mmorrison55
Community Member
As the title suggests, I had a 50 gallon saltwater aquarium about 25-27 years ago that I had purchased from my brother in law. Back then it was 99% fowlr. And you made saltwater from your garden hose and throwing a bunch of chemicals In it to get ready for fish. It was going good for about a year then the tank crashed and like many, that was my queue to get out of the hobby.
Fast forward to early in 2024, and a coworker started talking about saltwater tanks and how much he wanted to get one someday. It rekindled my interest and after visiting a few LFS in the area and seeing how far the hobby has come and how vibrant to corals are, I knew I’d be getting a tank sometime this year. After driving to Orlando to visit WWC and Top Shelf aquatics in early summer, I took the plunge and contacted Jess at waterbox and put in an order for a waterbox custom while they were offering a special at the time.
I’m glad with age, I’ve developed some patience as it has been a long 6 months until my tank was delivered last week. It’s still dry, but I hope to have water in it next week. I’m debating whether I will complete the plumbing myself or have my LFS, the coral corral, in Tampa do the plumbing.
They came out and unboxed the tank and carried it inside and placed it on the stand for me as this thing is way heavier than the 55 gallon I had in my 20’s. Originally they were going to do the plumbing, but I had an issue with the emergency drain thread and it could not be used, so I had to reach out to Jess who was able to overnight me a part that I could coddle together a new emergency overflow with the metric to us standard plumbing that I needed. So coral corral had to stop until the new part arrived.
They will be back the 1st part of next week with the saltwater and depending on how much plumbing I do myself between now and then, they will either fill it up and test for leaks or finish the plumbing, fill, and test.
Side note and hint re buying saltwater from a LFS @ 1.80 a gallon. I reached out to the fine folks at the coral coral and asked them if I were to purchase a sizable gift certificate to use in their store, would they supply the saltwater for free. And to my surprise, they were more than willing to strike that bargain. It’s that kind of interaction that makes it invaluable to find and support your LFS whenever you can. I saved a few hundred $$$ in saltwater, and they made a new loyal customer who will be spending a lot of time and money in their store in the coming years.
Ok so on to the pics…
I went with a euro braced, 5 ft X 2ft x2ft display and corresponding sump. Honestly I’m not sure how many gallons this ends up being, I think it’s in the 180 range, give or take.
Thanks for checking out my build thread. I’ll try and post more photos as I get into the set up.
I was extremely lucky and found a great deal on a lot of apex, ecotech pumps, etc from a nice guy, Alan/AKL1950 here on R2R. He was just north of me and was getting out of the hobby, so I was extremely lucky on picking up a lot of great gear at a can’t pass on price.
Thanks for visiting. Enjoy.
Mike
Fast forward to early in 2024, and a coworker started talking about saltwater tanks and how much he wanted to get one someday. It rekindled my interest and after visiting a few LFS in the area and seeing how far the hobby has come and how vibrant to corals are, I knew I’d be getting a tank sometime this year. After driving to Orlando to visit WWC and Top Shelf aquatics in early summer, I took the plunge and contacted Jess at waterbox and put in an order for a waterbox custom while they were offering a special at the time.
I’m glad with age, I’ve developed some patience as it has been a long 6 months until my tank was delivered last week. It’s still dry, but I hope to have water in it next week. I’m debating whether I will complete the plumbing myself or have my LFS, the coral corral, in Tampa do the plumbing.
They came out and unboxed the tank and carried it inside and placed it on the stand for me as this thing is way heavier than the 55 gallon I had in my 20’s. Originally they were going to do the plumbing, but I had an issue with the emergency drain thread and it could not be used, so I had to reach out to Jess who was able to overnight me a part that I could coddle together a new emergency overflow with the metric to us standard plumbing that I needed. So coral corral had to stop until the new part arrived.
They will be back the 1st part of next week with the saltwater and depending on how much plumbing I do myself between now and then, they will either fill it up and test for leaks or finish the plumbing, fill, and test.
Side note and hint re buying saltwater from a LFS @ 1.80 a gallon. I reached out to the fine folks at the coral coral and asked them if I were to purchase a sizable gift certificate to use in their store, would they supply the saltwater for free. And to my surprise, they were more than willing to strike that bargain. It’s that kind of interaction that makes it invaluable to find and support your LFS whenever you can. I saved a few hundred $$$ in saltwater, and they made a new loyal customer who will be spending a lot of time and money in their store in the coming years.
Ok so on to the pics…
I went with a euro braced, 5 ft X 2ft x2ft display and corresponding sump. Honestly I’m not sure how many gallons this ends up being, I think it’s in the 180 range, give or take.
Thanks for checking out my build thread. I’ll try and post more photos as I get into the set up.
I was extremely lucky and found a great deal on a lot of apex, ecotech pumps, etc from a nice guy, Alan/AKL1950 here on R2R. He was just north of me and was getting out of the hobby, so I was extremely lucky on picking up a lot of great gear at a can’t pass on price.
Thanks for visiting. Enjoy.
Mike
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