Author Topic: Andy's Slow Day (Read 2829 times)

andys1982 · « **on:** January 03, 2014, 13:03:58 »

I’m having a slow day at work, so I've decided to try to throw together a thread of my 65g show setup. Hopefully the photos I've got here on my phone will suffice.

My equipment is as follows:
65g reef ready show
55g sump
20g frag tank
10g fuge
Mag 12 return
AquaC EV120 w/mag7
2x200w heaters
20x3W cree leds

To give everyone a little of my history, I bought this 65g tank ready to go in 2002 for $100. I was fresh into college and an aspiring marine biologist, so my interest wasn't solely recreational. I found out real quick, however, that the many aspects of reef keeping made it an excellent hobby, and this build was pretty much unaltered and up and running for almost 9 years. The only upgrade I made during this time was the addition of a diy metal halide setup, which, years later was the nail in the build's coffin. By that time, my interest in the hobby had faded some, but I was still devastated when a fan failure in the canopy cooked the tank. I tore the old girl down and it sat in the garage for over a year. After several attempts to sell it, I decided in 2012 to set it back up with the help of my younger brother, who had been inspired to join the hobby a couple of years earlier. What follows is my progress since.

andys1982 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:37:57 »

Because my interest in a standard mixed reef was very little this second time around, I initially set out to create a seahorse display. I wanted to imitate a Caribbean environment, so it was mainly macro, ricordea, and several gorgonian sp. Several years earlier I’d help my father setup and maintain a seahorse display with awesome results, I however was not so lucky in my choice of stock, and my horses got vibro and died. At that point I was again struggling to maintain interest, and my brother helped to to pickup steam with several varieties of frags from his established display (thanks myreef!!). In this picture from early 2012 I've abandoned the caribbean idea and am moving back toward mixed reef, however, many of the original carrib inhabitants are still present.

andys1982 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:47:53 »

I really started to get excited when I got a super sweet deal on some anemones and a pair of jet black perculas. I had never kept these in my reef before, but since I had almost nothing in the livestock in the tank (thanks again bro!), and they were so cheap, I decided to give them a try.

andys1982 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:48:54 »

andys1982 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:51:30 »

What finally brought me back to full obsession was a deal on some led fixtures. Here’s the original T-5s v. the leds.

andys1982 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:52:15 »

andys1982 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2014, 13:59:46 »

I only needed two led fixtures for the display, and had bought three, so I decided to setup a frag tank. Until now my sump had been under the tank, but since I have an extra room in my house, and I didn't want to have two separate setups to maintain, I decided it was time to build the "fish room". I decided to put down some plastic so I can splash around some without ruining the floor. I’m not sure what it’s called, but bought some stuff at Lowes, and put it down with a little caulk.