Little Luey's blog

[Little Luey]

Blog Created for Little Luey

[Little Luey]

I started with FW tanks around 1986 or so; I have kept all kinds of FW fish and started to get boring for me, I was loosing interest completly. My wife had sugested that I tried SW because of the nice colored fish but I did not want to, instead I made plans to keep afican cichilds. Until she finally convinced me to try SW.
So I gave my angels to the LFS and started to convert my 90gal in to a SW tank, this was back in 2004 I think. This happened when I lived in Merrillville Indiana.
Then I had to tear my tank down because I moved to Yuma Arizona and I could not take the tank with me. So now I only have a 20gal tank and here are the pictures of it:

[Little Luey]

Here are some more:

[Little Luey]

The tank
On my first SW tank I made a few rookie mistakes that thank God I have not made on my 20gal. I always heard people say that a smaller tank is more dificult to keep but I have to say this has been much more easier than my bigger tank.
This time I whent Bare Bottom, I see this as swimming on the ocean where you can only see the top of the reef, the starboard look does not bother me, in fact, when it is covered in pink/purple coraline algie and Zoantoids and other coral it will look very nice. For a while I ran this tank without a skimmer because I had a Seaclone that was not working at all so I trashed it. All I did was to do a larger (5gal) water change every weekend. Now a friend of mine gave me a Bakpak skimmer and I have it in there but because I do not have a sump the powerhead is in the tank and it is not a pretty look, I much prefer to see coral, fish and inverts in the display tank than a man made electrical device, this is also why I do not use a heater, in fact my tanks always run hot not cold so I figure I don't need one.
At this time I am looking for the one Coral or fish that will be the centerpiece of my tank, it may end up being a coral since I don't have much room for a large fish.

[Little Luey]

On a side note, I will be picking up a MH retro I recently agree to purchase from a person in San Diego. SD is about 180miles from home so I will take the family out there for the day and get the light retro.
I feel I got a good deal, it is a Hamilton 175w retro with T5 lights also for $100, an extra MH ballast and socket for $30 and the guy afered me a brand new 175w bulb for $30, but I need to see the bulb first to see if it is a color I like. So for $160 I have a MH fixture that can grow with whatever tank I get in the future. Will post pictures next week. Good excuse for a bigger tank.

[Little Luey]

The purchase of the MH whent well. I have now 2 1000k bulbs and 2 1200k also, plus the MH retro with flouresent lights and an extra MH ballast. I will need to build a canopy for this. I don't have a tank for these lights yet.

[Little Luey]

I will be picking up a 55gal tank and also some more turbo snails on this weekend. Also received about 30lbs of live rock from a friend who had too much of it, right now this rock is in my 20gal and it looks crowded, about 50-60lbs in the tank.
The tank seem like a good deal, it is reef ready so my current 20gal will become my sump in the future, I am excited. Now I hope the boss does not have a problem with me bringing my bigger tank in the office.

I will post pictures as soon as possible.

[Little Luey]

Well, I got the tank, I like it but it has some very nasty scratches. Will have to do for the moment. Next step will be to drill the back for a closed loop. I have a 1300gph quietone waterpump for that and my mag5 will be the return. My 20gal will become my sump. I saw a nice idea for a PVC and egg crate shelf for the LR that I will be doing. All this will take some time since I used what I had for the tank. I hope to have everything setup by next month.

[Little Luey]

Well, I did a wet test for the tank, only the two worse scratches showed up, I will not be polishing the glass after all. What I am doing now is sanding the stand so I can put a fresh coat of paint. I also want to reinforce it with a couple of 2x4 on the corners. Pictures to come soon.

[Little Luey]

This is the tank as bought. I call the store the original owner got it from and they told me it is a Lee-mar tank. Never heard of that brand name but the tank seems to be well made. It was brought to my attention that the MH description was wrong (Thanks Tims) they are actually 10,000k and 12,000k bulbs.

[Little Luey]

I have repainted the stand and I am building the canopy. I also have the rock cycling in the tank. A friend is holding the fish I got for free, so so far I have spend:
2-175MH retro kits with flourecent lights & 1 new MH bulb--$160
3 MH bulbs --Free
55gal tank and stand --$100
Paint, wood and plumbing stuff -$35
2-55w PC retro kits --Free
About 45lbs of LR, flame angel, blue tang --Free

Not too bad.

[Little Luey]

My 20gal tank is now my 20gal sump. I just drilled it yesterday, boy did that take long. My dremell is not very powerfull and the batery ran out a couple of times. Finally got it done. I am fitting my pumps now.

[Little Luey]

Well, I got the tank going. The sump does not leak and the water is circulating without a problem (knock on wood). My return is a pump rated for 1000gph, I figure I probably have around 700gph after head loss. Also have the MH working now only for about 1 hour so my coral get used to it.
Last weekend I went to Phoenix and also picked up a few frags (thanks Wiskey), I got them in QT for now. These are my first real attempt to keep SPS coral.
So currently I have the following livestock:

1 devil's hand leather
2 frags of unknown polyps
2 Zoas colonies
1 candy cane
1 montipora
1 open brain (new )
1 yellow clown goby
1 cleaner shrimp
7 mexican turbos

My new SPS I forgot what they are.

[Little Luey]

I am in the process of building my skimmer, it has been fun so far.

I like to thank everyone who has help me this far in to my Reef Experiance. There has been many reefers willing to share their knowladge and for that I am greatfull.
On the DIY area I have to thank a member of TRT for his ideas and some times doing the work for me, since he dislikes how skillfull I am with tools. Barcochris, thanks for your help.

[Little Luey]

Well, this weekend I learned a valuable lesson. I now see how important a chiller is here in the state of Arizona.
The AC in the office when down on Friday, it is monday night and the AC is not working yet. My 55gal is in the office, it has been over 95degrees since Friday, and the water temperature was at 84 that day. I had to take my coral and fish in to the house; everything is on a 10gal tank right now. Times like this make me want to have bought a chiller, and I think that as I continue to stock my tank the chiller will be even more valuable. On Friday I was supposed to get a fish and a couple of clams from a member, well, I could not get the stuff. In a way I am glad it did not happen a day later because I would have lost the clams for sure. Some of my SPS have dead areas already, I hope I can save some of them.