55 gal build 2 years in the making

[darklcd]

thanks for the other options I was looking at the chemiclean today but the lady that i was talking to told me that it would not help for what I was talking about........nice to know that she knows what she is talking about.....

 

[NaTe R]

So that everyone knows I am not going to adding much else into the tank for equipment. I know my flow levels might not be as high as some people might like them to be but for what I am looking for its going to work well. I am also not going to be running an external filter or sump for now if at all. I am very interested in having a filter-less tank set up. If I have to later on I may add a hang on filter but nothing major at all.

You may have to change your plans a bit, as previously stated, nobody's fooling you. you need lots and lots of flow. It is common for lfs people who dont really know what there talking about to mis inform people on the importance of this aspect. My friend bought some super cheap AZOO power heads one time look at those there cheap Chinese stuff but they move water.

Also i am sure you know this but with your plan you are basicaly saying that you wanna do alot of water changes all the time. like allllll the time. i would guess like 15 gal per week minimum and after a few years i still think the bad stuff will catch up with you. SKIMMERWISPER writes interesting info on skimmerless tanks, he may inspire you to look in to a skimmer

 

[darklcd]

Oh I plan on adding flow I never said I was not going to get more lol. I know that flow is huge my 25 gal before it burnt had 1600 gph and I will be adding about 2400 gph to this one asap. The skimmer that I am using has actually worked rather well for me granted its not a high end skimmer by any means but its working ok. There are people around here that are using them on 75 and 100 gal tanks with no problems yes there are much much better skimmers out there but this is working so far and if it stops working or my tank demands go up I will get a new one trust me lol

 

[NaTe R]

you will have to forgive me, i read that you had that seaclone earlier and totally forgot about it!

 

[darklcd]

lol thats ok based on what people have been telling me its a pretty forgetable skimmer lol. Its working ok for now I don't want anything huge on there and like I said for the time being I will keep it. If I decide to get hardcore into sps and lps I will think about upgrading but for now and what I want its working.

 

[darklcd]

hey all

here are a couple new pics with the light up and off the tank

I am wondering if I shoudl move my pump from the back to the front to try and get some flow over the cyano for a few weeks

what do you all think

 

[darklcd]

well I decided to change a few things in the tank. First off I pulled all the rock out and cleaned the cyano off. Second I redid my aqua-scape and I also pulled the pump out of the back and I just have it in the front fo now until my power heads come in.

I also saw something that looks like homemade rock in there. I have never seen anything like it but it looks like base rock with large gravel in it. I wasn't sure what it was so I pulled them out for now as well as the lava rock.

Pics will be up as soon as I find out where my wife hid my camera lol

I am also thinking of getting a filter just for a little extra but I don't want to do a sump because I can't drill any of the glass

any thoughts?

 

[darklcd]

here are the new pics

here are the rocks I was talking about and i am not sure if I should put them in or not

the rest of the rock I knew was ok but these are still questionable

any thoughts

 

[darklcd]

update

I still have no idea what those rocks are and they are still out of my tank for now. I just orderd a pair of 1300gph wave makers to help things out

more pics to come after they show up

If anyone has any idea what those rocks are or what I can do with them please let me know

thanks

 

[hernluis]

hey all

well it took me a while to get everything going but here it is my 55 gal build that yes took me almost 2 years and I have next to nothing to show for it.

first off here is a small history on where it started and what has happened.

I started out with an idea of doing a 25 gal tank in my living room as a nice coral tank. I had a seaclone skimmer, a 600 gph pump and for light I had a 250 watt hqi MH with 2 pure antic t5's.

It was going rather well and then this....

following this wonderful event that totaled both my 25 in my living room and my 55 gal that i had running I had to take a break for over a year until I got to move into my new place.

I managed to get my hands on 40 lbs of live rock, 30 gals of good water and gravel from a tank that had already been running with no problems (I checked the levels and everything) I added more water plus the 30 lbs of rock that I had from my old set up (after a good wash and run for the better part of a month) and this started as a project that I had running on the floor in my house.

I built the stand myself on sunday it was a very basic stand and working with only 4 2x4 boards and here is what I have so far

I know the light needs to be over the top of the tank but the tank is not where I am going to be leaving it and until I do I am just moving the light back and forth I had it over the center of my tank and I did not have it high enough and it started to melt the center brace so I moved it back where i had it.

I have had it running for the better part of 10 weeks. As of right now here are my levels as of last night

specific gravity - 1.023
nitrite lvl - 0 ppm
nitrate lvl - 2 ppm
ammonia lvl - o ppm
Ph lvl - 8.3

I am not running anything major in my tank at the moment. I have a seaclone skimmer that is working well when looking the price and quality. I have an in tank pump running 850 gph that is doing a nice job of moving water around. I am still using the same light that i had on my other tank and the only problem that i have run into so far is that with the light over the middle of the tank I can see the shadow from the center brace but I can live with that.

So that everyone knows I am not going to adding much else into the tank for equipment. I know my flow levels might not be as high as some people might like them to be but for what I am looking for its going to work well. I am also not going to be running an external filter or sump for now if at all. I am very interested in having a filter-less tank set up. If I have to later on I may add a hang on filter but nothing major at all.

I don't have any other tests right now but I will be getting more as I need them.

There are a few fish and corals that I have my eye on at my lfs and I have a feeling that December is going to be a good month for my tank.

when I have more photos and info I will post.

I am doing this tank to show that to get into a 55 gal tank people don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a good looking tank.

Please tell me what you all think. There are no good or bad ideas or posts they are all taken in and looked at.

share your ideas with me please

thanks for looking

great progress, very nice

 

[darklcd]

its coming I was hoping to be further along but thats ok things happened that were not in my control so I am just taking my time. I just want the cyano gone thats all I am worried about but the power heads should help with that

 

[darklcd]

Lighting change?

I just finished cleaning the rock in my tank and getting all the cyano out finally but I was wondering if I should get rid of the fixtire I have and go with just MH lighting.

Right now I have one 250 watt HQI with a pair of t5 antics and I am thinking about getting rid of it and going with a 4' MH with 2x150 for my tank.

Any thoughts?

 

[apollothesun]

in my opinion, i would invest in a better skimmer before getting new lights.
i would ditch those rocks, they look to be man made.

 

[roscoe]

in my opinion, i would invest in a better skimmer before getting new lights.
i would ditch those rocks, they look to be man made.

I totally agree!

 

[darklcd]

I kinda thought that with them and they have not need in my tank for a while now. Everyone has told me to get a new skimmer but I actually don't mind this one. Its working not too bad I know there are better out there but for the moment its working. I am more concerned with lighting right now after seeing that the side of my tank don't have enough light on them.

I will get a new skimmer at some point but I am not putting any corals or anything like that in there for a while so I should be ok... in theory lol

 

[darklcd]

UPDATE

I picked up a chromis today to check and make sure that fish will live in my tank. while putting it in there I noticed that I have some kind of brown/orange colour algae growing on some of the rock. I have also seen some small strand like pieces growing as well

is this good or bad?

 

[NaTe R]

hey darklcd
now that something is growing in the tank i would say that's a good thing means somethings happening in there!

How long are you running that light u have on there?

did you only get one green chromis?

 

[darklcd]

just one for now and if it lives I am going to pick up 3 or 4 more this week I know that I should have got a few at a time but its just a start. my is on usually 12 hours a day from about 8 to 8 with the t5s first and then the halide

 

[NaTe R]

well dont be discouraged if that cromis dies, i haven't had good luck with those by themselves.

you mentioned earlier that you thought u dint have enough light, consider running the all the lights for no more than 8 hrs because light isn't going to cycle your tank, keep your fish alive ect. its going to help certain things grow but at this point you don't have anything you are wanting to grow, you know?

algae is just going to make you angry later no need to feed that crap with light.

when i started my tank i too pumped the light thinking that it would make things happen faster and got a bunch of stuff that i didn't want. and it was alot of work to get rid of it.

cyno is from not enough flow looks like you combating that pretty well with that big pump in there.

 

[darklcd]

I took care of the cyano last week. I got some chemiclean and scraped it off and I have been ok since. I have a couple wave makers coming and I know that will keep it away so I am not worried about it.

I usually run the lighting from 8 am to 8 pm with the MH from usually 10 am to 6 pm I have been trying to keep them ont hat schedule.

the chromis is doing rather well and if the others do well I am going to start the big stuff.

I am thinking about getting rid of my the lighting that I have and getting something that is actually 48" to cover my whole tank.

I have the 24" now with the MH and the t5s and its working but the ends of my tank are not getting hit well.