Paxthemax
Community Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2018
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 57
- Location
- Sacramento, ca
- What state or country do you live in
- California
Hey ya'll, I've decided I would finally get around to doing a build thread. Please bear with me because just like all of you my tank is a point of pride and I can talk all day about it.
This is round 2 for me.
This was towards the end of when I had it set up about 4 years ago. I had to move a couple times and where I moved to the houses could not support the weight and the closest saltwater shop was 3 hrs away.
So when I moved to sacramento I was happy because I could finally set it back up. I pretty much started from square one because all I had or wanted to reuse was the tank, sump tank, protein skimmer and overflow box. I had gotten rid of everything else or wanted to upgrade. The one bright light was that I had the knowledge gained from the first time.
So I started by building my stand. I love to do wood working and I want to upgrade to a 150 or 180 down the road so I built a stand for that.
After the stand was done I got it moved in the house and started on getting the upgraded parts. The 2 biggest upgrades were getting the 2 AI hydra 26 LED lights and a UV sterilizer. Personally I love the LED lights. The are cooler running, more energy efficant and better controlled than the MH/t5 set up from before. I was on the fence about a sterilizer but bit the bullet and got one and I think it's really helped.
After getting the tank filled with water I went to one of the local stores and picked up some live rock to seed the tank. I think this hurt me for a while and introduced some very unwanted pests into the tank, more on that later. After letting the tank sit with the rock for a few days I put in 2 chromis to start cycling the tank. At this point I had to deploy for 2 weeks and was unable to do anything and the chromis unfortunately didn't make it, sadly it's not my first nor last death in this hobby.
After letting the tank cycle for a few weeks I got some fish. The bug had bit and I was itching for fish. I threw common sense out the window and I bought way to many fish. Sadly none made past 3 days. At this point I'll throw myself on the cross and say this, I do not QT due to space and money limitations. My wife also is not very well versed on what to do. Besides feeding she just watches the tank.
Besides the fish though I got a coral banded shrimp, snails, and some soft corals. All of which are still alive today. The GSP is growing so well I'm fragging it. Around this time I also got a box of dry base rock off amazon to fill out the tank with rock.
It doesn't make it ok but up to this point all I had gotten were inexpensive blennies and clowns up to this point, then I went to a different LFS and they had the yellow tang on sale and I "had" to have it. Looking back it was way to big for the tank and it was so stressed out. This is when those unwanted pests really reared their ugly heads.
So I was unable to save it.
At this point I left the tank as it was for 3 months. I added nothing and only did water changes.
After 3 months I sat down with my wife and made a list of fish we wanted it looked something like this:
Small angel
Lawnmower blenny
Mandarin
Clown pair
Tang
Foxface
Another small blenny
After building the list we agreed to only get 2 fish max a month. This would keep costs down, help the good bacteria levels rise at a decent rate and minimize loss if the worst should happen. I also started using a QT 2 part dip when getting new fish. It seems like it really helped. While it did take a while to stock the tank back up we finally did it. The current list of fish:
Coral beauty angel, to face, lawnmower blenny, 2 perc x Occy hybrid clowns, blue manderian(f), 2 green chronos and a purple tang. Give me all the grief you want about the tang, all I say is I wanted a tomini but happy wife happy life.
I love the fish but I also love the coral. Right now there is: 1/2 an acan, 1 frogspawn, 2 Duncan's, 1 rose BTA, 2 GSP, 8 zoas and 9 mushrooms. I have started to frag the GSP. With the zoas I'm afraid of the toxins it can release so while I want to frag them I have not done so.
A few other things about the tank. I am in the process of adding in a hydor smart level ATO. I want to hide the heaters in the sump but the tank will not stay warm enough with them down there. I actually have 3 heaters that are meant for 100gal tanks. I will leave you for now with full tank pictures from the start and most recent.
This is round 2 for me.
This was towards the end of when I had it set up about 4 years ago. I had to move a couple times and where I moved to the houses could not support the weight and the closest saltwater shop was 3 hrs away.
So when I moved to sacramento I was happy because I could finally set it back up. I pretty much started from square one because all I had or wanted to reuse was the tank, sump tank, protein skimmer and overflow box. I had gotten rid of everything else or wanted to upgrade. The one bright light was that I had the knowledge gained from the first time.
So I started by building my stand. I love to do wood working and I want to upgrade to a 150 or 180 down the road so I built a stand for that.
After the stand was done I got it moved in the house and started on getting the upgraded parts. The 2 biggest upgrades were getting the 2 AI hydra 26 LED lights and a UV sterilizer. Personally I love the LED lights. The are cooler running, more energy efficant and better controlled than the MH/t5 set up from before. I was on the fence about a sterilizer but bit the bullet and got one and I think it's really helped.
After getting the tank filled with water I went to one of the local stores and picked up some live rock to seed the tank. I think this hurt me for a while and introduced some very unwanted pests into the tank, more on that later. After letting the tank sit with the rock for a few days I put in 2 chromis to start cycling the tank. At this point I had to deploy for 2 weeks and was unable to do anything and the chromis unfortunately didn't make it, sadly it's not my first nor last death in this hobby.
After letting the tank cycle for a few weeks I got some fish. The bug had bit and I was itching for fish. I threw common sense out the window and I bought way to many fish. Sadly none made past 3 days. At this point I'll throw myself on the cross and say this, I do not QT due to space and money limitations. My wife also is not very well versed on what to do. Besides feeding she just watches the tank.
Besides the fish though I got a coral banded shrimp, snails, and some soft corals. All of which are still alive today. The GSP is growing so well I'm fragging it. Around this time I also got a box of dry base rock off amazon to fill out the tank with rock.
It doesn't make it ok but up to this point all I had gotten were inexpensive blennies and clowns up to this point, then I went to a different LFS and they had the yellow tang on sale and I "had" to have it. Looking back it was way to big for the tank and it was so stressed out. This is when those unwanted pests really reared their ugly heads.
So I was unable to save it.
At this point I left the tank as it was for 3 months. I added nothing and only did water changes.
After 3 months I sat down with my wife and made a list of fish we wanted it looked something like this:
Small angel
Lawnmower blenny
Mandarin
Clown pair
Tang
Foxface
Another small blenny
After building the list we agreed to only get 2 fish max a month. This would keep costs down, help the good bacteria levels rise at a decent rate and minimize loss if the worst should happen. I also started using a QT 2 part dip when getting new fish. It seems like it really helped. While it did take a while to stock the tank back up we finally did it. The current list of fish:
Coral beauty angel, to face, lawnmower blenny, 2 perc x Occy hybrid clowns, blue manderian(f), 2 green chronos and a purple tang. Give me all the grief you want about the tang, all I say is I wanted a tomini but happy wife happy life.
I love the fish but I also love the coral. Right now there is: 1/2 an acan, 1 frogspawn, 2 Duncan's, 1 rose BTA, 2 GSP, 8 zoas and 9 mushrooms. I have started to frag the GSP. With the zoas I'm afraid of the toxins it can release so while I want to frag them I have not done so.
A few other things about the tank. I am in the process of adding in a hydor smart level ATO. I want to hide the heaters in the sump but the tank will not stay warm enough with them down there. I actually have 3 heaters that are meant for 100gal tanks. I will leave you for now with full tank pictures from the start and most recent.
