dimanche 9 avril 2017

Sarting fresh, need advice before I move on

OK, I introduced my self in the introductions but I am posting this thread to start a discussion on what I hope to accomplish and so others can advise and direct me to other posts and lead me to questions I can ask in other specific locations.

I will start with what I have and where I would like to go. I will also include my daydreams and hair brain ideas.

I currently have a 29 gallon tank. It has 15# of live rock and about 10-15# of dead rock I hope to seed for my later transplant. I also have about 4" of dead sand covered with 10# of live sand. I have a 12" snowflake eel that the wife and I love to death, a maroon clown, a humbug, and a yellow belly damsel (don't know its real name was sold as "assorted damsel"). I am running a small powerhead a small HOB filter, a small intank skimmer and heater. It has a Coral Life T5 twin bulb light with 1 day light and one actinic bulb. Now this is as far as I want to go with this save maybe adding a few more pounds of live rock and an anemone for the clown. But only if the nitrates level out, we are having a bit of an issue on that front. But we just added 9 pounds of live rock and the 10#pounds of live sand. We will see how things go.

What I would like to do: I have a 100 gallon older glass tank that is 18X18X72. It is not drilled nor do I want to risk drilling it since I have no idea what it is made out of and is fairly well scratch from years of use. I also have 2 Sieo 2600 power heads and A SB Reef Light 16" basic. Thats it the rest is a blank slate. I am a DIY guy so want to tackle as much of this build from scratch if I can.

We want a reef tank that is concentrated on the ends and has free swimming space in the center. This tank has a wide glass center support so we want to focus the light on the two open areas. I would like to do a refugium next to it that is a visible part of the over all system where we can grow macro algea and mangroves as well as other plants that is a focal piece all of its own. Since I don't want to drill the tank I figure a homemade acrylic refugium that will sit slightly higher than the display tank and have the main pump pump up to the the refugium and gravity back to the display.

My thoughts are two of the SB Ref light 16s one over each opening. I would like to do an in tank or hang on DYI skimmer. I also like to due my own artificial live rock so that I can do a custom insert for either side that can then be loaded up with natural live rock as well. We would like to keep the eel and have been warned he may not be reef safe. If he proves to be a pest we might consider him take up residence in the refugium.

So that's basically where I want to go with this. I want to have the set up ready to go, equipment bought/made and tested before populating it. I figure I have a year or so to get this accomplished. If doing the artificial live rock I can start that soon and allow it to cure out in the tank and then start seeding it. I figure adding sand and then live rock slowly as I aquire the other stuff I will need.

OK guys let me hear what you have to say and be gentle. This dream is moldable.


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