J.P.'s (LO_CASH) deep blue 34g build

[j.p. harrington]

So after being out of the game for what seems like forever after buying a house getting married and having 2 beautiful children i have finally gotten my new setup going.

The reason im calling this tank (LO_CASH) is i hardly have anything in the entire setup ive literally got maybe $200.00 in the whole setup and thats on the extreme high end of things.

My plan for this tank is to not get crazy on spending im going to be using this as a log to keep up with how much i actually have in it my goal is to spend as little as possible and do mostly trading for corals and livestock. Also the reason i went with this tank was because it want take alot of stuff to make it have that full look we all love

The reason i have so little in this tank is because i have used stuff i had from several years ago and also i have traded out mechanic labor for everything else but a few things which is reflected in the 200.00

Okay now for the down and dirty of the setup

TANK: deep blue rimless 34 gallon rr tank--- traded out labor
SUMP: 40B--- 40.00 petco 1.00 per gallon sale
STAND: used old stand from my first 75 gallon build over 8 years ago
LIGHT: 6 bulb T5 aquaticlife with all new bulbs (3) coral plus (3) blue plus---60.00
SUMP/FUGE/FRAG LIGHTING: 4 bulb wave point 24" retro kit--- from old system
RETURN PUMP: deep blue triton 5--- from old setup
HEATER: ehiem jager 300w--- from old system
REACTOR: aquatop MR-20--- traded out labor
BIOPELLETS: thrive aquatics---traded out labor
POWERHEADS: (2) tunze 6040--- traded out labor
SAND: caribsea aragonite--- traded out labor
LIVEROCK: used dry rock--- from previous setups
SKIMMER: simplicity 120dc--- traded out labor
CIRCULATION: also have some of the hydor flo (6) to be exact--- traded out labor
CHEMICALS: kept all my stuff from years ago still have plenty of stuff that i probably want have to buy anything for atleast a year
SALT: reef crystals---traded out for labor
ATO: tunze ato--- from previous setup


Okay so thats the setup and what ive got in it all the plumbing and stuff i had laying around already except for a few elbows

I ran a 3/4" pipe across the back top of the tank and have (2) of the hydor flows on it just to add some more wave action along with the tunze's

Im going to be using the sump as a fuge/frag tank lighting it with a 4 bulb wave point i had from my old frag setup this area is 25 gallons of the sump i also have 2 of the hydor flows ran the same way in this area



Once i get the tank mostly full of what i want ill be using the sump as my frag tank just to keep frag racks and all out of the display.

For dosing im going to try some brs kalkwasser in ATO.

Like i said my primary goal is to not actually have a crap ton of hard cash in this tank or thats my goal i think i can accomplish this by spending a small amount on some designer stuff and fragging it to trade for other higher end stuff and so forth i know this will take time but im in now hurry fill it up

also wanted to add that since i have small children i closed in the sided of the stand and made a door on the front that slides all the way up out the top of the stand as a kind of child proof door to where they would have to lift the door up 2 ft or so to even be able to access any of the water i used old handles off of my old stand build and wood that i had laying around for this so again no hard cash in that either. the only thing that cost me was i went to lowes and got some vinyl siding J channel for it to slide up and down through it was half the cost of what a corner trim piece would have cost.

wanted to add that the total volume of this system is 55 gallons

 

[j.p. harrington]

First corals
(2) fire and ice frags that dont look like it in my tank
dragon eyes
armor of gods
orange and blue ricordea

 

[prsnlty]

Very nice! And welcome back to the hobby!

 

[j.p. harrington]

haven't updated here in awhile so im just pasting all the updates on this one post and ill add some pics later

Just got done dipping and fragging some very neglected leathers from a buddy whose tank has been on a downward slope for sometime now I'll get some pics up once they open and get to a decent size to be able to take pics they used to be huge in his 260 but he has just let it go so they have shrunk down and shriveled up ALOT I have confidence that the will bounce back and I'll be able to frag them to trade for other corals

Well missed out on a nice frag pack earlier at a heck of a deal so I thought well I need to get some fish I'm the tank but didn't know what I wanted thought about it for awhile and decided I'd go to the fish store and pick up 2 sailfin mollies to ser how they would do well I hit the freaking jackpot once again on not spending and hard cash I picked up the following

Pair of black snowflake clowns
Reefer on a budjet frag (talk about ironic)
Forest fire digi frag
Devils hand coral
Toatstool coral with some random palys at base
Some of my favorite zoanthids i have ever had idk what there rel name is but I got a frag from a guy one time that called them tiger tails. They are mixed in with what looks possibly like some nuclear greens everything is closed right now just happened to see them mixed in with the frag also got quarter to 50 cent piece size of nice orange/red cap

have been slack on updating and getting pics up i took some earlier will get them up when i finally find some free time

i got a great deal on a lot of coral they need some rehab but thats why i got the good deal.

also got some dt's amphipods--traded out
10+polyp of purple hornets--- traded out
10+polyp bambas--- traded out
small frag sunny d's--- traded out
small frag bebb--- traded out
small frag of xenia--- got crazy look when i said i wanted it lol traded out
one gallon of aquavitro remediation---traded out
api saltwater and master reef test kits--- traded out

gave 200.00 for the big frag pack i got but got some really nice high end stuff out of it probably around 25 to 30 frags total

so that brings my total up to roughly 400.00 in the whole setup and livestock so far

only other fish im really interested in is a goby pistol shrimp pair and maybe a bangai cardinal pair.

as for corals as we all know theres no end of what you want with them so cant comment on that lol


got a good deal on trading some of my dry rock for coral

traded 100 lbs of nice dry rock for a huge colony of pink and gold palys with a green mushroom and a few stalks of xenia
several hammer frags and a few frogspawn
purple ribbon gorgonian
red finger gorgonian (nps)
good size piece of red flame algae
forgot the nice tonga branch with xenia on it. i know i know most ppl hate the stuff but.... i personally love to watch it move not to mention its one of the easiest frags to grow frag and sell even if its for 5.00 thats 5.00 i dont have to spend on something else in the tank

went to the lfs this weekend and Noelle had to have the purple fish (royal gramma) so I traded that out

tank is basically full atm even fuge/frag section in sump is getting pretty full

just to give a run down of some of the stuff that I do have most of the frags a got from the neglected systems have recovered or at least opened which is a big deal on how bad they were bleached and melting
what I know I have:
red ppl eaters
jf butt munchers (what a name)
nightmares
darth maul
utter chaos
bam bams
cb punk rockers
3 types of xenia
1 orange a blue ricordea
stripper lips mushroom (almost melted in the tank I got it from but still recovering)
devils hand (been ticked last 2 weeks but finally opening back up)
2 green finger leathers (also recovering nicely)
4 frags of cabbage leather (recovering and now thriving growing fast)
multi frags of twizzler zoas
a crap ton a high end z/p's that I don't know the name of
fire and ice morphs
dragon eyes
purple ribbon gorg
red finger gorg
multi hammer and frogspawn frags
sunny d's
bbeb's
purple hornets
huge colony of pink and gold palys
one green shroom with the pink and golds
orange cap
reefer on a budget
forest fire digi
got 4 nice chalice frags don't know names of an of them but hey are all nice
favia frag
lobo frag
flame algae
chaeto
kedds reds
got some type of blue zoa but it hasn't fully opened yet
pink zippers
cat eyes
dragon eyes

I know I haven't named everything but that's what I can remember off the top of the dome

tested all parameters tonight ad every thing is good nitrate nitrite phosphate all 0 ph 8.2-8.3 hard to tell alk 11dkh calcium 430

been changing 8 gallons out weekly on Saturday or Sunday think im going to split it 4 gallons on Sunday and 4 on Wednesday just to balance it out

going to add some more bio pellets to the reactor they all have finally started to tumble and looks like they have shrunk in numbers some

what ive been doing as far as my frags is if its large enough to frag when I get it go ahead and frag it again let them both grow and then ive got a frag to trade off for something that I don't have seems to be working out nicely that way

still looking for some things
like neon green gsp (I know why??? but its easy grows fast and always sells)
pink star polyps "encrusting pink gorg" (same as above)
more gorgs
more euphyllia in general
eagle eyes (just haven't seen any with good color recently)
mushrooms of any kind
basically anything that grows fast and easy to frag and sell

still have around 100-150 lbs of dry rock to trade for stuff also most of it is nice non bulky stuff

and I still only have around 400.00 hard cash in this whole setup so I think im doing remarkably well on that part of the deal

I know this has been a huge long update but I just now finally had time to get it all up!!!