govertical19

Hello,

I really never thought I would be the person to make a blog but I believe there is a good reason behind it. The possibility to win a controller is always good, but I would also love to have feed back about my tank.

Lets start at the beginning. My first saltwater tank was a 75 gallon display with a 15 gallon refuge and a 20 gallon sump(all tightly wedged under the display tank). The tank was only running a year and half before it got moved but I learned from it. The first thing I learned was take time,time,time to plan. I rushed into saltwater after having a boring fresh water tank for about 6 months and as we all know they are worlds different from each other. Of course my LFS did not say that, I'm pretty sure the word they used was easy...lol.

I really stink at taking pictures and I also need to start taking more but I think this is one of the last pictures of the small tank.
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I can not explain how much I love the saltwater tank. But I will be the first to tell you I ran into every single problem you could run into. Over flow problems, algea, I had a tank crack(my refuge), unplugged heaters after working on things, and all the silly stupid things that happen to everyone... But I loved it and I knew I wanted a bigger tank. I mean, I knew that my Blue Hippo Tang was going to get too big for the 75 gallon tank sooner or later. So what did I do, I made myself a huge project and finished my basement. And I wanted to have a big tank down there. The first thing I got for the basement even before I got wood was the fish tank, a used 265 gallon tank from a guy off craigslist. The thing was in my garage for the longest time it seemed like. But it got me moving on the basement. And the fish tank ended up being a wall between my office and the family room in the basement.

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Behind the fish tank is a fish room that houses a sink with R/O unit, sump, a 40 gallon Rubbermaid garbage can for RO water, a 32 gallon Rubbermaid can with saltwater in it (i replace 1-2 gallons everyday, which is very easy with the fish room) and a 72 gallon bow front refuge. I made a display refuge, with a DSB a bunch of live rock and macro algae. The flat back side of the refuge is cut into the wall so you can see in it from my office. You can not see the whole tank only the center portion. One day I plan on putting Sea Horses or something in there. I drilled a one inch bulkhead into the side of the tank and that is how it is plumbed into the sump.





The fish room is pretty tight but it is better the working under the old tank. To be honest it was so tight I would sometimes put maintenance off because it annoyed me so much, and that is not the way a reef tank should be kept. Now under the refuge tank I have a 10gallon top-off tank that is connected to a aqua lifter and a float switch in the last section of the sump.







The sump I made myself with acrylic and I basically got the directions off Melevsreef. I think when working with acrylic your first time should probably not be to make a 70 or soo gallon sump but I did it and the end process was pretty good. My seems do not look so good but it is better than nothing... In the sump currently is a MSX Protein Skimmer, a reactor that houses carbon and GFO, two 400 watt heaters, and lastly two weeks ago I got a used Korallin C-3002 calcium reactor. One day I will invest in a PH controller for this system to get more control out of it. Before the Calcium reactor I was dosing daily with a 2 part solution.





The sump connects the main display and the refuge via a Reeflo Dart pump. In the main tank I have one Vortech MP40 and two Hydor stand alone pumps. At some point I would like to get another MP40 but currently it is out of my price range. But the tank currently has very good alternating current so I can hold off on that for awhile.

Lighting is currently handled by two 250 watt 14k metal halide bulbs. I have the equipment (no bulbs) to setup VHO actnic lighting but currently I like the look of the tank. The lights are on standard timers that come on around 12:30 pm and go off around 10 pm. The timers are off a little so once in awhile I have to reset the times because I will notice the lights turning off around 9pm but they are cheap timers so I really can not complain. All around the tank is Sheetrock so I made a hatch door with door hinges to get to the lighting and over the tank.




There are some things I would do different if I did it all over and I am sure as the tank matures I will find even more that I would want to change. One thing of course I would love is a controller for the system. For a system that probably totals around 350 gallons or more it would probably make life a little easier. But for now I love the system and I can not wait to see the system in a year or two when it is filled with more fish and corals. So with the system running for around 4 months now I ask you what you think I could have done different?