Nickcharles
New member
Hello all...I was a member here for years and 7 years ago I went into buisness for myself and in the process...I had too many responsibilities and many long hours trying to make my business flourish. My friend and wife convinced me to move our tank to the buisness and I fell for it. She immediately put in bookcases. Nice out flanking on her part. Sadly, I screwed up my beautiful reef due to neglect and just plain life getting in the way. I have been paying someone to maintain my tank in my place of business. After 4 expensive tries I have found someone who has been awesome and I will at sometime pass the name on out of respect for their fine work. My tank is becoming the centerpiece of our establishment and a real attraction. Suffice it to say, it's beautiful, but there's no accomplishment on my end, no sense of pride because I'm paying for it to look good. I've even had my wonderful new tank service build me a JBJ 45 nano for my mancave. Again, no pride, beautiful, but no accomplishment. There's supposed to be a symbiosis between a man and his reef. I've had one since I was a snot nosed kid, thru hard times, raised 3 children, spent more on a chiller than my daughter's prom dress once, I KNOW what is important :fun4: and now I'm just a viewer like my patrons. But after a recent trip to Florida...our first vacation in 20 years, the ever reluctant wife has given me full support for a reef tank back at the house. For me. I turned 50 last week. I'm stunned at the tech out there to assist in making a reef what we all dream of. Hell, my service just showed up one day because of a powerhead failure because they got a message on their phone. WHAT? I had no idea this was a possibility. I started to peer from a distance into the new world of reef. I realized after being a reefer for all that time, I was now...a newbie again. I know this is long, and dull, but in the end, I want back in. I want, no...I NEED that sense of pride that comes with building that ecosystem in your own domain. Maintaining that piece of heaven landlocked in wisconsin so far from my beloved ocean. I would like to be accepted back into your mostly nurturing forum, and ask advice for what will be new to me once again. I've been looking, and even the tanks have changed, drastically. I don't need to drill them, and cobble them together anymore. I want 210 or bigger, and I hope that some of you can pass on what you feel is the best out there, lights, skimmer, reactors, help me bypass the hype of commercialization and give me sound advice as to what the MUST HAVE are now. Thanks for letting me wax poetic, I promise it's my one time lengthy post.
