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Current status: Designing a canopy, preparing to install a beam under the house to support weight, setting up quarantine tanks.
- Reef Synergy custom sump done
- Live rock fail
- Building the stand
- Stand is in the house
- Tank is here!
- First fish in QT
- Braced under house, added 20A circuits
Current status: Designing a canopy, preparing to install a beam under the house to support weight, setting up quarantine tanks.
I have the bug. Again. After staying away for ten years. Can my marriage survive? My wallet won't.
I started in the reef hobby in 1992 when I was in high school. I got really into it, and even got a job at the grocery store to pay for it. I jumped in the deep end and bought a 135G Oceanic reef-ready. Being 1992, I had a sump with a wet/dry filter, bio-balls, a skimmer with a wooden airstone, metal halides and some VHO actinics. This tank was the most fun I had being a miserable failure. The first couple of years were rough, especially because we were using tap water and I had briopsis like crazy. I made every mistake in the book several times, but eventually I ended up keeping a smaller but successful SPS-dominated tank. Until my house air conditioner died and I lost everything. That was ten years ago.
So now I'm in my 40's and it's time to build my dream tank. This will be entirely SPS. My new system will employ a mix of new and old (maybe ancient?) methodologies that have worked for me. So you will see me do weird things like hang a huge T5 fixture over this tank and use LED for shimmer. Sorry in advance!
The build will probably go slowly since I need to replace a rotten staircase just to get this thing in the door. I also have to pour footings and add structural support under my house for it. Oh yeah, I also have no idea how I will get the tank in the house yet. Anyone in the New Orleans area that wants to help, let me know!
I started in the reef hobby in 1992 when I was in high school. I got really into it, and even got a job at the grocery store to pay for it. I jumped in the deep end and bought a 135G Oceanic reef-ready. Being 1992, I had a sump with a wet/dry filter, bio-balls, a skimmer with a wooden airstone, metal halides and some VHO actinics. This tank was the most fun I had being a miserable failure. The first couple of years were rough, especially because we were using tap water and I had briopsis like crazy. I made every mistake in the book several times, but eventually I ended up keeping a smaller but successful SPS-dominated tank. Until my house air conditioner died and I lost everything. That was ten years ago.
So now I'm in my 40's and it's time to build my dream tank. This will be entirely SPS. My new system will employ a mix of new and old (maybe ancient?) methodologies that have worked for me. So you will see me do weird things like hang a huge T5 fixture over this tank and use LED for shimmer. Sorry in advance!
The build will probably go slowly since I need to replace a rotten staircase just to get this thing in the door. I also have to pour footings and add structural support under my house for it. Oh yeah, I also have no idea how I will get the tank in the house yet. Anyone in the New Orleans area that wants to help, let me know!
System:
- Tank: 215G Planet Aquariums MATRIX (72"x24"x29"), Low-iron glass, external overflow, black silicone
- Sump: Synergy Reef custom CL-34
- Skimmer: Deltec 1000ix
- Return Pump: Reef Octopus Varios 6
- Stand/Canopy: DIY furniture-quality, face-frame construction with inset doors
- Insurance: 22kwh whole-house generator with 500G in-ground propane tank
- Methodology: SPS, barebottom, high bioload
- Rock: 150 pounds of Tampa Bay Saltwater rock
- ATI 60" 8x80W Sunpower T5
- 4x Kessil A360X (supplemental, shimmer)
- 3x Vortech MP40WQD
- 2x Sicce Xstream-E Wave Pump (2250GPH)
- 2x Tunze 6055 (1450GPH)
- Tunze 7095 Multicontroller
- Tunze 6215 Wavebox (have one, will try it out)
- Neptune Apex (full)
- Alkatronic
- GEO CR818 Calcium Reactor
- Deltec KM150 Kalk Stirrer
- Puratek Deluxe 100GPD RO/DI
- Avast Plank Feeder
- SPS only
- Tangs (as many as will fit without jail time)
- Bluethroat triggerfish (pair)
- Anthias school
- Whatever random reef-safe fish the kids want
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