So i thought id share my story as some people have asked about my tank.
Ive been into freshwater for nearly 20 years my parents got me into the hobby. Reefkeeping maybe 5 months now. I did some research online. All i have tank wise for a spare as my 92g and 135g were both freshwater was a 27g 17 year old hexagon in storage and some power compact lights for actinic. The first tank my mom ever bought me as a kid. I asked on reefcentral.com if i could do a reef in this.. i got bashed hard on that forum.. cant get fish its too small no sump, power compact lights it cant be done blah blah.. I went to a local fish store.. guy said none of my tanks would work and tried to sell me his expensive drilled tanks lights sumps protien skimmers.. yet here he has a 15g nano reef tank in the store im like what the heck so i walked out.
Took my 27g hex out and scraped the silicone off.. ANd resealed it. Then i ordered 80lbs of dead rock. Cleaned them and lined them up then started building my rock wall in the empty tank to see how i wanted it when filled. I took the tank upstairs filled it up put the sand and rocks in and put on my 65 watt power compacts lol.. coolest thing ever i thought lol. I put my gexs original HOB filter from tetra on and got a 425 nano korelia power head. I bought a gallon of nitrifying bacteria to instant cycle my tank and in 5 days i got fish and corals. I bought a bubble coral.. torch coral. Hammer coral. Acropora brain favia.. yes i rushed things but it worked.
As time went by my tank started to mature little by little going through the diatom phaze in a week and so forth slowely 2 months went by. I bought a 70$ plant t5ho light fixture on amazon the 24 inch fixture 4 bulbs with individual alluminum reflectors. Got 4 ati bulbs from a local store for 10$ each two blue plus coral plus and purple plus based on research for bulb combos. To mount the fixture i saw people make some hangars out of conduit tubing. I decided since i was on a budget to take some hollow square tubing i had and make my own hangar. I can weld so i cut and welded a light fixture hangar and screwed it to my hexs wood stand. I had a total of 15 corals and the tank started getting small.
I then looked for new tanks and i wanted to keep the hexagon shape because of my lights i just got and my bedroom didnt have enough space as my 135g is in my bedroom as well. I found a 60g truvu hexagon acrylic tank for sale with a custom built stand. I bought it for 120$.
I set it up in my room and transfered everything from tank A to tank B... I screwed my light fixture to it and it worked perfectly.. I needed another power head for flow as the tank is WAYYYY bigger.. wow gallon size maybe be 33 gallons more but dang if you guys have never seen a 55+ gallon hexagon.. they are really girthy its pretty cool. I got another 425 korelia and a eheim 350 surface skimmer to just clean up film on the surface.
Later i got tired of nitrates in the tank so i took my homemade denitrate canister and moved it from my 135 to my reef. I took a 25 year old eheim 1048 pond pump and hooked it up to my denitrate canister setup i had which i used for 22 years non stop to watercool my computers.. A hobby of mine as a kid and now 32 year old is build computers and overclock them and back in day we had to use pond pumps for our radiators. Doing this lowered my nitrates from 40 every week and needing water changes to 20 to 10 ect.
To cool the tank down i took old computer case fans and wired them in a little 5v power bar from an old t.v box
Its now been 5 months.. i have 33 mixed corals in my tsnk. I have 13 fish. I lost 1 coral in this process... 1 little green stylephora...
Total cost on equipment
1. $70 for 2 power heads and a surface skimmer
2. 110$ for t5 lights
3. 120$ for my used tank upgrade.
4. 10$ zip tie container turned canister
5. 0$ to use a 17 year old hob, a 23 year old pond pump. And 0$ on a old heater i took from my 135g.
6. Fans 0$
So here we are 5 months in and i spent 300$ on everything no sump (180 if you dont count the tank cost) . No protien skimmer. No 800$ light fixture.. It can be done... easily and for cheap.
Corals cost a ton. But buy those as you go..
Ive been into freshwater for nearly 20 years my parents got me into the hobby. Reefkeeping maybe 5 months now. I did some research online. All i have tank wise for a spare as my 92g and 135g were both freshwater was a 27g 17 year old hexagon in storage and some power compact lights for actinic. The first tank my mom ever bought me as a kid. I asked on reefcentral.com if i could do a reef in this.. i got bashed hard on that forum.. cant get fish its too small no sump, power compact lights it cant be done blah blah.. I went to a local fish store.. guy said none of my tanks would work and tried to sell me his expensive drilled tanks lights sumps protien skimmers.. yet here he has a 15g nano reef tank in the store im like what the heck so i walked out.
Took my 27g hex out and scraped the silicone off.. ANd resealed it. Then i ordered 80lbs of dead rock. Cleaned them and lined them up then started building my rock wall in the empty tank to see how i wanted it when filled. I took the tank upstairs filled it up put the sand and rocks in and put on my 65 watt power compacts lol.. coolest thing ever i thought lol. I put my gexs original HOB filter from tetra on and got a 425 nano korelia power head. I bought a gallon of nitrifying bacteria to instant cycle my tank and in 5 days i got fish and corals. I bought a bubble coral.. torch coral. Hammer coral. Acropora brain favia.. yes i rushed things but it worked.
As time went by my tank started to mature little by little going through the diatom phaze in a week and so forth slowely 2 months went by. I bought a 70$ plant t5ho light fixture on amazon the 24 inch fixture 4 bulbs with individual alluminum reflectors. Got 4 ati bulbs from a local store for 10$ each two blue plus coral plus and purple plus based on research for bulb combos. To mount the fixture i saw people make some hangars out of conduit tubing. I decided since i was on a budget to take some hollow square tubing i had and make my own hangar. I can weld so i cut and welded a light fixture hangar and screwed it to my hexs wood stand. I had a total of 15 corals and the tank started getting small.
I then looked for new tanks and i wanted to keep the hexagon shape because of my lights i just got and my bedroom didnt have enough space as my 135g is in my bedroom as well. I found a 60g truvu hexagon acrylic tank for sale with a custom built stand. I bought it for 120$.
I set it up in my room and transfered everything from tank A to tank B... I screwed my light fixture to it and it worked perfectly.. I needed another power head for flow as the tank is WAYYYY bigger.. wow gallon size maybe be 33 gallons more but dang if you guys have never seen a 55+ gallon hexagon.. they are really girthy its pretty cool. I got another 425 korelia and a eheim 350 surface skimmer to just clean up film on the surface.
Later i got tired of nitrates in the tank so i took my homemade denitrate canister and moved it from my 135 to my reef. I took a 25 year old eheim 1048 pond pump and hooked it up to my denitrate canister setup i had which i used for 22 years non stop to watercool my computers.. A hobby of mine as a kid and now 32 year old is build computers and overclock them and back in day we had to use pond pumps for our radiators. Doing this lowered my nitrates from 40 every week and needing water changes to 20 to 10 ect.
To cool the tank down i took old computer case fans and wired them in a little 5v power bar from an old t.v box
Its now been 5 months.. i have 33 mixed corals in my tsnk. I have 13 fish. I lost 1 coral in this process... 1 little green stylephora...
Total cost on equipment
1. $70 for 2 power heads and a surface skimmer
2. 110$ for t5 lights
3. 120$ for my used tank upgrade.
4. 10$ zip tie container turned canister
5. 0$ to use a 17 year old hob, a 23 year old pond pump. And 0$ on a old heater i took from my 135g.
6. Fans 0$
So here we are 5 months in and i spent 300$ on everything no sump (180 if you dont count the tank cost) . No protien skimmer. No 800$ light fixture.. It can be done... easily and for cheap.
Corals cost a ton. But buy those as you go..
