It started with my wife and I both wanting a fish tank of sorts. We began researching and both agreed on going with a saltwater setup. Of course having been a freshwater aquarist for 20 years or so, I knew enough of saltwater to know that very little of my previous experiences would translate. I wasn't wrong... there was so much more to learn and it was almost overwhelming.
The hard part and the fun part was that I was on a fairly slim budget. As such, I had to put cobble things together and many times fabricate parts from scratch.
The easiest part was finding an acceptable tank. We found a killer deal on craigslist, the seller listed the tank as an acrylic 65 gallon tank with hood and stand and eheim canister filters... all for 200 dollars. The downside was that the tank was SCRATCHED to hell. So I spent the next week removing all the scratches by hand. WOW what a PITA. The upside was that after the scratches were removed we had an absolutely gorgeous tank. Another upside was that the tank was actually 84 gallons.
Anyways I fabricated an overflow box, drilled slits into the back of the acrylic tank, and attached the overflow box. I used a modified durso and some 7 dollar containers and a kitty litter box to make my refugium and sump. The amazing part is that it all worked as planned!
I then filled it up with water and threw in the sand and rock... and this is what I got. My first occupant is a yellow tail damsel, he's HARD to find since he's the exact same bright blue coloration as my background! We named him Waldo for obvious reasons... :)
2 comments:
Hey awesome blog man. BTW Your tanks looks awesome!!!
cool
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