saltwater noob/55 build thread

[bhsgk]

so i spray painted the back glass tonight with krylon fusion satin and i think it turned out pretty good for a first timer who has never really spray painted anything before. I put two coats on so far and will check it with my led flashlight in the morning for any problem spots.

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[tcwayne]

That's all you need. Once you fill it with rock and coraline takes over, you'll never see the back glass.

[bhsgk]

A big thanks goes out to Chuck(tcwayne) for coming over and helping a noob out this afternoon. He is going to help me build some diy lights and save me hundreds, just like geico! If anybody has any spare mh reflectors or a dual 150w mh ballast I would gladly come give you some money and take them off your hands!

[bhsgk]

so im hopefully going to get rock and sand this week and i wanted to do a leak test beforehand for a couple of days and my awesome wife helped me carry a few trash cans full of water tonight and i now have 55 gallons of fw in my tank!!!!!

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[bhsgk]

does anybody have any experience with the tunze silence line? im debating whether or not to get a mag 7, but looking at the wattage versus some other pumps it seems to be on the high side. so i saw where mrsaltwatertanktv did a review on the 1073.05 and he loved it so i am looking at the 1073.02. its only a few dollars more but i would rather do everything right the first time. thats why im getting an mp10 and later an mp40 instead of the trial and error run with some koralias and tunzes and after a few hundred dollars wasted get the vortechs in the end anyways.

[bmullikin1]

I used both, i have a 1073.04 on my 125, great pump,low noise low pwr use, also used .02, just doesnt handle a lot of head pressure, but should be fine for a 55. would totally recommend them both.

[bhsgk]

Thanks. I have decided to go with the 1073.02 for sure, but now I just have to make up my mind about which skimmer I should get

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[bhsgk]

Ok, so here we go. I got some RO/DI with 0 TDS from Chuck and brought it home with 12 five gallon buckets borrowed from Home Depot!!!! It's amazing what a six-pack of some imported beer will get you! But seriously I owe Chuck a lot. He even let me borrow some koralia evolution 1400's while i save up for the mp10 wes I'm getting from a fellow reefer for a really good deal. I've got the salt mixing tonight and by the time I get another day off of work(not until the 25th), I will hopefully be ready for a clean up crew! But I have a long time to go and a few more items still to be purchased. But so far my inventory is as follows: Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, Caribsea Aragonite Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand( 1 40lb bag so far, I may add another). and I'm picking up some really nice porous dry rock from Richard from Tampa Bay Saltwater on Saturday. Now I just have to worry about the biggest headache I am having with the tank...the lights! LED or no LED, Halide's with supplemental LED's, all T5HO,Halide's and T5HO. My head spins every time I think about the tank, which is pretty much all the time. Also I have some good news...my wife is actually enjoying the tank now and she is even picking up on the lingo because she hears it from me all day long!! So now I wont have to beg when I want something new for the tank, now she will just say yes the first time I ask!!!

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[tcwayne]

No Problem Gil. Your off to a great start and well ahead of where I was at this stage of the game. Thanks for the beer! Keep up the research and enjoy!

[bhsgk]

So I got home from work tonight and I was expecting the water to still be really cloudy since I have no skimmer working and just some koralia's running, but...

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The water is pretty clear for not having a skimmer. Now I'm just fishing out some random crap that was in the sand, even though I rinsed it pretty good last night. I will be getting the rock in about 12 hours and will post updates when I complete my first aquascaping!

[bhsgk]

WE HAVE ROCK!!!!!!! Theere is about 70lbs or so of some really good base rock from the Philippines that I got from tampabaysaltwater.com and just a few pounds of some live rock that I got at Marine Warehouse for really cheap. This will be aquascaping version 0.1, as I know that I will more than likely change my mind about something.

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[tcwayne]

Right on Gil! Looks good.

[MrHarvard]

Damn that looks good...nice start!

[bhsgk]

thanks guys. now the waiting begins...

[bhsgk]

so after having a long week with a day and a half of overtime, i traded my leftover base rock for a 36" vho setup from rob.p and set it up tonight, i only have 1 bulb right now but i am still impressed with the light put out so far, i will have an icecap 660 in a couple of days(thanks chuck!) and will set up 2-3 more bulbs in my canopy then. my chromis is doing very well and my ammonia is at 1ppm and going down but i dont have a nitrite/nitrate kit yet so i dont know those parameters, but i cant wait for my cycle to end so i can start building my reef!

[bhsgk]

Does anyone have either the SRO XP1000 SSS or the eshopps s-120 or 1-150? I am trying to decide on which one to get and have seen good reviews on all three so far.

[tcwayne]

Hey I gotta get you that ballast. I'll throw it in the truck tonight.

[CrimsonGhost]

Awesome build so far! Grats on your first SW tank!

[Agua Salado]

Nice tank.

yeah, Chuck really is a good guy. <3 <3 <3

[mark.red]

Dont forget about Coral Corral store....also near faois! I think you will enjoy it

[Woznickiaj]

i have the 1000sss and so far i love it !

[bhsgk]

thanks everybody! @mark.red they are on my list when it comes time to get some coral in the tank.

here are some updated pics with an added second who bulb(454nm actinic) to go along with the 72/25 that was already in there. sorry about the crappy pics, i cant find the wife's camera and my phone cant handle the awesome blue from the new bulb!

i also got some a few really small pieces of LR from marine warehouse again but i am still looking for some more coralline covered LR to seed my base rock. if anybody has a few pounds they need to get rid of just let me know.

i also should have my skimmer and return pump in the next week or two, as long as i can talk the wife into it

[bhsgk]

Well I went to rockin reef today to get some more sand and I also brought along a water sample to have them check out and see how things were progressing chemically. My base rock has turned brown from the diatoms and the glass was a little brown for a day but my snails ate it all already! Well after the test at rockin reef confirmed what my tests have said everything checked out ok. No ammonia,no nitrite/nitrate, ph at 8.2, and sg at 1.025, i decided to add my first zoa frag:






not quite all of the polyps have fully opened up yet, but i can see that i have three different colors there, a green skirt w/neon green center, another green skirt w/yellow center, and all the red skirt w purplish-blue centers. I do have to admit that I am now officially hooked on this hobby and cant wait to get more corals and a few nicer fish in there.

[MrHarvard]

And it begins...lol....keep posting updates on your new addiction!

[bhsgk]

Originally Posted by MrHarvard

And it begins...lol....keep posting updates on your new addiction!

here ya go

i call my new xenia from boatguy achoo or gesundheit because it looks like its sneezing when it pulsates


thanks to moongoddess for some LR with some good hitchhikers on it


new FTS as of tonight