Dorfman
Supporting Member
A brief history... I have been up and down with a little 30 gal fish only salt tank for over 10 years. A friend gave it to me when he was moving and I loved the idea of a thriving salt tank but knew very little about what I was doing and didn't have the time to take the hobby seriously with work and staring a family and all that until COVID struck.
I had a unique "rock wall" 50 gal tank sitting in my garage that I picked up on Craigslist a number of years ago. With a lot more time at home, I drilled the bottom of the tank, drilled a few holes through my wall in my living room, installed a shed in the back yard outside where the tank sits and ran all the plumbing for a sump out the bottom of my tank, out the wall, and into the shed. I made my own ~15 gal. sump/refugium, which I think turned out pretty cool and have been cycling it for 3 months (6/20/20).
Thanks to @svreef I acquired a 48" Current LED fixture in early Sept. and turned first light on in the tank. Two weeks later and not a sign of anything green and funky, just some coralline algae beginning to form on well-lit surfaces.
All nutrient levels OK except for Nitrate still trending b/w 20-40ppm. I was Vodka dosing for a while but then I drank it all ;-). Planning on turning an old Eheim canister filter into a nitrate bio-pellet reactor (any feedback on the wisdom of this is welcome).
I have a 5-stage RO system feeding a saltwater premix trash can and an ATO reservoir (0 TDS currently).
I plan to get my Nitrates to 1.0 to .5 before I upgrade my lighting and begin to introduce my first corals... ever for me.
I currently have a Benggai Cardinal, a yellowtail blue damsel, a lawnmower blenny, a blue chromis, a yellow tang and two baby (cute-as-a-button) clowns compliments of @Cheedo contributing to the cycling process to make sure that bacteria is ready for the coral load.
Next step at this point is to figure out how to plumb the filter/reactor to feed output directly into the protein skimmer and waiting for the pellets to arrive via Amazon (Dr. Tim's NP Pearls).
Stay tuned... any sources of starter corals welcomed in the next few months as I get Nitrates under control.
I had a unique "rock wall" 50 gal tank sitting in my garage that I picked up on Craigslist a number of years ago. With a lot more time at home, I drilled the bottom of the tank, drilled a few holes through my wall in my living room, installed a shed in the back yard outside where the tank sits and ran all the plumbing for a sump out the bottom of my tank, out the wall, and into the shed. I made my own ~15 gal. sump/refugium, which I think turned out pretty cool and have been cycling it for 3 months (6/20/20).
Thanks to @svreef I acquired a 48" Current LED fixture in early Sept. and turned first light on in the tank. Two weeks later and not a sign of anything green and funky, just some coralline algae beginning to form on well-lit surfaces.
All nutrient levels OK except for Nitrate still trending b/w 20-40ppm. I was Vodka dosing for a while but then I drank it all ;-). Planning on turning an old Eheim canister filter into a nitrate bio-pellet reactor (any feedback on the wisdom of this is welcome).
I have a 5-stage RO system feeding a saltwater premix trash can and an ATO reservoir (0 TDS currently).
I plan to get my Nitrates to 1.0 to .5 before I upgrade my lighting and begin to introduce my first corals... ever for me.
I currently have a Benggai Cardinal, a yellowtail blue damsel, a lawnmower blenny, a blue chromis, a yellow tang and two baby (cute-as-a-button) clowns compliments of @Cheedo contributing to the cycling process to make sure that bacteria is ready for the coral load.
Next step at this point is to figure out how to plumb the filter/reactor to feed output directly into the protein skimmer and waiting for the pellets to arrive via Amazon (Dr. Tim's NP Pearls).
Stay tuned... any sources of starter corals welcomed in the next few months as I get Nitrates under control.
