kicking it up a notch

[Haus]

Fifteen years ago I hopped back into the fishkeeping hobby, getting the biggest tank I'd ever had (65 gallons), and taking on a new challenge at the time--the live planted tank. Leaning hard on the guys from Reef Encounter in Hackensack, I was digging in and had a fun thing going.



Until, life....marriage, three moves, and three kids later, things didn't look so good anymore! After my most recent move, the heater broke and overheated everything, the tank fell into disarray and I just couldn't pull it back together. Old Tank Syndrome....Getting Old Syndrome....whatever it's called, I finally caved and broke down the green water box and moved it down to the basement, much to my wife's delight.

Fast forward, and my oldest is the age I was when I first had a tank, my youngest is old enough to want to be part of everything, and my middle one is an inquiring mind. And I have the itch again. So time to start a family hobby, but kick it up a notch. I'm ready for my first reef.

Almost a year of research (shout out to the BRS 52 weeks of reefing videos: 52 Weeks of Reefing - Bulk Reef Supply), equipment gathering, preparing for setup, and with the long-distance help of one of my oldest friends and new Reef Mentor, setup day arrived. And Captain Barnacles was on hand to keep things in order:


Tank is my old reliable 65-gallon, I bought circulation pumps and a heater, and I decided to keep my light, a Catalina Aquarium 2x39W T5 high lumen. I'm considering that a low to low-moderate light for saltwater, but would love some feedback on that.

Then came the waiting....I had started with dry rock to avoid hitchhiker surprises, so I had soaking rock for 2-3 months before I wanted to put anything live in. Nothing good happens fast in a tank setup....but while I waited, I hooked the RO/DI system into the basement plumbing for easier maintenance going forward, set up my Brute with saltwater and a circulation pump for a water change reservoir, and filled up buckets with fresh RO/DI, and after a couple of months started my water change routine to get in the swing of things. I decided to set up a hang-on refugium for chaeto and pods. I also added a hang-on skimmer from radiata (thanks again!) just prior to adding fish. Between the two hang-on pieces, all 36 inches of width behind the tank are taken, lol:



For the fuge, I bought this one from Bulk Reef Supply: Large AquaFuge2 Hang on Back Refugium with LED Lighting - CPR Aquatics
I didn't like how the chaeto was looking, and watched their own research video comparing lighting in a refugium, which included the strip light this unit came with. Based on their video and my observations, I changed to the outdoor flood light in the picture. I can't say enough about how much I've enjoyed learning from the BRStv videos.

That's my setup....it was fun, and it's been great getting back in the hobby and truly special sharing it with my kids. When my girls saw the conch's radula for the first time, they were appalled--and my son loved it! He always looks for Conchy when he comes down to the basement, and he picked my September POTM entry:





Thanks for sharing your experiences online and setting up this club and website--it's been an awesome resource for information, entertainment, and some awesome hand-me-downs. Hoping I can share all the same, and pay forward the generosity I've received going forward.

 

[Haus]

Forgot to show the outcome:

 

[Trio91]

Is the foil in the rear for heat insulation?

Also what are your future stocking ideas?

Great start up btw, you'll be reap the rewards by taking your time on this build

 

[njtiger24 aquariums]

looks good man

 

[Haus]

That's duct insulation. I didn't like the look of anything else behind-with all that hang-on equipment I can't really clean the back glass, and anything I tried back there made the glass growth look awful. The reflection of this sort of hid that. I've monitored the temp and there wasn't any change with it. I'm curious if the reflection will have an affect on coral growth at all. Interestingly the back of the rock never had the diatom growth compared to the top and front. Not sure if that's related.

Stock-wise I have 2 banggai cardinals, 2 true percula clowns, 3 yellowstripe cardinals, a tailspot blenny and a firefish. Contemplating adding a mandarin in the future-that was one of the main reasons I wanted that fuge for pods. Inverts I have are a tuxedo urchin, a fighting conch, a linckia star, and several snails-cerith, turban, and trochus. Definitely want to add a cleaner shrimp.

 

[Mark Shelly]

I understand why everyone wants to avoid hitch hikers. It is hard to keep an ecosystem in balance when it is this small. Having said that, the hitch hikers have been one of the favorite things I like about my tank. They make it feel like an ecosystem vs. a show tank. Pleasant surprises were yellow, purple and black sponges, pods, fan worms, different colors and types of coralline algae. Not so desirable were aiptasia, eventually asterina starfish (I liked them at first), green and now red bubble algae, colonial Hydroids, and cyanobacteria. The only deliberately introduced hitch hikers were the purple sponge and the purple coralline algae (which can also be a pest). There were also pineapple sponges, blue sympodium coral, a flat snail I can't remember the name of, many different types of worms and other live creatures that look like branches or trail threads in the water. I have some mat algae and did get some type of creeping algae. And this is after dipping corals before introducing them to the tank. So unless you keep corals isolated in another tank before placing them into you tank, expect to get hitchhikers. Having said all this, the hitch hikers are part of what makes my saltwater tank so interesting to me.

 

[Haus]

I agree, and look forward to some of the hitchhikers I'll have in the future (and recent past). I just wanted a clean start, get to know the tank from ground up, and deal with learning the ins and outs of saltwater maintenance before having to recognize and, if necessary, problem solve the unexpected. Going from dry rock made the process longer but helped me take time to learn and research everything as I went, instead of diving right into the livestock.
I did dry rock with live sand.