Slowly But Surely

Well, the wife came through and bought me a new 115gal tank for my Birthday. and ofcourse that was the cheap part! Anyways. I've never had one this big. but i've done everything i could till i ran out of money. here are some pics so far.


Fill'er Up!




My first wet/dry sump/fuge, I was so scared to turn it on. just looks like it would overflow and flood the living room! lol. but it works great so far. (thats right folks. no skimmer.....yet. payday is friday!);D




And, we have sand. (yeah i need another 20lbs or so)




Now we've cleared up a little. Think that 4 lbs of live rock will be enough? =) again payday is friday! ;D





So. Still need Lights, Liverock, and Skimmer, but we're getting there.

-BillyD

 

Hey Chap!

Good luck...! I was also excited when I got my tank and equipment. It was also a gift... From my beloved one ...!

Cheerio!

 

WooHoo!!!​

You are well on way now!

Congrats!

Any questions...post away.

Check in now and then and let us know status....;D
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Learn to Live With It
​

Adam Blundell M.S. ​

"...As surprising as it may seem your tank will look ugly at first. This happens to all new marine aquariums as they cycle through their initial filtration phase. Your tank may go brown, and then green, and then red, and then just look junky. It happens. Consequently the one coral you really want to keep may not live. You may struggle to raise the prize fish you originally intended to acquire. It's okay; just learn to love whatever is working for you. Remember, not only is this a hobby, but we are keeping living ecosystems. Special efforts should be put forth to enjoy and appreciate what we are keeping, whatever it may be. It takes time and patience to turn a glass box full of rock into a beautiful, thriving reef tank..."



;D​

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How are you getting the water from the tank down to the sump/wetdry ? And I'd get rid of the glass tops.. heat build up and do not allow for effecient surface gas exhange of the water.

 

Nice! You have a very nice wife!

 

Congratas and welcome!

The amount of rock that you keep in your tank will be determined by what your ultimate plans are. Do you plan on having a full blown reef? If so, I would recommend 1.5 to 2 pounds of rock per gallon. You don't need to buy all live rock though. Adding "dead" base rock from a place such as Marco Rocks will cost a lot less and serve the same purpose. Your existing live rock will seed the dead rock. Same goes for sand. How many inches of sand do you have in the tank at present? I don't like to put more than 2" of sand in my tanks.

As for lights and skimmer, you won't really need either for a few months. There's nothing for the lights to grow but if you want to encourage coralline growth, you'll want to add some type of blue actinic lighting. As for a skimmer, right now, there's nothing for the skimmer to skim out. Now, that being said, if you go ahead and load your tank up with uncured live rock then by all means get a skimmer and run it.

 

Well as far as rock goes. i will be doing a mixture of live and dead. like you say to seed it. I have a few good pieces covered in coraline in my other tanks i can move over to help.

as far as this tank goes i think it will be mostly fish with a few corals for color. (havent decided wich yet, but nothing to terribly needy.)

The sand is almost 2 inches. i thought i had bought enough. but i think i need another 20lbs or so to get a good 2" bed.

My wife had gotten excited about our tanks a while back and bought some baby lionfish not knowing anything about them. they just looked neat lol. so this is really an upgrade tank for them. My 55gal has a few corals and a few fish, not a full blown reef by any means. but i am not done adding corals. its only 6 months old. im going very slow on that one. The 30gal i have will be a Full reef tank. its broken down at the moment untill we get our housing remodel done and i will set it up in the new room.

My tank is not drilled. i am using an overflow box to get water down to it., and yes. she bought the extra glass tops. but they will not be on there for long. I was planning on building myself a nice top for it that will provide good ventilation and hold the lights well.


Thanks for the input guys!

-BillyD

 

If your sand is "almost" at 2", I would say that you have enough sand

 

I'm doing the same right now. I've got approx 40lbs of Coral Tuff Rock and 8lbs of fine quality Fiji rock.

Cheers!