Just wanted to say hi to everyone on the board. I've been a lurker since around august of this year, but have been around on a couple of other boards across the net for the last year or so..
My experience in the hobby goes way back as a kid where my Dad started several fresh water tanks with a lot of the common types of fish (guppies, neons etc) which we kept for many years. I eventually moved onto larger tanks of my own and kept a couple of tiger striped oscars and 55 gallon tank with varying cichlids.
I moved around the country for several years and ended up back in my home state of North Dakota and was enraptured by salt water tanks by a friend of mine and started a small 20 gallon long over a year ago but was ill prepared to even run a SW tank and through many mistakes a move and horrible water lost the whole tank. I take the blame on myself since I made the decisions without doing the research and figured it was just salt, water, blend and add livestock right?
Well after loosing that tank I quit SW all together and sold off my tank supplies etc. Well not being the type of person to really let things beat me I started reading about a year ago.. I started on several forums just reading through threads and ended up getting books like Robert Fenners and many others to add to my personal collection. Even though I sold off my tank the bug still was with me as I've had fish in my life for so many years that it was like something was missing..
Then one day when I was just about ready to go start buying equipment to start my dream of owning a SW tank again one of my friends (the one who got me hooked) decided to get out of the hobby due to his family increasing in size and other issues and offered his 75 gallon system to me for a really decent price. After some thought I took the deal and ended up with the following system..
75 Gallon Aquarium (48L x 18W x 22H)
Hamiliton Tech Double Reefsun MH 175W lights
Melev's Type F sump
ASM G3 skimmer (no mods)
Mag 9.5 Return Pump
LifeReef Oveflow
Heaters
LR - about 80 lbs worth
2 - 150 w heaters
Cabinet
Full 5 Gal Bucket of Salt
Miscellaneous Stuff
The system had gone into disrepair due to his lack of time to attend to things and had a case of LHA that was a sight to see. It covered every rock, every surface.
My buddy lived 3 hours away, I got everything loaded up and transported to my place and started the process of setting up the tank.
So to try and make this long post shorter :lol:, I cured the LR in the dark to kill off the LHA and prep it for the tank, threw out the Crush Coral (I don't like CC personally) and bought new sand, more LR and got the system up and running.
I've added to it and now have the basic setup above but have added
2 Koralia #3's
1 Fluval 405 - for occational carbon use
50 lbs of LR
Switched out the 10k Bulbs for 14k's
re-plumbed the whole thing twice till I ended up with something that worked.. I have the overflow going into the skimmer section which feeds into the return section.. I then use the additional GPH from the Mag 9.5 to feed water into the third sump compartment which drains back into the center return area.
I have added cheato and mangrove seedlings (which will probably get moved to their own container) to the sump and sea grass to the display.
As he had no "live" livestock in the tank I have since purchased
1 - True Percula Clown
1 - Occelarus Clown
1 - Diamond Headed Sleeper Goby
4 - Pajama Cardinals (I was hoping they would do more than hover in the current
)
1 - Coral Beauty Angel
1 - Male Lyretail Anthias
1 - Bali Red Starfish (Fromia milleporella)
1 - Bubble Coral
1 - Colt Coral
1 - Colony GSP (which is taking over a rock very nicely)
1 - Toadstool Leather
1 - Colony Blastos
2 - colony's of Paly's
1 - colony of a pink Zoa
1 - colony of Hairy Mushrooms (already was asking questions about this in one of the forums)
Tried some Acropora and Pocillopora that I received frags from a local reefer but I found out that my coral beauty like them as late night snake food.
2 - Feather Dusters
5 - Tonga Nas Snails
20 - Cerith Snails
3 - Turbos in the display and 1 in the Fuge
5 - Astreas
4 - Peppermint Shrimp (had Aip problems)
I had like 10 Blue leg hermits but have found they become to aggressive as they get larger so they have all but a couple been removed.
I hope to eventually get a 'nem for my clowns as my female has taken to hosting in my Colt Coral.. I've been watching for any possible damage to either but so far so good.. I just have to find someone that has a decent RBTA that I actually like the colors on.. All the ones around here are more orange than red, and right now its just to cold for me to chance shipping anything.
The tank has been set up since late February of this year..
But anyway I'll also add a FTS of my system for those who are picture people and hope to chat with everyone more again with time permits.
Thanks for creating what I think is a great home for people who are interested in this hobby..
Anyway everyone -- Peace
Mark
My experience in the hobby goes way back as a kid where my Dad started several fresh water tanks with a lot of the common types of fish (guppies, neons etc) which we kept for many years. I eventually moved onto larger tanks of my own and kept a couple of tiger striped oscars and 55 gallon tank with varying cichlids.
I moved around the country for several years and ended up back in my home state of North Dakota and was enraptured by salt water tanks by a friend of mine and started a small 20 gallon long over a year ago but was ill prepared to even run a SW tank and through many mistakes a move and horrible water lost the whole tank. I take the blame on myself since I made the decisions without doing the research and figured it was just salt, water, blend and add livestock right?
Well after loosing that tank I quit SW all together and sold off my tank supplies etc. Well not being the type of person to really let things beat me I started reading about a year ago.. I started on several forums just reading through threads and ended up getting books like Robert Fenners and many others to add to my personal collection. Even though I sold off my tank the bug still was with me as I've had fish in my life for so many years that it was like something was missing..
Then one day when I was just about ready to go start buying equipment to start my dream of owning a SW tank again one of my friends (the one who got me hooked) decided to get out of the hobby due to his family increasing in size and other issues and offered his 75 gallon system to me for a really decent price. After some thought I took the deal and ended up with the following system..
75 Gallon Aquarium (48L x 18W x 22H)
Hamiliton Tech Double Reefsun MH 175W lights
Melev's Type F sump
ASM G3 skimmer (no mods)
Mag 9.5 Return Pump
LifeReef Oveflow
Heaters
LR - about 80 lbs worth
2 - 150 w heaters
Cabinet
Full 5 Gal Bucket of Salt
Miscellaneous Stuff
The system had gone into disrepair due to his lack of time to attend to things and had a case of LHA that was a sight to see. It covered every rock, every surface.
My buddy lived 3 hours away, I got everything loaded up and transported to my place and started the process of setting up the tank.
So to try and make this long post shorter :lol:, I cured the LR in the dark to kill off the LHA and prep it for the tank, threw out the Crush Coral (I don't like CC personally) and bought new sand, more LR and got the system up and running.
I've added to it and now have the basic setup above but have added
2 Koralia #3's
1 Fluval 405 - for occational carbon use
50 lbs of LR
Switched out the 10k Bulbs for 14k's
re-plumbed the whole thing twice till I ended up with something that worked.. I have the overflow going into the skimmer section which feeds into the return section.. I then use the additional GPH from the Mag 9.5 to feed water into the third sump compartment which drains back into the center return area.
I have added cheato and mangrove seedlings (which will probably get moved to their own container) to the sump and sea grass to the display.
As he had no "live" livestock in the tank I have since purchased
1 - True Percula Clown
1 - Occelarus Clown
1 - Diamond Headed Sleeper Goby
4 - Pajama Cardinals (I was hoping they would do more than hover in the current
)1 - Coral Beauty Angel
1 - Male Lyretail Anthias
1 - Bali Red Starfish (Fromia milleporella)
1 - Bubble Coral
1 - Colt Coral
1 - Colony GSP (which is taking over a rock very nicely)
1 - Toadstool Leather
1 - Colony Blastos
2 - colony's of Paly's
1 - colony of a pink Zoa
1 - colony of Hairy Mushrooms (already was asking questions about this in one of the forums)
Tried some Acropora and Pocillopora that I received frags from a local reefer but I found out that my coral beauty like them as late night snake food.
2 - Feather Dusters
5 - Tonga Nas Snails
20 - Cerith Snails
3 - Turbos in the display and 1 in the Fuge
5 - Astreas
4 - Peppermint Shrimp (had Aip problems)
I had like 10 Blue leg hermits but have found they become to aggressive as they get larger so they have all but a couple been removed.
I hope to eventually get a 'nem for my clowns as my female has taken to hosting in my Colt Coral.. I've been watching for any possible damage to either but so far so good.. I just have to find someone that has a decent RBTA that I actually like the colors on.. All the ones around here are more orange than red, and right now its just to cold for me to chance shipping anything.
The tank has been set up since late February of this year..
But anyway I'll also add a FTS of my system for those who are picture people and hope to chat with everyone more again with time permits.
Thanks for creating what I think is a great home for people who are interested in this hobby..
Anyway everyone -- Peace
Mark
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