[Jareth]

My in-laws decided to give us their aquarium, and as it is our second I decided to go with a reef aquarium. I have to wait for taxes to get the parts that allow me to add corals (pre-filter $100, sump tank $250, an additional 50 lbs live rock @ $2-$6 a lbs, a UV light $180, protein skimmer $180).

As for cycling... It sat 2 weeks with live sand, rock, and a standard over-the-back filter. Then I took a sample and tested well. Salinity was fine, and the cycle had started. I'll be adding more live rock to build the reef, and that will be that before taxes. I wasnt planning on adding corals till I got the rest of the "kit" listed above, so that means feb before I add corals.

9/26/7
Building a list of the items I will be buying for the system.

Sump Tank: Oceanic Systems Reef Ready Sump (cant find it on the web anywhere, but I know it exists) $249.99
Associated Plumbing: $100
Submersible Sump Pump: Danner Mag-Drive Supreme 1.5 140 GPH Water Pump $29.99 (Now this Im not sure of. I have a 36" tank, 46 gal Bowfront, the sump will hold ~10 gal of water. How many GPH should I have?)
Wavemaker: SCWD Wavemaker - Switching Current Water Director $34.99
Protein Skimmer: AquaC Urchin Pro In-Sump Protein Skimmer w/ Drain Fitting + Rio 1400UL Pump $230.95

10/14/7
OK have added life to the aquarium. 2 hermit crabs, 2 Red Honeys, 1 Blue Damsel. Im still toying with what I want to do with the rocks. I should be getting 20lbs more rock in there in the next month or 2.

I have also built the list of corals and fish I want to add to the aquarium.

Corals:
Blue Lobophyllia, medusa coral, star polyps, green & blue zoanthid mushrooms, and a yellow toadstool mushroom, Bali green coral, and green balloon polyps.
Fish:
Blue velvet damsel, maroon clown, yellow clown, huma huma trigger, yellow cube boxfish, flame angel, naso tang.

That above is a post I made on a personal board. Figured I would post it here for ideas and suggestions. I plan to add a small plenum to the tank and know I might not be able to mix the boxfish and the trigger together, but I welcome any suggestions and will update it with the equipment I plan to buy.

[Jeremy0322]

The return pump will just need to keep up with the overflow, or however you plan on getting water into the sump. That way there will always be an equal and steady flow. As for the sump, 250 is alot of money that you man not need to spend. There are sites all over the place(Melevsreef.com in particular) that offer excellent examples and instructions on how to build your own sumps. A 10 gallon tank is like 15 dollars new if you can not get one for free and then you just need glass cut. Look a while on here, there is sump questions and examples all over the place. You also may want to look into a bigger Clean Up Crew, what you have now may not be enough in the future, just a suggestion though.

[Jareth]

Hrm, that poses another problem then. I dont know how much the pre-filter is going to syphon out.

I'll check that site for a sump, I figured it would be easy to set up but I have this habbit of thinking that then spending twice what just buying pre-made would be.

And I deffinately want more of a clean up, just did not have many critters for them to clean up for. I plan on a few blue-legged crabs and a snail, but I am concerned about snails cause they reproduce so quickly (at least freshwaters do).

[Jeremy0322]

Sumps dont seem that hard to do. When I was looking up alot about mine, which was about 3 days ago, all i did was go to the equipment forum and hit ctrl+f on the keyboard, type sump, and just read every thread that had sump in the title. I am sure i missed a few, but just google it too, it does not seems that complicated.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Jareth,welcome to reef builders.Jareth because you are my new friend I am going to save you 200$'s right off the bat.Can the idea of spending 250$'s on a sump,thats a giant waste of your tax money.You can do much better by buying a used tank and build a sump/refugium out of it.We can tell you how.And your tank will be cleaner and more stable because of it.
And since I am going to save you all that money I want to help you spend some of it.Take your tank to an lfs near you and get it drilled for a real internal overflow,have the overflow installed and get bulkheads for only 75$'s.Then you will be on your way to a happy healthy professional looking tank.OH.and by doing it this way you wont need that prefilter either,another 100$'s saved.Hey what are friends for right?Now you are 225$'s ahead of the game but you didnt tell me about lights,what are your thoughts in that direction?

[Jeremy0322]

How much on average is it to get a tank drilled, i was contemplating just getting one of the hang on overflow boxes

[NATIVEVAMAN]

I had a tank drilled,bulkheads installed,overflow built and installed and a blue background installed for 75$'s.

[dhboyd1]

Jareth, welcome and I hope you have many happy days on the reef. One snail isn't even close to enough. Unlike freshwater, saltwater snails come and go so get several. My redleg hermits like to pull my snails out of their shell, eat them and then take their shell. I have plenty of empties on the bottom but the redlegs seem to like the occupied ones best. Nativeman knows his stuff so listen to his advice as well as others here that have been doing it for awhile. A ten gallon tank at Wallyworld is $10.00. Finding a glass store to cut you some pieces of glass for the internal bulkheads is pretty cheap too. Silicone glue (aquarium safe) shouldn't be over $20.00. So tell us about the lights.

Triggers and damsels are pretty aggressive fish and will probably harass your boxfish. Triggers have been known to eat equipment in the tank so having everything out of the tank will help too. Triggers aren't usually recommended for reef tanks and are recommended for tanks of 175 gals or larger. If you know someone with a large tank then you can get fish that are small and when they get too big for your tank trade with your friend. Flame angles should'nt be added until your tank is stable for 6 months. I have read several post in different places that flame angles are dieing pretty quickly for some unknown reason with average lifespan of 6 months in captivity, so check it out before you buy.

Good luck and come back often.

[Tonz of fun]

Originally Posted by Jeremy0322

How much on average is it to get a tank drilled, i was contemplating just getting one of the hang on overflow boxes

My store charges 10 bucks a hole or 30 bucks max.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

10$'s a holesounds about right,but this guy built an acrylic overflow and put the window tint plastic on the back of the tank too.

[Tonz of fun]

Originally Posted by NATIVEVAMAN

10$'s a holesounds about right,but this guy built an acrylic overflow and put the window tint plastic on the back of the tank too.

Thats sick!!!

[NATIVEVAMAN]

lol I know,and theres no pill for it.

[jimw369]

Originally Posted by Jareth

My in-laws decided to give us their aquarium, and as it is our second I decided to go with a reef aquarium. I have to wait for taxes to get the parts that allow me to add corals (pre-filter $100, sump tank $250, an additional 50 lbs live rock @ $2-$6 a lbs, a UV light $180, protein skimmer $180).

As for cycling... It sat 2 weeks with live sand, rock, and a standard over-the-back filter. Then I took a sample and tested well. Salinity was fine, and the cycle had started. I'll be adding more live rock to build the reef, and that will be that before taxes. I wasnt planning on adding corals till I got the rest of the "kit" listed above, so that means feb before I add corals.

9/26/7
Building a list of the items I will be buying for the system.

Sump Tank: Oceanic Systems Reef Ready Sump (cant find it on the web anywhere, but I know it exists) $249.99
Associated Plumbing: $100
Submersible Sump Pump: Danner Mag-Drive Supreme 1.5 140 GPH Water Pump $29.99 (Now this Im not sure of. I have a 36" tank, 46 gal Bowfront, the sump will hold ~10 gal of water. How many GPH should I have?)
Wavemaker: SCWD Wavemaker - Switching Current Water Director $34.99
Protein Skimmer: AquaC Urchin Pro In-Sump Protein Skimmer w/ Drain Fitting + Rio 1400UL Pump $230.95

10/14/7
OK have added life to the aquarium. 2 hermit crabs, 2 Red Honeys, 1 Blue Damsel. Im still toying with what I want to do with the rocks. I should be getting 20lbs more rock in there in the next month or 2.

I have also built the list of corals and fish I want to add to the aquarium.

Corals:
Blue Lobophyllia, medusa coral, star polyps, green & blue zoanthid mushrooms, and a yellow toadstool mushroom, Bali green coral, and green balloon polyps.
Fish:
Blue velvet damsel, maroon clown, yellow clown, huma huma trigger, yellow cube boxfish, flame angel, naso tang.

That above is a post I made on a personal board. Figured I would post it here for ideas and suggestions. I plan to add a small plenum to the tank and know I might not be able to mix the boxfish and the trigger together, but I welcome any suggestions and will update it with the equipment I plan to buy.

PLease research your livestock again. You are just asking for all kinds of trouble with that list of fish and corals. Please take into account your tank size also. Sorry!

[Jareth]

OK, I guess I went to the right place. First things first then...

Sump: I am looking into it again now. All I knew about sumps was the basic idea of a drip-tank (using live rock) into a stable tank with filters where I could store my pumps, header/chiller, protein skimmer, any guages or whatever I might need. When I checked DIY I was surprised to see that there were not any sump-tank ideas, so maybe I searched wrong or something because I see them now on the above-mentioned melevsreef.com. Now I see bulkheads, algae, a specific type of sand, and some german water. So I'm gonna have to read deeper into that site so I understand better what Im doing.

Pre-Filter: Your way = draining tank, moving tank, compromising the integrity of glass (not that I know much about glass, just dont like the idea), and $75. My way = $100. Not to say I might later regret my choice, but I know I can take the pre-filter and silicon live rock to the outside so it wont look bad. The type I am talking about have a 4 inch wide, 6" tall box with slits cut out of the top for the water to drain in, tubes that siphon over the back of that tank into another, like box, which has filters down to the tube connections.

Light: For half a second I looked at LED, then I looked at the price and after I changed my shorts I set my sights on MH. I was at Fish Planet today and saw a pendant MH for around $300. If I understand correctly I should have about 250 watts, and that light should be enough for me to keep a clam alive through 17-18 inches of water (?). I need to research to see what size light I should get for my tank.

Fish & Coral: That was my first want list. Im not sure what all the totals should be, and nothing would be added without ensuring the balance was good. I know the triggers arent so good with corals, but I heard I would be safe with pink-toothed triggers. I think I remember something about the flame angel, too. The boxfish is hard to keep, and some of the fish might not go in so I can keep it. Triggers included. Again this is just a first wish list. All that I really have to have for me to be happy are the boxfish & unless impossible flame angel(for my wife), the clowns, & the velvet damsel. But nothing is set in stone until its in the tank, and if the balance is starting to go I'll have a quarentine tank to move one to in case I've overloaded.

What can you tell me about that? The freshwater rule-of-thumb is about 1" per gallon. I figured on the fish growing relativly large, so is 5-10 fish with about 5 corals be good for about 56 gallons moving water?

[stephaniesquires]

You are on your way to being a geat reefer!

Originally Posted by Jareth

OK, I guess I went to the right place. First things first then....

You are way ahead of many who start off and dive into the deepend -

Originally Posted by Jareth

So I'm gonna have to read deeper into that site so I understand better what Im doing. .

Originally Posted by Jareth

Light: For half a second I looked at LED, then I looked at the price and after I changed my shorts I set my sights on MH. I need to research to see what size light I should get for my tank.

Yeah! Me too!! I figured the $$ for a system for my tank would be about $5000.


Welcome to the site - I am glad you are researching and learning.

[Jareth]

OK, update.

After reading a few articles and a lot of posts I am going to make a few changes to the tank over time.
First, I am going to create a plenum by buying 1/2 to 3/4" pvc, joining it together in a sort of ladder with 2 inch rungs and covering the frame with a light filter. Thats going onto about 1 inch of live sand(already there) with the remaining and an additional coarse grain bag into the top. That should give me darn close to a 3" sand bed. The article I read utilized 1" pvc, but it was for a 200 gallon tank.
Second, more pvc! Stealing some of the ideas from here and elsewhere, I am going to start playing with pvc. Looking at my tank, cutting pieces here and there. Sort of imagining what I want using the pvc to explore ideas. Unfortunately that will leave some pvc bare when I put it in there, I will add the rock over time as I find the right pieces. I do want a few different types of rock in there, so I'll have to leave room for re-arrangements.

Now, lights. I made a post here, did a lot of reading, and am torn between 2 options.
First: Current USA 36" 2x250 watt HQI T5 & moonlights NIB hood
Second:
If I could find something like this off EBay: 36" Solar T5 Hood 6x 39 Watts + 6 Moon Lites

I think the second will probably be my choice. Cheaper to buy, cheaper monthly. I just hope its enough for a clam, and I've seen some posts that say so.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

If you get the first unit by current you will be close to 13 watts per gallon. Your fish would need sun block lol.

[Jareth]

Thanks Native, I meant this one 1x 250W DE HQI, 2x 96W Compact Fluorescent, 4x Dual Bluemoon LED Or something close to it. I cant seem to find a good 2x250

Oh, and you all deserve to see what you're helping me with.



I plan to keep only the rock to the left, the rest are just lava rock I plan to use in the sump.



And I got that pesky algae problem. So I plan to do 5-gal water changes once a week, replacing the water in there with ro water. I bought a turkey baster to suck up the algae, and I am going to see if I can get a cheap water pump and hoses to move water over the floor of the tank.

[Jeremy0322]

The pictures didnt work for me for some reason...anyone else having this problem.

[Jareth]

Links directly to pics.
http://hoofshots.com/attachment.php?...2&d=1193191283
http://hoofshots.com/attachment.php?...0&d=1193191196
http://hoofshots.com/attachment.php?...8&d=1193191196

[Jeremy0322]

Now its telling me "404 Files Not Found". Man do i love the internet

[Jareth]

Well, I couldnt get comcast to let me upload the pics, so I had to upload them on a private board. Here is a link directly to the post.
WARNING: There are 2 avatars that are NWS, but you can easily cover them up.

HoofShots.com - View Single Post - Building a Saltwater Reef Aquarium

[Jareth]

OK I got my first test results. The tank has been cycling now for about 2 months, fish for maybe 3 weeks.

pH: 8.4
Amonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 40

I also started a blog where I will be posting pictures of the tank and the rock up close. I have a crummy camera but I should get a new one soon so better pics will be inc.
See my sig!

[Jareth]

Err, maybe its fixed now?

[RyanG]

Links aren't allowed in your sig, post the url in your profile