65 Gallon Tank Build, My first saltwater attempt

a_salted

New Member
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.
 

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a_salted

New Member
tank today-800x600.jpg tank today-800x600.jpg I forgot about the feather duster and the sand sifting starfish.
This pic is from this morning. The algae in the refugium is growing quickly. I threw away half the ball of Cheato the other day. I seeded it with pods and they seem be be thriving down there.View attachment 48063
 
Last edited:

Uncle99

Well-Known Member
Great start looks good.
You've come to the right place here at Reef Sanctuary.
Great people who have helped me a lot to be successful.
No use recreating the wheel so to speak.
Welcome to Reef Sanctuary.

Keep those pics coming!
 

a_salted

New Member
Great start looks good.
You've come to the right place here at Reef Sanctuary.
Great people who have helped me a lot to be successful.
No use recreating the wheel so to speak.
Welcome to Reef Sanctuary.

Keep those pics coming!
Thanks.
I'm not sure why the pic keeps rotating. But after three tries I gave up.
 
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