massymas94
New Member
About 3 years ago my partner went ahead and got a job at Petco as the one and only "Aquatics Specialist" in the store, despite knowing not know a single thing about fish keeping. She brought home some books they had in the back about fish keeping that I got my hands on and that I then used as an excuse to go make good use out of her shiny new store discount. Bonus factor? This happened right as the lockdowns started so I had an abundance of time to start up my new hobby! Here is that first challenge of an ugly stage followed by a much bigger challenge of cyano
I also learned how large and past those long spined urchins grow. He got brought back to the LFS once he reached the size of a dinner plate and I still see him in their 500 gallon system at the front of the shop whenever I go!
For anyone wondering, The uglies were beaten via water changes and patience, the cyano I made a lot of attempts at removing manually but eventually caved and used chemiclean (which worked excellently). I know a lot of people are heavily against chemicals in the tank, but sometimes when something really takes hold I think it can be a create help. and emerald crab took care of the bubble algae you see in the second photo. I also had a stint of bryopsis that was taken care of with ReefFlux.
Of course the ups and downs are a part of the learning process and something I would never do again is put a canister filter on a reef tank. Before that I had been using a HOB to great success. I mainly attribute that to ease of maintenance. The canister was also super quick to become a factory for nitrates and phos. That all being said, I believe its totally possible for canister filters to work in this hobby, but only for the most diligent of of us. the "cleans filter socks every day or 2 types".
Around the year and a half mark I started planning my next tank. I knew that I wanted something bigger. I knew that I wanted a much nicer aquascape, And most importantly I knew myself as a reefer and what I was realistically willing to do to maintain a system. Time to start waiting for deals and scouring the marketplaces for people getting out of the hobby! I picked up a Reef Octopus XP-2000SSS skimmer for about $100 and now knowing myself, a Theiling Compact Rollermat from one of BRS's Black Friday sales. I wanted to feed as heavily as I wanted and not have to worry about nutrient export.
I had planned to do a basement sump, but that changed when I realized that dealing with the amount of head pressure and the dust in the basement was going to be more work than what I was worth to me. Especially since I decided the tank would do better in my office verses in the living room. The moderate hum of equipment has never bothered me.
I figured a fruitful endeavor at this point would be to figure out my controller situation. I always really liked what Hydros is doing and I think I may want to join that collective once the Kraken comes out but for now, wouldn't it be fun to build a controller? This is when I stumbled on the reef-pi project. Its a great open source controller that you run off a very cheap raspberry pi. Instead of dealing with all the wiring, I discovered that Leviathan was a great PCB option. While it still requires a lot of know how in soldering, how to use a multimeter, and a healthy fear of electricity, I would say that Leviathan really helps lower the cost of entry into using reef-pi, while still being very DIY.
Here are some pictures of my partially finished controller. I say partially because I still need to add 0-10v control port, along with the connections for the PH and temp sensors. The case was 3D printed by my buddy using the STL's that Leviathan's creator, Brandon, provides. I kept the soldering to under my kitchen hoodvent to hopefully pull out the fumes.
This controller has been running well on my 29 gallon for the past year or so! I will still eventually switch over to Hydros but this has been a really fun learning experience and extremely rewarding. I'd say that the technology that goes into reef keeping is as exciting to me as the actual fish and corals.
About 7 months ago I finally pulled the trigger and ordered and 75 gallon from Glasscages. I had heard great things about them on the forums and how active Joe was to responding to any concerns I had was really great. Tank took about 12 weeks to get to me and it is the most overbuilt 75 gallon I have ever seen. Half-inch thick glass, rimless and low iron front panel! I decided to go with the Shadow V3 overflow.
Bringing her home:
Dry fitting, I ended up removing some of those 90's on the final glue-up
Leak testing:
And where we are today post cycle:
My 2 clowns, Randall's Goby and Possum Wrasse are all moved over from my 29 Gallon. Going to wait for a few weeks before moving over crabs and corals. and will be finishing up the stand along with cleaning up the setup mess around the tank. I snagged a brand new Kessil AP9X for $600 on ebay that should be coming today! I added the Chaeto the same day as I added the fish along with some chaeto grow and it seems to be doing well. just starting to see some brown on the rocks but at this point the ugly stage doesn't scare me, I know its all just apart of the fun!
I also learned how large and past those long spined urchins grow. He got brought back to the LFS once he reached the size of a dinner plate and I still see him in their 500 gallon system at the front of the shop whenever I go!
For anyone wondering, The uglies were beaten via water changes and patience, the cyano I made a lot of attempts at removing manually but eventually caved and used chemiclean (which worked excellently). I know a lot of people are heavily against chemicals in the tank, but sometimes when something really takes hold I think it can be a create help. and emerald crab took care of the bubble algae you see in the second photo. I also had a stint of bryopsis that was taken care of with ReefFlux.
Of course the ups and downs are a part of the learning process and something I would never do again is put a canister filter on a reef tank. Before that I had been using a HOB to great success. I mainly attribute that to ease of maintenance. The canister was also super quick to become a factory for nitrates and phos. That all being said, I believe its totally possible for canister filters to work in this hobby, but only for the most diligent of of us. the "cleans filter socks every day or 2 types".
Around the year and a half mark I started planning my next tank. I knew that I wanted something bigger. I knew that I wanted a much nicer aquascape, And most importantly I knew myself as a reefer and what I was realistically willing to do to maintain a system. Time to start waiting for deals and scouring the marketplaces for people getting out of the hobby! I picked up a Reef Octopus XP-2000SSS skimmer for about $100 and now knowing myself, a Theiling Compact Rollermat from one of BRS's Black Friday sales. I wanted to feed as heavily as I wanted and not have to worry about nutrient export.
I had planned to do a basement sump, but that changed when I realized that dealing with the amount of head pressure and the dust in the basement was going to be more work than what I was worth to me. Especially since I decided the tank would do better in my office verses in the living room. The moderate hum of equipment has never bothered me.
I figured a fruitful endeavor at this point would be to figure out my controller situation. I always really liked what Hydros is doing and I think I may want to join that collective once the Kraken comes out but for now, wouldn't it be fun to build a controller? This is when I stumbled on the reef-pi project. Its a great open source controller that you run off a very cheap raspberry pi. Instead of dealing with all the wiring, I discovered that Leviathan was a great PCB option. While it still requires a lot of know how in soldering, how to use a multimeter, and a healthy fear of electricity, I would say that Leviathan really helps lower the cost of entry into using reef-pi, while still being very DIY.
Here are some pictures of my partially finished controller. I say partially because I still need to add 0-10v control port, along with the connections for the PH and temp sensors. The case was 3D printed by my buddy using the STL's that Leviathan's creator, Brandon, provides. I kept the soldering to under my kitchen hoodvent to hopefully pull out the fumes.
This controller has been running well on my 29 gallon for the past year or so! I will still eventually switch over to Hydros but this has been a really fun learning experience and extremely rewarding. I'd say that the technology that goes into reef keeping is as exciting to me as the actual fish and corals.
About 7 months ago I finally pulled the trigger and ordered and 75 gallon from Glasscages. I had heard great things about them on the forums and how active Joe was to responding to any concerns I had was really great. Tank took about 12 weeks to get to me and it is the most overbuilt 75 gallon I have ever seen. Half-inch thick glass, rimless and low iron front panel! I decided to go with the Shadow V3 overflow.
Bringing her home:
Dry fitting, I ended up removing some of those 90's on the final glue-up
Leak testing:
And where we are today post cycle:
My 2 clowns, Randall's Goby and Possum Wrasse are all moved over from my 29 Gallon. Going to wait for a few weeks before moving over crabs and corals. and will be finishing up the stand along with cleaning up the setup mess around the tank. I snagged a brand new Kessil AP9X for $600 on ebay that should be coming today! I added the Chaeto the same day as I added the fish along with some chaeto grow and it seems to be doing well. just starting to see some brown on the rocks but at this point the ugly stage doesn't scare me, I know its all just apart of the fun!
