A little history behind me is I had a 65g. Everything was succesful until I moved, and got busy with the things that the wife wanted done around the new home and the little one growing up. The 65g eventually crashed and I lost all fish.
Now that things and life has "settled" down, its time to get back on the horse and leave all that discouragement behind. I learned sooooo much from the previous setup and know more of what not to do.. and what to do. With thorough planning and diligence this will hopefully one day be a 20L that many will be envious of
:laughroll
Alot of this potential setup will be DIY. This will also be a long work in progress. Don't be suprised to see my chronicle fall to the bottom of the forum over a short time, but for now, I'm using it to put my ideas on paper for reference in addition to its function as a chronicle. Also input is greatly appreciated.
Goals are to create a mixed reef, with light bio load (Goby and Pistol Shrimp pair + CU crew).
Equipment I currently have in my possession:
AGA 20G L (30x12x12)
Six 39w T5 ballasts, reflectors
85 lbs of "dead" rock (50/50% mix of Fiji and base)
Quiet One 3000
Mag 5
Two Maxi-Jet 900's
Koralia 2
RO/DI Unit (need filter replacements)
First question I have, will the 39w ballasts work with the 24w, 24" bulbs? Will they even fire? Will they work, but overdrive them? Don't really want to use 36" bulbs on a 30" long tank and have to rig up some sort of funky way to light it.
One the 20g long.. the bottom is not tempered. Have people successfully drilled their overflow using the bottom plane of glass? Even with just one hole in the bottom, would the strength integrity be thrown off much by having one hole?
Either way.. there will be absolutely NO siphon tube, weir tube overflows on this baby. We are drillin!!
Planning on a 10-15g refugium. 20-25 lbs of live rock in the main DT. Lots of live rock in the refugium section for ultimate bacteria colonization and filtration capabilities. Not sure whether I want to add sand to the refugium or not. I'm sure its possible that a deep layer of sand along with the live rock in the refugium would be very beneficial. I plan on not using a skimmer. With a small tank volume such as this.. weekly water changes should take no more than five minutes (even with the manual "lug the bucket" system).
Return flow is going to probably be utilized by the Mag 5 I have. With head loss, this should provide not too fast of a flow through the refuguium.
Considering this is planned to be a mixed reef. I'm planning on retro'ing either two 70w MH or one 150w MH (14k), along with two 24w for actinic supplementation.
Stand and canopy will be DIY.
...
To be continued
Now that things and life has "settled" down, its time to get back on the horse and leave all that discouragement behind. I learned sooooo much from the previous setup and know more of what not to do.. and what to do. With thorough planning and diligence this will hopefully one day be a 20L that many will be envious of
:laughroll Alot of this potential setup will be DIY. This will also be a long work in progress. Don't be suprised to see my chronicle fall to the bottom of the forum over a short time, but for now, I'm using it to put my ideas on paper for reference in addition to its function as a chronicle. Also input is greatly appreciated.
Goals are to create a mixed reef, with light bio load (Goby and Pistol Shrimp pair + CU crew).
Equipment I currently have in my possession:
AGA 20G L (30x12x12)
Six 39w T5 ballasts, reflectors
85 lbs of "dead" rock (50/50% mix of Fiji and base)
Quiet One 3000
Mag 5
Two Maxi-Jet 900's
Koralia 2
RO/DI Unit (need filter replacements)
First question I have, will the 39w ballasts work with the 24w, 24" bulbs? Will they even fire? Will they work, but overdrive them? Don't really want to use 36" bulbs on a 30" long tank and have to rig up some sort of funky way to light it.
One the 20g long.. the bottom is not tempered. Have people successfully drilled their overflow using the bottom plane of glass? Even with just one hole in the bottom, would the strength integrity be thrown off much by having one hole?
Either way.. there will be absolutely NO siphon tube, weir tube overflows on this baby. We are drillin!!
Planning on a 10-15g refugium. 20-25 lbs of live rock in the main DT. Lots of live rock in the refugium section for ultimate bacteria colonization and filtration capabilities. Not sure whether I want to add sand to the refugium or not. I'm sure its possible that a deep layer of sand along with the live rock in the refugium would be very beneficial. I plan on not using a skimmer. With a small tank volume such as this.. weekly water changes should take no more than five minutes (even with the manual "lug the bucket" system).
Return flow is going to probably be utilized by the Mag 5 I have. With head loss, this should provide not too fast of a flow through the refuguium.
Considering this is planned to be a mixed reef. I'm planning on retro'ing either two 70w MH or one 150w MH (14k), along with two 24w for actinic supplementation.
Stand and canopy will be DIY.
...
To be continued
