unccpathfinder Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 So as the title says...I've been slowly building/learning with my salt water tank over the past 2 months...My roommate in college had one and I've always wanted one but never had the $ or opportunity to set one up and now I have finally done it. The tank is a 29 gallon bowfront which I will probably upsize in the next year or so but for now its a great size to learn on... Right now I only have one yellow tail damsel living in the tank along with all of the janitors (snails and crabs) but I did have 5 damsels at one time but this guy is a bully he killed all the other fish and all of my turbo snails...I have had a lot of issues with cyanobacteria and since the addition of my refugium ("mudfilter" or "sump") I have seen a pretty good decrease of the cyano due to the additional waterflow and protein skimmer within the sump to remove a lot of the organic materials in the water. The plan is to get more liverock and hide most of the not so aesthetic aspects of the filtration system and then to get some shrimp, aneome, a yellow tang and possibly a clown fish (although I may not do that since everyone has clowns now due to Fining Nemo) but I definately want something whether it be a shrimp, crap or fish to host in the aneome. I know theres another thread on here about aquariums but I just wanted to show what I've been working on that has been keeping me from here (along with spending more time with the GF and not working as much) Here is the tank prior to upfitting for the sump: The next are pretty much step by step to me removing the tank...moding the cabinet and getting it all back together: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 (edited) I made some pretty classic mistakes while checking to make sure my sump wouldnt over flow in case of a pump failure and my tank wouldnt overflow in the event of the siphon tube loosing vacuum... I wasnt using the PVC return and just the clear vinyl hose seen siphoning the tank off so I tested the tank for overflow and was good so I turned off the pump to check the sump for overflow which it seemed good so I went to fastening the OSB on the back to give it more side to side stability...well I neglected the fact that the pump tube was well below the water level and the assumption that with the pump off it wouldnt allow backflow...well I quickly found out that these aquarium fan pumps dont have any time of check valve when I heard "trickling" and came around to the front of the cabinet to find hte floor was flooded...so needless to say I had to pull everything back apart and clean up all the water but it was a good learning experience b/c I had a poor design for the return to be a powerhead that would have allowed the tank to siphon off a lot more water...now all is good and neither will overflow A good reference is by Jilian Sprung and its called "The Reef Aquarium" which I got volume 1 for now and plan to get volume 2 and 3 soon...so far its been very helpful Edited April 6, 2008 by unccpathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 ooh, SW tanks........ a friend of mine had one.... high maintenance tanks but oh so vurry nice! looks like oyurs is coming together nicely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandShark Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 How much do you figure you already have tied up in this tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 (edited) Thanks...Yea I want to get into some corals but from my roommates tank I learned with saltwater its better to get it established and not rush it...I really feel that the saltwater tank, once established is a lot easier to maintain than freshwater...especially if you start to build a complete ecosystem that will allow the tank to go through the nitrogen cycle without spiking the nitrates or ammonia through the roof which is why I had the cyano outbreak (it likes nitrate, organic phosphates and slow moving water which looks like with the addition of the sump and better protein skimmer it seems to be maintaining it... I did have a problem with the sump's lights actually producing enough heat to over heat the tank (got a wakeup at 3:30AM one night from the alarms going off) so it got up to 84 deg and I think most of my red legged craps are going to die...I have increased ventilation to the cabinet and removed my heater and the water is staying right at 78-79 deg which is where I want it I tell you aquariums arent cheap though...I got bargains on everything through ebay got the tank and sump (with pumps, skimmer, overflow box and mud) for about $450 which is really good I'm probably close to about $800 with fish, livesand, liverock, thermometers, heaters, cheato macro algae, pumps, plumbing, crabs/snails,water, and salt and whatever else I'm forgetting Edited April 6, 2008 by unccpathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandShark Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Yeah its definitely a nice set up bud. Something I've always been interested in, just haven't actually gotten in to it. I always have too many projects going. Where did you learn so much about it? Any particular books? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 I'm still pretty green to it...but there was a local shop that the guy is really nice and pretty smart in the whole marine deal...One thing to watch if you do set one up is just searching on the web...Wet Web Media is pretty good but you can still get bad advice... Julian Sprung is about the best in industry from what I get from several different fish shops...I have been reading his book called reef notes which is interesting b/c its a compilation of a column he used to do in a magazine where he actually gave bad advice so there are remarks in the margin's to correct himself...As mentioned above he wrote a couple volumes of a book (more like a text book but pretty easy reading and I have a hard time focusing on things I read) titled "The Reef Aquarium" I got volume 1 and plan to get 2 and 3 but he and the other co-author did tons of research and traveled the world to get a taste of everything. And they say that some setup's work for some people and not others...I do need to get a lil 10gallon tank setup as a quarantine tank before getting any new fish/rock b/c I'd hate to introduce disease or something like that into the tank but I'll prob risk it again and hope everything is good and the system doesnt crash I know I have had a lot more algae problems than my roommate ever did but I haven't had near the Nitrate/ammonia/copper problems he had due to him initially using tap water instead of reverse osmosis or deionized water. I must say it is a little expensive but I believe its going to be a good payoff once its up to where I want it...but as it sits even with the one fish everyone comes in and watches the crabs/snails and the one fish when he's not hiding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandShark Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Excellent thanks, I'll have to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NismoSkyZ Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 I'm happy to see someone that actually did some research before going out and buying a tank. That looks like its well on its way to becoming a very impressive tank. Remember to buy your LR from a reliable source (not ebay) and if you go with the clown route, they only need about 3 gallons of fish, and flourish much better in pairs and trios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 6, 2008 Author Share Posted April 6, 2008 ohh yea no fish inverts or LR off of ebay just hardware...and if I do get clowns I was going to get 2 and probably go with either the aquacultured (tank raised) fire or black false percula clowns... The fish decided to come out this morning when I turned on his lights so I got a couple shots...nothing too great...I think he's finally getting back adjusted to all the rearranged tank. I will have to get rid of him though as soon as I get more fish since he has proven the "aggressive" damsel to be true....although he took over the entire tank instead of just a specific area like they typically do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 19, 2008 Author Share Posted April 19, 2008 Yesterday I got more liverock and a yellow tang and im glad the tang is not taking the damsels @!*% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zonianbrat Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 That is a nice setup you got goin. I have been tossing around the idea of trying to go saltwater for a year or so but with my job i am not home to uptain it. I have a buddy that has a 120 gallon saltwater tank. He sunk alot of money at first to get it going but his parents are really rich so I doubt he payed anything but he knows alot and he is running some kind of a triple biosphere filtration system that he says makes it alot less of a pain as far as cleaning. And it removes alot of crap. He tried to explain it all to me once but I just kinda stared and thought about something else. I have a 55 gallon freshwater tank in storage that I want to get up and running again but just dont have time right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 19, 2008 Author Share Posted April 19, 2008 Sweet...yea saltwater tanks are expensive to get going but can be set up on a budget...I recommend (as previously stated above) reading some of the books by Julian Sprung b/c I have learned a lot from him and there is a lot of bogus information out there on forums... Mine now established gets cleaned once or twice a week for algae on the glass and I clean the prefilter for the sump, the cup on my protein skimmer and my carbon filters which are soon to go away and since I have a gravity weir I have to get the air out of the U tube once or twice a week...but I typically spend maybe 30 mins or so a week cleaning it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrimGreg Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 The fish decided to come out this morning when I turned on his lights so I got a couple shots...nothing too great...I think he's finally getting back adjusted to all the rearranged tank. I will have to get rid of him though as soon as I get more fish since he has proven the "aggressive" damsel to be true....although he took over the entire tank instead of just a specific area like they typically do Could be the size of your tank is the size of area they typically would claim in a larger tank... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 19, 2008 Author Share Posted April 19, 2008 (edited) possibly but the damsels usually claim a fairly small area and usually get along (decently) with others but this one has killed everything else that has gone in the tank... so far today it looks like they have sorted out their teritories where the tang stays on the RH side of the tank and the damsel stays on the left...I will be getting rid of the damsel soon and getting some more attractive fish got some videos today... Edited April 22, 2008 by unccpathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fukinitupagain Posted April 20, 2008 Share Posted April 20, 2008 One of my neighbors has a big a$$ SW fish tank. They are killer looking, but way too much maintnence for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packie88 Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 ive got a 55 gal SW tank ive been maitnaing. no sump in it probably a mistake, but im building my own protein skimmer for it. working on getting the algae all cleaned up. Right now i have two shrimp, a lawnmower bleeny, and a firefish goby. there doing well. but cant wait for my skimmer to be done should help a ton with that tank. I also have a 20 gal freshwater, which has a dalmation molly, swordtail, platy and a black skirt tetra. wanna add a red tailed shark. and im getting a 30 gal long that i think ima put a bala shark in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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