I think I barely fit in this category. Move me if needed. I've been on R2R for over a year now, and really love it here. Although I am still waiting for the app...?
I've been in and out of fish tanks for 25 years. I never had coral up until the last year and a half. I actually started in salt water in the 90's. I had a plastic swing arm. 90G tank, a fluorescent hood light, a Fluval 404 (?) I think - it was like a clear brown plastic with RISKAY connectors - if you know you know lol and tap water. There was no ATO, but at least it was fish only. Those swings had to be brutal. I would dump salt directly into the tank if I had put too much water into it. There will probably be a couple tangs waiting for me when I go to the other side...
I'll be blogging here and on my website (thedryreef.com) when it's up. Should be 7 days, I've failed with following up with the Wix phone people to process the last changes. There is nothing special, I am just looking for a place to blog generally speaking. I plan to do some other stuff related to reefing as well. You see, I am in recovery. And, when I was a professional relapsologist, there were many youtube podcasts that would trigger me. There are some where I am not sure how the cat talking makes it through at times. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Over the last year I have had some memorable stories here. Even TBS remembered my story ( https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kp-aquatics-experience.971130/ ) from last year of rocks I purchased from a competitor sat on a runaway apparently, and after being in my display for 12 hours my entire house smelled like a morgue during a power failure. Oh, this reef is in our bedroom, the wife wasn't happy. I'm going with the ladies of TBS for this tank.
Or you may recall - I am the guy that had the really small hitch hiking undulated trigger get in his tank. It was 6 months of pure hell. It left 1 clown and 1 purple tang alone. Anything else that went into the tank was a snack. It ate, literally, hundreds of snails. I couldn't get algae under control because I couldn't get any herbs or cuc into the tank for more than 6 hours. I basically took 3/4 of the tank apart and got him. I traded him for some Rod's to a LFS. Funny story - He was returned twice to the LFS as they didn't heed the warnings and he destroyed all the live stock in both tanks within days. Within 30 days - the tank was hitting its stride, sigh...
So - On to my plans. I should receive both the tank and sump in the next 2 -3 weeks. I started planning for this about 5-6 months ago.
Man - I have worked with so many people, talked with soooo many people about this. Joe, GEO, Antonio, many reefers - some popular some who think I am bat poop crazy for doing some of what I am doing.
New system, everything is 100% custom. I have nearly 95% of everything short of tank and sump in my garage. My wife is starting to realize the scale of this, I say this jokingly. I'll address this in another post:
- Glass cages has built (I've seen portions of it) a 96x36x25 peninsula and a 36" high metal stand that has 15 vertical braces. The tank will have 3 closed loops and 4 Sea Swirls. More on that later. The only thing under the tank will be an Abyzz 400 for the lower loop. There will be no powerheads in this tank, or that is the goal. There will be an Abyzz 400 and 4 L2s
- GEO is building the sump, it's 2 weeks out. The sump, with reservoir is 96x24x15. It will not be under the tank. I've learned that everything will be about function. While I am putting those 22 spinner up on thisbiatch, function absolutely comes first. I learned this on the Reefer.
- Lighting will be fun. 8 XR30s (4B/4P), T5s and 3 Metal Halides. Are you feeling the theme like the title says. I missed out on all the fun in the 2000's and early 2010's, so I am going to make up for some of it with this build, lol.
- More information on the closed loop - It should be mentioned that I will have 2 - 1.5" holes in the bottom of the tank that are loop returns. These are fed through a 2" hole 11" up the short business end of the tank that will feed the Abyzz. I have 2 different options that I will test. 8, 9 or 10 3/4 RFGs. This is loop 1. Loop two is fed by a 1.5" hole near the 2" hole that will hit an L2 then on to 2 sea swirls in to corners above. This is Loop 2. Loop three is the same as Loop 2 just the other 2 corners. Each of these loops will also have a UV that they will flow through. So, no worries about UV turnover based on sump turn. Lots of testing will take place before I even think about putting salt water in the system. Oh, one last thing about the loops - Thanks to the late Jake and Tidal for all educating they did. I was able to get some feedback from Tidal also. I went with Hayward bulkheads with the EPDM gaskets. Everyone who said I shouldn't do this has only used those inexpensive black (abs?) bulkheads, not these. I know I am on to something because I think I am one of the first or few at GC to use these. I'll get into that in a later chapter...
- Of course Apex, Masterallofit, etc etc
- TBS Rock and sand. Another 150 pounds of rock and 250 pounds of sand
- GC also built me a custom frag tank
- I will also have a large remote cryptic sump in play. GEO is making the sump so that it will be able to handle far more than then what the new display would need.
My current situation is that I am going to consolidate 2 tanks down into this new tank. The firs tank, is an older Red Sea Max S500 that has been running in 3 different house holds over the course of about 8 years and is a mixed reef. I have a space invader that's about the size of dodge ball. I also have a Reefer 250 that is nearly all acro. The tank will start out SPS dominate. All the non SPS will come over to the new tank. Down the road, I may pull some out into a display within the fishroom we are crafting. The Reefer is really coming into its own as I type. I am partially sad that I will be breaking it down, but only from the perspective of pride of ownership, not time on task.
Why am I doing this? Why not! It also gets me to focus on one tank. We also have a nano, but, let's just forget I even mentioned its existence... I'll get to this story down the road. Happy wife happy life...
Timeline:
I hope to have the tank in place in 2 weeks. Within a week I want to be water testing with the closed loops with tap water. It's important that I get this right. I imagine testing all the flow will take 1-2 weeks, I do have to work to pay for this madness.
I'll post some pics. I am not sure if they will be in order or not. I'll keep future posts to a singular topic with photos so it is easier to follow:
Pics of the Max:
drive.google.com
Reefer shortly after putting corals in it in October and now:
www.reef2reef.com
Photos from a couple weeks ago:
drive.google.com
Tank:
Flow - VCA has really helped me out with this.
Random pics:
drive.google.com
I've been in and out of fish tanks for 25 years. I never had coral up until the last year and a half. I actually started in salt water in the 90's. I had a plastic swing arm. 90G tank, a fluorescent hood light, a Fluval 404 (?) I think - it was like a clear brown plastic with RISKAY connectors - if you know you know lol and tap water. There was no ATO, but at least it was fish only. Those swings had to be brutal. I would dump salt directly into the tank if I had put too much water into it. There will probably be a couple tangs waiting for me when I go to the other side...
I'll be blogging here and on my website (thedryreef.com) when it's up. Should be 7 days, I've failed with following up with the Wix phone people to process the last changes. There is nothing special, I am just looking for a place to blog generally speaking. I plan to do some other stuff related to reefing as well. You see, I am in recovery. And, when I was a professional relapsologist, there were many youtube podcasts that would trigger me. There are some where I am not sure how the cat talking makes it through at times. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Over the last year I have had some memorable stories here. Even TBS remembered my story ( https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/kp-aquatics-experience.971130/ ) from last year of rocks I purchased from a competitor sat on a runaway apparently, and after being in my display for 12 hours my entire house smelled like a morgue during a power failure. Oh, this reef is in our bedroom, the wife wasn't happy. I'm going with the ladies of TBS for this tank.
Or you may recall - I am the guy that had the really small hitch hiking undulated trigger get in his tank. It was 6 months of pure hell. It left 1 clown and 1 purple tang alone. Anything else that went into the tank was a snack. It ate, literally, hundreds of snails. I couldn't get algae under control because I couldn't get any herbs or cuc into the tank for more than 6 hours. I basically took 3/4 of the tank apart and got him. I traded him for some Rod's to a LFS. Funny story - He was returned twice to the LFS as they didn't heed the warnings and he destroyed all the live stock in both tanks within days. Within 30 days - the tank was hitting its stride, sigh...
So - On to my plans. I should receive both the tank and sump in the next 2 -3 weeks. I started planning for this about 5-6 months ago.
Man - I have worked with so many people, talked with soooo many people about this. Joe, GEO, Antonio, many reefers - some popular some who think I am bat poop crazy for doing some of what I am doing.
New system, everything is 100% custom. I have nearly 95% of everything short of tank and sump in my garage. My wife is starting to realize the scale of this, I say this jokingly. I'll address this in another post:
- Glass cages has built (I've seen portions of it) a 96x36x25 peninsula and a 36" high metal stand that has 15 vertical braces. The tank will have 3 closed loops and 4 Sea Swirls. More on that later. The only thing under the tank will be an Abyzz 400 for the lower loop. There will be no powerheads in this tank, or that is the goal. There will be an Abyzz 400 and 4 L2s
- GEO is building the sump, it's 2 weeks out. The sump, with reservoir is 96x24x15. It will not be under the tank. I've learned that everything will be about function. While I am putting those 22 spinner up on thisbiatch, function absolutely comes first. I learned this on the Reefer.
- Lighting will be fun. 8 XR30s (4B/4P), T5s and 3 Metal Halides. Are you feeling the theme like the title says. I missed out on all the fun in the 2000's and early 2010's, so I am going to make up for some of it with this build, lol.
- More information on the closed loop - It should be mentioned that I will have 2 - 1.5" holes in the bottom of the tank that are loop returns. These are fed through a 2" hole 11" up the short business end of the tank that will feed the Abyzz. I have 2 different options that I will test. 8, 9 or 10 3/4 RFGs. This is loop 1. Loop two is fed by a 1.5" hole near the 2" hole that will hit an L2 then on to 2 sea swirls in to corners above. This is Loop 2. Loop three is the same as Loop 2 just the other 2 corners. Each of these loops will also have a UV that they will flow through. So, no worries about UV turnover based on sump turn. Lots of testing will take place before I even think about putting salt water in the system. Oh, one last thing about the loops - Thanks to the late Jake and Tidal for all educating they did. I was able to get some feedback from Tidal also. I went with Hayward bulkheads with the EPDM gaskets. Everyone who said I shouldn't do this has only used those inexpensive black (abs?) bulkheads, not these. I know I am on to something because I think I am one of the first or few at GC to use these. I'll get into that in a later chapter...
- Of course Apex, Masterallofit, etc etc
- TBS Rock and sand. Another 150 pounds of rock and 250 pounds of sand
- GC also built me a custom frag tank
- I will also have a large remote cryptic sump in play. GEO is making the sump so that it will be able to handle far more than then what the new display would need.
My current situation is that I am going to consolidate 2 tanks down into this new tank. The firs tank, is an older Red Sea Max S500 that has been running in 3 different house holds over the course of about 8 years and is a mixed reef. I have a space invader that's about the size of dodge ball. I also have a Reefer 250 that is nearly all acro. The tank will start out SPS dominate. All the non SPS will come over to the new tank. Down the road, I may pull some out into a display within the fishroom we are crafting. The Reefer is really coming into its own as I type. I am partially sad that I will be breaking it down, but only from the perspective of pride of ownership, not time on task.
Why am I doing this? Why not! It also gets me to focus on one tank. We also have a nano, but, let's just forget I even mentioned its existence... I'll get to this story down the road. Happy wife happy life...
Timeline:
I hope to have the tank in place in 2 weeks. Within a week I want to be water testing with the closed loops with tap water. It's important that I get this right. I imagine testing all the flow will take 1-2 weeks, I do have to work to pay for this madness.
I'll post some pics. I am not sure if they will be in order or not. I'll keep future posts to a singular topic with photos so it is easier to follow:
Pics of the Max:
Tanks - Google Drive
drive.google.com
Reefer shortly after putting corals in it in October and now:
18 weeks in with wet gulf rock - Reefer 250
I am 18 weeks with this tank. I used 70 pounds of wet gulf rock from Phillip over at KP Aquatics. I just ran NO3 and PO4 on both my tanks, my established display was 5.6 for NO and .05 for PO, I think that's close to balance perhaps. But, the new tank is wildly out there in left field. NO is...
www.reef2reef.com
Reefer 250 - Google Drive
drive.google.com
Tank:
Flow - VCA has really helped me out with this.
Random pics:
Tank Pics - Google Drive
drive.google.com
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