LeBon
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2022
- Messages
- 107
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- Location
- Spain
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Up until about 3 years ago we had seahorses in a tall 30 gallon with a boxfish for company and a basic sponge filter. A malfunctioning 'wavemaker' killed them and inevitably after the heartache I stopped keeping them a while.
The boxfish was ok so we kept the tank going for him, until I had my first ever tank crack 2 years ago, arriving home to see jets of water spraying the living room floor.
I managed to pickup a 55 gallon tall from my friends at the LFS in Malaga for dirt cheap.
Boxy had grown to about 4 inches or so, when we had to move home a year ago.
To minimise stress I bought another tank of the same dimensions so that I could get it started/cycling with a bit of sand and rock before I moved him.
Time to think about company for him and what direction to take.
There's a concrete shelf in my living room so it just made sense to utilise it. It does actually have space for a sump somewhat underneath but it didn't actually enter my head to utilise one at the time.. and I still don't. Because I decided to slowly develop it on a tight budget. (for various reasons, naturally, a little bit because my reefer friends were pretty much-spending 5k on their systems up to 125 gallons or so.
I budgeted 500 Euros for this tank. (since spent more on other tanks etc but those are other stories.
For this 500 'quid' Id require at least the following:
Tank
heater
skimmer
filter
rock/sand
salt
ro/di
fish
lights
wavemakers
corals.
It's actually been a bit of a grind and right now am in a place where the tanks pretty much mature after a year of the restart but battling some cyano after moving some scape about and disturbing the bed underneath.
This isn't going to win any tanks of the week, in many ways the work is just starting and the budget has run out
and not my intentions to have a showcase, more about what you really get for your money if you don't have much of it.......................
The boxfish was ok so we kept the tank going for him, until I had my first ever tank crack 2 years ago, arriving home to see jets of water spraying the living room floor.
I managed to pickup a 55 gallon tall from my friends at the LFS in Malaga for dirt cheap.
Boxy had grown to about 4 inches or so, when we had to move home a year ago.
To minimise stress I bought another tank of the same dimensions so that I could get it started/cycling with a bit of sand and rock before I moved him.
Time to think about company for him and what direction to take.
There's a concrete shelf in my living room so it just made sense to utilise it. It does actually have space for a sump somewhat underneath but it didn't actually enter my head to utilise one at the time.. and I still don't. Because I decided to slowly develop it on a tight budget. (for various reasons, naturally, a little bit because my reefer friends were pretty much-spending 5k on their systems up to 125 gallons or so.
I budgeted 500 Euros for this tank. (since spent more on other tanks etc but those are other stories.
For this 500 'quid' Id require at least the following:
Tank
heater
skimmer
filter
rock/sand
salt
ro/di
fish
lights
wavemakers
corals.
It's actually been a bit of a grind and right now am in a place where the tanks pretty much mature after a year of the restart but battling some cyano after moving some scape about and disturbing the bed underneath.
This isn't going to win any tanks of the week, in many ways the work is just starting and the budget has run out
and not my intentions to have a showcase, more about what you really get for your money if you don't have much of it.......................
