Invictus’ ‘25 Budget Build

[Invictus]

Hello Everyone, and welcome to my Budget Build journal. Like most of us, an additional tank in the house was the last thing that I needed; but, a friend getting out of the hobby presented a deal that I could not pass up. Given the size of the tank, the only option for me was a garage build. So… out went the car, in went the tank, and off we go!



Overall Budget Goal: Acro dominated sub-$500, with 100% of coral coming from trades, dbtc, and personal fragging.

Ongoing Costs: $226/$500

Date Tank Cycle Began: April 2nd, 2025

Tank Manufacturer & Model: RedSea Reefer Max 350

Equipment List:

Light(s): 2 ReefLED 90 $0 (pending one additional @$100)

Pump(s): Jebao ? $0

Heater(s): Aquatop 300W & Eheim 100W $0

Wavemaker(s): Reefwave45 $0 Reefwave25 $112

Doser(s): Kamoer F1 $54 (not currently installed)

Controller(s): N/A

Filtration: RedSea Skimmer $0

ATO: FZone $60

Sand: Barebottom

Rock: MarcoRock

Additional items: Biomedia added to sump from current display

 

[Invictus]

This is how the tank looked before I broke it down. Rampant dinos and cyano. Two large showpieces with the leather and chalice.

Drove up Friday night to move the livestock. The shop vac was a lifesaver in removing the last of the sand and water. Sunday we went back for the tank and equipment. The cleaning process was pretty intensive before I was happy.

Many thanks again to @JVU for the stock tank loan and @Srt4eric for helping with the tank move. Livestock sat in the stock tank unlit for 4 days. I was hoping the “blackout” would kill the dinos.

Livestock transferred. Rockscape not finalized.

Actually a pretty cool and unique GSP. Somewhere in between standard and branching.

Added a new shelf to the garage for organization.

Current state. Dinos were not killed by the transfer blackout and came back immediately. They have been slowly subsiding as I get nutrients to stabilize and I’m on my 3rd water change. I have a UV that came with the tank but am trying to avoid having to use it. Threw a few tester corals in there, but won’t be putting much more until I’m more confident in the stability.
Currently there are at least 3 large rocks with GSP and green mushrooms on them. Ideally I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with those before progressing with the rockscape any further.

 

[Invictus]

Tank Stocking:

Coral:
-Massive Space Invader Chalice
-GSP
-Green Hairy Mushrooms
-Green Rhodactis Mushrooms
-Test SPS: Manilla Spy and Red Monti

I’m trying to figure out what the best course of action will be with these corals that came with the tank. I wouldn’t mind them if they stayed as is, but unfortunately these are corals that can explode and take over the tank. I’d ideally like to have clean rocks and start from scratch, but I also don’t feel right about killing corals just to remove them from the rock.

Fish:
-Tomini Tang
-Blue Tang
-Royal Gramma
-Long Nose Hawkfish
-Midas Blenny
-Mandarin Dragonet
-Banggai Cardinal
-Fairy Wrasse
-Filefish

Feeding pellets or flake in the morning, and frozen mysis in the afternoon.

 

[Invictus]

Reserved

 

[Don.Julio91]

That looks super good already. Do not think “garage tank” setup describes this. This is more of, if you like what you see in the show room, we have more in the back.

Also I think @richiev gave me some GSP that carpets and creates branches when it runs out of room. I have one that I have to trim the branch parts off. It is strange to see in person.