New to the hobby, went overboard...

[Fahzza]

Hello all...

Just thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Aaron and I am an addict. I recently built a house and while detailing out some of my master plans for the house...I made a joke with my contractor about how it would be cool to have a giant aquarium in my wall... too many dollars later... I now have a 72x30x24 tank halfway installed in the wall of my office/living room. viewable from either room. it's pretty sweet. (Except my contractor borked up the install, and now i got a new one redoing it. also scratched the crud out of the inside of the tank)

The original plan was to make it a reef tank...however I'm scared of nuking poor helpless corals due to rookie mistakes so I've decided to make it FOWLR for the time being. Which is turning out to be equally scary as it will be my first Saltwater tank. Previous experience was freshwater tanks for many years...

Anyways I just thought id stop by and say hi! hope to meet some cool and awesome people to share my new addiction with!

Aaron

 

[dawguy]

Welcome and good luck, any pics? I learned it the hard way but patience is key, hard for me as I don't have much!

 

[user 26995]

whoo hoo! another big tank build.

Oh welcome to RF. Glad to have you. Cant wait to see you build thread in the "over 300 gal tank" forum.
you've come to a great site. Lots of helpful people here and a lot of good info. All the info here will help you work out any issues or questions you may have. Check out the forums and see what everyone else is doing. And ask questions.

Again welcome to RF.

 

[Fahzza]

Thanks! here is a pic from 5 minutes ago. and one from the other night while messing with lighting.

plumbing is happening tomorrow. little worried about that...think i got swindled on my skimmer.

 

[oldsaint]

Hello Aaron! Welcome to RF!
You have a great project going. If the scratches are light enough you might be able to buff them out. Would be much better to try now than to put it off. A little warning, it's not easy or fun but is possible on light scratches.
Good luck with the build. Looking forward to your build thread and seeing the system develop.

 

[Fahzza]

The scratches are light, but i cannot reach them I have to find someone with monkey arms or hire a very small person to crawl into my tank.

 

[oldsaint]

The scratches are light, but i cannot reach them I have to find someone with monkey arms or hire a very small person to crawl into my tank.

If they are light, you may not notice them when it has water in it.

 

[spieszak]

If they are light, you may not notice them when it has water in it.

but the algea will love to grow in them....

 

[kpiotrowski]

Welcome! I went from freshwater straight to sps with no problems so don't be too afraid. I would be careful to only buy reef safe fish if you think you may do the reef anytime soon ( which is usually sooner than you think lol) this is a great place to get much advice but it will always be up to you to provide detailed information,and sort through all the input.

why do you say you may have got swindled on your skimmer?

I just did a 300g build last year....took like 8 months and feels like yestderday. great fun but also high stress!

 

[Fahzza]

I cant find ANYTHING on the brand. It's a bubblemax. I got it from a store down south (Tacoma Area) where I had received such terrible customer service that i'll never go back. thats why i think i got swindled

 

[kpiotrowski]

is that an aquamaxx brand bubble max? got pics? did you buy it used? how much? can't talk bad about sponsors.....but you can pm me their name.

 

[Fahzza]

well I didn't see them on the sponsor list and hopefully the fact that I didn't name drop makes it ok?!?! either way i'll refrain from such activities in the future, I'll go take a pic of it. bought it new

 

[kpiotrowski]

any skimmer that would be rated for that tank would $550 and up. hopefully your not far off from that.

 

[Fahzza]

Here is a pic of the label on it as well as most of it's body...it's sitting in my sump at the moment...don't mind the dust. We are redoing all the cabinetry above the tank. I paid $400 for it. It says it's rated for 300g.

 

[kpiotrowski]

make and model of the pump? $400 new is not outragous.

 

[oldsaint]

make and model of the pump? $400 new is not outragous.

Don't feel bad. I just spent $900 on my skimmer for my 300gal.

but the algea will love to grow in them....

You are sooooo right about that.

 

[TangDr]

Welcome to RF. Your tank looks very nice. I have an 8x2x2 acrylic that I have been learning with for about 15 months. If the acrylic scratches are light as you say, don't worry about them on the inside. If they are deep enough to catch a finger nail, you will probably need to wet sand and then buff to get rid of them.

I have a friend who has rare earth magnets rigged up to remove acrylic scratches from working tanks.

 

[Fahzza]

It's a bubblemax PS2500

 

[Fahzza]

Well, Had a guy who's been doing reef tanks million years come over and look at me setup. Skimmer is in fact what i suspected...rubbish, and the sump and pump are too small. so much sadness. Poor Amex

 

[kpiotrowski]

Well, Had a guy who's been doing reef tanks million years come over and look at me setup. Skimmer is in fact what i suspected...rubbish, and the sump and pump are too small. so much sadness. Poor Amex

pump one the skimmer or are you talking return pump.

one of the best skimmer Iv'e had and currenly have is made very cheaply but never the less has a good rep! its and swc extreme cone 250. quality of workmanship and thickness of acrylic.....I would call it rubish too! just saying you never know. but that scw 250 http://www.swcskimmers.com/product10.html which is pure GARBAGE as far as workmanship outperforms the other skimmer I run besided it on the same system which is a http://www.aquacave.com/Reef-Octopu...r-P2589.aspx?gclid=CJS_sYqSgr0CFYhaMgodxAIAfA

meanwhile my sro 5000 above is at least as high of quality as this http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/vertex-alpha-250-protein-skimmer.html?gclid=CNjZpMmTgr0CFeZAMgodc34AWQ but disn't cost over $1200!

if your garbage skimmer ends up being good enough then you could have don't much worse for $400 new. don't beat yourself up too much.

now what about this sump and pump being too small?