55 gallon reef tank diary, my first tank!

braydonosu

Member
Fantastic 55 - I wish I would have known that other people at OSU had tanks - I started a nano up my soph year after seeing my RA's. By the time that I graduated last year I had gone through a 10, 12, 72, and still have my 40 gal. I still make trips up to columbus to go to phishybusiness every so often - he is 10x better than the lfs down here.
Keep up the tank - it's looking great - I'd love to know how much you have spent on equipment thus far.
 

matt2364

Member
Here is a newer FT shot, this is before I put the clowns in about a week ago.

And, here is a picture of a new frogspawn that I recently purchased. I really need to stop buying this stuff...
 

matt2364

Member
Great tank. Lots of BANG inside the small space.
Thank you sir, I am on the second floor of a rental house that I live in with some friends. The house was build in 1912 or something like that so the landlord will not let me put any bigger than a 55 gallon up here. When i move out, it is upgrade time :)
Keep up the tank - it's looking great -
Thanks. Yeah, I know very few people on campus that have tanks. My roomate that lives directly below me has a 125 FOWLR, but rather than that, I only know of one other guy. As I am sure you know, it is a pretty expensive hobby for students.
I'd love to know how much you have spent on equipment thus far.
This is going to be pretty tricky to answer as I have bought and sold a number of different things along the way. But here is a basic idea.
I bought all this for $400 off of craigslist: Items with prices next to them are what I ended up selling them for.
120 lb. LR
75 gallon tank $50.00
Life reef sump $215.00
Life reef VS3 48'' protein skimmer $250.00
2 x iwaki pumps $150.00
temperature controller BROKE
Magnum 350 canister filter $30.00
Random filter
2 x heaters
2 x 175w halides, 2 x 40w florescent actinics
overflow box
power head
Stand
20 Gallon tank
A few of these items broke and the guy refunded me $300, so at this point, I have made $895 for purchasing and selling random parts of this unit. So basically, through a little creative buying and selling I have acquired the following items:
75 gallon wood stand
2 x heaters
over flow box
2 x 175w halides, 2 x 40w florescent
120 Lb. Live rock
20 gallon tank (QT)
random filter
So I have the above items and have made $895.00 in profit so far and then purchased the following items below from the internet, craigslist, Phishy Business, and local reefers:
Poseidon PS4 pump $170.00 SOLD $100
55 gallon tank $55.00
Aqua medic controller $60.00
Auto top off $65.00
Auto top off pump $15.00
Milwaukee PH controller $105.00
Life reef calcium reactor, #10 Co2 tank, solenoid, pump, and pressure gauges $200.00
2 x Koralia powerheads $60.00
Dual media reactor w/pump $70.00
Aqua EV-120 Skimmer $120.00
Queit one 3,000 pump $50.00
Quiet one 5,000 pump $95.00 Need to sell, used 2 weeks, any buyers? lol
Mag 7 $30.00
40G breader $50.00
40G breader $70.00
Glass pieces attempt #1 $36.00
glass pieces attempt #2 $30.00
Lowes: Misc, pvc, etc. $300.00?
2x150w stealth heaters, (QT and water mixing) $50.00
75 GPD RO/DI $140.00 (split with roommate, $70.00)
Moon lights $25.00
Water mixing bin $10.00
35 gallon trash can (RO/DI water storage) $16.00
20 gallon top off reserve $10.00
Refractometer $35.00 (split with roommate, $17.50)
PH pen $20.00
TDS meter $20.00
GRAND TOTAL W/sales $-824.50

That is obviously not including changing halides which I have done once, carbon, GFO, Bionic, fish food, test kits (HATE BUYING THESE!!), corals, fish, clean up crew, shrimp, anemone, crabs, glass cleaning magnet, or ummm...hmmmm...there has to more stuff I have had to buy for this hobby, SALT!. I don't want to include into the costs yet, but I think I am about to buy a 1/8 hp chiller from someone for $115.00. Hopefully it works out because I hate stressing out about my window air conditioner shutting off like last summer. I came home 3-4 times to a tank that was over 86 degrees :-/
Anyways you get the point. This is a very, very expensive hobby. The more stuff you can wait and find a good deal and buy used the better. Unfortunately with most of my purchases it was something that I needed to buy right away and was not able to buy used. I did, however, get the protein skimmer, calcium reactor w/tank, soleniod, pump, and pressure valves, all used for a great deal. This saved me at least $600.00 altogether on these two items. I am
I seem to be procrastinating from studying for a midterm, need to go.
Let me know if you have any other questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.
 

braydonosu

Member
I know what you mean about expensive for students - I think I dropped around $800 - $1000 from the beginning to when I graduated. Now I've spent at least another $500 on upgrading equipment, plus I have at least another $300 - $500 to spend till I get everything the way that I want it.
Like I said, the only person that I knew in the hobby when I started was my RA, then my roommate started, neglected, and tore down a 75 gal in the matter on 1 year. A buddy of mine started a nano last year which seems to be doing well. Oh well it was a lot of fun to set up my tanks, and whenever I was stressed out about exams or anything else I could always just look at my tank.
 

matt2364

Member
I bought on ----. I think the brand name is ATO, not sure exactly. I just looked on ---- and there is only one on there and it is at 75.00 with a buy it now of 95.00. I guess I just got lucky...
I love how contageous the saltwater hobby is, whenever anyone sees someones tank they immediately want to jump into the hobby. Seems like you might have influenced a few people to enter the hobby. I agree about the exam part, I usually just sit there and watch my tank instead of study though. It is definitely relaxing to sit back and watch the tank though.
 

braydonosu

Member
I am looking for the ATO that he has because it works by electrifying an outlet and then the pumps turn on, then when the water level hits another float it turns off the power. I think that this would be a lot safer to use than one that could potentially not seal. I know someone that used their R/O unit and a float valve, but the valve would never totally close - the water pressure behind the valve was stronger than the force of the water pusing up on the float.
 

frogdog

Member
nice coralline coverage on your rocks. Is that natural, or did you dose something to make it spread better? I've have my reef going since around Oct., and it seems to grow on the powerheads, but only small spots are on the rock. I have more green and dark red coralline...
 

matt2364

Member
nice coralline coverage on your rocks. Is that natural, or did you dose something to make it spread better?
I have not done anything to make it "spread better". The only thing I could think off would be high calcium levles, I believe this helps the growth of coralline algae. Judging by those two big acros in your tank I am going to assume that you already have hight calcium levels. Not sure what to tell you...nice looking tank though.
Thanks for the compliment coralreefer
 

justdugan

Member
Tank looks awesome man, I have to ask and I'm sorry If I missed it but, what brand bulbs are you using? I know you said you had two 14k's but they look beautiful. Thanks!
 

matt2364

Member
Not sure exactly, I just bought them off of ----. They are honestly pretty crappy bulbs, I got two for like $45 with shipping. Nothing special, the 40w T12 actinics really add a lot to the color though.
 
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