Bushpig_2
New Member
Hello everyone, my name is Pat, and like the rest of you i have the addiction! Only i think i have it worse...and the reason for that is i don't even own a reef aquarium. Nor have i ever lol
I have had a 55 cichlid tank, but that was only up for a couple months before i went on deployment and that has been my only hands on experience with any tank husbandry unfortunately. I'd like to think that my only saving grace for when i do finally have the chance to set up a reef tank is that i have been lurking the forums for almost a year and a half! I started on RC, read though as many posts until there were no new ones, then migrated over here to R2R which i found WAAAAY more helpful to the newer crowd and people that have questions. I also went on a buying spree on Amazon and bought a ton of books.
Since i have been on deployment for the last 6 months or so, i have had lots and lots of time to do research and plan for when i'm FINALLY able to set up a reef tank.
My plan so far...
I was planning on building a DD tank out of acrylic, but then my awesome father in law told me he's getting rid of his 125 FOWLR and i was the first person he asked, so i graciously accepted. I'm not to sure on the dimensions, but i know it's at least a 5 or 6 footer and a little over 20" high and possibly a little over 18" wide? The wife doesn't care enough to measure it for me lol I plan on cutting a swath of teeth maybe 18"? wide and building an acrylic external overflow for a herbie style overflow. I'm also going to drill two 1" holes at the top of each corner on the back panel for the returns with an oceans motions squirt. I'm not a big fan of loc-line, so i'm going to see how spray bars work out. Slits would be cut for surface movement as well as slits cut facing down and back to shoot down the back of the tank for, hopefully, debris clearing behind the rock. Maybe some sort of contraption involving a 45deg elbow and some spa-flex? Just some ides floating around.:nerd:
As far as lighting, i'm going to build a DIY LED set-up with the usual RB's, NW's as well as deep reds, cyan, and UV to the build to TRY to get the full spectrum. I'd go with T5 for all the different bulb options, but i like the power savings and reduced heat as well as being able to customize and change out the LED's even more so than the T5's.
I do plan on DIYing my sump out of acrylic for sure. It's going to have at least 1, maybe 2, gallon compartments for CA, ALK, and MG as well a possible 5 or more gallon ATO reservoir. I'm a little on the fence as far as filtration though, i do love the idea of an ATS, but skimmers are tried and true. What i plan on doing is having the ATS "powered" from the over flow into my sump with a custom T5 light setup. The sump would be packed with as much LR as i can put in there, so it would be pod heaven for the benefit of the fishes and the corals. And if that fails, i'll get me an CS1 from Avast.
So thats pretty much it as far as my main tank, i do plan on adding a decent sized frag tank in there somewhere down the line. My wife also told me she wants a tank in the shower wall (she saw the scene from the new romeo and juliett and thought it was awesome) which i plan on using my 55 as a FOWLR as she said planted FW look too "planty" lol
For my third tank i plan on doing a nano kind of like CalmSeasQuest, not a run of the mill nano, more of an abstract tank. I don't how better to describe it, but i'm hoping it'll look sweet.
And i plan on building a koi pond. My wife is gonna hate me lol
The bummer to all this is i have to wait! Even more time! I still have about 2 months left of deployment, then another 5 months until i leave this command (Wife said no reef tanks before we leave San Diego), then i have 3 months of school, THEN we buy a house and i can get on with the tank-fest. So it'll be over 2 years that i've had the Reef bug, and no reef's. You people torture me with your tanks and make me green with jealousy.:hat:
Anyways, thanks for reading and i hope i can contribute in some way with my non-experience experience with reef tanks.
Pat
I have had a 55 cichlid tank, but that was only up for a couple months before i went on deployment and that has been my only hands on experience with any tank husbandry unfortunately. I'd like to think that my only saving grace for when i do finally have the chance to set up a reef tank is that i have been lurking the forums for almost a year and a half! I started on RC, read though as many posts until there were no new ones, then migrated over here to R2R which i found WAAAAY more helpful to the newer crowd and people that have questions. I also went on a buying spree on Amazon and bought a ton of books.
Since i have been on deployment for the last 6 months or so, i have had lots and lots of time to do research and plan for when i'm FINALLY able to set up a reef tank.
My plan so far...
I was planning on building a DD tank out of acrylic, but then my awesome father in law told me he's getting rid of his 125 FOWLR and i was the first person he asked, so i graciously accepted. I'm not to sure on the dimensions, but i know it's at least a 5 or 6 footer and a little over 20" high and possibly a little over 18" wide? The wife doesn't care enough to measure it for me lol I plan on cutting a swath of teeth maybe 18"? wide and building an acrylic external overflow for a herbie style overflow. I'm also going to drill two 1" holes at the top of each corner on the back panel for the returns with an oceans motions squirt. I'm not a big fan of loc-line, so i'm going to see how spray bars work out. Slits would be cut for surface movement as well as slits cut facing down and back to shoot down the back of the tank for, hopefully, debris clearing behind the rock. Maybe some sort of contraption involving a 45deg elbow and some spa-flex? Just some ides floating around.:nerd:
As far as lighting, i'm going to build a DIY LED set-up with the usual RB's, NW's as well as deep reds, cyan, and UV to the build to TRY to get the full spectrum. I'd go with T5 for all the different bulb options, but i like the power savings and reduced heat as well as being able to customize and change out the LED's even more so than the T5's.
I do plan on DIYing my sump out of acrylic for sure. It's going to have at least 1, maybe 2, gallon compartments for CA, ALK, and MG as well a possible 5 or more gallon ATO reservoir. I'm a little on the fence as far as filtration though, i do love the idea of an ATS, but skimmers are tried and true. What i plan on doing is having the ATS "powered" from the over flow into my sump with a custom T5 light setup. The sump would be packed with as much LR as i can put in there, so it would be pod heaven for the benefit of the fishes and the corals. And if that fails, i'll get me an CS1 from Avast.
So thats pretty much it as far as my main tank, i do plan on adding a decent sized frag tank in there somewhere down the line. My wife also told me she wants a tank in the shower wall (she saw the scene from the new romeo and juliett and thought it was awesome) which i plan on using my 55 as a FOWLR as she said planted FW look too "planty" lol
For my third tank i plan on doing a nano kind of like CalmSeasQuest, not a run of the mill nano, more of an abstract tank. I don't how better to describe it, but i'm hoping it'll look sweet.
And i plan on building a koi pond. My wife is gonna hate me lol
The bummer to all this is i have to wait! Even more time! I still have about 2 months left of deployment, then another 5 months until i leave this command (Wife said no reef tanks before we leave San Diego), then i have 3 months of school, THEN we buy a house and i can get on with the tank-fest. So it'll be over 2 years that i've had the Reef bug, and no reef's. You people torture me with your tanks and make me green with jealousy.:hat:
Anyways, thanks for reading and i hope i can contribute in some way with my non-experience experience with reef tanks.
Pat
So glad you joined 
) for the reefing lol And you guys help me plenty with my addiction until i can get one myself.
