Hey every one starting a new tank but have been here a while. Previously had a waterbox 40 ish gallon cube reef tank and between the volume and the evap everything was a bit much to control. Plus a new baby, a curious toddler and peaking Covid made it a bear to keep up with. I ended up getting burned out and lost the joy and tore it down.
Years later now my wife wants an eel so I’m building a 60g breeder and making myself stick to the Kiss method. Which has been hard because I still have my Lifereef skimmer and sump. Equipment thus far and planned
Lids tightly fitted on the aqueon.
1 hob tidal 75 with cut sponges and whatever rock came in with it. I do have a second one ordered in case I need to filter more.
IM heater and controller
Black sand by caribsea (wife’s choice)
Going to order a helix light bar but still have a radion xr15 if supplementing was ever needed.
Powerhead: I have the one (IM) from the wb but likely will need another one with some more oomph to try and get the flow right.
I was going to do dry rock and try to avoid the issues I had prior with live but might end up doing a split. Either way bought the bacteria to seed the sponges in the filter and start the cycle. Tank was dosed ammonia when it was set up.
Stand wise I did another skinned rocket stand and that’s about as fancy as that will get.
Plan is likely a snowflake or white eyed moray, blue spotted puffer and maybe flame angel. Not sure any other fish will be added but I want to keep the bio load reasonable with hob filters. Cuc as needed but likely will serve as food as well.
Hoping algae, Dianos and all that will be minimum but since I’m only doing fowlr I can start lights minimally in the beginning while bio catches up. Love running uv on my cichlids but without a sump I’m trying to keep it simple buuut have been eyeballing a Lifereef for some years.
Throughout all this I have found some deals on hob overflows and dumps but again I’m trying to keep it simple and mitigate evap. So far evap has been very reasonable with the lids. If this all goes well for the next couple years maybe an upgrade but for now I’m trying to keep the tank minimal and simple so that we can enjoy the fish and not worry about levels and maintenance every few days.
Thanks all for the plethora of info, looking forward to slowly getting back into salt.
Keith
Years later now my wife wants an eel so I’m building a 60g breeder and making myself stick to the Kiss method. Which has been hard because I still have my Lifereef skimmer and sump. Equipment thus far and planned
Lids tightly fitted on the aqueon.
1 hob tidal 75 with cut sponges and whatever rock came in with it. I do have a second one ordered in case I need to filter more.
IM heater and controller
Black sand by caribsea (wife’s choice)
Going to order a helix light bar but still have a radion xr15 if supplementing was ever needed.
Powerhead: I have the one (IM) from the wb but likely will need another one with some more oomph to try and get the flow right.
I was going to do dry rock and try to avoid the issues I had prior with live but might end up doing a split. Either way bought the bacteria to seed the sponges in the filter and start the cycle. Tank was dosed ammonia when it was set up.
Stand wise I did another skinned rocket stand and that’s about as fancy as that will get.
Plan is likely a snowflake or white eyed moray, blue spotted puffer and maybe flame angel. Not sure any other fish will be added but I want to keep the bio load reasonable with hob filters. Cuc as needed but likely will serve as food as well.
Hoping algae, Dianos and all that will be minimum but since I’m only doing fowlr I can start lights minimally in the beginning while bio catches up. Love running uv on my cichlids but without a sump I’m trying to keep it simple buuut have been eyeballing a Lifereef for some years.
Throughout all this I have found some deals on hob overflows and dumps but again I’m trying to keep it simple and mitigate evap. So far evap has been very reasonable with the lids. If this all goes well for the next couple years maybe an upgrade but for now I’m trying to keep the tank minimal and simple so that we can enjoy the fish and not worry about levels and maintenance every few days.
Thanks all for the plethora of info, looking forward to slowly getting back into salt.
Keith
