I'm going to enter my current project.
Three months ago I got into reefing by attempting to enter another forums Nano-Cube 6 buildoff. My tank arrived from one of the sponsors, I ran out and got some live rock, sand, and water and found out my tank was cracked. I ran to petsmart and threw everything in a 10 gallon, and started the water circulating. Two weeks later the replacement tank arrived, confident that I wouldn't have two cracked tanks, and that my
nitrogen cycle had done its thing I picked three things out of the $5 frag bin. That cube was cracked too... So for the last three months my little frags have grown and grown in their ten(busted a seal in the 10, got a 15 tall... I'm not lucky) under a 96 watt PC power quad.
The other day I was in the reef shop close to work and they had a used amirical sump and skimmer with a hagen 802 return pump. I picked that up.
Knowing that the sump was 24" long, I made a stand that was 25x18.5"... And I got clearance from my SO to go ahead and put any sized tank on it that would fit.
Last week I ordered a 24x18x18(33 gallons) acrylic with euro bracing and a black back from the shop close to home. If they haven't started building yet I may or may not get an
external overflow box. I also got a killer deal on some new shrooms and two two-head frags of candycane, one in an awesome blue morph.
My Plan
One inch sandbed for looks.
I want a mixed-tank reef that uses as little dosing as possible. I want two or three pieces of SPS and lots of LPS and polyps. I have 12lbs of live rock now, and I want to boost that to 30. I'd prefer a more open look with less rock and stocking, giving me more volume. I would like one Giant chunk o' rock as the center piece and then maybe two piles that are comprised of my existing rock.
Lighting... For now I'm going to stick to my powerquad, maybe try to get a better bulb for it. On the list is either T5 or a 175mh. That will be a December/January purchase.
Plumbing... PVC from sump and back again. Two 1/2" returns. Either a mag5 or 7 in sump. Leaning towards the 7.
Skimming. I'm converting the cheesy co-current that came with my sump to a snailman countercurrent that drops the skimmed water down sump.
Dosing. As little as possible. I'm a nano-reefer and I'm happy with the way water changes have been working for me. I'd like to add calcium to my top-off if I need to(planning on it). I'll probably track various trace elements to see how successful I'm being. If I was really smart I'd bust out the calculus that would tell me what volume/frequency of changes I'd need to replace the whole volume every 6 months.
Cool tricks:
Battery powered ATO so I don't have to run a relay.
That's the gist of it. Nothing clever or groundbreaking. My biggest worry is the addition of live rock to a system that's already established. It should be fine, but adding a 20lb chunk of dubious curing when I've only got 12lbs up and working really concerns me. The lighting might be underwhelming in the 33 until I add some oomph.
Chris
