Dear diary, here's the deal. I plan to convince the wife that a 120g will look much better in the living room than our (my) 46g bowfront (wish me luck). My plan of attack is to give her a fantastic anniversary gift at the end of Feb (and no, she won't accept a fish tank as a gift). Somehow I'm thinking this would not help my case 
spin as there's an ongoing debate about whether I give the tank more attention than her.
The plan is for a custom built 120g (not a lot of usable space in the appartment, plus still gotta have play room for my 17 month daughter who feels it is her duty to knock the tank and say "i" to the "ish." The dimensions will be 48x24x24 with starphire front, drilled at the back for overflow and return (maybe), with at least a 30g sump/fuge. I'm not so sure I want to use filter socks in the sump as I want to minimize maintenance. Will definitely get a phosban reactor, but may dose calcium. For water movement in the tank I'm looking at an mp40w. Any more flow will be handled by the return from the sump. I will definitely maybe (intended) need a chiller as my living room can get pretty warm sometimes and the A/C will not always be on. Will be looking for some type of monitoring system (maybe reefkeeper), ato, and controller for heater/chiller units. I'm still debating whether the tank should have no background or black or blue. Blue seems drab, algae growth on black is not pretty, but I've heard that no background might be more stressful on fish. Plus I want to hide the plumbing behind the tank.
For lighting I'm leaning towards t5 because of cost and maintenance, and yes - I know the bulbs need to be changed more frequently, but there's less heat and electricity usage.
I'm probably going to try to build the tank and stand. I want the stand to be a little higher than the standard as I don't want to have to bend too much to see some angles.
I'm thinking of a white sand substrate for aesthetic appeal but I'm concerned about algae growth. In the earlier stages of my current tank I had green algae "stain" my substrate and it never really came back to its original color, and whenever I keep the light on a second too long you know what happens. The black/white mix looks pretty good too. I will probably use the LR from my current setup, but I must admit that I'm leaning towards getting some from Tampa Bay Saltwater. There are a lot of good reviews on reefcentral. Cost will determine a lot of what I will end up doing though.
For sump return pump, thinking of going external - a little less heat in the sump, but will definitely go with the most quiet option.
I'm also considering that I will have the weight of both tanks in the same room while the new tank cycles. One option is to use our second bathroom as temporary storage (which will probably happen anyway). I'm thinking that the bath area was designed to carry the weight of a full tub so.... Now for that I'm definitely going to have to hypnotize the wife. Perhaps I'll borrow chief's hypnotic swirl.
All this on a shoestring budget. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Weeeeelll, we'll see. This will take some time (a couple of months) as there are a few things that have to take priority right now, and I want to make sure the planning is as complete as possible. It could all go up in smoke, but hopefully if I put it in writing the goal will be a little bit more reachable.
Please comment. Thanks.
spin as there's an ongoing debate about whether I give the tank more attention than her.The plan is for a custom built 120g (not a lot of usable space in the appartment, plus still gotta have play room for my 17 month daughter who feels it is her duty to knock the tank and say "i" to the "ish." The dimensions will be 48x24x24 with starphire front, drilled at the back for overflow and return (maybe), with at least a 30g sump/fuge. I'm not so sure I want to use filter socks in the sump as I want to minimize maintenance. Will definitely get a phosban reactor, but may dose calcium. For water movement in the tank I'm looking at an mp40w. Any more flow will be handled by the return from the sump. I will definitely maybe (intended) need a chiller as my living room can get pretty warm sometimes and the A/C will not always be on. Will be looking for some type of monitoring system (maybe reefkeeper), ato, and controller for heater/chiller units. I'm still debating whether the tank should have no background or black or blue. Blue seems drab, algae growth on black is not pretty, but I've heard that no background might be more stressful on fish. Plus I want to hide the plumbing behind the tank.
For lighting I'm leaning towards t5 because of cost and maintenance, and yes - I know the bulbs need to be changed more frequently, but there's less heat and electricity usage.
I'm probably going to try to build the tank and stand. I want the stand to be a little higher than the standard as I don't want to have to bend too much to see some angles.
I'm thinking of a white sand substrate for aesthetic appeal but I'm concerned about algae growth. In the earlier stages of my current tank I had green algae "stain" my substrate and it never really came back to its original color, and whenever I keep the light on a second too long you know what happens. The black/white mix looks pretty good too. I will probably use the LR from my current setup, but I must admit that I'm leaning towards getting some from Tampa Bay Saltwater. There are a lot of good reviews on reefcentral. Cost will determine a lot of what I will end up doing though.
For sump return pump, thinking of going external - a little less heat in the sump, but will definitely go with the most quiet option.
I'm also considering that I will have the weight of both tanks in the same room while the new tank cycles. One option is to use our second bathroom as temporary storage (which will probably happen anyway). I'm thinking that the bath area was designed to carry the weight of a full tub so.... Now for that I'm definitely going to have to hypnotize the wife. Perhaps I'll borrow chief's hypnotic swirl.
All this on a shoestring budget. Ambitious? Yes. Possible? Weeeeelll, we'll see. This will take some time (a couple of months) as there are a few things that have to take priority right now, and I want to make sure the planning is as complete as possible. It could all go up in smoke, but hopefully if I put it in writing the goal will be a little bit more reachable.
Please comment. Thanks.
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