Hello all. I got the bug last year after my wife said she would like a "fish bowl". That ended up being a 2.5 gallon tank with one betta and one cory catfish. As one thing often leads to another she mentions that she really likes the saltwater fish.
We settled on the 65 for space considerations. The stand we bought was 30" high so it left just enough room for a 29 gallon tank as a DIY sump. I made the baffles 12" high which left 6" of empty sump capacity. Enough to shut off the pump and drain down the entire overflow column with room to spare before it causes a flood. The Reef Octopus Classic 110 just fits and comes in and out easily with a little twisting and turning.
Here is a pic from late December when it was still cycling. I filled it on Dec 9th and the cycle was done on Dec 31st. The cycle was going painfully slow until I added a dose of Bio Spira and that really seemed to speed things up. I used mostly dry rock and only a few pieces of live, and also used dry sand as opposed to live sand, but that dose of bacteria made up for that.
It's been running about a month now and we have added the following livestock.
2 Moca Clownfish
1 Bicolor Angle
1 6 Line Wrasse
1 Ruby Red Mandarin
1 Royal Gramma
1 Frogspawn Coral
1 Green Star Polyp Colony
1 Long Tentacle Plate Coral
1 Zoa frag
Cleanup crew
4 Hermit Crabs
1 Emerald Crab
1 Skunk Shrimp
1 Fire Shrimp
4 snails (Not counting the hitchikers that are breeding)
I'll post a more current pic with the livestock.
We settled on the 65 for space considerations. The stand we bought was 30" high so it left just enough room for a 29 gallon tank as a DIY sump. I made the baffles 12" high which left 6" of empty sump capacity. Enough to shut off the pump and drain down the entire overflow column with room to spare before it causes a flood. The Reef Octopus Classic 110 just fits and comes in and out easily with a little twisting and turning.
Here is a pic from late December when it was still cycling. I filled it on Dec 9th and the cycle was done on Dec 31st. The cycle was going painfully slow until I added a dose of Bio Spira and that really seemed to speed things up. I used mostly dry rock and only a few pieces of live, and also used dry sand as opposed to live sand, but that dose of bacteria made up for that.
It's been running about a month now and we have added the following livestock.
2 Moca Clownfish
1 Bicolor Angle
1 6 Line Wrasse
1 Ruby Red Mandarin
1 Royal Gramma
1 Frogspawn Coral
1 Green Star Polyp Colony
1 Long Tentacle Plate Coral
1 Zoa frag
Cleanup crew
4 Hermit Crabs
1 Emerald Crab
1 Skunk Shrimp
1 Fire Shrimp
4 snails (Not counting the hitchikers that are breeding)
I'll post a more current pic with the livestock.