My Journey So Far
Hi,
Thanks to all for contributing to a great forum. I have learned a lot and been inspired often by browsing over many months. I only became a member a few days ago and have already received some helpful advice to a question I posed. Thanks.
Thought I would introduce myself and detail a little of my reef journey thus far.
I started my marine journey about 15 months ago, initially with a 400L corner tank, after years of keeping various basic tropical fish. Got hooked, learned a lot, made a few mistakes all in the first 4-5 months.
Things stabilised and were going really well for a few months - healthy and happy fish, growing corals - then disaster, almost my greatest fear. Cracked sump and spilled 50-80L of salty water all over my relatively new hardwood floor. Luckily we were in the room at the time and managed to clean up most of it fairly quickly - only minor damage/cupping to floor.
Relocated contents of tank straight away to a spare tank, a 2ft cube, that I had upstairs. Not optimal in either space or timing, but needed to empty main tank, at the very least to get at all the water that had seeped underneath the stand. Then a hard decision, but the right one at the time - floor worth way more than tank, so decision to decommision downstairs tank and keep 2ft cube upstairs. The next month was rough - lost one of our favourite fish to suicide one night, another just refused to eat after the move and eventually died, lost some of our favourite corals to the various swings in the tank chemistry before it settled.
I still loved the tank, but its position upstairs meant that the rest of the family no longer spent time each day staring at it, as had become our habit. After a few months of this I decided to try to find good new homes for my livestock and corals and then decommision the tank. Contributing factor was our desire to go on a multi-week holiday in the not too distant future.
But I couldn't do it! Still love the tank and all my cool little friends that are in my care within my tiny slice of the reef. Change of heart and a decision to start researching a way to get a new tank downstairs while having the absolute minimum risk of major water spillage.
Have started gathering components for the new build. At this stage planning a 4-5 foot AIO with a intank sump large enough to take my full size H&H skimmer, a fuge and media chamber. However, if I happen across anyone selling a well put together full system with sump and good plumbing would consider that too.
Not fussed if this planning, design and procurement phase takes a few months. Tank currently looking a little bare, but going to wait until my new tank is stable in a few months before ramping things up again.
Current tank inhabitants:
* pair occelaris clowns
* small yellow clown goby
* citrinis goby
* yellow assessor
* coral banded shrimp
* cuc
Corals:
* large cushion coral
* a few different zoas
* a pair of small hammers
* red and blue morphs
Take care, J
Thanks to all for contributing to a great forum. I have learned a lot and been inspired often by browsing over many months. I only became a member a few days ago and have already received some helpful advice to a question I posed. Thanks.
Thought I would introduce myself and detail a little of my reef journey thus far.
I started my marine journey about 15 months ago, initially with a 400L corner tank, after years of keeping various basic tropical fish. Got hooked, learned a lot, made a few mistakes all in the first 4-5 months.
Things stabilised and were going really well for a few months - healthy and happy fish, growing corals - then disaster, almost my greatest fear. Cracked sump and spilled 50-80L of salty water all over my relatively new hardwood floor. Luckily we were in the room at the time and managed to clean up most of it fairly quickly - only minor damage/cupping to floor.
Relocated contents of tank straight away to a spare tank, a 2ft cube, that I had upstairs. Not optimal in either space or timing, but needed to empty main tank, at the very least to get at all the water that had seeped underneath the stand. Then a hard decision, but the right one at the time - floor worth way more than tank, so decision to decommision downstairs tank and keep 2ft cube upstairs. The next month was rough - lost one of our favourite fish to suicide one night, another just refused to eat after the move and eventually died, lost some of our favourite corals to the various swings in the tank chemistry before it settled.
I still loved the tank, but its position upstairs meant that the rest of the family no longer spent time each day staring at it, as had become our habit. After a few months of this I decided to try to find good new homes for my livestock and corals and then decommision the tank. Contributing factor was our desire to go on a multi-week holiday in the not too distant future.
But I couldn't do it! Still love the tank and all my cool little friends that are in my care within my tiny slice of the reef. Change of heart and a decision to start researching a way to get a new tank downstairs while having the absolute minimum risk of major water spillage.
Have started gathering components for the new build. At this stage planning a 4-5 foot AIO with a intank sump large enough to take my full size H&H skimmer, a fuge and media chamber. However, if I happen across anyone selling a well put together full system with sump and good plumbing would consider that too.
Not fussed if this planning, design and procurement phase takes a few months. Tank currently looking a little bare, but going to wait until my new tank is stable in a few months before ramping things up again.
Current tank inhabitants:
* pair occelaris clowns
* small yellow clown goby
* citrinis goby
* yellow assessor
* coral banded shrimp
* cuc
Corals:
* large cushion coral
* a few different zoas
* a pair of small hammers
* red and blue morphs
Take care, J
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