erndog1001
Premium Member
All good things must come to an end So I'm told. I've had the pleasure of having 3 different tanks over the past 15 - 20 years.
The first a 125 gal was way back in the late 1990's and used VHO flourescents and a wet dry filter. Lol
That lasted for a couple of years until the infamous "Labor Day" storm struck and knocked out our power for 4 days.
I set it up again about 6-7 years later using DSB style filter. That went very well until I decided it was time to do something really big.
That's when I built my own 400 gal from the ground up. And it's been up and running now for just under 6 years & I think I've had a fair amount of success with it. At least that's what everybody who sees it tells me Lol. I've always felt it could be better if I just do this or tweak that. But we're always most critical of ourselves I think.
Anyways I changed jobs about a year ago now and it has greatly cut into the amount of free time I have to devote to my hobby. And the tank has suffered bc of it.
Then about 6 weeks ago the "straw that broke the camel's back" came about in the form of a small leak in the back corner. At first I thought I could contain it and fix it. Back it's become very apparent that it's not going to be fixable as long as there is water in the tank. And in fact it's just going to keep getting worse. The water is getting into the plywood base and it's starting to come apart. Eventually its going to fail completely and that would be a disaster.
SO I've come to the painful conclusion that I must shut it down before this happens. Bc the only thing I can imagine worse than shutting down my tank. is to have that happen and all my livestock die. That would be a tragedy and irresponsible on my part.
I'm going to be posting all my livestock for sale soon The prices will be very reasonable bc for me it's not really about making money so much as finding good homes for my livestock. What I can't sell in the next few weeks will probably just wind up at ABC Reefs in Solvay.
After I've had time to empty and fix the tank I'll decide which way I'm going for now. I'm retiring in a few years So I'll definitely have one more go at it sometime after that happens.
The first a 125 gal was way back in the late 1990's and used VHO flourescents and a wet dry filter. Lol
That lasted for a couple of years until the infamous "Labor Day" storm struck and knocked out our power for 4 days.
I set it up again about 6-7 years later using DSB style filter. That went very well until I decided it was time to do something really big.
That's when I built my own 400 gal from the ground up. And it's been up and running now for just under 6 years & I think I've had a fair amount of success with it. At least that's what everybody who sees it tells me Lol. I've always felt it could be better if I just do this or tweak that. But we're always most critical of ourselves I think.
Anyways I changed jobs about a year ago now and it has greatly cut into the amount of free time I have to devote to my hobby. And the tank has suffered bc of it.
Then about 6 weeks ago the "straw that broke the camel's back" came about in the form of a small leak in the back corner. At first I thought I could contain it and fix it. Back it's become very apparent that it's not going to be fixable as long as there is water in the tank. And in fact it's just going to keep getting worse. The water is getting into the plywood base and it's starting to come apart. Eventually its going to fail completely and that would be a disaster.
SO I've come to the painful conclusion that I must shut it down before this happens. Bc the only thing I can imagine worse than shutting down my tank. is to have that happen and all my livestock die. That would be a tragedy and irresponsible on my part.
I'm going to be posting all my livestock for sale soon The prices will be very reasonable bc for me it's not really about making money so much as finding good homes for my livestock. What I can't sell in the next few weeks will probably just wind up at ABC Reefs in Solvay.
After I've had time to empty and fix the tank I'll decide which way I'm going for now. I'm retiring in a few years So I'll definitely have one more go at it sometime after that happens.
. We could of stared at your tank in amazement for hours! I hope you find good homes for all the fish.
