Hola Folks,
Ive finally decided to stop just reading all the posts and sign up. I have a “not yet” reef tank that has been a work in progress for a LONG time but I am just about ready to start adding corals!!
Ive had a salt water fish only tank for years. About 4 years ago, when I had a 40 gallon glass fish only tank I started to think about a reef tank. However, with 4 kids I didn’t have much money to put into a reef so I knew that the process of acquiring what I need would be long and slow but I was up for the challenge. Here is a pic of my 50 gallon home made set up as it looks today.
Reading the posts here have really helped guide me in the right direction. (Not that Im doing anything right but at least Im getting closer)
3.5 years ago I decided it was too expensive to get a glass tank drilled so I began to watch craigslist for an affordable acrylic tank. I finally found a 50 gallon Clear for Life acrylic tank that was drilled and had an overflow. A kid in college was trying to get ride of it and I got it for $30. It has some minor scratches but for $30 I wasn’t gonna complain.
That tank sat in my bedroom against the wall for a few months while I figured out my next step. Many posts later I drilled some return holes in the tank and began building a stand. At the time I didn’t have a sump so I built the stand “frame”, plugged the holes and moved my fish, live rock and sand into the new tank.
**As far as the stand I knew I didn’t want a cabinet. I wanted something that would give me full access to the sump but still look finished. I came up with a design with removable walls …so far has worked out nicely**
A while later I found a 10 gallon acrylic sump on craigslist for $10 so now I was ready to add a sump. I didn’t want a wet/dry sump which is how it was built - so I cut some acrylic and made temporary baffles in the sump. Then I added some live sand I got from my LFS (not sure if the whole live sand thing was just a gimmick) got a work light from Home Depot and put a 60 watt incandescent bulb in it, bought a new Rio 2100 on ebay for $24 (692 GPH) for my return pump, bought a used Seaclone 100 hang-on protein skimmer on ebay for about $40, AND built a Durso (thanks to the posts again) and finally set all that up. I also added some macro algae I got from my LFS.
Here is about what it looked like at the time.
Anyway, that was 2 years ago.
Right away after adding the sump all my live rock turned purple with coraline. That was pretty neat to see.
The next thing I began to work on was adding the outside of the stand as my wife was not too excited about the tank looking like a house under construction. I bought an 8’x8’ sheet of STONE panel board from Lowes for $15. Then I found some cherry wood colored trim at Home Depot. All the trim pieces were about $15. I built the walls of the stand in sections so that I could Velcro each side on. This was a trial and error process. At first I used a staple gun to attach the trim to the panel board. I didn’t want to glue it because I could just imagine one of the kids pulling the trim off, which would probably strip the panel board stone design along with it. Unfortunately the staples didn’t hold very well. I eventually ended up just getting small cabinet screws and attaching the trim by screwing them down from the inside. It has worked well and holds the trim on great.
Also, the protein skimmer (Seaclone) didn’t work well until I modified it. (Should have read more posts here before buying it) I got it to work OK but knew it was pretty cheap.
So at that point I knew I wasn’t ready for any corals but the tank was moving along. I began to see lots of new things in the tank – namely small feather dusters, zooplankton and bristleworms. The only fish I had at the time were a yellow tang, a 3 striped damsel and some other type of blue damsel...cant remember the type. And I had a few hermits and snails.
My light was from my old fish tank. It was (and still is) a Coralife CF fixture with a 65W 10K and a 65W blue actinic. The fixture also has moon LEDs which is cool. The bulbs have not been changed in probably 2 years. (I will get back to the lighting in a moment)
I really wanted a canopy so I bought some 1”x1” wood for a few dollars from Home Depot and made a frame. I wanted to try the same concept I did with the stand. I primarily wanted to do this because every time I tried to figure out how to make a canopy with a lid and hinges it got to complicated. (I will take this moment to say that I am NOT good at building things. My skills are in business and the internet…not woodworking!) I made the canopy and it turned out just how I wanted.
Still….no corals for a few reasons. First I knew my lighting was no good for corals, I couldn’t control the temp (all I had was a heater but I live in San Diego so getting cold really wasn’t the issue) and the Seaclone protein skimmer was pretty weak (and noisy).
So for 2 years the tank plumbing basically stayed the same. Everything else I needed was going to cost a lot and to this point I hadn’t put a whole lot of money into it.
Then around August, San Diego got a heat wave. My tank temp spiked somewhere around 95 degrees. I didn’t know if my fish would survive…I added some fans and got the temps down to the mid 80s but I wasn’t too happy about the temp. So I began to seriously considering a chiller. Come to find out, I live very close to CURRENT which makes chillers. I was able to get a 1/15 HP chiller for $162. That was in September. Now with my temps under control I began to realize I was very close to having a stable system.
After ready some posts I realized that my yellow tang, which had grown to about 5 inches long was not happy in my tank. Remember, I only have a 50 gallon so it is way to small for a tang. So…I posted a “free yellow tang” add on craigslist and he went to a good home in a matter of hours. I really wanted some clown fish again (I had them years ago) so I bought a pair of false clowns. Unfortunately my black and white 3 striped damsel (which had grown to close to 4 inches) didn’t take to kindly to the new tank mates. So once again he went to a good home via craigslist… for free. The other damsel I used to have disappeared a long time ago…not sure what happened to him.
Next I realized the tiny sump just wasn’t cutting it. I ended up finding a glass 20 gallon with baffles already installed for $10 on craigslist. I switched out the old sump and now had some space to think about a skimmer. I ended up getting an Eshopps 100 in-sump skimmer from the recommendation of my LFS. It works good but is almost too big from my sump. It sure pulls a lot more gunk out that the Seaclone.
Then I came across a post that talked about using fluorescent lights in the sump that had a reflector built in. How cool was that??…I was getting sick of worrying about melting everything under the tank and I was sure sick of burning myself on the work light. I found the light I was looking for at Lowes. It’s a PAR 38 by “Bright Effects” and it puts out 90W but only uses 26W. The color temp is 6500K. I took the shield off the work light and was able to add the bulb into the old outlet. It worked great and the macro algae seems to be responding well.
Heres my tank with the outside removed and a shot of the sump as it is now
After the heat wave I did get a lot of red algae. I still have it but it seems to be slowly coming under control. The other thing that the heat wave did was wipe out my purple coraline. Its still in there but nothing like what it once was.
**Heres a fun fact…in August I went to Maui and the morning I was going to fly home I went snorkeling and grabbed a little chuck of reef debris that had washed up towards the beach. It had some purple coraline on it just like my tank and I thought it would be cool to drop it in. It was about the size of a tennis ball. I put the rock in a zip lock bag with a little water and that night dropped it into my tank. Neat. Then…2 -3 weeks later I began to hear it ?? The sound ?? This strange noise coming from my tank. It sounded like glass cracking….but my tank is acrylic. Couldn’t figure it out…I thought maybe it was an electrical short but I couldn’t pin point it. I know my wife thought I was crazy…as I lay in front of my tank at night staring and listening to what appeared to be nothing. Then, once again, the posts saved me. I came across some posts about pistol shrimp. Turns out a small pistol shrimp came home with me from Maui. I had never heard of such a thing but after having some knowledge from reading posts I began to watch to see if my suspicions were correct. Well, it only took a couple of days of looking in the right place to see a little black pistol shrimp defending his little burrow from the bristle worms and an emerald crab I recently added…COOL!!
OK, so I think that brings me up to date. Next week I will be getting new lights and might just be ready to add a coral. Once again…thank you to the posts here because I was going to purchase a Metal Halide. Ive been wanting one for months and right before I ordered one I came across a post about how high they need to be from the top of the tank and that they cant be above the brace on the top of the tank. Whew…that was a close one. So, more research and I learned that T5 lights should work. Im excited that next week I will be ordering a CURRENT 36” Nova Extreme Pro T5 lighting system. This should give me the light I need to get some corals growing.
That’s it…that’s my little slice of reef….I guess I will let you know how it goes with the light. Let me know if you have any questions but more importantly let me know if you see any huge mistakes I am/have made…THANKS
Ive finally decided to stop just reading all the posts and sign up. I have a “not yet” reef tank that has been a work in progress for a LONG time but I am just about ready to start adding corals!!
Ive had a salt water fish only tank for years. About 4 years ago, when I had a 40 gallon glass fish only tank I started to think about a reef tank. However, with 4 kids I didn’t have much money to put into a reef so I knew that the process of acquiring what I need would be long and slow but I was up for the challenge. Here is a pic of my 50 gallon home made set up as it looks today.
Reading the posts here have really helped guide me in the right direction. (Not that Im doing anything right but at least Im getting closer)
3.5 years ago I decided it was too expensive to get a glass tank drilled so I began to watch craigslist for an affordable acrylic tank. I finally found a 50 gallon Clear for Life acrylic tank that was drilled and had an overflow. A kid in college was trying to get ride of it and I got it for $30. It has some minor scratches but for $30 I wasn’t gonna complain.
That tank sat in my bedroom against the wall for a few months while I figured out my next step. Many posts later I drilled some return holes in the tank and began building a stand. At the time I didn’t have a sump so I built the stand “frame”, plugged the holes and moved my fish, live rock and sand into the new tank.
**As far as the stand I knew I didn’t want a cabinet. I wanted something that would give me full access to the sump but still look finished. I came up with a design with removable walls …so far has worked out nicely**
A while later I found a 10 gallon acrylic sump on craigslist for $10 so now I was ready to add a sump. I didn’t want a wet/dry sump which is how it was built - so I cut some acrylic and made temporary baffles in the sump. Then I added some live sand I got from my LFS (not sure if the whole live sand thing was just a gimmick) got a work light from Home Depot and put a 60 watt incandescent bulb in it, bought a new Rio 2100 on ebay for $24 (692 GPH) for my return pump, bought a used Seaclone 100 hang-on protein skimmer on ebay for about $40, AND built a Durso (thanks to the posts again) and finally set all that up. I also added some macro algae I got from my LFS.
Here is about what it looked like at the time.
Anyway, that was 2 years ago.
Right away after adding the sump all my live rock turned purple with coraline. That was pretty neat to see.
The next thing I began to work on was adding the outside of the stand as my wife was not too excited about the tank looking like a house under construction. I bought an 8’x8’ sheet of STONE panel board from Lowes for $15. Then I found some cherry wood colored trim at Home Depot. All the trim pieces were about $15. I built the walls of the stand in sections so that I could Velcro each side on. This was a trial and error process. At first I used a staple gun to attach the trim to the panel board. I didn’t want to glue it because I could just imagine one of the kids pulling the trim off, which would probably strip the panel board stone design along with it. Unfortunately the staples didn’t hold very well. I eventually ended up just getting small cabinet screws and attaching the trim by screwing them down from the inside. It has worked well and holds the trim on great.
Also, the protein skimmer (Seaclone) didn’t work well until I modified it. (Should have read more posts here before buying it) I got it to work OK but knew it was pretty cheap.
So at that point I knew I wasn’t ready for any corals but the tank was moving along. I began to see lots of new things in the tank – namely small feather dusters, zooplankton and bristleworms. The only fish I had at the time were a yellow tang, a 3 striped damsel and some other type of blue damsel...cant remember the type. And I had a few hermits and snails.
My light was from my old fish tank. It was (and still is) a Coralife CF fixture with a 65W 10K and a 65W blue actinic. The fixture also has moon LEDs which is cool. The bulbs have not been changed in probably 2 years. (I will get back to the lighting in a moment)
I really wanted a canopy so I bought some 1”x1” wood for a few dollars from Home Depot and made a frame. I wanted to try the same concept I did with the stand. I primarily wanted to do this because every time I tried to figure out how to make a canopy with a lid and hinges it got to complicated. (I will take this moment to say that I am NOT good at building things. My skills are in business and the internet…not woodworking!) I made the canopy and it turned out just how I wanted.
Still….no corals for a few reasons. First I knew my lighting was no good for corals, I couldn’t control the temp (all I had was a heater but I live in San Diego so getting cold really wasn’t the issue) and the Seaclone protein skimmer was pretty weak (and noisy).
So for 2 years the tank plumbing basically stayed the same. Everything else I needed was going to cost a lot and to this point I hadn’t put a whole lot of money into it.
Then around August, San Diego got a heat wave. My tank temp spiked somewhere around 95 degrees. I didn’t know if my fish would survive…I added some fans and got the temps down to the mid 80s but I wasn’t too happy about the temp. So I began to seriously considering a chiller. Come to find out, I live very close to CURRENT which makes chillers. I was able to get a 1/15 HP chiller for $162. That was in September. Now with my temps under control I began to realize I was very close to having a stable system.
After ready some posts I realized that my yellow tang, which had grown to about 5 inches long was not happy in my tank. Remember, I only have a 50 gallon so it is way to small for a tang. So…I posted a “free yellow tang” add on craigslist and he went to a good home in a matter of hours. I really wanted some clown fish again (I had them years ago) so I bought a pair of false clowns. Unfortunately my black and white 3 striped damsel (which had grown to close to 4 inches) didn’t take to kindly to the new tank mates. So once again he went to a good home via craigslist… for free. The other damsel I used to have disappeared a long time ago…not sure what happened to him.
Next I realized the tiny sump just wasn’t cutting it. I ended up finding a glass 20 gallon with baffles already installed for $10 on craigslist. I switched out the old sump and now had some space to think about a skimmer. I ended up getting an Eshopps 100 in-sump skimmer from the recommendation of my LFS. It works good but is almost too big from my sump. It sure pulls a lot more gunk out that the Seaclone.
Then I came across a post that talked about using fluorescent lights in the sump that had a reflector built in. How cool was that??…I was getting sick of worrying about melting everything under the tank and I was sure sick of burning myself on the work light. I found the light I was looking for at Lowes. It’s a PAR 38 by “Bright Effects” and it puts out 90W but only uses 26W. The color temp is 6500K. I took the shield off the work light and was able to add the bulb into the old outlet. It worked great and the macro algae seems to be responding well.
Heres my tank with the outside removed and a shot of the sump as it is now
After the heat wave I did get a lot of red algae. I still have it but it seems to be slowly coming under control. The other thing that the heat wave did was wipe out my purple coraline. Its still in there but nothing like what it once was.
**Heres a fun fact…in August I went to Maui and the morning I was going to fly home I went snorkeling and grabbed a little chuck of reef debris that had washed up towards the beach. It had some purple coraline on it just like my tank and I thought it would be cool to drop it in. It was about the size of a tennis ball. I put the rock in a zip lock bag with a little water and that night dropped it into my tank. Neat. Then…2 -3 weeks later I began to hear it ?? The sound ?? This strange noise coming from my tank. It sounded like glass cracking….but my tank is acrylic. Couldn’t figure it out…I thought maybe it was an electrical short but I couldn’t pin point it. I know my wife thought I was crazy…as I lay in front of my tank at night staring and listening to what appeared to be nothing. Then, once again, the posts saved me. I came across some posts about pistol shrimp. Turns out a small pistol shrimp came home with me from Maui. I had never heard of such a thing but after having some knowledge from reading posts I began to watch to see if my suspicions were correct. Well, it only took a couple of days of looking in the right place to see a little black pistol shrimp defending his little burrow from the bristle worms and an emerald crab I recently added…COOL!!
OK, so I think that brings me up to date. Next week I will be getting new lights and might just be ready to add a coral. Once again…thank you to the posts here because I was going to purchase a Metal Halide. Ive been wanting one for months and right before I ordered one I came across a post about how high they need to be from the top of the tank and that they cant be above the brace on the top of the tank. Whew…that was a close one. So, more research and I learned that T5 lights should work. Im excited that next week I will be ordering a CURRENT 36” Nova Extreme Pro T5 lighting system. This should give me the light I need to get some corals growing.
That’s it…that’s my little slice of reef….I guess I will let you know how it goes with the light. Let me know if you have any questions but more importantly let me know if you see any huge mistakes I am/have made…THANKS
Keep us updated on your progress. So far you've done a great job!
and welcome to RS! 