upster

My new set up has finally become a reality. My first tank was a 40 breeder with DIY overflow, stand, and sump. This first tank was running for just a few days short of a year. I posted a blog on it here. I guess I would call my experience with this tank a success. A few hiccups here and there, but no major crashes or deaths. When it came time to move apartments I figured the easiest way to move the tank would be to start with a new tank. Then, I could simply transfer the contents of my old tank to a new tank with fresh saltwater and substrate.

But first, what did I learn from my first set up? Well, simply everything. So I guess I will describe a few choices I wouldn't want to repeat a second time 'round:

Substrate - The biggest planning mistake I made was to start with crushed coral as a substrate. It trapped detritus and looked awful.

Flow - Tank space is at a premium on small sized tanks. The 2 Koralia #3's that I used for flow were good, but they were very cluncky. Also, I found I had a really hard time tweeking the direction of the pumps in order to get random flow where I wanted. It would be perfect in some spots and too light/heavy in others.

Noise - I set up a durso standpiipe but the drain was very loud. I figured to make sure that the drain pipe was angled and didn't drop straight down.

Failure points - I determined the equipment most likely to cause issue were the suction cups on the flow switch for my ATO (saturated kalk). I had alarms set on my Reefkeeper but I needed to properly secure this switch.

Livestock - I wanted to keep my choices limited to fish which spend most of their time in an around the rocks. Because the tank is so small I felt that to see clumsy fish like clowns bumping against walls took away from the natural look of the tank.

Equipment - Clutter, clutter, clutter. With more experience using the equipment I felt that I could focus on organization and proper placement. I was determined to keep things tidy.

With these concerns in mind I set off to look for a new tank. I chose a new 58 gallon reef ready tank by Oceanic to sit on top of a freshly build stand. The stand was designed to fit my old 40 breeder but I found this new tank at a great price. It has the same footprint at the breeder, but is 50% taller and should provide more aquascaping options. I painted the back of the tank black. I decided to hang my 250w MH pendant using the hanging mounts from Sunlight Supply. As a whole, I feel I have a acheived the clean look I was going for.

I transfered all of my corals. They are mainly small sps frags, a couple LPS, and zoa's. I will be keeping the livestock minimal for the first few months. Currently I am keeping a Coral Beauty and a Flame Hawkfish. As of right now, the only fish I plan to add is a Black Cap Basslet. This is partly because I will need to add 25 lbs of live rock. My plan is to cure some dry rock is a bucket for a month to supplement the existing rock.

For equipment, I am using almost everything from the old set up. I decided to ditch the kalkwasser reactor I was running and will simply mix it in weekly with my top off. I will begin automated dosing of 2 part in the very near future. Also, setting up a Two Little Fishies Phosban reactor. The biggest upgrade I made was flow and jumped on the Vortech bandwagon. Here is a quick summary:

Lighting - Lumenmax 3 250w DE w/ Ushio 20k
Controller - Reefkeeper Lite w/ float switches
Skimmer - Euro-Reef RS-80
Flow - Vortech mp40w (reefcrest 80%)
Return - Mag 5
ATO - Tom's Aqualifter w/ saturated kalk
Heater - 400w Hydor (soon to be replaced with something smaller)

Here are the first few pics:

Waiting for the water to clear



First FTS, more live rock on the way



Nice clean stand