- Joined
- Oct 11, 2018
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- Location
- Monterey, California
Well, 10 years have passed since my last attempt at a reef tank at least. Maybe more. But now I have a house, a wife, and two little girls who will love to see a reef bloom in their home. I bought this house five years ago with the specific intention that it would one day be able to support a large reef tank that I was never able to attain as a student.
I kept busy for the first year with my African Cichlid peacock 4' tank. Here's some shots from that:
That only lasted a year. Then I was ready to pull the trigger and bought a used 280g acrylic tank and stand and all of its equipment for a steal. I was ready to set it up with an under-stand sump and forgo my dream of an equipment room due to some funky design of my house. When I had a more experienced reefer look over the tank for me, he pointed out a couple bad bubbles in the tank and convinced me I wasn't going to enjoy the 280 gallons of saltwater on the floor of my new house. Having had a tank flood in my teen years which nearly destroyed a whole floor of a house, I wasn't about to do that to my new home. So I sold the tank and stand and kept the equipment and managed to recover my costs plus a bunch of equipment to store for the next attempt one day in the future.....Here it was in all its giant glory.
The next disaster came when I bought a nice 24"x24"x12" cube set up with Starphire glass and complete with stand, sump, skimmer, pump, and everything but lights. As I looked this tank over, I realized I had made the same mistake. Though the previous owner had this tank running, it had quite a few joints in need of resealing. So I began to cut out the filet seals only to find when you start doing that, you need to cut the whole darn silicone joint out and break the tank back down to panes and reseal. So I started that...three years ago. Finally this fall I got sick with what turned out to be MS. Three days later my second daughter was born. That motivated me that now was the time to live my dream and build a tank. I might not be able to do it for long, and I didn't want the feeling of having not lived out my dream.
So I decided I was going to build an equipment room onto my house and make room for my tank one way or another. I have been slowly getting that work done to build the equipment room, but meanwhile, it was time to refresh myself on aquariums and finish that darn cube set up. This thread will be the build of that cube and perhaps some of the equipment room too as the cube transitions to running from sump-under-stand to through-wall. Here's a shot of my long term plans for my equipment room next to my patio which at this point is just slab and plumbing. The tank will be on the opposite side of that room's wall.
I eventually plan to have a roughly 84"x24"x30" ~400g tank where this cube tank will go, and when I feel confident I have refreshed myself on how to keep a reef alive in my home, I will go big and start that build. Here's a shot of what that tank should look like in my space:
I am quite far along in the set up and purchasing at this point, but have been too busy to write up a thread, so let me start by catching up in pictures and stories of how I've gotten to the point I am at.
I kept busy for the first year with my African Cichlid peacock 4' tank. Here's some shots from that:
That only lasted a year. Then I was ready to pull the trigger and bought a used 280g acrylic tank and stand and all of its equipment for a steal. I was ready to set it up with an under-stand sump and forgo my dream of an equipment room due to some funky design of my house. When I had a more experienced reefer look over the tank for me, he pointed out a couple bad bubbles in the tank and convinced me I wasn't going to enjoy the 280 gallons of saltwater on the floor of my new house. Having had a tank flood in my teen years which nearly destroyed a whole floor of a house, I wasn't about to do that to my new home. So I sold the tank and stand and kept the equipment and managed to recover my costs plus a bunch of equipment to store for the next attempt one day in the future.....Here it was in all its giant glory.
The next disaster came when I bought a nice 24"x24"x12" cube set up with Starphire glass and complete with stand, sump, skimmer, pump, and everything but lights. As I looked this tank over, I realized I had made the same mistake. Though the previous owner had this tank running, it had quite a few joints in need of resealing. So I began to cut out the filet seals only to find when you start doing that, you need to cut the whole darn silicone joint out and break the tank back down to panes and reseal. So I started that...three years ago. Finally this fall I got sick with what turned out to be MS. Three days later my second daughter was born. That motivated me that now was the time to live my dream and build a tank. I might not be able to do it for long, and I didn't want the feeling of having not lived out my dream.
So I decided I was going to build an equipment room onto my house and make room for my tank one way or another. I have been slowly getting that work done to build the equipment room, but meanwhile, it was time to refresh myself on aquariums and finish that darn cube set up. This thread will be the build of that cube and perhaps some of the equipment room too as the cube transitions to running from sump-under-stand to through-wall. Here's a shot of my long term plans for my equipment room next to my patio which at this point is just slab and plumbing. The tank will be on the opposite side of that room's wall.
I eventually plan to have a roughly 84"x24"x30" ~400g tank where this cube tank will go, and when I feel confident I have refreshed myself on how to keep a reef alive in my home, I will go big and start that build. Here's a shot of what that tank should look like in my space:
I am quite far along in the set up and purchasing at this point, but have been too busy to write up a thread, so let me start by catching up in pictures and stories of how I've gotten to the point I am at.