Bucks149
Community Member
[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]I came to building this 60g after a couple of missteps these past couple of months. Originally I was all set to do a 75g build, but as luck would have it, a 38g tank w/ stand and canopy came up for sale for only $25. I picked it up immediately and started putting together a parts list, much of which is listed below...Some of the stuff I already had and some I picked up over this weekend, namely the Apollo lights. I ended up selling all of my 75 gallon equipment (tank, skimmer and 40b sump) to fund the remainder of my 38g build.
This was to be the weekend that I drilled the 38g and started plumbing it so that I could start cycling the system. As luck would have it, I ended up dropping the acrylic overflow box on my basement floor and it shattered. I was immediately devastated. I had to start reaching out to local vendors to see if I could find another one. I posted the dilemma on my local reef forum and one of the members, who formerly owned this setup, told me that the front and back panels are most likely tempered and he tole me where to check on the glass to confirm his thought. Sure enough, the front and back panes were both stamped as tempered. If it weren't for me breaking the overflow, I would probably still be cleaning up glass shards out of my basement.
In a panic, I recalled a deal that one of the local fish shop's was running this weekend, (up to 50% off aquariums). I called them immediately and confirmed the pricing. After THE GAME was over, I rushed over to the shop and ordered a new Marineland Reef Ready Rimless 60g cube w/ stand. Luckily I purchased the lights from him a day earlier and he gave me a $50 gift card to use on any purchase. So with the deep discount and the gift card, I was able to walk out of there paying less than I would for a BioCube 29 w/o stand.
I haven't fully decided if I want to to a mixed reef tank, or just an SPS dominated tank. I plan to run bare bottom and just put my effort into good aquascaping. Really my only concern with running mixed is with my zoanthids and my elegance corals. They are currently in a very nutrient rich environment and they are growing like weeds.
I purchased zoanthid frags in mid-October at a local frag swap. All of them were 2-3 polyp frags and now all of them have quadrupled in polyp count and size. I don't want to really sacrifice the growth of my zoanthids by putting them into too clean of an environment.
My elegance coral has also been thriving in the nutrient rich environment. I feed it a small chunk of silversides about once a week and the rest it picks up from the water column and from the cheap LED light I'm running.
Any recommendations to keep my idea of a mixed reef tank alive would be greatly appreciated. My goal is to get the tank bottom covered with a bunch of zoanthid colonies with key areas for my elegance, frog spawn and octospawn. I'm also interested in keeping a clam. In a nutshell...I want, I want, I want, but how? [/FONT]:bigsmile:[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]Below is my assembled parts list. I am open to comments/ recommendations to get this thing up to optimal running conditions.
Parts list:
Tank & Stand
- Marineland Reef Ready 60g rimless cube
- Marineland Ventura Tank Stand
Waterflow
- Eheim Compact + 2000 return pump
- WP25
- MP10
Lights
- Apollo Reef LED SolarBlast UV-LB
Filtration
- Skimmer TBD
- 10g sump
Doser
- TBD
Control
- Apex Jr w/ VDM Module
ATO
- Tunze Osmolator Nano
This was to be the weekend that I drilled the 38g and started plumbing it so that I could start cycling the system. As luck would have it, I ended up dropping the acrylic overflow box on my basement floor and it shattered. I was immediately devastated. I had to start reaching out to local vendors to see if I could find another one. I posted the dilemma on my local reef forum and one of the members, who formerly owned this setup, told me that the front and back panels are most likely tempered and he tole me where to check on the glass to confirm his thought. Sure enough, the front and back panes were both stamped as tempered. If it weren't for me breaking the overflow, I would probably still be cleaning up glass shards out of my basement.
In a panic, I recalled a deal that one of the local fish shop's was running this weekend, (up to 50% off aquariums). I called them immediately and confirmed the pricing. After THE GAME was over, I rushed over to the shop and ordered a new Marineland Reef Ready Rimless 60g cube w/ stand. Luckily I purchased the lights from him a day earlier and he gave me a $50 gift card to use on any purchase. So with the deep discount and the gift card, I was able to walk out of there paying less than I would for a BioCube 29 w/o stand.
I haven't fully decided if I want to to a mixed reef tank, or just an SPS dominated tank. I plan to run bare bottom and just put my effort into good aquascaping. Really my only concern with running mixed is with my zoanthids and my elegance corals. They are currently in a very nutrient rich environment and they are growing like weeds.
I purchased zoanthid frags in mid-October at a local frag swap. All of them were 2-3 polyp frags and now all of them have quadrupled in polyp count and size. I don't want to really sacrifice the growth of my zoanthids by putting them into too clean of an environment.
My elegance coral has also been thriving in the nutrient rich environment. I feed it a small chunk of silversides about once a week and the rest it picks up from the water column and from the cheap LED light I'm running.
Any recommendations to keep my idea of a mixed reef tank alive would be greatly appreciated. My goal is to get the tank bottom covered with a bunch of zoanthid colonies with key areas for my elegance, frog spawn and octospawn. I'm also interested in keeping a clam. In a nutshell...I want, I want, I want, but how? [/FONT]:bigsmile:[FONT=verdana, geneva, lucida, lucida grande, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]Below is my assembled parts list. I am open to comments/ recommendations to get this thing up to optimal running conditions.
Parts list:
Tank & Stand
- Marineland Reef Ready 60g rimless cube
- Marineland Ventura Tank Stand
Waterflow
- Eheim Compact + 2000 return pump
- WP25
- MP10
Lights
- Apollo Reef LED SolarBlast UV-LB
Filtration
- Skimmer TBD
- 10g sump
Doser
- TBD
Control
- Apex Jr w/ VDM Module
ATO
- Tunze Osmolator Nano
