[NoRemorse]

Well, we had a catastrphe in our last tank (it was a young tank) and lost all but 2 fish, our cheapest 2. Well, this kind of opened the door for getting a larger tank., starting over and doing it right (taking our time) Well, last night I went out and bought an upgrade. I replaced my 33gal tank with a 55gal tank. Right now it is running 'ghetto' with a hang on the back filter meant for 50gal, and a 36" light hood (the new tank is 48" long, standard 55gal dimms) but I have plans over the next few weeks.

Current Set up:
50gal rated hang on back filter
125 gph power head
36", 90w lighting
200w in tank heater


Set up that i'm building:

sump
(2) 150w in sump heaters
1000gph pump for sump
overflow with always promed syphon(im excited that the tank will always be full, even with evap)
48" 260w actinic/10,000k lighting
'moon lighting'
refugium in the sump


Need more live rock as well

Current tank inhabitants:
(2) 'Condy' Anenomes (one pink, one purple tipped)
(7) Blue banded Hermits (need a lot more for this new tank)
(1) Sally light foot crab (aggresive, we'll see how he does in the new tank with more room)
(3) Mexican Turbo Snails
(1) Margarita Snail
(2) Blue Damsels (currently in the 10gal qurentine tank due to illness)
(1) 'Chocolate Chip' star fish


Ok, now for some pics. Tey look terrible because there is not enough lighting on the tank, and the dust hasn't all settled yet after putting the substrate and rock in


you can see both anenomes here, especially the pink tipped one.


Much better pic of the purple tip. you can see how there is NO lightiong on the right side of the tank. We're keeping out temp lighting over the condy's, as they need light


Both aneomes


rubble pile

[NoRemorse]

full tank with bad lighting






Condy's

[NoRemorse]

rubble again


dark end of tank



sally light foot and 'choclate chip' star fish

[ncdiablo]

Sorry to hear about your loss on your original tank. Not sure if you should keep your aggressive sally lightfoot. Doubt she will "calm down". Your live rock seems so clean, where did you buy it from? Only thing I worry about is that your snails and crabs won't have much from the live rock to eat. I guess you will have to supplement their feedings. Is that crushed coral on the bottom of the tank?

[NoRemorse]

Originally Posted by ncdiablo

Sorry to hear about your loss on your original tank. Not sure if you should keep your aggressive sally lightfoot. Doubt she will "calm down". Your live rock seems so clean, where did you buy it from? Only thing I worry about is that your snails and crabs won't have much from the live rock to eat. I guess you will have to supplement their feedings. Is that crushed coral on the bottom of the tank?

actually, the rock on the right is mostly 'base' rock. the rock on the left is the start of our live rock collection for the most part. The base rock at the right is more or less going to be a 'foundation' for the live rock to come.

Yes, that is crushed coral on the bottom. Kinda wish I had sand instaed, but the coral is what I had, so it's what I'll use.

And on the crab, I had planned on giving it away to someone not planning on a reef tank, but I really want to keep it, it has so much character!

[WillLovesFish]

Nice looking tank. Good idea for sure to upgrade your tank/equipment etc...

Just a few suggestions though, you might want to get rid of the fake plants, they collect a ton of junk on them and are no good. I started with fake plants and found out the hard way, ditched them now.

Second, I too started with crushed coral, lost about 10 fish in a matter of a few weeks after cycleing the tank. Found out it was because the crushed coral holds a bunch of nitrates in it and kills your fish. It's bad stuff and I found out the hard way. Now switched to live aragonite sand and have yet to loose any fish to date. Plus, all my levels are near perfect

[NoRemorse]

Originally Posted by WillLovesFish

Nice looking tank. Good idea for sure to upgrade your tank/equipment etc...

Just a few suggestions though, you might want to get rid of the fake plants, they collect a ton of junk on them and are no good. I started with fake plants and found out the hard way, ditched them now.

Second, I too started with crushed coral, lost about 10 fish in a matter of a few weeks after cycleing the tank. Found out it was because the crushed coral holds a bunch of nitrates in it and kills your fish. It's bad stuff and I found out the hard way. Now switched to live aragonite sand and have yet to loose any fish to date. Plus, all my levels are near perfect

Man, this thread is more than 6 months old!!

Very soon after thos pics were taken, the tank was replaced with a 55gal, 360w of lighting, A sump, skimmer, probably 80lb of live rock, and about 50lbs of sand. Have a decent amount of coral, and the number of fish are growing.

Maybe I'll take pics this week.

[WillLovesFish]

Lol, ya sorry, I just sorta noticed it was so old after I had already posted
Anyway, glad you put in sand and made some other upgrades, 55 gallon is a good size
For sure post up some pics if you can.

[reefcouple]

yeah post some new pics, its always cool to see before and afters...

[thussain93]

try to lay low on the moon lights because at least for me they caused excessive algea growth so keep em to a minimum like 2-3 hours