My fascination with fish started about 15 years ago. About 10 years ago I bit the bullet and upgraded my 10gal to a 90gal tank for my growing oscars. You can't keep a pretty tank with oscars, so I eventually got rid of them when they were enormous, and bought a bunch of small community fish. They were boring and bland, so after a year I got rid of them and went to African Cichlids. Very colorful, but aggressive, and all with the same body type. Boring again. Got rid of them and shut down the tank for a while.
Fast forward a few years, and I've decided to restart the tank. Decided on fancy goldfish because they were pretty. While in the fish store, I told the fish store guy about my boring adventures with fish. He told me I was doing it wrong. I needed to "go salt." I had always pondered the idea, but never had the money, and I didn't want to spend alot to upgrade my Fluval canister filter. He told me I could run a saltwater tank on a canister filter with no problem. I just needed to start real slow.
So I did. I bought a piece of live rock, some live sand, a few damsels, and a gramma. My dad was so excited that I changed to saltwater that he surprised me one day with 3 anemones and a flowerpot coral. mind you, I had the tank in operation maybe less than a month (cycling, what's that?) with the original 40watt light strip on top. Needless to say, after a few months, two anemones and the coral died.
I was so fascinated with my tank at one point that I declared I would research the hobby to no end, and restart my tank and make it a full reef tank, the RIGHT WAY -- with PATIENCE. For the past 6 months, I have been reading and reading and reading this website, and I have learned tons (Thanks, everyone! :thumbsup: ). I have been collecting things for the tank and preparing it, but I am finding that with each passing day, it will be much longer than expected to get the tank up and running, if I want to do it properly.
I've built a canopy, I have 720watts of lighting ready to go, a drilled acrylic sump with a pump ready to pump 3600gal/hr. In another room there's a 30gal quarantine with a T5 retrofit and a DIY stand and hood. I have diamond drill bits ready to drill the tank, and god help me, I have rocks "cooking" in my garage. I still need to get the RO/DI, but there are trash cans in the garage filled with DI water from an aquarium tap water filter. All the while, my tank is occupied by an anemone (still on 40 watts of light) accompanied by a humu-humu trigger and a snowflake eel that someone gave me. I am so anxious to start this tank, but until the rocks are done, I don't want to rush anything. With my perseverance and patience, my 2 year old daughter has finally stopped asking for "nemo". The more I read reefcentral, the more I find new products I need to buy, like a calcium reactor, an autotopoff system, and my new desire, the litermeter.
So with all this, I say, "curse you, fish store guy." You have gotten me addicted to a hobby which has made my wallet much leaner. I spend my hours reading reefcentral when I should be doing something else. I look at various users galleries and spend my free time doodling how I want to aquascape. Thank god for all you DIY'ers who have saved me money.
So, fish store guy, one day I will definitely be blessing you for the joy you have brought to me and my family. Until then, curse you. I'm living off of bread and water (well, not really.)
-DT
:hmm5:
p.s.- if someone could please point me in the direction of reefaholics anonymous, I would greatly appreciate it.
Fast forward a few years, and I've decided to restart the tank. Decided on fancy goldfish because they were pretty. While in the fish store, I told the fish store guy about my boring adventures with fish. He told me I was doing it wrong. I needed to "go salt." I had always pondered the idea, but never had the money, and I didn't want to spend alot to upgrade my Fluval canister filter. He told me I could run a saltwater tank on a canister filter with no problem. I just needed to start real slow.
So I did. I bought a piece of live rock, some live sand, a few damsels, and a gramma. My dad was so excited that I changed to saltwater that he surprised me one day with 3 anemones and a flowerpot coral. mind you, I had the tank in operation maybe less than a month (cycling, what's that?) with the original 40watt light strip on top. Needless to say, after a few months, two anemones and the coral died.
I was so fascinated with my tank at one point that I declared I would research the hobby to no end, and restart my tank and make it a full reef tank, the RIGHT WAY -- with PATIENCE. For the past 6 months, I have been reading and reading and reading this website, and I have learned tons (Thanks, everyone! :thumbsup: ). I have been collecting things for the tank and preparing it, but I am finding that with each passing day, it will be much longer than expected to get the tank up and running, if I want to do it properly.
I've built a canopy, I have 720watts of lighting ready to go, a drilled acrylic sump with a pump ready to pump 3600gal/hr. In another room there's a 30gal quarantine with a T5 retrofit and a DIY stand and hood. I have diamond drill bits ready to drill the tank, and god help me, I have rocks "cooking" in my garage. I still need to get the RO/DI, but there are trash cans in the garage filled with DI water from an aquarium tap water filter. All the while, my tank is occupied by an anemone (still on 40 watts of light) accompanied by a humu-humu trigger and a snowflake eel that someone gave me. I am so anxious to start this tank, but until the rocks are done, I don't want to rush anything. With my perseverance and patience, my 2 year old daughter has finally stopped asking for "nemo". The more I read reefcentral, the more I find new products I need to buy, like a calcium reactor, an autotopoff system, and my new desire, the litermeter.
So with all this, I say, "curse you, fish store guy." You have gotten me addicted to a hobby which has made my wallet much leaner. I spend my hours reading reefcentral when I should be doing something else. I look at various users galleries and spend my free time doodling how I want to aquascape. Thank god for all you DIY'ers who have saved me money.
So, fish store guy, one day I will definitely be blessing you for the joy you have brought to me and my family. Until then, curse you. I'm living off of bread and water (well, not really.)
-DT
:hmm5:
p.s.- if someone could please point me in the direction of reefaholics anonymous, I would greatly appreciate it.
