Jon's 60g

[jon.smolders]

Hey Everyone,

So after having my tank shut down for almost a year and a half, I’m getting the itch to set it up again. I’m a little concerned with setting up a tank here in Fort St. John because the nearest store that deals with saltwater is in Prince George which is 5 hrs away (although I can get some basic dry goods in Grande Prairie which is 3 hrs away). I’m thinking that most of my livestock will have to be shipped by air. Anyway, I’m just in the planning stages and want to work out what I want with this tank. I did a bunch of work to my last setup and still have everything so I probably won’t modify it much, but that being said I do want to lay out some goals and make any necessary changes.

Goals:
1. Low/Medium Tech: little money on new equipment. No controllers, vortechs, radions, dosers, etc. I basically want to work with what I have with a few exceptions…

2. Upgrade existing equipment: New heaters (mine are 14 year old Ebo Jagers), New Skimmer (14 year old CPR BakPak 2), etc.

3. Ease of Maintenance: Just in case I get sent to work out of town for two week shifts, I would like daily maintenance to be simple so my wife can look after it. This means auto top off with reservoir that doesn’t need to be filled every day, timer for lights, etc.

4. Compact and organized: My tank space is limited to part of a small room. No sumps in the basement or dedicated fish room. Just my “office”. I want it to look fairly clean and organized

5. Livestock: I am thinking I would like to stick with some easy corals and fish… probably soft corals or easy/hardy LPS or SPS. Livestock that would do well in a low tech reef.

Current Equipment:
• 60 gallon SeaStar aquarium, 48 x 16 x 16. Old, some scratches, but no issues in the 14 years I’ve been using it.
• 20 gallon sump (may switch it up for a 20 long or something similar)
• CPR CS 90 HOB overflow (have had no issues, even with power outages)
• Sedra KSP-7000, 700 GPH return pump
• 6x 54 watt T5 Tek Light
• Koralia and Penguin Power heads
• 150 watt Ebo Jager heaters. I would like to replace these.
• CPR Bak Pak II skimmer. I want to replace this too.
• Filter socks
• Live rock. Rock is dead, have about 30 lbs or so. I bleached it and am now in the process of giving it a vinegar bath. I’ll need to order some more live rock anyway.
• Sand. needs some serious cleaning too as it sat wet in a bucket for a year and went black from H2S. I’m hoping I can save it. We’ll see.

I had a makeshift refugium with chaeto set up last time, and would like to do that again. I may need to change my sump design to better accommodate a proper refugium and new skimmer. My sump was pretty cramped before.

Anyway, that’s about it for now. Thoughts and comments are appreciated. Anyone else run low tech reefs? Anyone live in Fort St. John or other “remote” locations (any problems running a reef when everything is so far away)? Any thoughts on an affordable but efficient skimmer?


Here are some pictures of my tank before I tore it down (Sept 2012), and a picture of it now in the room where I'm going to put it.

[pgtanks]

looks good so far, like the tank size and your goals are solid

[IanWR]

Looks like you are on the right track for a smooth restart. Maybe you could reconsider your first new livestock addition, that may not completely fit into your low maintenance goal. Sure is cute though.

As for ordering live rock, I wouldn't bother. If you need/want more rock, just order some base. I see that Eli has a nice selection of shelf and pukani. I would also get new sand. You don't want your nice new stable setup marred with unwanted algae.

Keep us posted with the progress.

- Ian

[FishyFishy!]

As for s cheaper efficient skimmer, you might want to look into a bubble magus. Maybe a curve 5 or 7. They are good, cheap, efficient skimmers. I have had 2 curve 7's, and they worked great.

As for the fuge, I see a couple options without having to modify too much:

You could add a glass or acrylic baffle on one side of the sump and connect it with your return pump to make the fuge. Simple and affordable. Just a piece of glass or acrylic and some silicone.

You could purchase a hang on fuge like a CPR. Or even modify an aquaclear 100 into a hang on fuge. If you look up "aquaclear fuge mod" you'll see a bunch. I have used many of these and they work fantastic.

Or you could stick with your current design, and use a 2.5 or 5 gallon smaller tank and place it within the sump. Then feed it with a pump or from your overflow. It would simply overflow back into the sump. Might look a little better than a bucket, and hold more volume due to the square shape.

Tagging along to see your progress!

[Leah]

Didn't know things actually bred in a tank.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Leah

Didn't know things actually bred in a tank.

Are you drunk?

Oh yeah....ditch the old sand...that sounds like trouble and a lot of extra work.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by FishyFishy!

Are you drunk?

Oh yeah....ditch the old sand...that sounds like trouble and a lot of extra work.

I think she was joking about the last pic with the Baby in the tank.

[jon.smolders]

Yeah I think I'm leaning toward ordering some dry rock from fijireefrock.com. Probably 25 lbs of pukani and 20 of Tonga shelf. You guys are probably right about getting new sand. I forgot I had already cleaned that sand a while ago.. and it smells ok now but who knows if it would leach anything back into the tank. Ill pick up a few bags of new stuff. Better safe then sorry.

I really like the vertex omega 130, but ill definitely check out that curve 7 too.

[GrimReefer]

Wow Jon....you've really gotten your money's worth out of that tank!!

[jon.smolders]

Originally Posted by GrimReefer

Wow Jon....you've really gotten your money's worth out of that tank!!

Lol, yeah hey. What did I pay you for it, $150? I just need to stop moving so much so I can keep it set up for more than a year at a time. Maybe next time we move I'll get a new one.