The Budget 25G Tank

[Boomboy]

Well as summer comes and goes and my caving and backcountry travel has slowed down ( but not stopped oh no never) I had the ich to spend some money :) so i figured why not start up another reef tank YEAH!!!!


but then the wife stepped in and was like we just spent a bunch of money on gear, and im currently unemplyed so that doesnt help, anyone want to hire me?:mrgreen::mrgreen: no seriously im a great worker. But i wasnt going to let that stop me, so i just went into my fish storage, and grabbed whatever i could find and put it all together.So you might be looking at it and being like why did he do that, or why doesnt he do this, but you have to remember its whatever i have in my storage. so if you have ideas to improve it let me know, and i will see what i have.

So far the only thing I have spent money on was the 2x4s and some plumbing parts. everything else I have.


Here is the equipment list
25G - 3 sides viewable 24x12x20, Display is 19x12x20 Herbie style overflow with 3/4" drain.
Lighting - 1 Lumen Max 3 - 250 Watt with a Hamilton 250W 14K HQI
Return pump- QO4000HH split into 2 loc lines
Heater- Stealth 100W
Viewable Refugium - 8-10G lighted by a 100W bulb
Flow - 1 K4


For this tank i really want to keep mainly LPS with a few leathers and put some softies in the refugium as you can see it, and about a couple of SPS or so. I wont be dosing anything or adding any kind of chemical doo-da to the tank, just 5G water changes every week.

my fish list so far is as stands i dont want to many i want to keep it simple.

2 onyx clownfish
pair of yasha and pistol pair.
a blennie of somekind
i prefer inverts overfish in such a small tank.


Current projects - finding free macro algea of various colours in edmonton.


oh and one picture for you guys.

These are some tanks ive set up before.


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/HPIM0741-1.jpg




http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/DSC00845.jpg



http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/HPIM1713.jpg



and now one of the new one.


.....

[Boomboy]

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009048E.jpg


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009057E.jpg

[Boomboy]

here is a picture of the sump with the viewable fuge. its a little more yellow in person.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009058.jpg

[BlueAbyss]

:lol: Not bad for stuff you had lying around.

[Boomboy]

THANK YOU ABYSS, first comment.:lol::lol:

yeah its because most of it came off of my 80G cube that crashed in a move :microwav: :cry::cry::cry:

so that helps. next week planning on adding a few clean up crew members do a water change and then go from there. i dont plan on adding fish anytime soon, just corals and inverts.

[Boomboy]

got some macro algae for my tank so heres a new shot of it.


http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009084.jpg

[Boomboy]

yeah i have flatworms, i got them from my macro algae i think i also have red bugs yeah also from the macro algae, thanks alot Blue World, at least i dont have any livestock in there except a fire shrimp.

[BlueAbyss]

Bound to happen with macros... they harbour anything from what you mentioned to all kinds of 'pods. All the macros in my tank grew in naturally, so I only have copepods and amphipods. I've come to realize that I'm very lucky... the only bad things I've had are Bryopsis (that sucked) and I've seen a hitchhiker crab and a lone flatworm.

[Boomboy]

yup, cant blame the fish store just sucks that i got em, they even gave the macro for free. just want to clarify it is still a great fish store.

[Boomboy]

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009077.jpg



http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/September2009059.jpg



http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/fishtank.jpg

[karazy]

if i were you i would do a freshwater dip on the macros right away to try to kill as many flatworms as possible (dip for about 5 minutes)

[Boomboy]

ok im off to to that right now

edit: just did it, it works wonders, just dumped all my macro into FW and they just fell right off, just going to have to do that every once in a while, and syphon out as many as i can when i do water changes, first one will be this weekend, also thinking about adding 5 pounds of liverock from a LFS to help with pod population and growth of tank.

also cleaned up those wires so they are hanging around everywhere.

[fishytime]

Good to hear your making some progress with the FWs Looks really good man....in that one picture the tank almost looks cubish...Im in the middle of doing a 25g myself, very similar to yours(3 sides viewable)....sound like a cool stocking list....whatcha gonna do for corals?

[Boomboy]

thanks, i just realized i made one of my pictures really small.

well for most people the stocking list always changes

still want
yasha and randalls pistol
i saw a blenny that i wanted maybe bi coloured ( not sure i need to get a picture, saw it in the LFS and wanted it but held off)
an pair of oxyn clownfish. i think that is about it.
i want one more fish but not a common one, any ideas?

other live stock
fire shrimp


for corals

frogspawn
torch
few brains (open and maze)
1 or 2 acans, those pretty ones. :biggrin:
a few other lps corals
the only sps i want are monticap ones, green and orange or red. not lots of room for to much growth.
some softies would be toadstool leather, and some other uncommon ones
blue cloves
some deepwater zoas when i see em i'll buy em.
RBTA
and maybe gorgans if i feel like feeding but that would be the last addition.

for my fuge some pulsing xenia, red and purple mushrooms and any soft corals that dont take up to much room and dont need alot of lot light.


i will get pictures of the corals that i want but my computer crashed on me, and not sure when i will get another one anytime soon, hopefully sooner than later. right now just working on letting the tank settle and adding more macro algea that is red and purple, and adding pods to the tank. making sure that my CUC can keep up also.

[Boomboy]

well i said i would get pictures, to bad they are with a crappy camera. but here they are


new frogspawn frag, super tiny.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture029.jpg


red monti
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture042.jpg


close up
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture041.jpg


actinics, almost looks like a superman
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture045.jpg


just wanted to show how fast this stuff grows
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture048.jpg


picture of my fish though it doesnt do it justice, the top part is reflective near the front of the face
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture069.jpg


just playing around with the camera thought it was a fun shot
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture068.jpg


close up of blue xenia still not happy as base is not attached yet.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn15/Boomboy85/Picture076.jpg




some other things that have changed. added carbon. put in dracula goby, cant find it now, probably dead as i also have rescaped the tank like it a bit better than it was before.

added the following

1 frogspawn
1 monti
blue pulsing xenia
yellow candy hogfish
candy pistol shrimp

i bought the dracula to early i guess and it was just so scared it hid and i could find it, dont know where it is now.


fish list has changed besides the yellow candy hogfish which has reflective upper part, i want to get a good shot of him so everyone can understand. and a rainford goby and of course another goby for the pistol shrimp.

[JDigital]

I wish my hogfish was out more.. :cry: Stupid 6line keeps him hiding in a rock... I only catch the odd glimpse of him when the lights are off before going to work... sometimes he sneaks out while the rest are sleeping to grab some prey.

Red monti looks great!

[lorenz0]

love the tank and that monti looks super happy where you have it.

[Boomboy]

thanks guys. i absolutely love this fish. never seen one like it before, i think because he is the only fish he isnt so shy, likes me and comes up to me but not when anyone else wants to see him.

sad news cant find my dracula goby when i rescaped i have no idea where he is, and now my pistol went somewhere in the tank and i wasnt watching dont see a hole dug out or anything so hopefully he gets to eat some food.

i really wish i could take great photos like you JDigital, would be nice if i wasnt using a point and click camera that looks like its 10 years old.

[Boomboy]

GOOD NEWS!!! i found my fishy.. he took a ride down the overflow express and ended up in my sump, thought he was dead because i rescaped and he wasnt anywhere to be found. YEAH!!! now maybe my pistol and him will pair up.

[fishytime]

That is great news.....you can add the sump as one of the first places to look for missing fish.

[Boomboy]

HAHA i did look there, it was under a flat piece of rock in the sump, i never took all the rock out though. but i definatly will look there from now on.