65g Impulse buy tank build

[PalmBeachGuy29]

Hey everybody! Lost my last tank in Hurricane Sandy so now that I graduated college, pursued sports, and now hold a full time job, I decided to scratch my long time coral itch and start my first real tank thread. Okay so my neighbor who moved in after I did has a tank and we became good friends because of it. My girlfriend loved it and got excited which in turn got me excited so I looked on craigslist and offer up and found a plug and play (basically) 65g that is 36x18x24. I had a few tanks for a few years that ranged between cuttlefish and coral to lionfish and eels, seahorses and jawfish, culturing rotifers, copepods, amphipods, raising cuttles from eggs, and a few other things i tried. So what I am saying is.... I learned how to keep all kinds of fish and coral healthy and I also learned how to kill all of them over night in a variety of ways sooo I'm hoping this time I can keep them alive since my schedule isnt crazy and i am older now. Also, living in south Florida as well as having established live rock has helped a lot and made having the water quality I have possible. (seawater for water changes is a game changer )

The tank wasn't drilled and I would have had it drilled it if did not come with about 100 lbs of live rock some nice pieces, other were definitely collected by the docks or something and not good for me. But if it didn't come with a clownfish and live rock or if i had a place to put them I would have drilled the tank and my life would be easier. Instead i kept it as it is and have an overflow box with some sketchy plumbing decisions on the previous owners part.

The tank was up and running the night i got it in which was 8 days ago. Today I have a french angel, mated pair of coral banded shrimp, a damsel, a mandarin, some zoas and a sun coral. Some of those I collected by my house and 1-2 I bought.

My equipment at the moment is 2 x2 odyssea t5, 10 gallon sump w. bioballs, a skimmer that I dont know how to use yet (until the weekend comes), an overflow box, 2 hydor koralias, one is stronger than the other and think its like 1150 and 850 gph, about 50? lbs of LR in the tank and another 75? in a rubbermaid that isnt very pretty or practical for a reef tank so i will be shopping around for specific pieces.

I placed an order last night from amazon for test kits, kalk, doser, evs a&b + magnesium supp, ato, ro/di uit, filter socks, live sand, and a jebao jw-4.
This weekend I will be purchasing an Aquaticlife x4 T5HO fixture, hopefully building a sump, setting up the skimmer, and painting the tank.

My nitrates are 0-10, all other levels fine were 0 but I need to check Calcium and Magnesium because I hear the local sea water needs to be dosed so I only dosed less than 5 ml of calcium and minimal magnesium and have 1 small SPS that I bought last night and will see how it does over the next week or two with my lighting.

Will add pics soon when i get rocks I like but just wanted to start the thread

 

[PalmBeachGuy29]

So my neighbor and I decided were going to do a frag tank next to my 65g. We will have a 40b attached to a 30b which will run a dual return line to the 65g DT and the 40b FT. The 30b will house my skimmer, media reactor, fuge, misc, and my 65g stand will house my doser, auto top off, and misc2.

I will be picking up my 4 bulb Aquaticlife T5HO fixture tomorrow for my DT and possibly ATI bulbs (b+ b+ b+ c+ i think)

Taking recommendations on the 40b frag tank for fastest growout. is x2 250w MH and 2 t5s overkill ? There are a few used options in my area for reasonable prices that i will be taking a look at this weekend but i figure MH/t5s will be best for growing out quickly with like 6500 - 10k MH and the ati blue plus' but unsure of the wattage or if x1/x2 MH would be best. I think I should add i feel the frag tank will be 2/3 SPS probably and the other 1/3 mixed. Id rather not buy 2 LEDs to cover the 36" length but if x2 LEDs is the recommendation than I will weigh my options.

 

[noelskii]

I don't think "fast" and "quick" ever go along with Reefing. I still think water stability is the key in growing anything, rather than light source. :scratchch

 

[PalmBeachGuy29]

My levels last night on 3/5 were
Ph - 8.2-8.4
Ammonia - 0
Nitrates - 10-20
KH - 8.0-8.3
MG - 1320
CA - 440-450

I went from my two odyssea T5 fixtures that came with the set up to aquatic life T5s but inherited a pair of some Ocean revive S206's and they look super sweet. My buddy and I built a canopy for it and besides the ugly overflow box that I havent cleaned yet, it looks really sweet. Right now I'm running on bio balls, a sponge and no skimmer. I've done two 20% water changes in the last 7 days because i put too many hermits in and the die off spiked my nitrates above 20.

My buddy gave me a blue gorgonian because his purple tang was eating the polyps and it never extended. So far the polyps have been almost fully extended the last 2 days even though my french angel occasionally picked at it, it seemed to not like it and moved on to tasting my new acans. The SPS frag I got seems to be doing well with occasional extension at night but the acans I purchased do not look too good. My buddy had a frag of acans in his sump that weren't doing well and he gave them to me and those look to be filling out but i think the french angel is tasting the new ones so before my lunch break was over I protected them with a container with holes all around it for protection and to reduce flow.

I haven't been able to go pick it up but all my stuff came today and I also ordered the G7 skimmer and a phosban reactor for the 30b sump that is being built. But for now i will remove the bio balls and put the skimmer and the reactor in my sump when they come on Wednesday.

Pics soon!

Thanks for the advice Noelski, i just needed answers on lighting and wasn't neglecting stability. Just didn't need a lot of help with that part and had a plan so I focused on lighting in my posts. I had 100 lbs of live rock and used the water and sand from the last system that has been up and running for quite a while. But every reefer needs to hear don't rush once in a while i guess