Budget doesn't exist in this hobby: Brian's 45g Build

[Etaloche]

Had to whip out the DSLR to get somewhat decent photo of the eye

The cloudy left eye, hard to tell but it has a slight hazey area right in the middle.


Right eye seems completely clear and will give better contrast to what I'm talking about in the left eye.

[Dash]

Hi Brian,

Newbie here. I've been reading tons on Canreef since setting up my tank last Nov. Great info but most of it is so far off from what I've got running. I have a 75g fowlr cobbled together mainly for my 2 green spotted puffers (that the LFS told me were freshwater). Anyway, these guys have been the gateway to a new addiction, albeit on a budget.

After adding a couple of softies I'm now looking for a new light. I've been looking on ebay for a deal on Evergrow lights but have also looked at the SB Reef lights. Just wondering, what were the Chinese box lights you had before?

Ps. I have a goby/shrimp pair and lawnmower blenny too. I love "character" fish

Maggie

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by Dash

Hi Brian,

Newbie here. I've been reading tons on Canreef since setting up my tank last Nov. Great info but most of it is so far off from what I've got running. I have a 75g fowlr cobbled together mainly for my 2 green spotted puffers (that the LFS told me were freshwater). Anyway, these guys have been the gateway to a new addiction, albeit on a budget.

After adding a couple of softies I'm now looking for a new light. I've been looking on ebay for a deal on Evergrow lights but have also looked at the SB Reef lights. Just wondering, what were the Chinese box lights you had before?

Ps. I have a goby/shrimp pair and lawnmower blenny too. I love "character" fish

Maggie

Are you looking into turning the 75G to a reef tank?

I had SWC Xtreme which are really really old now. A very nice member here who goes by Seahorse_Fanatic lent me some marsaqua lights since the SWC were nowhere near the performance I needed for some corals.

I did hours of research into lights and I would highly recommend 2 16" models from SB Reeflights for your tank. I think they are the best bang for your buck currently, I'm seriously loving mine. They have a range of models from basic, timer, to ramping as well if you feel you want to go fancy. I personally really like the ramping model since some of my fish were freaking out when the lights would abruptly turn off and turn on. With the ramping they seem much more comfortable. Shoot me a PM if you have any more questions although I'm still quite a newbie as well.

Another advice I have is to start up a build thread/journal on the forum. Lots of people will chime in with great advice.

[Dash]

Despite initially vowing that I would do a fowlr, I'm very tentatively looking at acquiring some corals, more on the LPS side. Impossible to resist the dark side, haha. Before I do that, I need to upgrade my lights. Believe it or not, I'm running an old Aqueon modular led that came with the tank (I bought a freshwater setup from CL) but it's keeping everything going.

I'm leaning towards either Evergrow or SB, but recently found a seller on ebay offering more affordable "refurbished" Evergrows - whatever that means.

Really enjoying your tank build thread as I can understand most of it lol

Maggie

[Etaloche]

Originally Posted by Dash

I'm leaning towards either Evergrow or SB, but recently found a seller on ebay offering more affordable "refurbished" Evergrows - whatever that means.

Really enjoying your tank build thread as I can understand most of it lol

Maggie

You can't go wrong with either in terms of softies, if you do one day decide to try LPS or SPS I can already guarantee that you will get better growth and colors with the SB.
The price is almost no different as well from what I know. Not sure how much these refurb units are going for.
I know that the owner of SB was doing a scratch and dent sale last week with some great prices for practically new lights as well. I can link it to you in a PM.
SB also sells retrofit boards with their custom spectrum that you can buy later down the road and install into your evergrow if it's compatible so that's also an option.

https://sbreeflights.com/sbox-upgrad...pcb-board.html

In any case, with the right conditions both these lights will grow corals perfectly fine.

[Dash]

Thanks for the info - I'll def check it out.

Hope your little firefish is recovering. Cheers,

Maggie

[Etaloche]

Not too much going on in the tank lately and just been watching the corals grow out

Some new additions





Warren if you see this can you give me the name of this coral? I totally forgot.




You can see my new orchid dottyback hiding in the rock in this one.










This acan has been growing out beautifully. One of the first corals I ever got



The candycane has made some great recovery. I've been battling some algae and lost a single head when the algae took over but have since got it under control. I've also been feeding each individual head by hand every couple of days and that's how its been nicknamed the sun coral

Feeding time




When I first got the coral


Today, still got a long way before full recovery


Zoa garden is taking shape


Some new zoa and paly waiting to be mounted. Thanks GoFish for providing me with a frag rack. It's been very useful






I also finally got a mandarin goby!


Built this target feeder I saw on the internet and hatched some brine shrimp for him. Eventually started putting mysis on the feeder and he happily accepts any frozen foods now. Very happy that training him was a breeze


Halloween urchin which has been a big help with algae control


Also got some other critters. This pom pom crab has to be my favorite crab.


This porcelain crab is very fun to watch too.


Finally, the latest addition to my tank has been this sharknose cleaner goby.