I’m finally at a point in my life again where I can put time, (some) money, and effort into a tank again. I started hunting on craigslist and FB marketplace for a used tank. I didnt have a very big budget for just the tank, since I knew I would need a bunch of equipment as well. I knew I wanted somewhere between a 4ft and 6ft tank though. Found this awesome 240 gallon starphire glass tank, already setup, lots of rock, sand, equipment, and corals, but the owner wanted $2500, which was outside my budget, and I would have to do all of the take down work, which would be a big undertaking. Its still available, I still talk to the guy here and there, so I might buy it in the future. We’ll see.
Found a 90G bowfront like a week later, owner just upgraded and wanted the old tank gone, so it was free. Fit my budget perfectly! Checked off enough of my boxes, especially the important ones, like it had only been dry for 1 week, while remaining inside their house. Tank came with the aquarium, stand, plumbing, sump, sand, powerhead, and a refugium light. Packed it up, and brought it home.
The tank had been running for 5 years, and was already used even before that point. It’s an oceanic aquarium, so it’s old lol. Front seals looked pretty beat up, so I bought a tube of aqueon silicone, and put a fat bead on each seal, and smoothed it out a bit, but left it thick. Doesn’t look great, but isnt that noticeable, and I dont think I will have to worry about leaks lol.
Decided to reuse the sand, so I put small amounts in a 5G bucket and rinsed it out. The water was a very dark grey lol. And I rinsed it. And I rinsed it. And I rinsed it some more. It was almost completely clear. Then I dumped it into the tank, and started the next batch. Finished up with all of the sand, then I ordered a return pump. This is my first attempt at a tank with a sump, and since I’m on a budget, I went with a Jebao DC pump. Heard that they used to be trash, but are much better now, and its hard to come close to the price. Checked out my plumbing, most wasnt glued, but most fit together tightly. Its a durso style drain with a single return. Return was very loose fitting, so I glued it. The bulkhead (nut?) was also cracked, so I just bought new bulkheads and replaced them.
Had maybe 20 lbs of old dry rock, so I used that, and found some old used rock at a store for $1.99 a pound. Didnt fit together very aesthetically, but there were cool pieces. Bought 40 lbs and called it a day. In the past, my rock structures never needed to be very tall, so I just stacked my rocks. This tank is 29 inches tall! Never getting a tank this tall again lol. So I had to glue my rocks together somehow. Used that stick epoxy stuff, first time using it, and I wasnt doing it right at first, there was a bit of a learning curve. Spent about 2 hours sticking pieces together to get a look I liked, then called it a night when my wall was done. This tank only having a front to back depth of 15-18 inches didnt leave me with much room for design.
The next day, I hooked up my return pump, didnt feel like going with a professional hard plumbed system yet, so I used flexible tubing. Ratched down a hose clamp on the dry side, and pushed the wet side onto the barbed fitting. Got a 300W marina heater. Based on my calculations seemed a bit underpowered, but I thought it would be close. Mixed up my saltwater, and poured it into my tank. Poured it over my rocks a bit, and by the 2nd or 3rd bucket, my base epoxy layer failed and my rocks leaned against the glass. DOH! Was frustrating but I just wanted to get the cycle going. Finished filling my tank, and tossed in a bottle of dr tims. I didn’t clean out the sump well, I intentionally left some detritus in there to kick start the cycle. Cranked up my heater to get the cycle going quicker. Started testing after a day or so, slowly saw ammonia rise, then peaked around 2ppm. Then I saw nitrite rise, and nitrates rise. Ammonia slowly came down, but nitrite was still high. Its hard to tell how high it was, since I was using an API test kit, but it looked around 4ppm maybe. Waited a few days, maybe a week. Still 4ppm. Did some google searching, watched a Dr Tim lecture, he said nitrite bacteria stall at around 5ppm I think. Had a genius idea to cut my water in my test tube with RO, since the lower readings are easier to read. Cut in half, still looked high, like around 4ppm or so. Did 1/4 tank water, 3/4 RO, now my reading looked around 1.5-2ppm, which would equate to 6-8ppm full strength. Did around a 30% water change that day, then waited. Finally 2 days later, my nitrites were coming down. Gave it a few more days, nitrites hit 0, then I got a molly! Just let that coast for a while, while I hunted for some lights. Saw someone selling a used blackbox viparspectra for $50, which was right up my alley. It was a blackbox, but it has a built in timer which is cool, and the spectrum of the LEDs seem just a bit broader than all of the other blackboxes. Picked it up, then ordered another one off of amazon for $150. With my previous blackboxes, I noticed a strong laser beam effect. I could clearly see the color of the LEDs on my sandbed lol. Watched a BRS video on blackboxes years ago, and once again before I pulled the trigger on these blackboxes, and it was extremely enlightening. They confirmed the highpowered laser beams lol. So I followed what they suggested, ripped off all of the lenses, and mounted them high, about a foot off of the surface of the tank. The issue with the lights being so high, is that they completely blind me when I sit at my couch or dinner table, so I fashioned a little guard around the lights that hang down about 4 inches or so. It helps out tremendously.
So this is where I’m at right now! Everything is running pretty smoothly, parameters are doing great. Its been almost a week since the swap, and the corals are doing great, better than expected. I also got 2 long fin clownfish the other day. I noticed my heater is working overdrive to keep everything heated. It isnt staying on 24/7, it does turn off, but I noticed my temperature dips at night if we leave the door open, so I picked up another one. I wanted another one for redundancy anyways.
My next to do lists are:
re epoxy my rocks, or secure them some other way.
Re do my drain hose. I’m using what came with the tank, and its too long, feel like its causing excess noise.
Start collecting hanna checkers, namely low range phosphate, alk, cal, mag, nitrate, probably in that order.
Get all for reef (or maybe something else, but I’m leaning towards all for reef) and start a dosing schedule. Water changes should hold me off for a bit, until the corals start growing.
Build a nice metal stand to hold my lights.
Upgrade my fuge light.
And I think thats it for the near future.
Fish list:
Molly
Pair of clowns
Sapphire damsel*
Starry blenny*
Royal Gramma*
Scopas tang*
One spot or magnificent foxface*
Maybe a pair of fire fish*
(*asterisk designates that I dont have it yet)
Equipment:
Oceanic 90G 48x15-18x29 bowfront aquarium
Truvu platinum sump
60 lbs of rock
1.5-2 inches of sand
Jebao DCP 5000
2 marina 300w heaters
2 Viparspectra 165w lights
Basic LED fuge light
Some large koralia powerhead that seems underpowered
