My New Upgrade.....Again

  • Thread starter Thread starter DD
  • Start date Start date
DD

DD

"Rambo"
Hey everyone,

I am upgrading again lol! So when I decided to set up a reef tank after having freshwater for many, many years, I wanted to do a test run to see how I would like it. Well needless to say I really like it!

I started off with a 6 gallon fluval edge. After seeing many examples of beautiful reef tanks setup in the edge, I was amazed enough to give it a shot. Unfortunately, it's quite possibly the worse designed tank functionally. Aesthetically it's a gorgeous tank, just a real pain to work in. Below is a pick of the edge right before I took it down and transferred everything to a 10 gallon tank.

View attachment 10259

So after taking everything and transferring it over to the 10 gallon, I installed a CPR HOB Fuge; the small model, an mp10, and also a par 38 bulb from Prestige-LED. Great bulb by the way! Here is a current pic of the tank:

View attachment 10260

So now on to the new build. I purchased a used 27 gallon marineland cube. I really like the shape of this tank and it has a ton of potential for aquascaping. I'll go through some of the equipment I'll be using on this tank.

Lighting: D120 from Kratos' group buy. Thanks again Kratos! I'm still not 100% sure how I'm going to suspend the fixture, but one idea so far are to use 3/4" copper pipe and solder it into a stand of sorts to hang the fixture. I used to work for my father doing plumbing back in the day so sweating pipe is no big deal.

Filtration: I purchased a brand new CPR HOB Fuge. The unit I have on the 10 gallon has a big 1 1/2 elbow which I don't like, the new model just overflows back into the tank like an hob filter. The design is much better IMO. It will be filled with sand, chaeto, and marine red kelp, along with some rubble.

Heating: A bought a finnex digital titanium heater. I'm a bit worried now because roughly 1/8th of the reviews are not real good.

Water movement: Ecotech mp 10. Awesome pump, didn't like it the first day, but now I love it.

The plan is to move everything over to the cube and take down the 10 gallon. I have a friend who is interested in reefing as well so I am going to pass it on to him.

Below is a pic of the tank. Please excuse the mess lol! It's in my home office so I had to do some creative arranging to fit the tank in.

View attachment 10261

As far as fish go, I'm thinking a flameback angel, yashia goby, a geometric hawkfish, a wrasse (open to suggestions), maybe a clownfish. I am open to suggestions on fish.

I'll do a complete stock list after I get the tank set up and everything transferred over. I'll probably add some more rock as I saw some really nice tonga branch.

I will keep this updated as it progresses. I hope to have everything up and running by this Saturday.

As always I encourage any tips, advice, etc.

Thanks :)
 
Don't know if its tapatalk or what but the pictures aren't loading for me.

Sounds like you got a great game plan.
 
steveo9043 said:
Don't know if its tapatalk or what but the pictures aren't loading for me.

Sounds like you got a great game plan.
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Thanks, yeah something messed up is going on with the pics. I'm going to try and fix them right now.
 
ddiomede said:
Thanks, yeah me too lol! Thanks again for setting up that group buy for the lights! I can't believe how awesome they are!
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You are welcome :) Glad you like them! I wish I could keep my tank clean like yours.

Maybe you should do a dry run with the lights over your new tank to see how it looks and take some pics? lol
 
kratos1028 said:
Thanks! It could always be cleaner though lol Now time to get the new lights up and running :D
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I would take a pic with them above the tank but have no way of suspending it right now. As soon as I build the stand for it I will post some pics right away!

On a side note- I just blinded myself with them again lol! It was worth it though!
 
Alright, quick update on my new tank:

The tank is currently filled with freshly mixed salt. Filled it last night and let it run overnight to allow the salt to mix thoroughly. I built a temporary stand out of 3/4" pvc. It's ghetto, but it will work until I'm able to get over to my dad's house and rummage around all of his construction materials he has laying around. Probably gonna do 3/4" conduit, do one 90 degree bend, paint it black, and then mount it to the stand.

I've added two more 5lbs bags of live sand. Bought 11 lbs of some rock. Not sure if it's technically tonga branch, but I'll get a pic up as soon as I can.

One thing that sucks is when I added the sand, boom, sandstorm lol! I've got a surface skimmer running in it with some filter pads and carbon. Hopefully it will clear up soon so I can start scaping it.

Here's a pic of the light mount and tank half-filled with water.

View attachment 10415
 
Another quick update:

Tank is up and running, everything from the old tank has been transferred over.

Ran into a couple of snags along the way but they worked themselves out.

For fish, I started out with a flameback angel and a yashia goby. Then added a geometric hawkfish (cool little guy) through Walt's DD group buy thanks again Walt! A couple of days ago I stopped by AP and bought a female bluestar leopard wrasse. What a beautiful fish!! As soon as I added the leopard to the tank, the flameback went ballistic! I almost lost my mind trying to net it one night during the week! Pulled half of my rock and still couldn't get it. Will offered to let me borrow his fish trap, thanks Will! The trap is pretty awesome, but unfortunately the angel somehow knew something was up! I felt like Wiley Coyote and the angel was the roadrunner, I kept anticipating a giant anvil to come crashing down on top of my head lol! Well, I'm a pretty patient person, but I lost my patience and just pulled all my rock out of the tank, caught the fish, then had to rescape. The only positive from this experience was I ended up with a couple extra unintentional frags lol! Luckily Dave at AP agreed to let me bring the angel to him, thanks Dave! I've been adding a bunch of corals and stuff to the tank, too much to list right now, but I will soon.

Tank is a bit cloudy after the water change and the rock I added so that I could glue my z/p's to something. Glued them up to some rock and I think it looks much better. Added a three mini colonies from Sho Tank, Thanks Matt! Also added a few things from AP.

During the Reefwise mini meet up, I browsed their selection but didn't see anything that really jumped out at me until I walked over to the QT rack. That's when I saw the candy hogfish! Well, now I have my own Walt sticker on the tank and will be picking up the little fella on Wednesday. I can't wait! Thanks Brian!

Well here is a quick shot I took today, excuse the mess as I am in the process of cleaning. The tank is a bit cloudy from moving and glueing frags.

View attachment 10723

I'll be taking a ride up north next weekend to pick up my macro lens that my friend keeps "forgetting" to bring with him on his trips into the city. He's had it since June, but it's also my fault for being too lazy to drive up there. Considering all the miles I've put on since setting up a reef tank, I should just make the drive up.
 
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