LVReefer94
Active Member
Hello R2R Family,
Lets start out from the beginning.. May of 2020 I purchased my first big tank, 150G Visio that was used for $300, it was a steal for me in my area. 48x24x30 were the dimensions and it was so big at first I just couldn't believe it when I came home from work and seen it sitting in my garage. Me and my girlfriend had never had anything bigger than a 50G in the past so it seemed rather large for the both of us but that was perfect for me and she knows how much tanks get me through life so she was okay with it that much of a water volume being inside the house we still rent at the moment. The best women ever, mother of my two children. Besides that LOL I was super excited to set this tank up and get it running. I had a nano saltwater tank in the past that only housed 2 clowns and some zoas so I at least understood what direction to start in. Full blown reefing was well studied during that nano's life but I had to financially wait to go all in though while researching night and day. If you made it this far then you'll know that im now currently running a 20G housing all my corals and fish till my new 100G Crystal Dynamics Aquarium is being built. Tang police alert... you'll see in my photos but this is all I can do for 6 more months. Back to the 150G Rise, I picked up an Eshopps Sump and mag drive pump and plumbed her up and tested it for leaks. All was good so brought it inside by myself haha. left the tank on the stand and rolled it on 1" pvc pipes. It worked like a dream!! Got the tank in place, purchased all the necessary gear to maintain a reef and got it wet with saltwater and cycled it with Dr. Tim's and a mix of live and dry rock with dry sand for a month, everything was okay with my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in the 3 - 4 week range, so I started getting the fish I wanted. I moved a bit fast at 1 fish per week except the first purchase which was 5 nano clowns from the same clutch but ammonia never spiked so all was good through the next few months of stocking the tank. My stocking at the time was 5 Nano Clown, 1 Hippo Tang, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Scopas Tang, 1 Powder Blue Tang, 1 Foxface, 1 Lawnmower Blenny and 1 Long Nose Hawk Fish. Everything we're juveniles when purchased, I had the intent of watching everything grow out with the family and be able to teach the kids something as they grow. We fast forward another month from the last fish purchase and we're ready for coral. I already understood reef chemistry at the basic levels of Sodium Chloride, Alk, Ca and Mg just because I built and maintained swimming pools for some time and wouldn't you know half of the numbers are pretty close to natural reefs parameters. I checked off that box and dove in head first after getting my tanks at home testable parameters in check. My good friend gave me some Kenya tree leather, mushrooms, zoas, toadstools and gsp. The grew fine so by December I had collected some choice euphyllia, plates, pocillipora, Monti's, stylo's an anemone and honestly some other things I can think of at the time of typing this but you'll see in the photos. None of these we're "hype" corals, just quality and healthy pieces I had picked out. Everything was perfect, I started to dial in my had dosing cause I started seeing weekly and then daily drops in alk and calcium. My freaking ball valve union busted on my return line! We cleaned it up pretty fast as not a whole lot of water hit the floor. My girl was ticked haha! So I fixed and by the end of December my Dino's finally came after I went all in and got my apex gear... so I made the decision to suck out all the sand and go bare bottom since that's where it was living and I really wanted to do a high flow spa tank soon but hopefully be able to raise my nutrients and get out of the Dino hole that dry rock and sand helps harbor. at that point I wanted to actually scape my rocks so I saved all the water in my brutes and got the fish and coral out and glued it all together and then the night before filling it back up and adding the rock structures I had sitting in my brute cans so the bacteria would live we decided to scoot the tank into the living room and have the den as her work office and that was nice! I forgot to mention that my crappy sump busted and I had to rig together a rubber maid tote while I did a diy 40 breeder sump but... It's now March 28th 2021... the night is still young and BRS is streaming on the tv. A loud pop happens and we look at each other and water is gushing everywhere!! Inch's of water are leaving the tank by the seconds. The bottom pane had busted from corner to corner due to my faulty stand I didn't catch in the beginning. It was a massive mess and I was literally sweeping water out the back door with a darn broom LOL while water is rushing out the front door and into the living room, kitchen, den and almost down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms. I stayed extremely calm and had her get the shop vac, carpet cleaner and her parents just a couple streets away to help out. Everything was okay by 10 PM that night, my friend brought by my current 20G that's housing all fish that survived plus the 2 I had in QT while this happened. My fish stocking had changed a bit and thinned out since my best friend really pushed me to sell him most of them while I broke the tank down due to the Dinos at the end of 2020. Few corals survived because the clean up took priority and they were all out of the water for the first hour. I now have new corals that are just chugging along and dipping my toes in the acro and sps game. 1 month ago for my birthday my wonderful woman let me purchase a new 100G Crystal Dynamics Aquarium with a STEEL STAND! Ya... forget wood. I am a carpenter by trade but that don't mean I'll use wood for anything at this point. This tank is ballin compared to my previous ones with its 3 x starphire glass panels, reinforced seams, reinforced eurobraced bottom with pvc foam glued to the bottom, and a double eurobraced top. It was not cheap by no means but I aint dealing with junk again!!! I will post the link in this thread to my new build thread im starting with that tank when I create it in the next coming weeks. Enjoy the picture of The 150G Reef Tank Rise and Fall. I tried adding them in order from my story for the most part except for a few at the end that snuck in there like my rubbermaid sump.. and diy 40B. I look forward to seeing you on my next build thread!
Lets start out from the beginning.. May of 2020 I purchased my first big tank, 150G Visio that was used for $300, it was a steal for me in my area. 48x24x30 were the dimensions and it was so big at first I just couldn't believe it when I came home from work and seen it sitting in my garage. Me and my girlfriend had never had anything bigger than a 50G in the past so it seemed rather large for the both of us but that was perfect for me and she knows how much tanks get me through life so she was okay with it that much of a water volume being inside the house we still rent at the moment. The best women ever, mother of my two children. Besides that LOL I was super excited to set this tank up and get it running. I had a nano saltwater tank in the past that only housed 2 clowns and some zoas so I at least understood what direction to start in. Full blown reefing was well studied during that nano's life but I had to financially wait to go all in though while researching night and day. If you made it this far then you'll know that im now currently running a 20G housing all my corals and fish till my new 100G Crystal Dynamics Aquarium is being built. Tang police alert... you'll see in my photos but this is all I can do for 6 more months. Back to the 150G Rise, I picked up an Eshopps Sump and mag drive pump and plumbed her up and tested it for leaks. All was good so brought it inside by myself haha. left the tank on the stand and rolled it on 1" pvc pipes. It worked like a dream!! Got the tank in place, purchased all the necessary gear to maintain a reef and got it wet with saltwater and cycled it with Dr. Tim's and a mix of live and dry rock with dry sand for a month, everything was okay with my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in the 3 - 4 week range, so I started getting the fish I wanted. I moved a bit fast at 1 fish per week except the first purchase which was 5 nano clowns from the same clutch but ammonia never spiked so all was good through the next few months of stocking the tank. My stocking at the time was 5 Nano Clown, 1 Hippo Tang, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Scopas Tang, 1 Powder Blue Tang, 1 Foxface, 1 Lawnmower Blenny and 1 Long Nose Hawk Fish. Everything we're juveniles when purchased, I had the intent of watching everything grow out with the family and be able to teach the kids something as they grow. We fast forward another month from the last fish purchase and we're ready for coral. I already understood reef chemistry at the basic levels of Sodium Chloride, Alk, Ca and Mg just because I built and maintained swimming pools for some time and wouldn't you know half of the numbers are pretty close to natural reefs parameters. I checked off that box and dove in head first after getting my tanks at home testable parameters in check. My good friend gave me some Kenya tree leather, mushrooms, zoas, toadstools and gsp. The grew fine so by December I had collected some choice euphyllia, plates, pocillipora, Monti's, stylo's an anemone and honestly some other things I can think of at the time of typing this but you'll see in the photos. None of these we're "hype" corals, just quality and healthy pieces I had picked out. Everything was perfect, I started to dial in my had dosing cause I started seeing weekly and then daily drops in alk and calcium. My freaking ball valve union busted on my return line! We cleaned it up pretty fast as not a whole lot of water hit the floor. My girl was ticked haha! So I fixed and by the end of December my Dino's finally came after I went all in and got my apex gear... so I made the decision to suck out all the sand and go bare bottom since that's where it was living and I really wanted to do a high flow spa tank soon but hopefully be able to raise my nutrients and get out of the Dino hole that dry rock and sand helps harbor. at that point I wanted to actually scape my rocks so I saved all the water in my brutes and got the fish and coral out and glued it all together and then the night before filling it back up and adding the rock structures I had sitting in my brute cans so the bacteria would live we decided to scoot the tank into the living room and have the den as her work office and that was nice! I forgot to mention that my crappy sump busted and I had to rig together a rubber maid tote while I did a diy 40 breeder sump but... It's now March 28th 2021... the night is still young and BRS is streaming on the tv. A loud pop happens and we look at each other and water is gushing everywhere!! Inch's of water are leaving the tank by the seconds. The bottom pane had busted from corner to corner due to my faulty stand I didn't catch in the beginning. It was a massive mess and I was literally sweeping water out the back door with a darn broom LOL while water is rushing out the front door and into the living room, kitchen, den and almost down the hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms. I stayed extremely calm and had her get the shop vac, carpet cleaner and her parents just a couple streets away to help out. Everything was okay by 10 PM that night, my friend brought by my current 20G that's housing all fish that survived plus the 2 I had in QT while this happened. My fish stocking had changed a bit and thinned out since my best friend really pushed me to sell him most of them while I broke the tank down due to the Dinos at the end of 2020. Few corals survived because the clean up took priority and they were all out of the water for the first hour. I now have new corals that are just chugging along and dipping my toes in the acro and sps game. 1 month ago for my birthday my wonderful woman let me purchase a new 100G Crystal Dynamics Aquarium with a STEEL STAND! Ya... forget wood. I am a carpenter by trade but that don't mean I'll use wood for anything at this point. This tank is ballin compared to my previous ones with its 3 x starphire glass panels, reinforced seams, reinforced eurobraced bottom with pvc foam glued to the bottom, and a double eurobraced top. It was not cheap by no means but I aint dealing with junk again!!! I will post the link in this thread to my new build thread im starting with that tank when I create it in the next coming weeks. Enjoy the picture of The 150G Reef Tank Rise and Fall. I tried adding them in order from my story for the most part except for a few at the end that snuck in there like my rubbermaid sump.. and diy 40B. I look forward to seeing you on my next build thread!
