jstaff123 Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 So after keeping a 65g reef in Dallas for several years, I seized an opportunity back in 2008 to move to Australia for a year and just travel the country and dive the Barrier Reef..which was breathtaking. Moved to Denver and now back to Austin, and decided it's finally time to get another tank going. I bought the Aquapod from a guy in San Antonio for $100, and this included rock, a puffer and a couple eels. After selling the fish, I did a complete overhaul on the tank and now finally seeing the results of a laborious 5 weeks of setup. The guy had neglected the tank for a long, long time, so when I tested the water that first time, I've never seen such a blood red color on a nitrate test before..I knew I had a long road ahead of me. But after many, many massive water changes and tank cleanings, I started getting rock and corals from both ARC members and AquaDome, and now everything is coming together nicely. I have added a couple clowns, purple dottyback, a pigmy angel, 2 peppermints and a skunk cleaner. On the coral side, I've got several types of xenia, a greet tipped toadstool leather, yellow polyps, kenya tree, two types of anthelia, devil's hand, GSP, and several types of zoas. I'm always kept soft corals, but I'm looking for a new challenge so I'm going to venture into the world of SPS corals, and currently have a small frag of orange monti cap, a red digi, and a green and a pink birdsnest. A HUGE thank you to rchavez and etannert here on the forums for the awesome frags and a ton of knowledge..they were a major help in understanding what is needed to keep sps corals. Hardware; I have the Sunpod 150w halide fixture running a 14k Phoenix bulb, upgraded maxijet 900 return pump, and 2 oceanic powerheads alternating on a JBJ oceanpulse duo. In back chamber, I scraped the backing off and have a small refugium light growing Chaeto with live rock rubble at the bottom. I also have a small biocube skimmer, but waiting to find a deal on a Tunze 9002 skimmer to drop in there. That's about it; I figure I've been scouring the forums for over a month and taking in all the info here, so figure I should at least introduce myself and the tank! The first pic below was the night I got the tank and trapped an eel in some tupperware, it's come quite a ways since then.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstaff123 Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 And after 3 trips to Lowe's for additional pipe fittings and a replacement valve chewed up by the French bulldog, finally have the RO/DI system up and running, and it is a great feeling knowing I will never take those 5 gallon buckets to the car again! My project for this weekend or next will be putting together my auto topoff setup and running a RO/DI line to the ATO reservoir. It will not have a float valve on it, but just a manual line that will have an inline valve that I will turn on to fill the container then manually shut off once filled. I got my unit from purewaterclub.com; it was $105 including shipping..for anyone looking for a cheap unit that functions well, I definitely recommend this one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bimmerzs Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Looking good so far Cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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