Welcome to my Tank Thread
My name is Frank, I'm located in Central NJ, and I'm quickly becoming a reefaholic. This is my first attempt at a marine environment. I've had several fresh water aquariums over the years (largest was 45 gallons), but only admired those fancy salt water fish from afar. I'm at a point in my life where I have time to devote to a new hobby, and I'm welcoming the challenge.
And so, the adventure begins !
Well, it actually began about 18 months ago. My wife and I saw a nice little (15 gal) BiOrb tank in a hotel lobby. She thought that it would look nice in our home office. I thought, "I'm IN. It's just a matter of time !!" A few months after we saw that tank, we had one of our own. It's right in front of me as I type this. A few neons, a couple of platys, a swordfish (that's been named "The Assassin"), and several others, make quite a lively tank. Very well cared for, no over-feeding, regular testing, and regular water changes. It's good to be a fish in this tank.
What could be better ? A zillion gallon marine tank with a bunch of exotic animals - that's what !
But how do I make the transition from 15 gallons to several times that ? By bringing my wife along on visits to just about every LFS in New Jersey. Big, small, we've seen them all. She got to choose fish for our little fresh water world, and we both had the opportunity to learn a great deal about salt water environments from some interesting people. Don't worry . . . by "learn a great deal" I mean that we learned enough to know that this is where we want to be. Maybe we've picked-up our first 1% of the lifetime of learning that's ahead of us.
What did we see ? Everything from small Nanos to a custom Elos that you could swim laps in. We were very impressed with Red Sea systems and got pretty close to buying one. But as I collected more details, I realized that I needing something that could be customized... something where I could choose the parts and have the experience of assembling them, learning along the way.
So that brought us here:
It's a Marineland 120 Gallon Tank (4 feet wide, 2 feet tall, 2 feet deep), on a Marineland cabinet. In the above photo, you can see that I've combined EcoTech Radion lighting with AquaIllumination EXT Rails. It's nice to make choices, then figure out how to make them work together. Both companies are merging, so I couldn't be too far off in combining their products. There's an EcoTech Vortech MP40 on each side of the tank. And yes, that's an Apex display on the left edge of the cabinet (my Fusion account is all setup too).
Does this count as my first FTS ? . . . . .
There's a little bit of salt residue on the bottom of the tank. Approx 45 pounds of Red Sea Coral Pro, added about 24 hours ago. Salinity is 35ppt on my digital refractometer and 34.6ppt as reported by my Apex. Temp is 79 degrees. Nothing living in there yet. I have not started the cycle. My plan is to wait about 10 days, just making sure that salinity and temperature remain stable, before my next step: Live Rock !
Let's look under the hood . . . . .
Not bad for a rookie tank builder, right ? This is where I've had most of my fun so far. What's under there ? Well, NO sump, for starters. I was really concerned about doing the "remote sump thing". I thought it would be too complicated, too much work, etc. But after really considering the benefits, the sump got located in the basement, almost directly below the tank. I like the idea of doing messy things in the basement, rather than around the display tank. And, not having the sump under the tank gave me space to neatly install Apex hardware, Radion power supplies, Vortech controllers and power supplies, etc. I've got an Apex Leak Detector right behind the tank, used the Breakout Box to turn on a light when the cabinet doors are opened, WXM module for Radion and Vortech integration. Lots of fun !
I'd love to hear what you think about what I have done up to this point. Any comments would be very welcome.
I'll be back later with info (and pictures) about our basement sump area.
Thanks !
---Frank
