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Post by christian on Jul 18, 2019 19:08:38 GMT -5
Cue the song "Reunited and it feels so good" I've been out of the hobby for about 5 or so years, this is the longest I've gone without a tank since 2nd or 3rd grade. As most of you probably remember, over the years I've run the gambit of tanks - all kinds of different freshwater, to reef keeping and coral farming and breeding bangaii cardinals and seahorses. For a time, I managed a local colleges aquaculture lab, and spearheaded a coral farm project where I taught courses on Marine Ornamental Aquaculture and wholesaled a pretty decent amount of coral to various Vances, Deep Sea when he was still going, and towards the end of my stint - Easy was just coming on the scene.  After a career change, I was pretty burnt out on aquarium keeping and so sold all of my aquarium gear and moved on to other things. This spring, I was bitten by the bug again - A week or so ago I saw a 10G tank for $7 at Mardens I figured it was time. My wife agreed, as long as I didn't go "too crazy" (I believe we have differing opinions on what "too crazy" is...but, whatever  ) Looking to keep it low maintenance, relaxing and fun. So, here's where it starts - a seven dollar, 10 Gallon Aqueon tank.  (Also, Fair warning - most pictures will be taken by my crappy android phone...so..they will be bad.) |
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Jul 18, 2019 21:10:43 GMT -5
I’ll definitely be tagging along for this one. Glad to,see your back in the hobby.
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Post by christian on Jul 19, 2019 6:33:13 GMT -5
I decided to go bare bottom on this tank. I've never used this method before and am eager to try it. Historically, I had great success with DSB & RDSB but this is time around is all about new, different, fun (and cheap) right? Also decided to plasti-dip the back and underside of the tank.   It took a few more coats then I expected, but am pretty happy with the overall result.  |
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Post by christian on Jul 19, 2019 6:36:06 GMT -5
Happy day!  |
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Post by christian on Jul 19, 2019 7:40:25 GMT -5
Like I forewarned, my android cell camera pics are terrible. But, tank is up on the cabinet. Glad I blacked out both the back and the bottom.  Couple boxes of supplies landed as well. Scored a Aquaclear 70 on Ebay for $30, I'll eventually probably mod it a little for a space for chaeto or maybe even some of the dragons breath macro...We will see. And then Petco had their summer sale so I bought a few things to get my started - Chemi-pure, going to try out some Seachem Matrix in the AC70, Digital Thermometer, Reef Crystals and a swing-arm hydrometer  |
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Post by christian on Jul 19, 2019 13:19:39 GMT -5
Reached out to a contact back at the College and asked if I could buy a little live rock to kick-start the new tank - they said just to go for whatever pieces and don't bother about paying for it - super cool! I didn't bother to weigh it, but I'm sure its 10+ lbs of rock. Few gallons of water, too.    They also still have some of the pieces that I grew out a while ago and said I can have free reign on frags of that too. Kinda excited to see a few of those again! Also, thinking about doing flower nems - Never done them before, they look cool and colorful, has anyone had any experience with them in a BB tank? Ill do some searching in the archives.... Going to start with just distilled water while tank cycles. May eventually upgrade to a RO unit... Found an old Rio powerhead that I was using for my old aquaponics system in the greenhouse. Good enough to mix up saltwater with...... |
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Post by scoobnoob on Jul 20, 2019 9:45:26 GMT -5
Rock flowers are awesome 👌 I have a customer and his spawn regularly it's great because you never know what color your gonna get. Be cautious though as they may snag nano fish they are especially sticky we lost 2 baby mandarins to them.
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Post by christian on Jul 20, 2019 17:03:16 GMT -5
Sweet! This might be kind of silly, but I'm considering a fishless system. Or, depending on the need maybe something like one small 6 line, scarlet pinstripe, or pink streaked wrasse - All three are web spinners and as such will (theoretically) hide in rock, rather then substrate.
I probably wont do clownfish, thought about maybe some type of goby but if I do rock flower anemones that probably wont be a good match either. Thought about maybe a single dottyback......Though, Bangaii's will always have a special place in my heart.....who knows. Boy thats alot of fish talk for a supposidly fishless system lol.
Does your customer have a barebottom tank, or a tank with substrate? Ive heard that they appreciate some sand and may wander a little if they don't have sand to put their foot into.
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Post by spotfin on Jul 21, 2019 6:04:46 GMT -5
Awesome! Looking forward to seeing this progress.
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Post by christian on Jul 25, 2019 8:46:06 GMT -5
Picked up a NeoTherm on Ebay for $25  I removed the AC stock media basket/chamber, and emptied out the Matrix into the main body of the AC. Added a little more gutter guard to prevent any of the pieces from going somewhere they shouldn't. This allowed more room to fit the neotherm in the media chamber.  |
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Post by spotfin on Jul 25, 2019 16:11:41 GMT -5
Nice.
I’ve got a standard 15 and 20 high if you want to upgrade😉
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Post by christian on Jul 26, 2019 8:09:45 GMT -5
I’ve got a standard 15 and 20 high if you want to upgrade😉 You stop that right now LOL |
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Post by christian on Aug 6, 2019 18:56:10 GMT -5
Now we're making some progress. 3 weeks ago today added liverock, and pretty much did the set it and forget it method. Made some quick modifications to the top of the AC filter box (drilled a hole) so that my power chords and temp probe could fit in there and allow the lid to still actually close. Overall look now. Might reach out to the college to see if I can snipe a few mushrooms or something hardy to let them sit for a week or so to test the proverbial waters with. Today, some goodies showed up -  Got a light, the Hipargero Aqua Knight, Flipper Nano, and some a filter floss pad. I did a water change, and then added the Chemi-pure and some floss to the AC chamber.  I was pretty impressed with the lights packaging, instructions, ease of setup and use. Overall, for a budget light it looks like its going to work rather nicely. I did see a few horror stories about using the included connection pieces cracking aquariums over time, so I opted to make a metal stand that would slide behind the AC filter and I could attach my light to that   Made some quick modifications to the top of the AC filter box (drilled a hole) so that my power chords and temp probe could fit in there and allow the lid to still actually close. Overall look now. Might reach out to the college to see if I can snipe a few mushrooms or something hardy to let them sit for a week or so to test the proverbial waters with.  Here is the corner that the little tank is in.  |
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Post by ryansweatt2004 on Aug 6, 2019 19:29:43 GMT -5
Looking good!
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Post by christian on Aug 23, 2019 18:51:22 GMT -5
Ok, time for some updates! I added a cleanup crew, 2 trochus, 4 astreas, 2 small blue leg hermits. I've never kept hermits in my reef, always been a kinda snail-only type guy, but thought it would be fun to try some. I know some can be prone to nip at zoas over time so I'll keep an eye on them. Thus far, the kids love them.   also got a few corals to "test the waters" with, two zoanthids, a montipora, efflatuounaria and a rhodactis. I knew that the tank had a few flatworms, and so I tried 3 stores in town, and no one had any of the Bayer bug product, and then it dawned on me - I remember reading on the bottle a long time ago that Revive from TLF was primarily Spruce, Lemon, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oil, Water, and an organic emulsifier. And, it just so happened that my wife had gotten into the essential oil craze, and so we had a shelf with tons of oils - I knew I could find most of the ingredients. I ended up using about 6-8 oz of tank water, 2 drops each of Lemon, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree oil. I didn't have any emulsifier, so I just used a Popsicle stick to keep the oil in suspension by agitating the water. I dropped a zoa frag into the cup, and kept swirling for 30 or so seconds - flatworms came flying off! I should have taken some pictures, but didn't think to. I then did a rinse in another 8 oz of just tank water to make sure there were no residual oils left on the plug. It's been 2 weeks since I added the corals, and the oil dip seemed to have no adverse effects on the corals (all opened up within an hour or so) and I've seen no bugs/nasties/hitch hikers. I'm NOT recommending this for everyone - but it worked in a pinch for me! I will be buying some Bayer off of amazon for next time around though   |
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) Looking to keep it low maintenance, relaxing and fun. 
