I haven't moved yet. We are leaving Dallas on wednesday and heading to my folks house in San Antonio for a few days before heading to LA. I do both fresh and salt. I love a reef tank as much as a well planted tank.
Here are a couple pics of my set ups. I may seem a bit arrogant, but I just don't know better... lol. I really don't try to show off much as time goes on. I like to spend most of my time here helping other hobbyists and swapping fish, plants, corals, and such.
The reef was a work in progress and my first salt tank. I have done a lot of research, but you can expect some questions in general saltwater. So, It's a 200 gallon non rr tank. I built the stand using lap and dado joints. I had 3- 400 watt mh pfo systems and 4- 36" t-5 actinic. For plumbing, I had dual pvc drains and returns. The refugium drained into the sump and the water was returned through one mag 24 that was in the sump. The tank had just finished cycling when we decided to move. That was a big bummer to tear down right after it cycled. I had planned on replacing the trim on the canopy and restaining it once I had the stands skin built. Anyhow, here it is.
My planted tank was a 55 gallon tank. This was nearly a complete ecosystem. The equipment I used was 2x65 PC lighting, 2217 Eheim canister filter, drop checker, pressurized co2 with aquatek regulator, and for the diffuser I had the co2 line attached to a small powerhead.
I fertilized a EI schedule. I took dry ferts, ro/di and old prime bottles and mixed 3 solutions... Macros, Micros, and Gh booster. Honestly this tank was nearly maintenance free.
I had a lot of livestock; 20 cardinal tetras, 15 rasbora espei, 12 various bristlenose (mix of longfinned, regular finned, albino, and browns), 10 black neon tetras, 5 columbian tetras, 2 rainbow sharks, triple red cacatuoides, king tiger pleco, clown plecos, farowella acus, emerald cories, auratus cories, clown loaches, and probably something else that I'm forgetting. For plants, I had hygro species, anubias nana, amazon swords, vallensia, large bronze wendtii crypts, and some other stuff. I had this set up for quite a while. Anyhow, here it is...
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I really hated tearing these down, but I look forward to building others. However, I just looked on LA craigslist and wished I had kept my tanks atleast. I saw a 55 tank and stand for like $300! Around here I can get a 150 or even a 200 gallon for that price. I have also kept various cichlids; Madagacan, Victorian, Malawian Peacocks, Haps, and mbunas, various SA and CA too; escondidos, angels, tiger oscars, convicts, nicaraguensis, various apistos, jack demsey, etc. Here's a pic of one of those tanks with a 3d background that I made.
my killi tank
My daughter's 20 long convict tank
