CourtNjoeZreef
Active Member
I am about.... 4 months into my first salt tank and i am sucked in hook line and sinker.
My wife and I have been keeping fish for almost 3 years we started with fresh and grew and grew and grew. I ended up at a 125g planted discus tank and its great and all but I cant put Corals in there... not enough salt.
IDEAS!
I would like to convert this to a salt tank with the bells and the whistles. I love the room it is in. we decorated around it etc. The wall it is on backs up to the garage. (here is where it gets fun) I am THINKING I want to put ALL of the plumbing and equipment I can OUTSIDE in the garage. So this gives me like all the room for things and stuff. Big sump with a roller mat to get actively remove the poopies and the bad stuff. lots of bio bricks skimmer uv ato.. Perhaps a mixing chamber for all the additives to cut down on precipitation of other equipment. probes. all DC pumps/powerheads/wave maker. I'm talking big scale here =)
Some things that I am looking for pros and cons about are putting pipes through a wall. what measures need to be taken to prevent mold. I would build a small room around the equipment to temperature control it from the garage so that should be an issue since im silly and live where the air hurts for half the year. is there anything else that should be thought about? going to have a natural gas generatorin the near future for power outages.
Aqua scape
I would like to give the tank a visual flow. my current setup is deep top to bottom lots of open water up top and cramped down low. I love what it is for where it is and for the first time. HOWEVER with the much wider footprint of the 125g I want to give it a "rift" I want it to look like its moving from right to left or the other way around. the way an aquarium does it when your looking at wall that has a void in between and then the waves rolling in at the corals. in this way I am thinking that I can have sticks and such up higher and lower flow areas for the zoa garden and (that's where my knowledge of corals stops feel free to enlighten me on these)
Stocking
I love fish that are peaceful. above all else peace and tranquility is what I am after with my tank. I love tangs which is a great thing since they love that algae. The lawnmower Blenny is possibly my favorite fish to date that I keep. My dude is so fat and just eats its great and his facial expressions lol. I would love some other suggestions for stocking. Jawfish is a fish that WILL be in the tank. The bluespotted jaw is the whole reason we decided to do a salt tank at all.
I really liked the way the Real Reef Rock looked in the beginning and I have been reading more and more about sand. I like the idea of the Ocean Direct from Caribsea. I used the Special size live sand one from them for this tank I am currently running. I have been using bacteria bottles from a few different companies with the intent to put different types of bacteria in and so far I haven't had any issues (knock on all the wood) with my parameters. SO ill be following any research I can get my hands on about that sand from now till I start this project. I love sand in my salt tank. Bare bottom always just makes me wonder why the owner doesn't want the livestock in at least some kind of environment that would make them comfortable. I do however understand the maintenance benefits long term. IMHO however if your filtering correctly not over feeding and utilizing utilitarian fish the maintenance shouldn't be all that insane!
Thank you for reading my preliminary plan.
Thanks for the read! and double thanks for the responses.
My wife and I have been keeping fish for almost 3 years we started with fresh and grew and grew and grew. I ended up at a 125g planted discus tank and its great and all but I cant put Corals in there... not enough salt.
IDEAS!
I would like to convert this to a salt tank with the bells and the whistles. I love the room it is in. we decorated around it etc. The wall it is on backs up to the garage. (here is where it gets fun) I am THINKING I want to put ALL of the plumbing and equipment I can OUTSIDE in the garage. So this gives me like all the room for things and stuff. Big sump with a roller mat to get actively remove the poopies and the bad stuff. lots of bio bricks skimmer uv ato.. Perhaps a mixing chamber for all the additives to cut down on precipitation of other equipment. probes. all DC pumps/powerheads/wave maker. I'm talking big scale here =)
Some things that I am looking for pros and cons about are putting pipes through a wall. what measures need to be taken to prevent mold. I would build a small room around the equipment to temperature control it from the garage so that should be an issue since im silly and live where the air hurts for half the year. is there anything else that should be thought about? going to have a natural gas generatorin the near future for power outages.
Aqua scape
I would like to give the tank a visual flow. my current setup is deep top to bottom lots of open water up top and cramped down low. I love what it is for where it is and for the first time. HOWEVER with the much wider footprint of the 125g I want to give it a "rift" I want it to look like its moving from right to left or the other way around. the way an aquarium does it when your looking at wall that has a void in between and then the waves rolling in at the corals. in this way I am thinking that I can have sticks and such up higher and lower flow areas for the zoa garden and (that's where my knowledge of corals stops feel free to enlighten me on these)
Stocking
I love fish that are peaceful. above all else peace and tranquility is what I am after with my tank. I love tangs which is a great thing since they love that algae. The lawnmower Blenny is possibly my favorite fish to date that I keep. My dude is so fat and just eats its great and his facial expressions lol. I would love some other suggestions for stocking. Jawfish is a fish that WILL be in the tank. The bluespotted jaw is the whole reason we decided to do a salt tank at all.
I really liked the way the Real Reef Rock looked in the beginning and I have been reading more and more about sand. I like the idea of the Ocean Direct from Caribsea. I used the Special size live sand one from them for this tank I am currently running. I have been using bacteria bottles from a few different companies with the intent to put different types of bacteria in and so far I haven't had any issues (knock on all the wood) with my parameters. SO ill be following any research I can get my hands on about that sand from now till I start this project. I love sand in my salt tank. Bare bottom always just makes me wonder why the owner doesn't want the livestock in at least some kind of environment that would make them comfortable. I do however understand the maintenance benefits long term. IMHO however if your filtering correctly not over feeding and utilizing utilitarian fish the maintenance shouldn't be all that insane!
Thank you for reading my preliminary plan.
Thanks for the read! and double thanks for the responses.
