Taking the Salty Plunge!

[Chemi]

The old and the new!

[Myka]

Welcome to the addiction!

What are the dimensions of your tank? A standard 55-gallon is 48x12x21" but yours looks wider than 12".

Fwiw, sumps do not have to be noisy. My system is definitely quieter than even the smallest air pump. There isn't even a whisper from it. I'd strongly recommend a sump because you can buy a much better skimmer for the sump for a much better price than hang on skimmers. It's tough to find a good hang on skimmer used. Don't bother with Remora skimmers or CPR Bakpak or a bunch of other terrible skimmers. The Deltec hang on is the best hang on you can buy and the Bubble Magus is good too. Those are the ones most readily available that I've seen/used. Either run the tank skimmerless or buy one that is really good. A crappy skimmer isn't worth the cardboard it's packed in, and honestly you're better of spending that money on salt for bigger water changes if that's the case!

Fwiw, Monti Caps are SPS too, just like birdnests. Both are relatively easy to take care of provided you can keep nitrate and phosphate low enough.

Don't be scared of live rock. I've been in this hobby over 20 years and I only use live rock on my own tanks. I run a tank maintenance company and some of my clients by dry rock. It takes sooo long for the tank to age. Those tanks always lose corals in the beginning where live rock tanks are easier to take care of at the beginning. Some dry rock is very heavy and not very porous which makes poor live rock. Good live (or dry) rock feels lighter than you would expect for the size of it.

Also, I never both with buying "live" sand. It's really not that live, and if you use live rock the "dead" sand will become live in no time. The same can't be said for dry rock though. It takes about a year for dry rock to become as live as live rock.

[Roskoreef]

about the rock... i think myka is spot on, there is advantages/disadvantages to live vs dry rock.

I used Dry pukani from eli@ fijireefrock.com, now i didnt acid wash or none of that i just rinsed with the hose and did a 24 hr soak in the tank with ro/di water, then a 100% waterchange and fill with saltwater and cycle. what happened, well first 3 mths i lost a bunch of corals, rocks had algae blooms, phosphate levels were higher..now 8 mths in my rock is startingto look like live rock, darker colour lots of coraline algae..

I went with dry rock because the pukani is super light and porous, plus i was feeling cheap and impaitient so i didnt wnt to pay for water weight. Ended up with a few problems..

Good side i was able to aquascape for as long as i wanted to, even tho i rescaped several times...

if i had the money, going back i would have tried to find live pukani rock.

my 2 cents

[Chemi]

Thanks Myka! Yes, it's a standard 55 with only a 12" width sadly. Ideally I'd like a 75 just for the extra floor space. I would like do have a sump Instead, just the noise and extra parts for potential problems is deterring lol! I do have the fittings and bulkheads already, as I was going to drill and plumb my old 90g FW, but I could get it out of the house to get the shop to drill it for me by myself so it never went sumpy. I think more so my problem is the actual action of drilling it. I'm sure it's not tempered, it's super duper heavy and the panes are 3/8" wide. I'm just really nervous about it, if the glass were to break, so would my heart! If I were to drill it, it would be through the back with a modified bean animal; 2 drains instead of 3. And there lies my other problem. Attempting a C2C weir, it would have to be glass rather than acrylic, so there would be no way of adding 'teeth' for safety. Also, the only spare tank I have is a 15Tg and I'm not sure if that would be enough room for a skimmer and such. Heater isn't a problem, I have an hydor inline.

That's what I was thinking too Rosko. I was thinking about picking up a few pieces from Eli just because of the interesting shapes, he shelves and branches.. I think it's going to be kinda hard to get a decent scape with only a 12" width. That's why I was thinking about mixing the dry and live together.

On another note, once I got the tank empty, I gave her a good scrub, and the reseal I have been putting off is definately overdue. Again, something I haven't had the pleasure of doing myself yet. So, 5 blades and 3 hours later, I have stripped the internal seams. That much time and all I got off was the silicone. Jeez, must have been a 1" bead at the bottom! Tomorrow is the acetone wash for the residual bits, tape it up and redo the seams. The trim was broken too, so hopefully I can pick up a replacement in the right size. The original trim didn't have the middle brace.