my tank and progression of it

rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
Ok so i started this tank back in febuary of 08. It was origionally a 30 gallon with hob equipment only. Just a clownfish, damnsel, and some clean up crew. Well after finding this site, a 30 gallon was just too small for me. I had to upgrade to at least a 55 gallon...... but (always gotta have one of those lol) i was broke. So i attempted to fill a terrerium with water and ended up making a trip to the hospital. 3 months later i went back to work and i ended up getting my 55 gallon as a gift from my girl. I bought base rock from a local store, and just tried my best to keep it as inexpensive as possible. I failed in that respect i guess. I keep a running tab of most (almost everything, im sure i forgot some stuff like the little things that nickle and dime you to death) everything i buy for the tank. Im up to just shy of $1500 by like 30 bucks. But besides one more fish and a better protien skimmer (just a better one lol $250) i think im done upgrading things. Im looking for either a flame angel or a coral beauty angel to finish off my tank. So anyways, here are the pics, cuz i know if your like me you didn't even read this and just scrolled right to the pics. Ok so this is my tank when i first started it. Gradually gotten better and better. Bought a t5ho light for it, got more live rock.... was doing pretty good. Then i found this site and wanted the 55. And this is the result of trying to catch broken glass. Before and after hospital pics. In the last pic you can see part of the 30 gallon in the background.




 
fishygurl

fishygurl

Active Member
OMG EWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE you!!!!!!! That was soooooo gross...... you shouldve gave me a warning or something... lol wow.. that looked like it hurt like a mofo. That was really gross tho. lol i hope your fingers are better and gl with your tank(s) keep us updated with the pics!
 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
Then i got my 55 gallon. I built a hood for it (but i have to leave it open cuz my air conditioner is broke and it gets alittle hot in there) and i had to tear it all down once to reinforce the stand as it was slowly falling apart. A little more money came in, so i made a sump and bought a skimmer and another light. I got a 20" pc light for the other side. I got some cheato off a local forum member and a little extra live rock. I also added a lawnmower blenny, a coral beauty angel (rip) and a firefish goby and a sixline wrasse. So this is pretty much as it stands. I also bought a hydor koralia 1 and modded my maxi jet to the 1600 gph, so i have about 2200 gph turnover rate. Thats including the return pump. On a side note, when you are calculating your turnover rate, do you add in the amount of flow the your overflow is taking? It makes sense to do it....
But back on topic now. This is as my tank sits as of right now.
See all the micro bubbles? I need to get rid of those. They are irratating as hell.




 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
lol sorry, i guess they look normal now. Still can't get full use out of those two. Cut the tendons, nerves, and arteries in both fingers. 3 months of physical therapy and they are just now starting to really improve.
And just a couple more pics of the tank. Oh don't minds the mess. Between the broken air conditioner and the couple floods i had with my tank, it ruined the carpet so we ripped it out. Also i have something like 16 indoors animals living here too (almost a pet rescue place lol) so its hard to keep spotless.
Since installing the sump, we had the first power outage i can ever remember here (16 years and counting) like two days later. Pissed me off, so i pretty much made it failsafe by pulling a check valve on the return line and bought a overflow box. I was using just a straight syphon but my firefish goby thought it was a water slide or something.
And my poor coral banded shrimp lost an arm somehow.... Do they regenerate?
So my stocklist right now is...
2 clowns
1 lawnmower blenny
1 firefish goby
1 sixline wrasse
Im still going to get a cba or a flame angel soon. Then just some very hardy corals that can stand this low lighting and higher nitrates.




 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
Oh yeah, i built a hofer gurgle buster for the overflow. Works great. Very easy to adjust and fine tune down to quiet enough i hear the bubbles in the sump over it. And tomorrow im getting a wireloom to clean up all the wires. My only regret is not installing a cgfi unit while i had the chance. And the cheapo skimmer is supplemented with an airpump to help it out. Doesn't skim that well, but i use it cuz my dad bought it for me, and he thinks its the best thing on the tank.
oh yeah, and also in the tank is...
a emerald crab
about 15 hermit crabs
3 puertorican turbo snails
a chocolate chip starfish (will leave once i start getting into corals, believe me, im not too attached to it)
I try to use only ro water, but i am bad at going to walmart to fill up a jug for it so i have been using alot of tap water. I haven't had any visible algea bloom yet, but it might be from my clean up crew keeping it down to a minimum before it gets outa hand. I guess in the morning ill get some pics of my fish, the clowns were the only ones not hiding when i had the camera out. Its bed time for them anyways, i just switched the light on to snap a couple quick pics and put it back off.
 
rune

rune

Member
Wow, those pictures are rough

I'll come back and read the thread after I turn photos off in my browser :x
 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
yeah it was pretty rough... It severed the nerves so the pain wasn't too bad above the cut, but below the cut sucked like crazy. Its all healed up physical wise, but the nerves are still regrowing. It feels like my fingers are asleep.
 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
well i wanted a 55 gallon tank, and i had a 55 gallon terrerium laying around, so i filled it with water. the top left corner started to peel away from the left side of the front glass and i stepped forward to try and brace it and it exploded. almost chopped off both fingers. so my when i say i have blood sweat and tears into my tank, i mean it lol. well actually i didnt cry, but it hurt like a bad word.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
wow just the pic of the massive sliced fingers was worth my click. looks like torture
nice progression with the tank but after seeing the hand kinda takes focus off the actual subject matter.
 
rotarygeek

rotarygeek

Member
Yeah i guess i could see what you mean. But im keeping them up since they played a big part in getting my fish tank. Is it just me or is this board moving alot slower than usual? Normally i would have to search two or three pages to find a post no one has posted in in a couple of hours, but this one was still on the top page. oh and i have some questions...
1. When your adding up your turnover rate, are you adding how much your overflow takes away per hour? Its taking out the same amount your pump is putting in, so why not?
2. Im looking for a skimmer to replace my peice o' junk with. Can someone point me to a good one for a 55 that is under $200? I have been looking at aquac remora's, but i don't know if i want a HOB anything anymore since I do have a sump to use. I don't have a big enough area to hold the footprint of the urchin class either (*yet, but ill upgrade to a 20 gallon sump in the near future with compartments much bigger than the last one.
 
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