This is my first tank that I started September of 1999. Went the my LFS to get a goldfish for my daughter and walked out with a 29 gallon tank, undergravel filter, one powerhead, a bag of salt, a hang on the back filter, a heater, 20 watt strip light, and instructions to come back tomorrow and buy 30 lbs. of live rock. Needless to say as you will see below I started asking questions on the internet and this is what happened.
Tank-Custom 57 gallon (39x17x20) with built in corner overflow.
Sump-17 gallon DIY acrylic.
Lights-Custom built 12" high canopy with 10k 175 watt mh, two 36"vhos (one 50/50 one actinic) All three lights on different timers and a total 12 hour cycle. Two 25 watt red incandescents. 4" Radio Shack fan on the same timer as the mh.
Ro unit-Spectrapure 75 gpd(got a deal)
Wavemaking-return from sump split, one end on right side of tank blowing across the top toward the overflow and the other on the same end as overflow hitting the tank middle/front. DIY spraybar with maxijet 1200, two maxijet 600's all on a
Red Sea Wavemaster Pro. Still fine tuning.
Additives-Aragamilk added to ro top off water and esv b-ionic for now.
DT Phytoplankton for the rock.
Testing-Red Sea Marine Kit with Calcium Pro and Phosphate added.
Hydromoter-ESHA Marinomat (automatically adjusts for water temp.)
Misc.-titanium grounding device in sump, digital thermometer, 150 watt vistitherm heater in sump, 22 gallon rubbermaid container for auto top off and a ultra life float valve in sump, maxi jet 600 in container. Enough left over misc. plumbing parts, etc. to open a supply house.
Inhabitants as of 1/18/00
60 lbs fiji and 20 lbs marshall island from Premium Aquatics (added 12/15/99)
Assorted hermits-Red Scarelets, bumble bees, knobbys,
Assorted snails-Astrea, bumble bees, nassasarius, bahas.
One
Electric Blue Hermit
Bi-color dottyback
Purple Tang
Maroon/Gold Clown
Blue Mushroom Rock
Yellow Leathers(5 about 2 inches tall on the same rock)
Feather Duster(my first inhabitant)
purple long tentacle anemone
*planning on adding corals slowly over the this year.
Parameters as of 1/17/00
Amm 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0
PH 8.6
Alk 2.2(Been dosing B-Ionic 10 days now)
Calcium 400
SG 1.024
Temp. 80.6
Thats about it for now, the only thing I would have done different was get a bigger tank!!
Have the 29 Gallon I bought first that I am working on turining into a reef now and a 6 gallon eclipse tank I got for christmas that i just got a pc kit(two 13 watt) for I am setting up for my office. 6 months ago we had a goldfish bowl. We now have this tank, the 29 gallon that is a fish only for now. The 6 gallon eclipse tank and a 3 gallon Eclipse Tank in my daughters room
with a purple psedo. Never considered myself compulsive..... Until now!!
