Big Jay
Member
I had some small tanks as a kid but nothing serious. I little out of high school I had a 29g salt tank with a few small fish. No reef, no rock. Again this was nothing serious because I had my eyes on fast cars and faster women. Fast forward a dozen years and my pet iguana (6 foot lizard, Fred) was in a 125g terrarium. When my Fred died (RIP) the tank sat empty for a few years. Then I cleaned it up to sell it. I decided to try out freshwater fish for awhile. I bought a bunch of filters, air pump, plants, gravel, heater, etc. I rocked that tank for about a year. I killed a lot of fish learning the hard way but in the end I had a few fish that had grown rather large and made for a tasty snack when it was time to tear it down. Just kidding. I went to a home show where one of the local saltwater fish stores had set up a display. On display they had a Oceanic Biocube 29. It was filled with rock and coral and fish. It was small, sleek, contained. Purrrrfect, MMMWAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I went down to the store and bought a BC29 for $200. I got a great deal. I took it home and ravaged the box to get inside. WAALA! Tank, hood, pumps, filters it was all so beautiful. I filled the little tank, checked for leaks and emptied it. I went to a bunch of stores buying all the usual stuff. Heater, a better timer, hydrometer, K1, thermometer, and a stand. I bought some LIVE SAND (WOOOOOO) and salt. I mixed the salt with distilled water from Wally World. Just imagine the look on the cashier's face when 29 one gallon jugs roll up to her check out stand. She asked me if I wanted bags. DOH! I mixed the water 5 gallons at a time and filled her up. The next day I went and bought some rock. I went to all the LFSs in the area and proceeded to pay way to much for Fiji rock. I got home and after about 3 hours of playing with the puzzle I called it, good enough.
I added the sand last and for 3 days it was so cloudy I couldn't see a thing. Stupid sand. Then I stirred it up when I did this.
When the sand settled I added a clown fish and a Chomis. Not knowing anything about the cycle of Live Rock.
A few more days and a lot of filter floss I did this. Stupid sand.
Then this:
And finally I settled with this.
I went through a lot of learning. Hours and hours on the internet reading articles, magazines and forums. And after 2 years the BC29 came to look like this.
You could see why I needed to upgrade. I'm not one of those fanatics that go to frag swaps and such so I needed somewhere to put my stuff. After a few months of searching I found a great deal on my current 125.
For $1000 what I got was a massive amount of stuff. Coming across a person getting out of the hobby and not just upgrading was the hot ticket. On top of the tank, stand and canopy was every Salifert test kit made,
A bunch of Red Sea test kits, refractometer, pair of gloves, Rio 1100, 2 Koralia 2's, Koralia 3, Koralia 4, Loc-line pliers, 3 Stealth 250w heaters, Hydrometer, Bag-o-floss, Bag-o-Loc-line, Bag-o-snail shells, 2x18w PC Coralife 'fuge light, 2 power strips, 1 Coralife Day/Night timer, some foods, supplements and additives.
In the Canopy was 2, 250w Illuminarc MH reflectors with Icecap Ballasts, 4x65w PC Coralife Actinics,18 LED moon lights,2 Sets of 4-bank 12v fans.
In the sump was an ASM skimmer, the sump looks like 30g, the return pump is a Little Giant 4.
The first order of business was to change his set up to MY set up. I traded some frogspawn (I had over 30 heads at one point) for a Iwaka pump and added it to the sump. I then bought 2 SCWDs and sent the returns through the back and up to the canopy instead of up the overflow. The whole goal was to keep as much equipment out of the display as possible. I split each return and then split those with Loc-line. 16 outlets. All in the canopy and barely visible. The problem was the flow. 6ft of head pressure and a SCWD was killing the flow rate.
So I took all 5 of my Koralia pumps (3-2K2s, 1-K3, 1-K4) and added them to each side of the overflow pointing towards the ends of the tank. After fixing a couple of leaks I drained it, filled it with 70% RODI and 30% tap. Tropic Marin Salt and let it flow for a week. I had a major storm on the horizon though. A 16 day vacation, and no way to keep my BC29 alive while I was gone.
I found a couple of people selling rock on craigslist. Seasoned, bug free Live Rock. I added it and some Black sand. I took my BC29 apart. All the rock that had caulupra on it went to the sump. All the rock with important corals went up top. Using the rock I bought I built towers using 1/2" acrylic rod and a little epoxy. I mounted my ATO and off to Australia I went. Good luck fish, I muttered as I went out the door.
I returned home from vacation and to my surprise the house sitters managed to keep everything alive.
Over the next couple of months I struggled with pH. The black sand was killing me. I was beginning to hate the tank. I did a total of 5 water changes at 35 gallons a piece over the course of a week and in the process i sucked out most of the black sand, a few hermits and my royal gramma. The hermits and the fish lived the sand was tossed in favor of white sand. I also added another 30 pounds of Live Rock. This put my total around 140 pounds, give or take 10.
I will post more when I get some better pictures to upload for some current shots.
I went down to the store and bought a BC29 for $200. I got a great deal. I took it home and ravaged the box to get inside. WAALA! Tank, hood, pumps, filters it was all so beautiful. I filled the little tank, checked for leaks and emptied it. I went to a bunch of stores buying all the usual stuff. Heater, a better timer, hydrometer, K1, thermometer, and a stand. I bought some LIVE SAND (WOOOOOO) and salt. I mixed the salt with distilled water from Wally World. Just imagine the look on the cashier's face when 29 one gallon jugs roll up to her check out stand. She asked me if I wanted bags. DOH! I mixed the water 5 gallons at a time and filled her up. The next day I went and bought some rock. I went to all the LFSs in the area and proceeded to pay way to much for Fiji rock. I got home and after about 3 hours of playing with the puzzle I called it, good enough.
I added the sand last and for 3 days it was so cloudy I couldn't see a thing. Stupid sand. Then I stirred it up when I did this.
When the sand settled I added a clown fish and a Chomis. Not knowing anything about the cycle of Live Rock.
A few more days and a lot of filter floss I did this. Stupid sand.
Then this:
And finally I settled with this.
I went through a lot of learning. Hours and hours on the internet reading articles, magazines and forums. And after 2 years the BC29 came to look like this.
You could see why I needed to upgrade. I'm not one of those fanatics that go to frag swaps and such so I needed somewhere to put my stuff. After a few months of searching I found a great deal on my current 125.
For $1000 what I got was a massive amount of stuff. Coming across a person getting out of the hobby and not just upgrading was the hot ticket. On top of the tank, stand and canopy was every Salifert test kit made,
A bunch of Red Sea test kits, refractometer, pair of gloves, Rio 1100, 2 Koralia 2's, Koralia 3, Koralia 4, Loc-line pliers, 3 Stealth 250w heaters, Hydrometer, Bag-o-floss, Bag-o-Loc-line, Bag-o-snail shells, 2x18w PC Coralife 'fuge light, 2 power strips, 1 Coralife Day/Night timer, some foods, supplements and additives.
In the Canopy was 2, 250w Illuminarc MH reflectors with Icecap Ballasts, 4x65w PC Coralife Actinics,18 LED moon lights,2 Sets of 4-bank 12v fans.
In the sump was an ASM skimmer, the sump looks like 30g, the return pump is a Little Giant 4.
The first order of business was to change his set up to MY set up. I traded some frogspawn (I had over 30 heads at one point) for a Iwaka pump and added it to the sump. I then bought 2 SCWDs and sent the returns through the back and up to the canopy instead of up the overflow. The whole goal was to keep as much equipment out of the display as possible. I split each return and then split those with Loc-line. 16 outlets. All in the canopy and barely visible. The problem was the flow. 6ft of head pressure and a SCWD was killing the flow rate.
So I took all 5 of my Koralia pumps (3-2K2s, 1-K3, 1-K4) and added them to each side of the overflow pointing towards the ends of the tank. After fixing a couple of leaks I drained it, filled it with 70% RODI and 30% tap. Tropic Marin Salt and let it flow for a week. I had a major storm on the horizon though. A 16 day vacation, and no way to keep my BC29 alive while I was gone.
I found a couple of people selling rock on craigslist. Seasoned, bug free Live Rock. I added it and some Black sand. I took my BC29 apart. All the rock that had caulupra on it went to the sump. All the rock with important corals went up top. Using the rock I bought I built towers using 1/2" acrylic rod and a little epoxy. I mounted my ATO and off to Australia I went. Good luck fish, I muttered as I went out the door.
I returned home from vacation and to my surprise the house sitters managed to keep everything alive.
Over the next couple of months I struggled with pH. The black sand was killing me. I was beginning to hate the tank. I did a total of 5 water changes at 35 gallons a piece over the course of a week and in the process i sucked out most of the black sand, a few hermits and my royal gramma. The hermits and the fish lived the sand was tossed in favor of white sand. I also added another 30 pounds of Live Rock. This put my total around 140 pounds, give or take 10.
I will post more when I get some better pictures to upload for some current shots.
