Phil D. Bowl Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 My wife and i have decided to build our first saltwater setup. we decided to go with a used acrylic 100g drilled (4 small in/outlets 1 large overflow) tank with a 20g sump. The tank has some light scratches but we aren't wealthy people by any means so the price was right and the scratches are fixable. we've tried to cut costs where possible, the tank was $200 and came with the sump and all the plumbing ( also a canister that is HUGE but the pump seems to be seized up ). the previous owner of the tank had used bio balls and the canister for filtration but i skipped the bio balls after several sources said "bio balls can be a nitrate factory". rather than bio balls ive filled the sump with about 8 hand fulls of cheato ( witch has already gone crazy! ive got more like 12 hand fulls now and have had to toss out several clumps ). We had 3 MH lights on hand ( old indoor growing equipment ) a 600w a 400w and a 250w. the 600 and 400 have ducted hoods and ive piped them away from the tank, both stay cool to the touch. the 250 is perfect for the sump. each is running 10k bulbs for now ( 15k is planned and LED supplement for viewing ) we have around 300GPH of flow in the skimmer, we use a rena X3 for a bit of mechanical filtration when needed, when its not i remove the media and use the pump to keep my cheato spinning. there is a 200w heater in the sump to help keep it stable when the house fluctuates at night witch holds us between 76-80. the tank has no stand, we had a bar built into a deviding wall in our house that was a few inches larger than 5 foot and the tank fit snugly ( stress tested before hand! ). the only issue with the spot is overhead clearance witch ended up being nearly perfect! the only problem is that i need to remove the lights fully to add live rock or larger fish because ive only got about enough room to fit my arm down in without moving the lights. we went with a mix of coarse crushed coral and sand, 60lbs of the coral and 40lbs of live sand. we added the crushed coral first, brought the salinity up and let the tank sit for 2 days before adding the sand. the sand clouded the tank badly so we left it be for another 2 days. after the tank cleared ( witch DID end up taking a bit of water clarification and mechanical filtration even thought the bag said otherwise! ) we purchased 2 10lb chunks of cured live rock and the LFS guy gave us 5 mixed hermits and 5 mixed snails and about 4 hand-fulls of cheato algae. we watched the tank for about a week for signs of a cycle and never saw anything, at witch point we added 2 clowns and 2 more 10lb chunks of live rock, only these chunks had some zoas and some other random coral bits attached. its been a bit over a week since we added the clowns and were starting to get some diatomic buildup and a little bit of hair algae on the live rock ( oddly its staying really short! only about 1 inch long... not sure why it stopped growing like that ) also some coraline starting to develop. i found a few 1inch across clusters in my canister filter of all places with some noticeable growth on the first chunks of live rock we bought. I cant stop looking into this tank. ive found so many hitchhikers its mind-blowing! i cant even identify half of them without asking a friend ( who im sure is tired of me bothering him!) we do have some hitchhikers who some say are pests and some don't mind. ive spotted bristle worms, mostly small ones one thats about 3 inches, aptasia, i can see 1 single polyp but i don't dare touch him till ive got the right stuff to deal with it. Ive also spotted some small white starfish that ive IDed as a possible coral eater but i cant recall the name. ( ill attach a pic ) also vermitid snails, dozens of them, they worry me the most. ive had to pull web out a number of times to make my zoas happy and if i feed the tank ANYTHING they all barf out there white web. i think a larger cleanup crew would keep the web in check and i wont be as annoyed by them. in the next few days i will be removing the 20g sump and replacing it with a 50g 3 chamber DIY sump. after that ill be building/buying a skimmer and a cleanup crew and grunge from GARF. after all of that i will be adding dry rock. another 100lbs. were talking about going with tufa (at 15 cents a LB you cant beat that price) but ill be testing it for a few months in RO/DI water to see what if anything is leached out. im also considering DIY mixed agragocrete but im not 100% sold on that yet! Tank front 100g by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr tank back by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr empty sump by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr 20g sump full by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Sump rubble by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Live Rock by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr 20g sump by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Worm on LR by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Worm on LR again by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Green sponge looking things by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr starfish tentacles by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saltfinsax Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 Try and wait another month before you add to much. I know it hard hehe. Waiting on some pic's and welcome to the sight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 We wont be making the cleanup crew order till the first week in december. Im a bit leerey of putting 100 heads of cleanup crew in at one time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 well my LFS had blue legged hermits for 50 cents each so i grabbed 50 of them today for $25... he also sold me a 6-line wrasse to help keep the vermitid snails in check (crossing my fingers it works but if not he looks nice!). i hope he stays docile! if not he can be all alone in the sump... hes very healthy looking. nice and bright! ill try to get some shots of him when he chills out... i haven't seen him since we let him loose... we also picked up 5 more tonga snails bringing us up to 6 of them. pics coming tomorrow! long day... tired! got that deal at Oasis in Redmond if anybody in CO is looking.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted November 14, 2011 Share Posted November 14, 2011 Your screen name is funny:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 @Mandinga, Thanks! So we traded out the 20g sump witch was bowing badly.... we switched out a 55g freshwater tank and set it up as the new sump... 2011-11-13_22-18-34_476 by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 And heres the six-line wrasse! its super hard to get a pic... any movement spooks him back into his hole... 2011-11-14_09-35-54_781 by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 2011-11-14_09-35-22_513 by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 heres the cloud i kicked up setting up the new sump. we added out cheato but still need some walls in the sump to keep things spinning correctly... plus i want some sand or mud in a section of the sump at some point... and more LR! 2011-11-13_19-35-47_530 by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil D. Bowl Posted November 14, 2011 Author Share Posted November 14, 2011 heres a closeup of the algae bloom that is taking over... looks like its slowed and started falling back... crossing my fingers! 2011-11-14_09-36-35_956 by Phil D. Bowl, on Flickr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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