump next month at some point.
The other battle I have been fighting is the lights which work fine but at 27 inches are to long to use legs with and I have really high ceilings so hanging them from that is a last option. After some brain storming I came up with hanging them from a shelf. I had to dyi the self because I needed a really wide one but over all I'm happy with the results.
Overall, this tank has been a lot more of a headache than what I orginally planned when I got it. But I have enjoyed the challenges of figuring out the solution. For what I paid I'm still happy with the tank and will keep everyone updated on my slow progress into this build.
After getting it home and doing some research I decided on reefclearer dry rock. I ordered the 50lb box and asked for medium size rocks. As some of you guys may have seen in an earlier post what I got was definitely not medium sized rocks. My tank is 24in wide and one of the rocks was by it self was 20in long along with several large round rocks and 2 small rocks and a few I would call medium. After a massive freak out I contacted John at reef cleaners and customer service was awesome. I played with different aquascaping for several days and finally found a layout that I was pleased with.
Next I ordered my spectrapure rodi and instant ocean reef crystals. I have been working on filling the tank up for several days due to my psi being low and not wanting to order a booster at the current moment. Only to discover the over flow had a small leak in one of the plumbing brackets. I silicone the blacket and thought I had fixed the issue only to have it return. After a lot of silicone around the bracket the problem was fixed. (Only a small drip leak it wasnt worth replumping the line). Which will happen in time but not today
I'm still working on filling the tank and should have it filled tonight. Next were my mp10s one works good with the exception that it a little load. The other one is completely shot. It sounds like a rocket is trying to take off and the controller is completely busted. It turn on but that pretty much it. So I will be replacing that pump next month at some point.
The other battle I have been fighting is the lights which work fine but at 27 inches are to long to use legs with and I have really high ceilings so hanging them from that is a last option. After some brain storming I came up with hanging them from a shelf. I had to dyi the self because I needed a really wide one but over all I'm happy with the results.
Overall, this tank has been a lot more of a headache than what I orginally planned when I got it. But I have enjoyed the challenges of figuring out the solution. For what I paid I'm still happy with the tank and will keep everyone updated on my slow progress into this build.
