Tieg/Stacey's 33 gal Reef :)

[Tieg]

So we are starting the cleaning up process of this used 33 gal tank we got from the LFS for $300. It came with a set of LED lighting (model ECORAY60D), a new heater, and pump, and 2 used korelias. We intend to put soft corals in it and maybe 2-3 fish later on down the road. I'm fortunate to have a LFS store going out of business nearby and is giving me established Live rock, live sand, and water so hopefully my cycling of the tank will be minimal I hope. We'll be holding off on adding anything to it though till I know for sure how it will work out. I'm being given a 50-60 lbs rock that measures out at 18" tall x 8 x 7ish and it has a couple small colonies of zoos that I have to take with it so they will be test platform I guess One of my big questions...if you look at one of the pics there is a lot of old white coraline algae on the black plastic that will not come off if I had a hammer and chisel which would break it anyways lol. Should I make every attempt to get that stuff off or will it work out? Here are some pics of the cleanup as well as I'll be adding as the process progresses.

 

[Krish]

Man coralline can be a pain!! Not sure what would remove it other than a good scraping. Hopefully someone can chime in with a solution. I know vinegar is used to clean up a lot of things in tanks so that may be an option. Soak it in some vinegar and then try scrape it? Or maybe wet/sand it with a very fine grit sandpapaer seeing it's just plastic? :noidea:

Other than that, it looks like a nice tank and a nice setup! Looking forward to seeing it up and running.

 

[Tieg]

Man coralline can be a pain!! Not sure what would remove it other than a good scraping. Hopefully someone can chime in with a solution. I know vinegar is used to clean up a lot of things in tanks so that may be an option. Soak it in some vinegar and then try scrape it? Or maybe wet/sand it with a very fine grit sandpapaer seeing it's just plastic? :noidea:

Other than that, it looks like a nice tank and a nice setup! Looking forward to seeing it up and running.

Its a pain...I've been using a combination of a steam cleaner and a scraper. Its not going to be perfect but I'll have 3/4's of it off.

 

[Krish]

Well in time it will probably purple up again so I wouldn't worry too much unless you plan to keep the back clean at all times.


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[Tieg]

No...actually we like the additional color.

 

[Skimmy]

muratic acid from hardware store will take all that coralline off in an hour or so, and safe for reef tanks as long as you rinse very well
hot water and a few gallons of white vinegar would help a bit too

 

[jrgilles]

muratic acid from hardware store will take all that coralline off in an hour or so, and safe for reef tanks as long as you rinse very well
hot water and a few gallons of white vinegar would help a bit too

Yea, what skimmy said. But, if you don't care, just leave it. I don't clean my back glass, so in my system it would all be covered up again anyway. Just leaving it is definately the easier solution....

 

[Tieg]

Thanks for the input peeps. I actually got about 75 percent of it off with the steam cleaner, putty knife, and good old elbow grease. Tank actually looks pretty good. Tomorrow I intend to put sand and water in it and then sometime this weekend the big rock. I'll post pics as we progress

 

[Tieg]

K...got the Sand, water, rubble rock (my bio balls) & Cheeto in the back all in the tank. Little cloudy at the moment but should be settled out quite a bit by morning.

 

[user 26995]

That is such a great little tank.
My first thought was, Oh, that would make a great seahorse tank.
So what are your plans with it so far?

 

[10gnano]

nice start...Sweet find on the tank as well

 

[Tieg]

That is such a great little tank.
My first thought was, Oh, that would make a great seahorse tank.
So what are your plans with it so far?

My wife wanted to put seahorses in it...but she did some research and came up with this:
1. Tank is to big. The measurements are 19.5 x 19.5 x 19.75 which comes out to about 33-34 gals. There is a whole bunch of variables she found indicating they are in need of a small tank unless we want like 30 seahorses in the tank which is to much. If anyone wants to know her resource which was online let me know and I'll prompt her to give it up lol.
2. She wants soft corals: Zoo's, frogspawn, mushroom, ricordia, etc which require a certain amount of flow in the tank and seahorses don't like flow in the tank.
3. She wants 2 or 3 fish in the tank...nothing agressive. Clown fish, wrasse, etc and seahorses are not big fans of other fish I guess.

She was dead set on seahorses at first but then after reading up on it all the cons out weighed the pros for what she wanted in the tank. So mini reef tank it is.

 

[Chichas01]

You could do Seahorses in that tank, but no other fish other than maybe pipe fish if you go that route.

 

[WaGuy82]

Definitely not too big for seahorses, unless you're keeping dwarves.