55 gallon build - last of many

Everlearn

New member
I’ve been away from forums for quite a while, but not away from the hobby. I’ve been an aquarist for 58 years this year, which is really hard to believe. I’ve had just about every kind of system you can think of, fresh, brackish, and salt. I can remember my first 10 gallon fresh water. Guppies and mollies and angel fish. Took a summer of mowing lawns and delivering newspapers to save up for it. Scuba diving in Florida in the early 70’s lit the reef tank fire, and resulted in a marine biology degree. Can’t imagine how much I’ve spent over half a century, but I’m sure it would have paid for a couple really nice cars 💰💸 My first salt was in 1972, a 20 gallon with a couple of fish I caught on the reef. Water changes involved a trip out to the Gulf Stream with a bunch of 5 gallon jugs. Times have changed!’ My current, and likely last, setup is a 55 gallon mixed reef tank. It’s been 6+ years in the making and I think I’ve finally gotten it right!! It’s mostly soft corals, including a zoanthid garden. I have a hammer and a torch that are really impressive, I think. Anyway, I’ve been lurking the forums lately and thought I’d jump back in. I’m about to redo my sump setup and have recently purchased an ozone system from BRS. I have a self designed and built 4ft linear refugium/algae scrubber, CO2 scrubber, skimmer, UV-C sterilizer, carbon and GFO reactors and LED lighting. Four wave maker pumps keep the water moving. My “sump” is actually offset, with a gravity drain thru the algae scrubber that sits above and behind the tank. I’ve learned much over the years, and will be posting some photos soon.
 
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I’ve been away from forums for quite a while, but not away from the hobby.
Welcome to Reef Central. 58 years is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations. I'm looking forward to seeing your photos.
 
A few photos. Tank has about 65 lbs live rock in it. Have a pair of clowns, a mandarin, scopas tang, watchman with mated pair pistol shrimps, midas blenny, lawn mower blenny, and a file fish. Tons of hermits, snails, a couple of limpets, hairy chiton, pencil urchins that breed like crazy, couple of rock urchins, several gorgonians. Also a green bubbletip that hosts a porcelain crab. The clowns completely ignore it..........
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