My boy, Tom (11 yo) had been asking for some time about getting a tank for his room. It started out just wanting some gold fish. He toyed for a while with the idea of not getting fish at all, but going with a lizard or snake, then ended up with wanting a marine tank.
We put it off for quite a while, but he's grown up a lot this year, so we thought that we could do it as his Christmas present. There was obviously no hope of doing it secretly, and I'd much rather do it with him involved as much as possible anyway, so we've got in with a bit of an early start. The plan is to get it all going and cycled up in the shed, and then bring it down to his room around Christmas.
It has all turned into a bit of a project (and possibly getting just a little out of hand), but its starting to take shape.
System Objectives: A small, cost effective, low maintenance, quiet tank to house a few choice small fish, and some easy care corals.
System Type: Live rock, Fish and selected hardy corals
Display System:
Strike up Date: 1/11/09
Display Tank: 2' x 18" x 18", with back 100mm (4") divided off as a sump area.
Display Lighting: Solarmax 4 x HO T5 Fluorescent tubes. (2 x Sylvania Aquastar 10000K + 2 x Sylvania Coralstar Actinic)
Stand: Low-rise entertainment unit.
Hood: Open top
Sump: 100mm section along back of tank.
Refugium: TBD
Refugium Lighting: TBD. None at this stage
Support systems:
System Water: System startup using ASW. Water changes ongoing with NSW or ASW as availability dictates.
Display Water circulation: 2 x JVP 3000 LPH propeller pumps
Return Pump: Maxi-Jet 1200 LPHP
Skimmer: None planned at this stage
Evaporation Top Up:Auto topup (ATJ II) with Williamson Peristaltic Pump
Chemical Support:
Calcium Addition: Calcium Chloride solution. Made up as per Randy Holmes-Farley Improved DIY 2-part system.
Alkilinity Addition: Baked sodium bicarbonate solution. Made up as per Randy Holmes-Farley Improved DIY 2-part system.
Other Chemical Maintenance: Combined Magnesium Sulfate / Magnesium Chloride solution. Made up as per Randy Holmes-Farley Improved DIY 2-part system.
Current Water Chemistry: If applicable
Nitrates: -
Phosphates: -
Alkalinity: -
Calcium: -
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 35 ppt
Magnesuim: -
Images:
We originally talked about just getting an all-in-one tank with a sump area at the back, and in hindsight maybe it would have been an easier way to go. But for better or worse, we (or probably more correctly, I decided to build our own, using a fairly standard 2' x 18" tank, and installing a few pieces of glass along the back. Here's the original concept.

The reality ended up pretty close to that concept.
Tom filling the tank for a freshwater test. Passed with flying colours. I hope he learns to be a little less messy when it comes to water changes with salt water in his room.
Adding artificial salt. I chose to set up the tank with ASW due to consistent rain around the time that we wanted to fill the tank, and the fact I had run out of supplies of Natural Sea Water. Going forward we'll use a combination of ASW and NSW depending on availability.

You can't have a tank without the obligatory ATJ Auto Topoff II with Williamson peristalitic pump.

Solarmax Light fitting:

End view of tank. Sand in and lights on.

Ready to rock and roll
