Alright, so this is going to be a long post. A complete breakdown of every item used and every step taken up to this date.
Let's start at the top! So the tank itself is a used 26g bowfront that was drilled out from the top center back side of the tank and has an overflow box. Got the tank from a member of the Colorado Reefkeepers group on Facebook for $50. After acquiring the tank and now knowing the dimensions, I was able to get a stand built. I built a very simple design using 2x4s, plywood, some black paint, and a couple door hinges.
The general steps were to cut 4 pieces of same length, at 3 different lengths. 36" for height, 24" for length, and 17" for width. I connected the 24" pieces to the 17" pieces to form the base. I repeated those same steps to form the top. And then I connected the base to the top by screwing on the 36" legs. I then added plywood to the top to give the tank a platform to sit on, and, also added a piece of plywood to the bottom for the sump to sit on. After that, I added 2 side panels, a front panel, and a door all made of plywood. Screwed in 2 hinges to connect the door to the front panel and painted the whole thing black.
Moving on with the rest of the setup. The tank will be illuminated with a used kessil a360w connected to a gooseneck that is mounted to the back rim of the tank. The light also came with a xmas light timer that will allow simple on/off control ability at a certain preprogrammed time. Paid a total of $200 for this used setup.
Now let's talk about filtration. I purchased a new 10g tank from Petco for $15 that I will be using as a sump tank. Now since this 10g tank is just a standard tank, and I want to use it as a sump, I needed to order a sump kit. On Ebay I found a seller that makes all kinds of different sump kits and refugium kits. They had one made out of black acrylic with the exact dimensions to fit inside of a standard 10g tank for $22. I went back to Petco and bought a tube of silicon for $10 to secure the sump kit to the sump tank. This part was fairly easy, using 2 small pieces of 2x4, 2 clamps, and some painter's tape. Process was very simple really. Measure and decide where I wanted the baffles to be in the sump. Made sure to leave enough space to for other required equipment. Then put the baffle in place and leaned it against the clamped 2x4s. Applied a piece of tape on the side that will be getting a bead of silicon to help guide me and to remove any excess silicon. Repeated those steps a couple more times and the baffles were done. I then applied silicon to the corner rim of the tank and firmly pressed the sock holder into place. Now the sump is complete!
I purchased 2x 4" micron socks for mechanical filtration that I will be swapping out and cleaning weekly. These cost $20 for both of them.
Moving on to plumbing. In order to connect the drain line and the return line I needed some additional parts. A 1" bulkhead, threaded 1" barb, stick of 1" pvc, 1" hose, and 2 1" steel hose clamps for the drain line. And 3/4" hose, 3/4" steel clamp, and a 3/4" specialty barb/flare piece for the return line. These additional pieces cost:
Bulkhead, barns, coupling, and PVC - $17
3/4" & 1" hose - $10
Steel clamps - $6
Specialty return jet - $12
For the return pump, I bought a Kedsum-2500 on Amazon for $18.
For the heater, I bought a used 150w from a fellow reading friend for $10.
All of my electronics will be plugged in to a used power strip I had sitting around the house. Going to value that at $5.
So that pretty much wraps up the entire under side of the tank. Eventually I may add a protein skimmer if I can find a good price on a used one and is in the budget. Now let's move back up to the top of the tank.
For circulation, I will be using 2x used Jebao WP-10P pumps that I bought used for $20ea.
I purchased 17lb of live rock that had been sitting in a friends sump for $2/lb. I added 8lbs of dry tonga and shelf rock that I had sitting in a bucket for the last 6yrs. I valued that at $2/lb. So 25lbs of total rock, live and dry, for $50. I then spent about an hour or 2 playing with the rocks and building a rockscape that I was happy with. I then used a little bit of leftover rock puddy I had sitting around in a couple certain places to help support the rockscape and make it more stable and solid. Gonna value that little bit of rock puddy at $5.
I then added a 20lb bag of Caribsea live sand from the LFS that I got for $20. Once the sand was in, the tank was ready for water finally.
I bought a blue box of fritz rpm salt mix that can make 200g of saltwater for $40 at the LFS. I added 1/2 cup of salt per gallon of RO water to get the desired specific gravity of 1.025. I then added just under 28g of water to fill the tank and the sump, and was finally able to turn on all the electrical and bring the tank to life!
The last step in my setup process is to get the nitrogen cycle going. I bought a bottle of Microbacter7 from the LFS for $8. This is basically just bacteria in a bottle they helps kickstart the nitrogen cycle and stabilizes the bioculture inside the tank. This was added everyday until the bottle ran out. Once the bottle ran out I took a water sample to the LFS for testing.
Results were pretty decent.
Calcium - 410
Magnesium - 1280
Alkalinity - 7.7
Salinity - 1.027
Nitrate - 20
Nitrite - 0
Ammonia - 0.25
Phosphate - 0.1
I need to bring the salinity down just a bit, seems as I got a little too much salt in my mix. The alkalinity is a bit low, but that was expected, blue box fritz always mixes up a little low. So I plan to get some dosing additives in the future. Other than that, only a tiny bit of ammonia detected, no nitrites, and some nitrates.
The dry rock that I added is starting to get a bit or brown algae on it. So the nitrogen cycle is clearly underway and life (algae) is growing. As for now, I'm going to just let the tank continue is cycle and use a tooth brush to control the brown algae. I plan on adding a clean up crew (snails & hermits) to the tank later this week and see how they do for a little while and take another sample in for testing. Going to hold off on any water changes for now.
Alright, so, that was A LOT!! Gheeeeze! LoL!! Let's end this post with a current picture of the tank and a total expenses list.
Kessil & Gooseneck & Timer - 200
26g bowfront tank - 50
10g sump tank - 15
Sump kit - 22
Silicon - 10
Micron socks - 20
Plumbing parts - 45
Return pump - 18
Heater - 10
Power strip - 5
Jebao pumps - 40
Live rock - 34
Dry rock - 16
Rock puddy - 5
Live sand - 20
Box of salt - 40
Bacteria - 8
Total of $558 spent so far.
Leaves me with $442 left in the budget.
View attachment 14954
