29g reef build!

[Dodger745]

After countless hours talking and showing my wife all about salt water aquaria, I convinced her to let me build up another system. I'm going to attempt to post some pictures and let you know how it's going!

 

[obscurereef]

Yay! Always love to see new setups! Are you doing a reef setup, FOWLR, what?

 

[Convict2161]

Subscribed....

 

[Dodger745]

29g display.
10g sump
Aqua C remora skimmer
Current USA light fixture.
I drilled the tank myself and built the overflow.
Also I made the sump from a 10g aquarium I bought. I plan to have a small refugium in the sump.
I added about 40 ibs of live sand as well as about 40 lbs of dry rock that were in a previous system.
We got some RO water and added instant ocean about 4 days ago.

 

[Dodger745]

Definitely going reef. The nearest place to buy saltwater livestock is over an hour from our town. So we will be making a trip next weekend to get some live rock pieces to add to the system to help speed up the cycling process.

 

[Convict2161]

Nice, my only thing would be the rock work. Too much for my taste. I'd make 2 stacks on each side with a cave structure in the center. It would free up space for swimming and allow you to place different corals at different levels of the tank. Just my honest opinion.

I'll be following along to see this tank mature.

 

[Dodger745]

Good advice. We may look at moving things around a bit! Still several weeks I'm sure before the cycling will be close!

 

[Convict2161]

Good advice. We may look at moving things around a bit! Still several weeks I'm sure before the cycling will be close!

Yeah, I played with my scape about a dozen times before I got it the way I liked it. Hey! But I you like it, then keep it! I'm just honest when it comes to scaping

It's like in my blood lol.

 

[Dodger745]

Any reccomendations for flow? I was thinking of ordering the jbj oceanstream power heads with the wave controller. The vortech is just way too pricey! Lol

 

[Convict2161]

Any reccomendations for flow? I was thinking of ordering the jbj oceanstream power heads with the wave controller. The vortech is just way too pricey! Lol

Haha ok then, I was gonna say the MP10, I love mine!

Not familiar with oceanstream, I've always ha good experiences with Koralia power heads and you can get the Hydor smartwave system for like 50 bucks and set your power heads to alternate at certain times and it has a feed mode which will turn them off. It was a good product but I wanted to MP10 so I bit the bullet and bought one.

 

[Dodger745]

Cool deal. The mp10 def looks awesome!

 

[Dodger745]

Update! My system has been running for exactly one week and here are my current parameters:

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0.5
Nitrate-10
PH-8.2

Specific gravity is right at 1.024
Water is a bit warm at 83 degrees. Ive heard this can help the cycle?

Anyways I've been adding small amounts of fish food and I'm guessing the 40lbs of live sand has really helped!

Any advice is welcome!!

 

[Ericwm]

I have a 29 g reef of my own, still pretty new. I'm definitely following this thread.

 

[Dodger745]

Cool! Overall I am happy with the 29 gallon size. Just enough room for A few fish and some corals! We are still patiently waiting for this thing to cycle! The nitrites are off the charts right now!

 

[Dodger745]

Well the nitrite is still very high! Been checking it every couple days hoping it will start falling soon!