New kid on the block

Howdy all.... Not so new to in my exposure to aquariums as quite a few of my friends have delved into it and I have picked up much info along the way. I recently bought my first house and now am settled enough to tackle these marvels of beauty myself. I am fortunate to live in Florida and have been in or on the ocean most of my life. It only seems appropriate that I have a little ocean in my home to enjoy as well. It actually started with me acquiring a 120g in very poor condition with massive amounts of hair algae, a large panther grouper, and a 4 foot zebra eel. All running through a tiny HOB filter. I actually had a home built 140 pre-drilled that was sitting in a friends garage and given to me as a house warming gift. There it sat for almost 2 years as I didn't have the funds to get it up and going. A really good friend hooked me up with a good pump and an awesome chiller for free !!!! Over 1500$ hookup. I got a 20g long plumbed it up with the pump as a sump and started nursing the 120 back to life. (I sold the grouper and eel because they were huge consumers and not what I wanted in my display.) Frustrated with the hang on overflow setup I decided to just go for it and transfer everything to the 140. WOW what a rush and endeavour. After much anxiety, tlc, and now 7 weeks in everything seems to be doing great. The sailfin, blue chromis, lanmower, and damsel are loving their massive new home. Although I still have to pull minor hair algae every now and then in small patches. Nothing seems to eat it and it is very rooted in what I believe are some form of anthelia that came with the original tank. 2 weeks ago I was given a small patch of anthelia (which have already started to spread and grow) and a nice silver dollar size ricordea which although doing well seems like he is having a hard time completley attaching to the rock. I superglued a small corner of his foot to a rock. Last week I bought a few multi color zoo frags and they seem to be doing great too although my emralds (or one of them) seems to be roughing them up a little while grazing. They open nicely when the lights come on and I think they are spreading off the frag rock edge already. I am running 2 36" compatct flourescents (Current) for a total of 4 10k's and 4 actinics. (I believe are all 65w each) I am running a 1500gph dry pump, 1/6 hp chiller, a diy wet dry, into a 20g long sump partitioned with crushed coral under the wet dry, through carbon, into the second stage sump area and returned back to the tank. I have a smaller hang on skimmer that will be upgraded this week hopefully, sitting in the sump as well. I am seriously wanting to upgrade the sump size to include a refugium and new skimmer. The info here is great and leaving me many choices. I eventually want to sucessfully run a mixed reef and only want to build this sump/fuge once. So here I am and thanks to all for the great info I have read so far. I am really digging this simpler is better mentality that most have adopted recently as many people I have known just gave up due to frustration and difficulties. Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

And how come I'm a plankton? What if i don't want to be a boring old little plankton? =)

 

welcom to 3reef post alot and you will grow

 

I wish I could post a few pics but I lack a decent camera.

 

Welcome to the reef!!! If i read that properly a 1/6 hp chiller is going to have a hell of a time keeping up with a 140g tank--I know you got a good hook up on it, but the electric bill will kill you if it runs all the time trying to keep up!!

 

It is actually doing ok so far I am running it inline with the main pump. I'm manually controlling it until i can afford a second pump and a digital controller. It drops a degree per hour and I am only running it like 6 hrs mid day and I am not really running my air conditioning yet. Avg house temp is 82-84 and the tank is maintained around 78-80 deg.
It was bad high at the 86 mark before the chiller install. I am hoping to be good with a smaller pump and controller.

 

welcome to 3 reef, we where all plankton on our 1st post, but it changes every so often

so if you dont want to be plankton - you need to keep on posting

Steve

 

Maybe its a 1/4 hp. He gave me 2 to choose from and they both needed a real good cleaning and refurb. I just picked the bigger one and tackled it first. I'll pull the cover and check the specs again.

 

Welcome.

take it Step By step and eventually you'll have The Right Stuff.

(if you get that I am sorry...)

 

pic update

Here are a few photos, sorry so crappy it's the best I could do for now. Thanks for visiting.