Hello friends!
So, I’ve been a bit busy recently but finally getting a few minutes to start my tank journal. I’ll start off with my past few months of chaos.
Two months ago I got engaged to my girl friend. One month ago we bought a house in Fairfield. (Sorry Bay Area I cant afford you) but none the less I still love the BAR club . Over the past couple months I have been collecting equipment for my dream bigger tank. My goal was to get some of the bigger fish that I could not justify putting into my nuvo 20. After many months of searching products, and sell threads, and lots of help from BAR members on equipment, set ups, fish, coral, and rodi system (ugh) I finally have everything set up.
When we first got the house it had no over head lighting and terrible color paint inside. So we had to get all the dusty, chemical stuff finished before bringing over my reef tank.
Had a painter friend paint the insides while we were at work all week. Removed all the popcorn ceiling. And now it looks really good! I installed 30 recessed led lights. 4 in every room, 4 in hall way, and 6 in living room with the front two over the fire place on a dimmer.
Finally I could move over the nuvo 20. It was terrible. I never want to break down and build a tank with in one day. But none the less. I did it. And only lost a couple sps frags.
While installing lights I decided I wanted to put my future fish tank room on its own breaker so I would not have to worry about anything else in the house tripping it. So I updated all the electrical wiring, outlets, switches, breakers and was ready to start bringing in the tank.
It is a 90g with stand and 40g breeder as sump. Found it off forums for reasonably cheap, down side is it was filthy. He cut the price so he didn’t have to clean it. Well I got the tank about three months ago and have had it sitting out side ever since. Killing off the wall of worms. The smell they came off was enough to make me hurl. I got rock off Craigslist. Really cheap and full of nuisance algae / pest but that’s nothing a tub of bleach can’t handle. So while I was working on my house I had the rocks and tank getting cleaned and prepared.
Ran into a few hiccups while starting to fill the tank.
First, I decided to mix the salt into the water as the rodi was filling the tank. Quickly learned that if I turn off my rodi while the hose is still in the tank. It can siphon back the salt water into the cartridges and ruin them. Aquatic life has one of the best customer services I’ve ever talked to. After discussing my set up and my issue he helped me to the decision that I ended up siphoning salt water back in. And he mailed me new media for the cartridge for free. My mistake and he still replaces it. Great guy. Thank you.
Oh, also I flooded my garage three times due to forgetting my rodi was on filling a 5g jug. But we keep the garage clean and nothing was damaged.
Second, don’t trust people off Craigslist. Found a guy selling an older mp40 so I went to his house and had him show me it works. Cool brought it home threw it into my freshly filled tank. Ugh the wet side doesn’t stay attached. It spins in place for about 30 seconds before it finally is flung across the fish tank. Well I contacted ecotech marine and he simply said I need a new wet side. $75. Thanks Craigslist guy for selling me a broken mp40.
Finally got the sand and rock in, now to figure out the stupid durso over flow. This thing is beyond loud. After many videos and guides online. After talking to lots of reefers, I could not get it figured it. Many people suggest I just add another pvc and change to Herbie. Well I became a frequent flyer at the best by ace hardware. Got it set up and looks pretty ugly but it is dead silent. Not a single regret. I love how quiet it is!
Ended up deciding to go with a hanging kit for the 2x radion lights. But I didn’t want them to be on two separate hanging kits and didn’t want to spend the wild amount for the RMS rails or mounts. I finally decided on a little bit of DIY with the lights hanging off arms about a foot from the ceiling. I love the look and it lets me move the lights when I need to get into the tank.
Knowing I want to get larger and beautiful fish. I have decided on most wrasse tank. It’s not an uncommon idea. Everybody has lots of wrasse because they are the most beautiful and active fish! But some of the fish I want are not reef safe. So while building my fish list and planning out the live stock I have decided on a no CUC tank. It will require more manual maintenance and proper selection of fish. We shall see how it turns out.
Dream Fish List-
Diamond watchman goby
Algae blenny
Magnificent foxface
Black leopard wrasse
Melanarus wrasse
Pinkface wrasse
Yellow coris wrasse
Rainbow wrasse
Lyretail wrasse
Equipment List -
2x xr30 radion g3 pro
M1 return pump
Bubble magus curve 5
2x max spec 150 gyre
Hydor smart ATO
Neotherm 300w heater
Rodi buddy stage 4 + KDF
Well. Thanks for reading, I’ll try to get more photos when ever I add or modify stuff. Happy feeding.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So, I’ve been a bit busy recently but finally getting a few minutes to start my tank journal. I’ll start off with my past few months of chaos.
Two months ago I got engaged to my girl friend. One month ago we bought a house in Fairfield. (Sorry Bay Area I cant afford you) but none the less I still love the BAR club . Over the past couple months I have been collecting equipment for my dream bigger tank. My goal was to get some of the bigger fish that I could not justify putting into my nuvo 20. After many months of searching products, and sell threads, and lots of help from BAR members on equipment, set ups, fish, coral, and rodi system (ugh) I finally have everything set up.
When we first got the house it had no over head lighting and terrible color paint inside. So we had to get all the dusty, chemical stuff finished before bringing over my reef tank.
Had a painter friend paint the insides while we were at work all week. Removed all the popcorn ceiling. And now it looks really good! I installed 30 recessed led lights. 4 in every room, 4 in hall way, and 6 in living room with the front two over the fire place on a dimmer.
Finally I could move over the nuvo 20. It was terrible. I never want to break down and build a tank with in one day. But none the less. I did it. And only lost a couple sps frags.
While installing lights I decided I wanted to put my future fish tank room on its own breaker so I would not have to worry about anything else in the house tripping it. So I updated all the electrical wiring, outlets, switches, breakers and was ready to start bringing in the tank.
It is a 90g with stand and 40g breeder as sump. Found it off forums for reasonably cheap, down side is it was filthy. He cut the price so he didn’t have to clean it. Well I got the tank about three months ago and have had it sitting out side ever since. Killing off the wall of worms. The smell they came off was enough to make me hurl. I got rock off Craigslist. Really cheap and full of nuisance algae / pest but that’s nothing a tub of bleach can’t handle. So while I was working on my house I had the rocks and tank getting cleaned and prepared.
Ran into a few hiccups while starting to fill the tank.
First, I decided to mix the salt into the water as the rodi was filling the tank. Quickly learned that if I turn off my rodi while the hose is still in the tank. It can siphon back the salt water into the cartridges and ruin them. Aquatic life has one of the best customer services I’ve ever talked to. After discussing my set up and my issue he helped me to the decision that I ended up siphoning salt water back in. And he mailed me new media for the cartridge for free. My mistake and he still replaces it. Great guy. Thank you.
Oh, also I flooded my garage three times due to forgetting my rodi was on filling a 5g jug. But we keep the garage clean and nothing was damaged.
Second, don’t trust people off Craigslist. Found a guy selling an older mp40 so I went to his house and had him show me it works. Cool brought it home threw it into my freshly filled tank. Ugh the wet side doesn’t stay attached. It spins in place for about 30 seconds before it finally is flung across the fish tank. Well I contacted ecotech marine and he simply said I need a new wet side. $75. Thanks Craigslist guy for selling me a broken mp40.
Finally got the sand and rock in, now to figure out the stupid durso over flow. This thing is beyond loud. After many videos and guides online. After talking to lots of reefers, I could not get it figured it. Many people suggest I just add another pvc and change to Herbie. Well I became a frequent flyer at the best by ace hardware. Got it set up and looks pretty ugly but it is dead silent. Not a single regret. I love how quiet it is!
Ended up deciding to go with a hanging kit for the 2x radion lights. But I didn’t want them to be on two separate hanging kits and didn’t want to spend the wild amount for the RMS rails or mounts. I finally decided on a little bit of DIY with the lights hanging off arms about a foot from the ceiling. I love the look and it lets me move the lights when I need to get into the tank.
Knowing I want to get larger and beautiful fish. I have decided on most wrasse tank. It’s not an uncommon idea. Everybody has lots of wrasse because they are the most beautiful and active fish! But some of the fish I want are not reef safe. So while building my fish list and planning out the live stock I have decided on a no CUC tank. It will require more manual maintenance and proper selection of fish. We shall see how it turns out.
Dream Fish List-
Diamond watchman goby
Algae blenny
Magnificent foxface
Black leopard wrasse
Melanarus wrasse
Pinkface wrasse
Yellow coris wrasse
Rainbow wrasse
Lyretail wrasse
Equipment List -
2x xr30 radion g3 pro
M1 return pump
Bubble magus curve 5
2x max spec 150 gyre
Hydor smart ATO
Neotherm 300w heater
Rodi buddy stage 4 + KDF
Well. Thanks for reading, I’ll try to get more photos when ever I add or modify stuff. Happy feeding.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk