townjas
Active Member
1st I am going to say that I have just gotten the coral bug over the last year and during that year I am been planning this build, so currently my corals are low end and only a few species.
Next... About me. I am 41 married for 6 years to my beautiful wife. We have no 2 legged children but we have 3 that have 4 legs (2 pit bulls and a cat).
I have have fresh water tanks off and on most of my life. I started with a small tank with community fish until my grandfather stepped in and gave me a tank he had in storage. It was an old metal framed slate bottom 55 gallon tall (Man I wish I still had that tank) which I had for a few years. When we moved I donated the tank to a friend. Eventually I started another 55 that I had various tank mates including a winter with a could fish I caught from a local steam.
Through some moves I found myself tank-less again. I went tank-less for about 10 years until I had stopped into my local pet store and seeing the saltwater tanks I started thinking I wanted to try my hand with a saltwater tank. By shear coincidence my aunt decided to take her 55 down and offered it me for free. She had it as a freshwater planted tank. There was enough there to give me a good jump start.
So after a good cleaning and more money than I expected to spend on sand, salt, rock and water I had a 55 gallon saltwater tank.
My 1st inhabitants were an ocilarus clown, a starry blenny, pistol shrimp and banded ray goby. At this point the only corals I had were some kenya trees and brownish zoa's that were on the live rock I had
I decided fairly early on that I wanted a mandarin so I started collecting live rock. I used craigslist and managed to amass about 60 lbs over the next 6 months and frequently used an LED flash light at night to check my pod population. After about 7 months I finally had my mandarin. I created rubble piles and dosed phyto-feast to keep the population health. I even managed to get my mandarin to eat Nutramar Ova. Earlier this year the supply of Nutramar Ova dried up all across the country and I had since added a sump, more live rock as well add a yellow corris wrasse and a Melanrus Wrasse. Some how the pod population dropped of am my mandarin starved to death after 18 months and shortly there after the corris wrasse just disappeared.
During this time I also added GSP, some mushrooms, some red star polyps, blue xenia, anthelia, frog spawn and green hammer coral. I learned that I cannot keep mushrooms and the frog spawn didn't make it either. The anthelia, blue xenia and kenya trees tried to take over. I had also added a 48" beamworks LED.
This progression took almost 2.5 years, and during that time I had visions of a larger tank, so I spent a ton of time on craigslist and convincing my wife that a bigger tank was the way to go. I found an older 6' 150 gallon tank about 90 minutes away from home and picked it up for $80. I start building a stand frame that would accommodate both the 55 and the 150 in an L configuration. This progress went quite slowly since I was 1 on a budget & had little time because I was working on finishing my college degree.
A little less than a year after I bought the 150 the wife and I were running some errands and ran across some signs for an estate sales and decided to stop in, it was there that I found my tank. I picked up a 7' 150 gallon (7' long 18" wide and and 24" tall)tank for $20!
I got it home and tested it, it help water! So I sold the 6' tank and made plans with the 7'. To make sure, I resealed the tank and drilled it for two 1.5" overflows. I also decided to put the sump in the basement. Since I had found an RO/DI unit and a pondmaster 2400 pumping up from the basement would not be a problem.
During this time I found some more live rock on craigslist that I just couldn't turn down, It was about 100lbs of rock including a fair amount of branch tonga rock. I also picked up a WP-40 from amazon, I used it in my 55 at its lowest setting and a fast pulse. It was the only way to keep all of the water in the tank!
I reused the 150 gallon part of the stand frame I had made and adjusted plans to go with only the one tank and once the 55 was down and cleaned I would make plans to use the 55 as my sump.
On a side note I was given a small 5 gallon tank that I have set up at work that has 7 corals including 2 sps (a birds nest and an acro) a firefish, a blue neon goby, a peppermint shrimp, an emerald crab and a couple of snails. I only say this because I will add some pics from it also. Ok, some pics
These are my 5 gallon at work &
The 150 after I drillled it, but before the overflow
Next... About me. I am 41 married for 6 years to my beautiful wife. We have no 2 legged children but we have 3 that have 4 legs (2 pit bulls and a cat).
I have have fresh water tanks off and on most of my life. I started with a small tank with community fish until my grandfather stepped in and gave me a tank he had in storage. It was an old metal framed slate bottom 55 gallon tall (Man I wish I still had that tank) which I had for a few years. When we moved I donated the tank to a friend. Eventually I started another 55 that I had various tank mates including a winter with a could fish I caught from a local steam.
Through some moves I found myself tank-less again. I went tank-less for about 10 years until I had stopped into my local pet store and seeing the saltwater tanks I started thinking I wanted to try my hand with a saltwater tank. By shear coincidence my aunt decided to take her 55 down and offered it me for free. She had it as a freshwater planted tank. There was enough there to give me a good jump start.
So after a good cleaning and more money than I expected to spend on sand, salt, rock and water I had a 55 gallon saltwater tank.
My 1st inhabitants were an ocilarus clown, a starry blenny, pistol shrimp and banded ray goby. At this point the only corals I had were some kenya trees and brownish zoa's that were on the live rock I had
I decided fairly early on that I wanted a mandarin so I started collecting live rock. I used craigslist and managed to amass about 60 lbs over the next 6 months and frequently used an LED flash light at night to check my pod population. After about 7 months I finally had my mandarin. I created rubble piles and dosed phyto-feast to keep the population health. I even managed to get my mandarin to eat Nutramar Ova. Earlier this year the supply of Nutramar Ova dried up all across the country and I had since added a sump, more live rock as well add a yellow corris wrasse and a Melanrus Wrasse. Some how the pod population dropped of am my mandarin starved to death after 18 months and shortly there after the corris wrasse just disappeared.
During this time I also added GSP, some mushrooms, some red star polyps, blue xenia, anthelia, frog spawn and green hammer coral. I learned that I cannot keep mushrooms and the frog spawn didn't make it either. The anthelia, blue xenia and kenya trees tried to take over. I had also added a 48" beamworks LED.
This progression took almost 2.5 years, and during that time I had visions of a larger tank, so I spent a ton of time on craigslist and convincing my wife that a bigger tank was the way to go. I found an older 6' 150 gallon tank about 90 minutes away from home and picked it up for $80. I start building a stand frame that would accommodate both the 55 and the 150 in an L configuration. This progress went quite slowly since I was 1 on a budget & had little time because I was working on finishing my college degree.
A little less than a year after I bought the 150 the wife and I were running some errands and ran across some signs for an estate sales and decided to stop in, it was there that I found my tank. I picked up a 7' 150 gallon (7' long 18" wide and and 24" tall)tank for $20!
I got it home and tested it, it help water! So I sold the 6' tank and made plans with the 7'. To make sure, I resealed the tank and drilled it for two 1.5" overflows. I also decided to put the sump in the basement. Since I had found an RO/DI unit and a pondmaster 2400 pumping up from the basement would not be a problem.
During this time I found some more live rock on craigslist that I just couldn't turn down, It was about 100lbs of rock including a fair amount of branch tonga rock. I also picked up a WP-40 from amazon, I used it in my 55 at its lowest setting and a fast pulse. It was the only way to keep all of the water in the tank!
I reused the 150 gallon part of the stand frame I had made and adjusted plans to go with only the one tank and once the 55 was down and cleaned I would make plans to use the 55 as my sump.
On a side note I was given a small 5 gallon tank that I have set up at work that has 7 corals including 2 sps (a birds nest and an acro) a firefish, a blue neon goby, a peppermint shrimp, an emerald crab and a couple of snails. I only say this because I will add some pics from it also. Ok, some pics
These are my 5 gallon at work &
The 150 after I drillled it, but before the overflow
