55g Reef Journal (pics)

[mes1234]

Okay so I just got part of my new tank today. It took me a while to decide, but after a couple of days ago I decided I would go all out and do a reef tank the right way. I have a nano cube with a reef, but I am still very new to the marine life. I sold off a couple of my freshwater planted aquarium to help pay for this project. Bare with me, but it might take me a couple of weeks to complete the basic setup. I should have salt water and some live rock in by the end of the weekend. Here are some starter pics of what I picked up today. I also have a beautiful oak canopy I'm picking up on Saturday. Here are the pieces of equipment I have so far.
-55 gallon aquarium
-Oak stand and canopy
-Marineland C-360 canister filter
-260 watts of compact fluorescent light, 10k bulbs, 2 blue 2 white bulbs
-15 pounds of live rock from my nano, an inch of live sand which will be mixed with non live sand (pet store owner told me to put a small layer of regular ocean sand down, and a top layer of live sand and eventually all of it will be live)
-mated pair of clown fish that will come from the nano
-cleaner shrimp
Items I will have in less then a week
-UV sterilizer
-protein skimmer
(He has many brands to chose from so I will ask him his opinion on which would best work for me. We are good friends so he wont chose a expensive brand on purpose if it doesn't fit well with my setup)
**That is my start and I have a LONG way to go. I started this thread in hopes for advice, but not people telling me negative things. I can handle criticism, but please don't be rude.**

[mes1234]

I wanted to add something that a lot of people don't add on the journal. I know, myself, that I like to see the actual people building their projects so you can really get a grasp of that individuals life and visuals just really help get into that persons project. So here is a picture of me on a different build. I am 23 years old, and a nursing student a local state University. Hence why I sell my current builds to help pay for this. College students don't have a load of money, so I just make by with what I have and selling stuff on craigslist. I also make enough money at my job to support the builds. paycheck by paycheck I take chunks out to buy new stuff. I have about $600 to spend right now on this build, and that's after the current equipment I have already. So minus $140 for live rock I am getting from a local hobbyist, I should have plenty to get a nice skimmer and sterilizer, and of course fish and invertebrates once I feel comfortable with the water stability. Every paycheck I will be buying soft corals so after a couple of months, I should have a beautiful reef. I would actually love to buy some frags off members here eventually, so PM me if you have some beauties. I would like to show you my craftmanship by a after picture of this 125 i bought a while back.

[mlefessler]

Looks like you're off to a decent start. I like the idea of each paycheck a portion is already claimed by your hobby (I'm a college student myself and will take this route to heart).

I went from freshwater to saltwater....rather quickly. And now I've got a total of 5 tanks in my house, ranging from freshwater to brackish to reef. And out of all five of them, my saltwater tank has successfully turned me into a psycho crazy addict, I swear. Crazy! I should start charging people to come over and see my "aquarium". =P

Looking forward to seeing your progress. =)

[mes1234]

Here is a picture at 10pm when I have new braces on the stand and I cleaned the tank. I added about 13 gallons of salt water mix, and im brewing up some more RO water. I should have the tank half way full tomorrow and add live sand and rock once the water is heated enough. I will also add the canister filter, but the filter has cycled media so I am keeping it alive until I do the switch. I can't quite turn on the heater yet, not enough water in the tank. By tomorrow I can add the filter and heater.

[mes1234]

Well I noticed that no one really commented on anything so this will be my last update. Kind of pointless to update a post only I look at lol.

[Slappy*McFish]

Well, the thread is still kind of new and there wasn't much to comment on yet. Keep the updates coming...especially since you finally got the tank up and running with LR. The next few months should be the most interesting, anyway.
Looks like a great start and I like the extra space in the tank without over filling it with LR. My 75g is set up very similar.
One thing you may like to try is to break up the live rock pile into 2 separate 'islands' with one of them being slightly larger than the other. Just try it and see which you like better. You can always put everything back but I think it would give your relatively narrow 55g the illusion of more depth.

[dtd87]

That's unfortunate, I just saw this and though it was cool, you should've seen the 36 I bought was about as dirty as that 125. Maybe a little worse but a smaller tank none the less.

[Amphiprion]

Keep the updates coming. I've been checking it daily. Just because there aren't always comments does not mean that nobody is looking, fwiw.

[mlefessler]

Agreed - so far, 111 views! =)

[the wizard]

It looks like you are off to a good start.

I do like the idea of breaking the LR up to two islands. That could look kind of cool. But, then, I like rock formations that are out of the norm of what you see in most aquariums. (helps to make your own more unique)

[mes1234]

Alright here is a great update for you all. When I went to Chicago to get the premium live rock, the guy sold me a 29 gallon sump, 4 pumps, a awesome skimmer, and a phos reactor. I am getting some pvc pipe either today or more likely tomorrow to start my plumbing. I am going to be making videos with my new camera once the memory card comes in. Here are some pics, but I will have the pvc running through the wall into the next room where the sump is sitting. Basically, you will not see anything but the tank. This is my first time with a sump and plumbing so I have been watching a ton of videos. This sump will move sooooo much more water for me and the tank should be better off. I will be using a overflow box by the way. Can someone tell me, how long I should wait to add my 2 mated pair clowns I have in my nano? Should i wait weeks?

[mes1234]

Once the sump is hooked up, I am going to stir the sand to remove the white crap that is everywhere. The sump should filter that out and the skimmer will get the rest. That is why the tank looks funny right now, there is just white powder EVERYWHERE from the sand being so dirty. I cleaned the sand twice too and it still just made a mess.

[mes1234]

Did a little project today before I go to work. I made a mini stand for the sump to keep it off the concrete floor to help keep things warm. I also made a light hanger that might work or might not. I still have to run pvc pipe into the IN portion of the sump with a filter sock. I hope there is enough clearance between the light and the sock. If it doesn't work, I will just hang the light a lot higher but the light wont reach the tank very good. I also added the overflow box to the tank. I ran the tubing to the top of it to create a siphon. All I need to do now for the sump is make my plumbing which I hope I will have time to start it tomorrow. I just need to run simple pvc piping through the wall and on the pump and the IN box through the sock.

[flairbrtndr]

It looks as though its coming along nicely. Keep us updated on your progress

[whyzee250]

tagging along

[mes1234]

Okay well i am doing a couple days worth of updates. I installed and got my sump working yay! Only problem is I had a accident with it overflowing so my background looks funny because it is wet. But here is a video to explain everything. Enjoy!
CfdaDgovf_c

[greech]

The video is a good idea. Not a skimmer expert but the skimmer probably doesn't have much to skim yet and there is a break in period. I'm sure you will get it dialed in soon. The bubbles should cause a foam to rise into the collection cup where they will pop and your skimate will be left behind for you to dump out.

Looks like you just filled this tank with water a few days ago and I am concerned your tank isn't ready for livestock. I know you mentioned that you purchased some "premium" live rock but was is fully cured? Even so how did you transport it from your LFS to your house and how long was it out of water? I'm afraid that even if the rock was fully cured and despite the additives you mentioned that there is a good chance you will have a cycle. Do you have test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? You should be testing your water daily. I'm really not trying to be a Debby Downer, I just want you to get off to a good start.

One other thing I couldn't see very well was whether you had good surface agitation. Your return and PHs should be aimed in such a way that you get good flow through the rocks as well as providing agitation at the water surface. Sometimes that means more (or bigger) PHs. The system looks good and having that sump in the next room is going to pay off huge!

[Amphiprion]

Nice vid! That will help you out quite a bit, as well as the folks who are helping you. As far as your overflow box, you aren't really going to get more flow out of it than what you likely have. They aren't really meant for high volume, unless you start getting the dual bulkhead ones. It's a matter of tweaking the flow until it is right. Also, don't worry about having your pump throttled back so much. It won't be a problem, as that actually reduces the amount of work the pump has to do--meaning that it will be using less energy and not working as hard. It will not shorten the pump life or anything of the sort.

Are you tumbling that carbon? Make sure it is compacted down so that it can't move around. That will grind it into black dust, which will in turn be distributed into your tank. Not something that is ideal. You can accomplish this by either using one of the reactor sponges immediately on top or packing the reactor full.

As for the rest, I agree with greech.

[Ara]

Just caught this thread today..

Heckuva clean up job you did on that tanks, looks awesome!! Curious.. what did you use to clean the tank?

I picked up an old one myself, and it is a mess, and I don't have a clue how to go about cleaning it up..! Your tank ended up sparkling! NIce!

[mes1234]

Check out my 125 gallon thread journal on how to clean tanks. I go into great detail on how to clean a used aquarium. As far as the live rock goes, it was fully cured and I bought it off a hobbyist not a LPS. I used many many buckets to transport it to my house, which I filled to the rim with the tank water. I have had water in the tank for a week before I even put sand and rock into it. Once I added the rock, I waited 2 days before I added the fish. When I bought the sump the guy told me to make sure the phosphate stuff and the carbon does not move, so no I made sure it didn't move because he said it can really make a mess of your tank. I have many test kits and I tested the water twice over 2 days before I added the fish. I am sure the tank will have to go through a cycle, I just think it will be very fast. I do have some surface movement from the return, but your right, I should get a PH to get it moving a lot more.

[mes1234]

Once I get my light back tomorrow, I will take another video of the beauty of the tank. Anyone know how long I should wait until adding soft corals? Obviously I need to wait for the cycle to complete, but what should I be looking for as far as calcium and alk goes? I have test kits for both of them. This tank will house a lot of soft corals and what ever I can support. Don't worry on being a debby downer, your just putting in your opinion. Everyone knows that when people put in opinions, 50% of the time people just shrug it off anyways lol. But keep the advice going, I miss certain things that would normally be easy to remember like surface agitation.

[Amphiprion]

While not as critical as with stony corals, I do recommend that alkalinity and calcium be kept within the appropriate ranges. Those are 380-450 ppm (Ca++) and 7-11 dKH (alk). I would give the tank several more weeks at a minimum.

[cockroach]

Looking great so far. I also like that you added yourself. Subscribing to watch your progress.

[FishPish]

First off, your aquarium is amazing. I never thought about running pipes into another room like you have here although you sometimes see it at pet shops.


The U shape device sounds questionable in the piping system. I don't think it will help downwards pull of the water. The water should mainly be using gravity as much as possible and it could cause a buildup. You can probably just angle it better so it is slightly sideways. Not an expert, just questionable.

[scottwatac]

Totally love reading your thread! I just started up a 55 that is very similar to yours and I want to get a sump for it now.

[mes1234]

lol about the subscribing thing. I didn't even know I did it. I had no idea how to use youtube, so I must have hit subscribe. I got some great advice from the guy I bought a lot of the equipment off of. He told me to get rid of the couplings and gated valve, turn the tank around and run the drain straight from the wall and down. He said I can probably turn the pump to max if I do that. So on my next day off, I will reroute the drain tubing.

[mes1234]

So apparently my lps was swamped yesterday and didn't even get a chance to open the light fixture. So I have to wait another day....

[greech]

LPS=Large Polyp Stoney (coral)

LFS=Local Fish Store

I suppose LPS could be Local Phish Store (if you like their music :)). Sorry, couldn't resist.

If I can offer any advice it would be to be patient above all else. Don't be in a rush to get everything perfect right off the bat. You're going to go through ups and downs over the years with this tank. It's a highly rewarding hobby if you're able to be patient and weather the storms.

[the wizard]

I suppose LPS could be Local Phish Store (if you like their music :)). Sorry, couldn't resist.

:lol:

[mes1234]

lol i have always said LPS for Local Pet store since the store I shop at is not just a fish store it sells other pets as well.

[mes1234]

I changed a lot of my plumbing and new stuff. I just wanted to show an update.
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