Well since things have started to smooth out and I am on my way to a bigger project, I’d like to go ahead and introduce myself.
Hello, my name is JR and I am a “Reef-aholic”. What can I say? I am hooked. I’m a newbie to reefing but like most folks I have to say I was baptized by fire. I’ve been a freshwater guy for close to 20 years and always wanted a “saltwater” tank. You can imagine my surprise when I asked “What the heck is a ‘reef’, ‘FOWLR’ (Fish only) etc.??? All I want is a ‘saltwater’ tank!” Well this past September of 2013 I made the jump. A family member completely inspired me when I saw pictures of his tank with anemones (BTA), a torch, flower pot, clownfish, green star polyps (GSP’s), etc. Oh yeah, Acronyms, that’s always fun. So his 30-gallon cube inspired me to run to the store one day to get substrate and some salt, lol. In my twenty years I’ve had a 20-gallon hex all this time amongst other tanks. I used to nurse Tiger Oscars in there before moving them to my 55 gallon. This tank was in my basement empty for 10 years, so I said “what the heck” (I’ll expand on pain points later). So as with most mistakes some of us have done...I listened to my Local Fish Store (LFS) rep. “Yeah, here’s some salt, crushed coral, and the canister filter you have will be enough...oh a hydrometer”. Years of having fish tanks and I figured sure, I have plenty of equipment for this. So I washed the heck out of the tank, dropped in the rinsed crushed coral (like I said, I’ll get to pain points later), whipped out the old Magnum 350, and started using the “Zero Water” filter to start and mixed the salt (I believe I started with Oceanic). This was a Sunday morning around 7am. By 1pm I was so fed up with water filtering I ran to the supermarket for distilled water. I popped in a couple of power heads I had laying around, kicked on the noisy Magnum and we were off. Monday morning rolled along and I had a crystal clear running tank, WOO HOO! No kits, no clue, and the words of the LFS were my guiding light. “Yeah, come back next week for some rock, and the following week we can put some clownfish in” (oh brother….but hey, he didn’t suggest damsels). So a week later I picked up a total of 26 lbs of live rock (live and dry) @ $7.99 to $8.99/lb OUCH! I believe it was around this time I joined The Reef Tank (TRT) and familiarized myself with the Nitrogen Cycle. In essence, there was NO WAY I should be introducing something into the tank in a matter of weeks, lol. Uh oh….test kits! So, I picked up a API Reef Pack (more pain points). It was around this time a buddy said I should get a protein skimmer...queue the spending. Well the levels were stable and BAM, just before a business trip the ammonia spike began, I was ecstatic as I had been checking like a madman every night. So I watched the cycle Ammonia -> Nitrite -> Nitrate, until it was all nitrates. I have to say this was at least over a month. Water changes and I was ready.
The stocking begins:
I went to another store LFS and liked the place. The selection was great, but WOW it was pricey. I began my underwater family with Two False Percs and a fire shrimp with a cleaner crew, eventually a Brain Favia, a nice size Zoo colony, a chunk of green star polyps (GSP), peppermint shrimp, two green emeralds, red and blue legged hermits, and some snails. I had read about drip acclimation, so that’s what I did.
Status check:
So there I was, a 20 gallon Hex, 26 lbs of live rock, two fish (Elvis and Pricilla), coral, cleaner crew, canister filter (Magnum 350), a heater (Aqueon), insufficient power heads (Aqueon), a protein skimmer (CoralLife 65…ugh, but the break-in period was cool!)….and yeah, a $40 Marineland LED strip for lighting. A tank packed to the gills with no room and inadequate lighting. Oh….and the number of empty distilled water gallons was so atrocious! It was literally obnoxious, so I had to buy a RO/DI…a blessing; because when Target didn’t have water for days I was like….”*****!”
Lighting:
“Why the hell did I buy coral??” Because they are amazing. Well then my lighting better be amazing. LED’s, Metal Halides, T5’s…..kill me!!! LoL. Long story short, if I had found the newest Radion at that time in the store I was at (thinking $800), I would have bought it, but I am really happy that I saved a buck and bought the AI Sol Blue with wireless controller. “OK, $500 bucks later and how much am I into a 20 gallon tank???”
Status check:
I honestly think we’re just around three months now....I think.
So my tank was “up and running” and despite all the warnings (while reading threads) and the immaturity of the tank, I bought……wait for it…..a BTA (Bubble tipped anemone). We named him Edgar. I had walked into a Petco one day and said wow….the tanks aren’t that bad, but hey, the price is right to buy from here and save some creatures who were "eh". So I bought three more Zoo frags (love the dragon eyes), a Goniopora (pink, really tight polyps), a yellow fiji leather, and my BTA…happy and healthy. First off, when I saw the girl pry him off the rock, I should have just taken the rock as well. Lord knows what damage could have occurred (hindsight after reading about tearing the foot). All creatures were dripped and placed in the tank. I planted Edgar in a spot, his tips were full, and I was happy. This too was a Sunday. Monday morning “Where’s Edgar?”. Hidden under a live rock, flat, spewing his guts. I was dressed for work...i did not go to work. I watched this thing all day while reading up on TRT, Reef Central, 3Reef, Manhatten Reefs, WHATEVER! Direct feeding helped but this thing was NOT HAPPY! A month in and he would move and move and move and at times blow around the tank. Well one day I came home from work, the skimmer was on the fritz, the motor was jammed and Edgar was in there. The house stunk and toxins were in the tank. I had 15 gallons of salt mixed and I was off to the races. I was a fool and a creature suffered from it.
So there I was, my first casualty, a fresh tank, tons of equipment jammed in there, and the look of “what the hell have I gotten myself into?” So it was at this time I said “These power heads suck, they’re ugly and take up room, I’m tired of cleaning that Magnum, I think I have a flow problem, and why do I need mechanical filtration”. So I took a chance. Magnum removed (and by this time I already jammed a bag of chemipure in it and used filter floss – oh the amount of changes), removed the two crappy power heads, nailed a Vortech MP10 for $78 on eBay, and just ran a skimmer. “Holy ‘S’! It looks so much better!”. My HOB (Hang on back) skimmer, my MP10, My AI hanging above (oh geez the articles on the right light cycles), and oh yeah….surface scum. Ok, tossed an Aqueon back in to toss the surface. So….I was….”happy”.
Status check:
With the rest mentioned above, I think I had tried Kent Salt, finally got myself a Refractometer, a bunch of Salifert test kits (The strontium kits take SOOOOO LONG! And why was I testing strontium? Because I had a supplement kit for which I had no idea why I purchased), and finally ended up with a Red Sea Pro Salt special from BRS. Oh yeah, a bottle of Purple Up popped up around here too.
So the days start moving on and my corals are ‘ok’, have been moved around a lot, some happy, some not, trial and error and all of the sudden….”Hmm, look at that tuft of hair algae. My Emerald crabs or hermits didn’t give a crap about it. I pulled the tuft out by hand and that was that…or so I thought. Hair there, hair here, hair between Zoos….HAIR EVERYWHERE? “Phosphates? What are phosphates? My API tests isn’t showing any Phosphates” Well no matter what thread you read, it’s true, if you have hair aglea YOU HAVE PHOSPATE ISSUES!!! I kid you not, I didn’t bother looking for a test, I picked up a GFO reactor from BRS on special...another blessing. But where did I put it? A MJ1200 pump in the tank (Italian version, whisper quiet) and two unwilling to bend tubes coming up and over the tank top to a reactor that I perched onto an old TiVo box (no pics ******!). Two weeks I stared at this disaster of a display. But you know what? The hair was disappearing….I was happy…but I had an ugly, ugly, ugly tank. Not only was it jammed packed, but the flow sucked even with an MP10 at full. There was just too much going on. The answer “YOU NEED A SUMP!!!”. Ok, so I have a 20 gallon Hex with matching gloss black (very 90’s) stand. The tank measures 21 high, and the 6 sides are 9” each. The stand was slightly tighter. I measured and measure. The bucket sump will not work…..but a 2.5 gallon will.
Status check:
This is about the time I became a DIY freak!!!!!!!!
I made a 3 chamber 2.5 gallon sump, homemade pipe overflow (1/2”), and enough room to hold my skimmer and use my MJ1200 + GFO reactor (actually it runs carbon and GFO, but I just run GFO) as a return. Snug as a bug and I actually impressed myself. I used 45 degree angle in my plumbing to eliminate any toilet bowl flushing sounds. The tank drains into the first chamber with a bag of chemipure. The first baffle has some floss that’s super simple to change out. This is followed by the next chamber for my skimmer which has a drain hose to a wine bottle (all that really fits, lol), another baffle with bubble trap, and there is my MJ1200. This pumps up to my reactor and into my tank. You may ask yourself “2.5 gallons, aren’t you afraid it will overflow?”. It has…this morning (5/30/2014). A light fixture I had in the stand was stuck to the bottom of the tank with double stick tape. It fell into the skimmer chamber and drove it wild. The wine bottle overflowed….but the acrylic tub I made inside the stand base is capable of holding 2.5 gallons of water, just in case (should be enough for a siphon break on my return or drain.
