Hey guys! its been awhile since I updated my old builds/done something new. Our old tanks are still up and running but I decided I wanted to try something 'new'. Sooooo I bought a red sea reefer 525XL and it gets here tomorrow!
So some of the things I wanted to focus on in this build was making everything easy. We are setting up auto waterchanges on our 120 and will eventually set one up on this as well, you just don't need it for the first month or so.
couple of things we are doing differently this time:
One last note, Steph normally does all the work on our fish tanks.. she brought me into the hobby but this will be the first tank that is "mine". The attached picture is our load bearing wall where the tank is going to sit minus the cat thingy and stroller.
So some of the things I wanted to focus on in this build was making everything easy. We are setting up auto waterchanges on our 120 and will eventually set one up on this as well, you just don't need it for the first month or so.
couple of things we are doing differently this time:
- barebottom - I want to have a ton of flow and when I tried to do this with sand it was everywhere! PLUS I hate cleaning sand.
- the first year will suck.
- refugium - oddly enough we have never had one before, so its on the list.
- super strict QT for coral+fish - we've had our fish QT for awhile but we are converting one of our old tanks into a coral QT as well.
- Last time I did sticks, we got AEFW from a well known/trusted store. we dipped and looked with a magnifying glass but still missed it... destroyed all my sticks.
- being patient - I am super impatient... this time I am taking things slow. we are doing a 4 month long cycle for coral, fish in around 1 month or when safe for them.
- actually taking photos/posting in our build thread! I am bad at this.
- less tank turnover - more flow.
- I want to have more flow in the tank, to keep the bottom clean of detritus/keep food particles suspended for coral/fish to grab instead of just wasting away.
- rockwork only up to the halfway point of the tank, mainly so corals are getting blasted by light.
- also not putting rock against the back wall so I can clean behind it if needed! (don't look behind our rock in the 120! lol)
- going to be using real reef rocks with a couple of dry rock foundation pieces... I didn't want to use any dry rock but with the barebottom its kind of hard.
- better coral placement - our 120 was our first tank and you can tell by looking at it. We never prepared for growth.
- lighting... not 100% sure what we are going to do but:
- no MHs... they are great and simple but the electric bill hurts so bad. also they mess with water temp/room temp.
- most likely some sort of hybrid T5-LEDs... or maybe all LEDs?
- no AI Hydras, I just haven't had any luck with them for sticks... this could just be because I had other issues but I blame it on the lights! (don't we all blame other stuff?)
- I am thinking radion XR15s with diffusers but I am not sold on anything yet.
- Placing the lights higher than normal, to try and get a blanket of par instead of the huge differences, this goes along with the only have rock half way up the tank.
- calcium reactor need to learn how to use one, its an SPS tank so I figure why not.
One last note, Steph normally does all the work on our fish tanks.. she brought me into the hobby but this will be the first tank that is "mine". The attached picture is our load bearing wall where the tank is going to sit minus the cat thingy and stroller.
