Bao’s budget 110 reef

Baochicawowwow

Baochicawowwow

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Dear journal…

Newish to the group. Been lurking on here but never posted. Finally got time to start my journal.

The tank I got for free over a year ago. It’s a 110 gallon truvu tank with a 20 gallon wet dry sump. It was my cichlid tank which I loved. Then I started to dabble with the salt water hobby….

Did a 10 gallon for a few months. Then I upgraded to a 29 gallon. That did well but I of course I wanted to go bigger. My wife wouldn’t budge on getting larger tank because I had 6 tanks in the house at the time. The wife knew how expensive the salt water hobby was from just my 29 gallon. She said in order to have a large reef tank, I’d have to get rid of some of the tanks. Decided to part ways with most of the tanks and save money and just turn this tank into a salt water set up.
IMG_2927.jpeg


All the fish, rocks and wood that came out of the tank went to a LFS. Plants went into one of my freshwater tanks I managed to keep
IMG_2931.jpeg


Wet dry sump
IMG_2933.jpeg


Old 29 gallon tank
IMG_2932.jpeg


Had to make light stands since the tank is acrylic and has a lip. Wife also didn’t want me drilling into the ceiling. Didn’t want to reuse the canopy and mount the lights in it because it sat too close to the tank
IMG_2935.jpeg


rough scape after I spent a whole day polishing the tank. Couldn’t put the tank up and not see what it would look like with rocks in it.
IMG_2936.jpeg


Plumbing and Eshop sock holder
IMG_2939.jpeg


Tank now
IMG_2942.jpeg


Sump… it’s not ideal. I wish I could fit a larger sump with different compartments. However I wasn’t able to get this sump out of the stand. If I can’t get it out I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a larger one in.
IMG_2938.jpeg


Equipment(super budget build)
3x Smatfarm 140w lights
Eshopp sock holder
Simplicity skimmer
DIY macro algae chamber
Hygger return
Aquatop powerhead
Hygger gyer powerhead
2x sicce nano powerheads for flow behind the rocks
Caribsea rock and sand

Overall happy with the tank. Wife is happy. She’s also happy I didn’t pull the trigger and spend 5000+ on a tank. Wish I could have upgraded the sump but it is what it is.

Tips and advices are welcome. Still kind of new to this

More updates to come in the future
 

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Baochicawowwow said:
I had 6 tanks in the house at the time.
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That sounds perfectly reasonable to me, I have 6 in one room because I am not allowed to let fish stuff creep into the rest of the house. You are in the right place here online.

Pull the socks out and don't put them back in is my 1st thought. It looks like you have an acrylic lid on the top of the tank? I would consider moving to a screen top eventually. I think I see a bubble tip anemone. Those guys will replicate, walk, and sting corals. Keep an eye on that guy. Looks great otherwise.
 
Great job with the conversion! Dobie pads will be your best friend keeping your acrylic clean. You can stretch them over an algae scrubber too.

What's the fish list look like so far and what are you planning on keeping later?
 
H2OPlayar said:
That sounds perfectly reasonable to me, I have 6 in one room because I am not allowed to let fish stuff creep into the rest of the house. You are in the right place here online.

Pull the socks out and don't put them back in is my 1st thought. It looks like you have an acrylic lid on the top of the tank? I would consider moving to a screen top eventually. I think I see a bubble tip anemone. Those guys will replicate, walk, and sting corals. Keep an eye on that guy. Looks great otherwise.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Yeah I had 5 in my living room and 1 on my wife’s office. Now I just got this tank and a 75 in the living room. The anemone split once but both of them decided they like to live in the same area by the softie rock structure.

Yeah I was going to order the diy mesh lid kit from brs.

What’s the benefits of removing the socks? I thought it was good to remove the uneaten food and detritus. I wish I knew I didn’t need socks before I bought a crap load of them
 
Darkxerox said:
Great job with the conversion! Dobie pads will be your best friend keeping your acrylic clean. You can stretch them over an algae scrubber too.

What's the fish list look like so far and what are you planning on keeping later?
Click to expand...
Thanks!
Yellow tang
Purple tang (yes there was aggression but a week of mirrors and now they are best friends)
Pair of percula clowns
Fox face
bangaii cardinal (kills any other cardinals that goes in the tank)
1 Green chromis (wife wanted it)
Copper band
Blue nose pencil wrasse
Royal gramma
Cleaner shrimp
 
I like to let the uneaten food be eaten by the cleanup crew and the pods in the substrate. Also feeding less food but more often throughout the day if possible prevents food from going uneaten. Socks are good for catching detritus if it gets kicked up in the tank. If they have uneaten food in them, the food will rot and become a nitrate factory. I let my detritus settle in my substrate (crushed coral) and in my sump. Probably why I have so many bristle worms as they are detritivores, but not a major issue in a tank. The worms can also be wrasse and arrow crab food.

Some people like mechanical filtration, some don't. No one likes washing socks though and you need to change them weekly at least for them to be effective, which is why you see more roller mats on people's tanks. Not on any of mine though. Try the socks for a while, then try without them, and see what you think. And as always, keep asking questions.
 
Last edited:
Baochicawowwow said:
Dear journal…

Newish to the group. Been lurking on here but never posted. Finally got time to start my journal.

The tank I got for free over a year ago. It’s a 110 gallon truvu tank with a 20 gallon wet dry sump. It was my cichlid tank which I loved. Then I started to dabble with the salt water hobby….

Did a 10 gallon for a few months. Then I upgraded to a 29 gallon. That did well but I of course I wanted to go bigger. My wife wouldn’t budge on getting larger tank because I had 6 tanks in the house at the time. The wife knew how expensive the salt water hobby was from just my 29 gallon. She said in order to have a large reef tank, I’d have to get rid of some of the tanks. Decided to part ways with most of the tanks and save money and just turn this tank into a salt water set up. View attachment 70459

All the fish, rocks and wood that came out of the tank went to a LFS. Plants went into one of my freshwater tanks I managed to keep
View attachment 70460

Wet dry sump
View attachment 70461

Old 29 gallon tank
View attachment 70462

Had to make light stands since the tank is acrylic and has a lip. Wife also didn’t want me drilling into the ceiling. Didn’t want to reuse the canopy and mount the lights in it because it sat too close to the tank
View attachment 70467

rough scape after I spent a whole day polishing the tank. Couldn’t put the tank up and not see what it would look like with rocks in it.
View attachment 70463

Plumbing and Eshop sock holder
View attachment 70468

Tank now
View attachment 70469

Sump… it’s not ideal. I wish I could fit a larger sump with different compartments. However I wasn’t able to get this sump out of the stand. If I can’t get it out I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a larger one in.
View attachment 70466

Equipment(super budget build)
3x Smatfarm 140w lights
Eshopp sock holder
Simplicity skimmer
DIY macro algae chamber
Hygger return
Aquatop powerhead
Hygger gyer powerhead
2x sicce nano powerheads for flow behind the rocks
Caribsea rock and sand

Overall happy with the tank. Wife is happy. She’s also happy I didn’t pull the trigger and spend 5000+ on a tank. Wish I could have upgraded the sump but it is what it is.

Tips and advices are welcome. Still kind of new to this

More updates to come in the future
Click to expand...
If it not too late
The drain pipe on the left (the one with the union) should be shortened by about an inch
If the slope is not proper, you can get a gurgling and a potential home for bristleworms
 
H2OPlayar said:
I like to let the uneaten food be eaten by the cleanup crew and the pods in the substrate. Also feeding less food but more often throughout the day if possible prevents food from going uneaten. Socks are good for catching detritus if it gets kicked up in the tank. If they have uneaten food in them, the food will rot and become a nitrate factory. I let my detritus settle in my substrate (crushed coral) and in my sump. Probably why I have so many bristle worms as they are detritivores, but not a major issue in a tank. The worms can also be wrasse and arrow crab food.

Some people like mechanical filtration, some don't. No one likes washing socks though and you need to change them weekly at least for them to be effective, which is why you see more roller mats on people's tanks. Not on any of mine though. Try the socks for a while, then try without them, and see what you think. And as always, keep asking questions.
Click to expand...
Yeah washing socks sucks. I’ll give it a try the next time all my socks are dirty. Thanks! For the advice!
 
Update

Not much to update on the tank since I just started this journal. I mention I had 6 tanks but my wife made me take most of them down if I wanted to start a larger reef tank. I am here to announce that I was able to sneak in a new tank. Nothing crazy. Just a quarantine tank for a frag. Let’s see how many tanks I can sneak into this house :p…

Thanks to @Invictus for the frag

Equipment

5 gallon
Fluval nano marine light
Sicce jolly heater
Aquatop pump

All old equipment I had laying around

IMG_2979.jpeg


IMG_2980.jpeg


The wife did say she likes how the tank looks there. Maybe a small pico coral tank in the near future? lol
 
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