Rhody's 225g plunge + 80g learner

[rhody605]

So I figure I will start with a background update.

I grew up on a farm 30 mins west of Edmonton. On which we had a man made pond 26 ft deep stocked with rainbow trout.

As you could probably imagine fish have been my liking for a long time.
But being around fish so much has also lost some of the allure as well.

Didn't stop me from getting a 33g fw tank right after I got my first job. It was stocked with simple fish danios and such. Being young and dumb I didn't keep care of it. But my mom did. Lol.
Few years passed and I moved out but my mom kept the tank.

So about 2.5 years ago I found on kijiji a 135g oceanic fw tank stocked with cichlids. Basically a steal I thought. $500 for slick looking tank with stand and lights and 150lbs of rock and crushed sea shell gravel and about 25 fish. First week fish got ich. A first for me. Which meant I didn't know any of the signs. Another first was google leading me in the wrong direction. I dosed salt as per recommendations of a fellow cichlid keeper. Lost half of the fish. Ended up setting up a 75g qt and used ich tablets. And did a 100% wc. Problem solved. A few months passed and fish were doing great even breeding.

At this point my salt water research began. Fw fish seemed boring to me. Cichlids are good but coral and sw fish are on a different level.

Bring us to aug 2011 I took the plunge and bought my first sw tank setup. From kijiji. An 80g with stand, 33g sump and small return and plumbing. To my knowledge I thought it was a good deal. But skimmer I got was broken. Lies. Lights were supposed to be included. Lies.
So saying that I researched plumbing and redid it. Bought a aqua-medic turboflotor skimmer. And a 120w led light fixture.

Plumbing was not fun. Previous owner used vacuum PVC for plumbing so bulkhead hole were too small. They used one return and one drain. Not very safe eh. So I had to polish the old holes in the over flow to fit proper bulkheads. And piped a new return up over the ugly eurobrace on opposite end of tank from the overflow. Yay success.

So bring us to feb 2012. Designing for next tank has been ongoing since shortly after acquiring the 80g system and seeing fellow can reefers systems.

I was wanting a 180g with dimensions of 72" x 28" x 20" (l x w h). external overflow. Was debating rimless or eurobrace. But eurobrace was edging out rimless. One reason being cleanliness. Constant cleaning and I aren't great friends.


Came across a new 225g (72 x 24 x
30 tall) for a little under half price. Not my favorite dimensions but external overflow and saving a lot from new price. I had to jump on it. Money saved = more equipment.

Pics to follow soon


Mike

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[AquaticFinatic]

Good luck with it and will be tagging along for the ride.

[rhody605]

Pics of beginning of 80g learner.
Sorry for the bad quality pics. They are all from iPhone.


Ugly tank at first.



Needs a good cleaning.


Black live sand.



On stand. Tank was completely covered in algae.


Sump.


Full of dirty water.


Some kijiji live rock.


Start of redoing the overflow plumbing.




New led light



Mike

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[rhody605]

All white light mode


All blue




Sacrificial strawberry top snails. But they never died. Woot.


Aqua medic



Sump.



Mike

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[rhody605]

3 green chromis

I still have one. The other 2 did die. I am quite sure cause was under feeding. I was told by a lfs to feed less than 1/3 of a mysis cube per day. After first loss I upped feeding and no fish losses since.


Cleaner shrimp. I think these guys are cool. Started with one I didn't die so I got another. First shed scared me. It was stuck to the side of a korlia. But saw that shrimp was hiding. Little bugger. Lol


Can see how dirty the sand was.
A few times with the siphon. And it looked much better.


Mike

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[krausean]

Along for the ride
I'm sure there's lots here for me to learn from!

[MarkoD]

nice, is that the aquagiant led light?

[rhody605]

The led light is a simple eBay made in china light. 120 watt. 120 led. 50/50 white to blue. Bridgelux LEDs. It is really bright. I should have it higher than I do. But didn't want to have it hanging. It simply sits on top of piece of glass on the canopy. The top of the canopy is recessed for glass. But the glass was missing.

I chose the china led light cause it was very bright. Had the twin switches and twin power cords (one for blue and one for white) and for less than $200 delivered.

For some sps coral the light burned the polyps right off. Lesson learned.
Those were 2 different bird nest corals. Purple digitata and I got a tri-color acro that love it.

Now for more pics.

Shrimp hiding

That pic reminds me I didn't mention much about the live rock yet.

I bought about 50lbs live rock off kijiji for a great price. Hindsight it was a good deal. But cherry picking rock would be a better choice if money wasn't a driving factor. The pieces are oddly shaped to fit into a small tank. Got the ol pile of rock happening.

So I wanted rock with more flat spot so I could make shelves. So I bought some dead rock from a small lfs. I wish I knew about Marco rock. The pieces I got are almost massive. Small rocks mixed with flat ones would have been much better.


Go go big snail


Coral ! Pulsing Xenia.
Some call it a weed but a beginner like me found the pulsing so cool.

Lots more coming.


Mike

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[rhody605]

Another type of
Xenia. Not sure the name of it. This one doesnt pulse.


Domino damsels. A lot of people hate damsels. They can be aggressive depending on the tank mates. They are really fast.


Mike

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[rhody605]

Here's a pic of a shed from a cleaner shrimp. It's quite something to see that even the whiskers shed.


Frog spawn.



Mike

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