How I Spent Over 4000 Dollars In 10 Hours

[TheConstantGrower]

Well guys, the wait is over, the misses saw the little freshwater tank and loved it, and with all her good grace, green-lighted project marine. (i neglected to warn her the price difference between freshwater and marine )

Perhaps first a parts list.

40 gallon tank / stand deal.
which i might as well have stolen. This little gem was relaxing in the back of one of the largest LFS's I've ever been in. it was love at first sight, well, my first love was the 500 gallon double bow front on dark cherry. 5 digits, nuff said.

Cora-Life Lunar Aqualite:
This however was not a steal, but i most certainly got my moneys worth.
65 Watt Actinic #3 cfl. (UV bulbs) x2
65 Watt 10,000K Daylight HID CFL
4 Blue moonlight LED's (amazing in the dark, just... wow)
Doubled ballasted and fan cooled (for the HID bulbs)

Eheim Professional II Pump / filter setup
Here was the icing on the cake, expensive as all get out, over-kill a bit (better to over filter then under)
Handles 100 gallons (at 94 lph)
Self Priming (What a joke that is though)
Fully adjustable inlets / spraybar
Both mechanical and biological dual stage filtering (ceramics and the little round balls of which i cannot remember the name)
This thing was hell to start, self priming though it may be, (i used my foot to press it which i had to do about 50 times) the hoses really have to be dead on, loops and droops mess with starting this thing up and its extremely succeptable to air getting into its various right angle adapters on the inlets and outlets, once i fine tuned it and made sure all the seals were tight as a tiger she purred away silently into the night... and i do mean SILENTLY.

Rena Air 300
Does up to 100 gallons
Great air pressure
NEVER BUY IT
Might as well start up a good old fashioned kerosine generator in your house, yeah, its that loud, Whisper pumps here i come
Various crappy airstones that came with it.

Python Water fill / vacume system.
If you dont have one of these, i dont even really know what to say to you, other then go get one, now. Close this post, and go buy one.

Other Items
Various and copious ammounts of buffers testers chemicals cleaners ect
25 lbs of marine salt
Have not decided on the right heater system yet, will choose tomorrow

All other items have not been purchased yet until i start to get into cycling it, which im not ready for, thats just craptap water in there unconditioned, still in the leak testing phase. IE: Live rock / Live sand ammonium chloride (for the cycle starts) and all the other goodies which the misses dosnt know of yet.

Heres the pictures!

i just LOVE those moonlight LED's nothing compares to seeing that in person.

Messy, unorganized, terrible airline / cable managment, but i cant feel my feet and enough is enough for one night!

The pump, in all its glory, so very very happy with that purchase.

All i have to say is, it may seem lame, but soak the hoses first, (for the pump) they are so hard to manuever.

The cap fit PERFECTLY over the lamp assembly even on its 3 inch lifts. Luck? perhaps.

Taking over the living room in force!

Note: I learned something this evening... my arms when fully submerged displace exactly 1.5 gallons of water. This is important, because i like to work on a full tank, so i can know where the line is when i add things so i leave gallon jugs in the tank, and then when i reach in, i remove them to make room then put them in when im done, this actually started as a way to keep my spray bar quiet while the miss was asleep, very very loud at 230 in the morning!

Now for some questions.

Im familiar with my hortoculture lights, and i guess the same rules should apply but i cant say as i know how hot these bulbs will get over a 12 hour duty cycle. and i have very nice tempered fumed glass that goes on the top of the cap, Like so.

Now the issue is clearance and airflow. Like so...

The back of the cap is open, and a good part of me things that i could leave the glass down and get away with it sucking air from the back, but the other part of me thinks im going to burn down my home, and then ill never be allowed to have tanks again .



I have several decisions i need to make, and as always i love to hear criticism and comments on my ideas and setups so here they are.

Im not sure if i should go reef or not, i <3 reef no lies.
Im not entirely sure on my ecosystem (stocking a proper balance of fish / crustations / other bottom feeders / algae eaters ect)

Also, i've been looking around, and i cant find a decisive answere on air flow in a marine tank, if airstones are even at all nessecery.
in addition to the air situation, i was wondering what other people use for protine skimmers if they are nessecery ect ect.

Alright NOW im done folks! hope to hear from you all.

 

[cuticom]

Ummm first whats with the light up volcano? you planning to keep it? If your aiming for a reef look alike marine tank, that will look pretty tacky...

As long as theirs good surface movement air pumps aren't needed, they just encourage slat creep and before you know you have bits of salt everywhere, trust me on this I run an air pump in my quarantine system, their is salt all around it, its everywhere.

I find protein skimmers absolutely necessary, no matter what is kept, but other people run without them. A skimmer will give you a lot more leeway and time if something goes wrong in the tank.

The lighting you have will support corals if you choose to go that way, though I would personally dump the cannister, their not needed on any marine system but a Fish Only system. If you choose to do coral, or have inverts you need Live rock, at least 40 lbs, though more is always better.

Unless your get live rock, stick to just fish and snails, and remember you need to be careful with the fish, marine tanks need a much much lighter stocking then freshwater tanks do.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Good deal, knew about the lighter stocking, now i know to deff get a skimmer, as for the volcano, i didn't purchase it was laying around and i just tossed it in for ####s. i think someone thought it might make a nice gift a while back and i wholly agreed with you on it being tacky and closeted it.


EDIT: it should also be known that im not 100% on the marine deal yet, Ive been doing hours and hours worth of research on it and its turning into quite the little extravaganza, which inst a problem, i just don't want to leap into it and muck it up, the canister which would otherwise be useless is for when i ultimately back out, wait a year and make this a freshwater for the time being.

 

[shelaghfishface]

wow! thats some mess you made i thought mine was bad when i was swapping tanks, but you won!! lol
i would love to be able to do what you are doing,but aprt from not haveing that sort of cash at my disposal, i am just not brave enough to go through with it, i think you def have to fully understand what you are doing to go " marine",as of course the losses ar greater and more heartbreaking should you make an error, maybe one day when ,the children have grown up and left home,then iwill have peace to sit and reasearch,but im keeping an eye on this thread and i wish you all the best,its a great looking tanknow,i cant wait to see it when you have finished it

shelaghxxx

ps, CLEAN UP THE MESS!!!

 

[Luketendo]

If you go reef:

1. Dump the filter.
2. Get a skimmer.
3. Get enough live rock and put it in.
4. Put in some coral sand (important to do this after the live rock).

 

[T1KARMANN]

Just out of intrest what did you get for $4k thats alot of cash

 

[debbie888]

Ha I like your signature!

 

[paul_219]

WOW the tank is looking gr8. Superb setup.

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Has turned into planted freshwater.

Decided i wanted to take more time to learn more reef before diving in. (and save for it)

 

[Eigdoog]

$4000? about £2000 wow thats alot of the green stuff i belive you call it

It looks really nice and i think your have more money and hour put into this. the 500 gallon one sounds nice but then you got to find space and tell your other half what you just done and then sleep elsa where that night...for two weeks, hope to see some more pics later on

 

[Luketendo]

Has turned into planted freshwater.

Decided i wanted to take more time to learn more reef before diving in. (and save for it)

Great idea.

You saving the marine equipment for later?

 

[TheConstantGrower]

Definitely, i have an under-tank in the works, for the treatment of my reef water, and working on my own Protein skimmer. Also thinking that if i establish this as a really good planted fresh water, then ill just get to get another tank in a year for reef.

There are a lot of chemicals buffers salts and small tools needed to do marine that weren't in the picture, but certainly heavily effected the price. and i'm certainly saving all those.

 

[RadaR]

Just out of intrest what did you get for $4k thats alot of cash

I was wondering that too....

 

[TheConstantGrower]

As was stated earlier there's a lot you cant even see, i was too tired to do a whole write up on every little thing purchased, and no its not all right in the tank, i use a secondary tank underneath to heat / treat. none of that was even set up yet, and purchased new. so i can understand how whats in the pictures doesn't represent the dollars but in all fairness. its not about the $$$, its about the fish.

Since then i have returned various items traded them out for others, bought lots of new things, and returned / changed some more. when its actually at a point worth looking at ill post it finalized or at least with the plantings / fish, it will take weeks for the tank to take on its desired appearance.


But don't let this look like defeat, it most certainly is not, my goal for marine is still full steam ahead, i just want to go into it with all my cards right. not half-assed and looking like crap.

 

[T1KARMANN]

mmmm for $4k you could set up 2 x tanks that are in the pictures

tank $600 max
filter$300-400

that gives you another $3k

it looks nice thats all that matters