This will be a consistently updated build thread. I had yesterday off and began by sanding down my 55g Bowfront Corner aquarium, staining it black, and building my corner rock wall. Today I went ahead and finished another coat of stain, cleaned up the rock wall pieces, and painting the faux-wood plastic trim black to match the stand. It looks phenomenal, and I hope to do a freshwater test this weekend and then begin the real deal as well this weekend.
I bought the tank and stand off a guy who had been out of the hobby for about a year, and had it rotting in his basement. He said he had offers to part up the deal, but wanted to sell it bulk. 300 dollars netted me quite the deal.
55g Corner Bowfront + Stand, coralife 36" dual 10k white dual 420nm 96w actinic, RemoraC hob w/rio800, dual hagen402/50's, extra power heads heaters test kits supplements and more stuff than I could imagine. I had a trunk full of random items. The supplements he had given me needed to be tossed, but after cleaning everything was great in working order. This was a great deal. My father has been out of the hobby for about 6 years, and had all his stuff in the garage. He went ahead and hooked me up with a ton of supplies as well. I purchased a BRS 5-Stage RO/DI from a member here on the C.T.A.R.S. forum. Picked up my supplements on Amazon (I had a 100 dollar gift card, that went really quick!) including ESV B-Ionic 2, Kent Tech M, SeaChem Reef Plus. I'm using Tropic Marin Reef Salt.
Basically I have everything I need for my reef setup, I'm in 500 dollars and some manual labor. Quite worth it considering what we all know we can spend starting with all new equipment. I've got so much extra equipment, pumps, powerheads, heaters, etc that I don't even need to replace anything if it breaks. And I've got spare tanks (20L, 30High, 10) for quarantines and whatnot laying around too.
I spent about 3 hours sanding down the stand (it had a plain clear coat over the wood) and three coats of stain, which each took about fifteen minutes. Spraypainting the plastic rim only took me the better part of an hour. I did a DIY foam/rock wall using Marco Rocks (amazing product, will buy again). Used eggcrate and zipties to make small shelves on a wall, then used Tetra Pond Foam (which is aquarium safe - I checked several threads on this website and saw previous usage from other posters for several years without issue) to put it all together. I trimmed and sanded down the back so it's a nice even finish, and I purchased safe GE Silicone I to put it into the tank when I'm ready this weekend. I didn't drill this tank because the stand is very awkwardly shaped and really only allowed for a 10g sump, which I didn't think was worth the effort of drilling because I already had my HOB skimmer and did not feel up to plumbing. Any future build I do, regardless of size, will include a sump though.
I have a ton of pictures to share my process from start to finish within the last two days. Thanks for reading this thread. I've been keeping freshwater fish, from Cichlids to Danios for a while now. I've been wanting to Reef for a long while but only after reading several books and an extensive amount of time online did I feel comfortable. Now I feel rather confident I'll be alright. Now that I've moved out of my parents house and lease my own house, I can do what I want and as big as I want. This is just the beginning.
The spot in my bedroom, before
Marco Rocks shipment! I've ordered the 40lb rock / 40lb sand combo. Most of the rock was used in my wall, I still have 3 football-sized pieces left though. I'm going to be asking local reefers for some live rock if I can find anyone around from C.T.A.R.S willing to help a brother out! (I'll pay you, of course)
The ingredients to my rockwall: Zipties, Pond Foam, Eggcrate, Marco Rocks, and just a dash of sexy success
