Nitex09z
02/03/2012, 05:11 PM
Hello all!
This is my first attempt at building a reef and thought it would be a great idea to to document the build in hopes of gleaming some insight from you all!
To start i am not entirely new to the hobby. I have had some sort of tank in my house for the past 15 years or so. However, i just recently found myself interested in salt water.
I have a 14g Biocube mini reef that i have been tending to for the past 6 months or so. And overall i enjoyed the hobby enough to attempt something larger.
Attempt here is the key word! I really failed to plan this thing out or do enough research.
Mistake #1: I was lured by the package price of an Aqueon (AGA) glass tank and stand combo in a 65 gallon. After reading about how distortion and clarity is far better in the acrylic tank i then realized i should have thought about acrylic more. Scratching is something i think i would deal with for the superior clarity.
Mistake #2: was mixing my live sand with CC. Now in an attempt to recover from this i removed some of the CC and covered everything with 2 or so inches of aragonite sand.
Mistake #3: Buying rock from Live Aquaria. I really dont want to start out by bashing a retailer. But the truth is the rock i received from them was fairly lacking. Little to no coraline, life, and seemed to have a lot of dead gunk upon arrival even though it was next day shipping and it was their Premium Select rock (hand picked?).
Now i wouldn't have even realized that the rock was lacking until i went to order more.
Thankfully i contacted a great company in my search called Florida Live rock (Gulf-view for all your old schoolers). The photos on his website were almost un-real. I really found it hard to believe that rock with so much life could be shipped in such a short time. Dale at FLR assured me his rock is top notch and wanted me to have a good experience. And i can only say great things about his service. My shipment went out the day i ordered and arrived all the way across the country in less than 18 hours, florida - seattle WA.
Just to level set the rock prices were equal between the two retailers.
Here are a few picks of the tank. I apologize as they were taken quickly with my cell phone. Ill update with better ones next time. Just FYI, the HOB filter is there to suck up all the debris from the new rock. Ill most likely remove it eventually.
Before FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6814110519_a9486b42a4_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110519/)
IMAG0491 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110519/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
After FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7165/6814110413_0ed5edee2c_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110413/)
IMAG0494 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110413/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
Random life on the FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6814110633_2b47223b56_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110633/)
IMAG0496(2) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110633/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
This brings me to the current stage in my build. I do have some cleaner crew in the tank already and im up to 100lbs of LR. My lights will be here on Monday, Ecoxotic 24" Panorama Pro LED fixture.
Also on order is the ReefOcto 150gal Skimmer, and ill be building a sump within the next week or so!
I hope this hasn't been to long winded and i do appreciate any advice you all may provide, possibly suggestions on a stock list! Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read my post :wavehand:
This is my first attempt at building a reef and thought it would be a great idea to to document the build in hopes of gleaming some insight from you all!
To start i am not entirely new to the hobby. I have had some sort of tank in my house for the past 15 years or so. However, i just recently found myself interested in salt water.
I have a 14g Biocube mini reef that i have been tending to for the past 6 months or so. And overall i enjoyed the hobby enough to attempt something larger.
Attempt here is the key word! I really failed to plan this thing out or do enough research.
Mistake #1: I was lured by the package price of an Aqueon (AGA) glass tank and stand combo in a 65 gallon. After reading about how distortion and clarity is far better in the acrylic tank i then realized i should have thought about acrylic more. Scratching is something i think i would deal with for the superior clarity.
Mistake #2: was mixing my live sand with CC. Now in an attempt to recover from this i removed some of the CC and covered everything with 2 or so inches of aragonite sand.
Mistake #3: Buying rock from Live Aquaria. I really dont want to start out by bashing a retailer. But the truth is the rock i received from them was fairly lacking. Little to no coraline, life, and seemed to have a lot of dead gunk upon arrival even though it was next day shipping and it was their Premium Select rock (hand picked?).
Now i wouldn't have even realized that the rock was lacking until i went to order more.
Thankfully i contacted a great company in my search called Florida Live rock (Gulf-view for all your old schoolers). The photos on his website were almost un-real. I really found it hard to believe that rock with so much life could be shipped in such a short time. Dale at FLR assured me his rock is top notch and wanted me to have a good experience. And i can only say great things about his service. My shipment went out the day i ordered and arrived all the way across the country in less than 18 hours, florida - seattle WA.
Just to level set the rock prices were equal between the two retailers.
Here are a few picks of the tank. I apologize as they were taken quickly with my cell phone. Ill update with better ones next time. Just FYI, the HOB filter is there to suck up all the debris from the new rock. Ill most likely remove it eventually.
Before FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7154/6814110519_a9486b42a4_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110519/)
IMAG0491 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110519/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
After FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7165/6814110413_0ed5edee2c_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110413/)
IMAG0494 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110413/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
Random life on the FLR
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7013/6814110633_2b47223b56_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110633/)
IMAG0496(2) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/66191539@N02/6814110633/) by nitex08 (http://www.flickr.com/people/66191539@N02/), on Flickr
This brings me to the current stage in my build. I do have some cleaner crew in the tank already and im up to 100lbs of LR. My lights will be here on Monday, Ecoxotic 24" Panorama Pro LED fixture.
Also on order is the ReefOcto 150gal Skimmer, and ill be building a sump within the next week or so!
I hope this hasn't been to long winded and i do appreciate any advice you all may provide, possibly suggestions on a stock list! Anyways, thanks for taking the time to read my post :wavehand: