tlhood's first tank - 34g RSM 130D

[tlhood]

Hey all! I thought I would start a tank journal, as I get the impression that my friends and coworkers are getting annoyed by the constant bombardment of snail pictures. I just recently got into the hobby after a friend of mine set up her reef tank over the summer. She had wanted one for a long time, and introduced me to the joys of reef keeping (although I have no corals yet) and the sadness of empty wallets.

Since I'm still a student, living at home, and working a crappy barista job, I didn't want to start with something super expensive. Perusing the interwebs and forums, most of the tanks I saw were ginormous and had sumps, which I didn't feel comfortable starting with. I then saw the "Plug and Play" option, and started hunting for a gently used affordable piece. It took about a month, but a gentleman in town saw my add and I ended up getting a 6 month old RSM 130D and the matching stand for a total steal. The only parts I've had to replace so far are the lights.




First problem: How to get the tank home. I drive a little Mazda, and it was sketchy for a moment on whether or not I'd actually be able to get the tank home in one trip. It must have been hilarious for the neighbours to watch. We first tried putting the tank in the trunk, but although there was enough space, the actual opening was too narrow. So we tried the back seat. The bottom of the back door narrowed too, and we couldn't squeeze the darn thing in. Then I had a brilliant light bulb moment. We flattened my front passenger seat, and angled the tank in through the front and pushed it over the seat into the back behind the drivers side. We followed a similar technique with the stand, which ended up barely carving a hole into my dashboard and balanced precariously on the passenger seat. Good thing my friend bailed on me, or he would of had to sit on the roof

Got everything home safely, both tank, stand, and car intact.


I decided to buy an RO/DI unit for two reasons. The first being that I'm too lazy to go to the store and get water there, and because it's cheaper in the long run, apparently. I bought mine off aquasafecanada. Shipping was great, packaged nicely, and I was also able to buy an aerator adapter so I wouldn't have to hack into the cold water line of my moms house. Little did I know...



Problem 2: Faucet aerators are the devil.
Apparently certain faucets have aerators that need keys, and after severely scarring the one upstairs where the tank was, I decided I would have to go another route. I ended up ordering a T compression valve from Auqasafe. I tried to find one at Home Depot, but they didn't have the size I was looking for, and I swear I knew more about plumbing than the guy that was helping me. I got the part in just under a week. The entire time I was installing the RO/DI, I kept hearing "You better not flood my house!!!!". The result:








Problem 3: It was leaking under the counter.

After an hour of trying to figure out why the tube kept leaking, I remembered a small plastic insert that came out of the tube when I was trying to connect it to the aerator. I plopped that back in and took off the Teflon tape and tada! No more leaks.

I bought 20lbs of rock from a woman across town, and 8lbs from Wai's on 16th.


After rearranging the rocks a billion times, I settled on a structure and started to cycle the tank. I didn't want to add any livestock until after the holidays as I was going to be away for a week, and I didn't want anything to go wrong. I did, however, get some algae bloom before I left which I was probably way too excited about.