Leopardshark
New member
Dear all,
I started in this hobby aprox. in 1998, with a 30 gal tank which was a monumental disaster due to my lack of knowledge, after that I moved to an 80 gal tank which did much better and then by year 2000 I bought a 300 gal tank which did very good thanks to reading many books and for the advice I received in here.
Unfortunately in 2007 I had to move to another city so I had to tear my tank appart and I swore I would never buy another one (yeah right)... until now.
To be honest, I was very, very tired of cleaning the tank, skimmer, calc. reactor, pumps, etc. I also got red flatworms which I treated with flatworm exit, red bugs which I treated with Interceptor and then AEFW which I didn´t treat at all.
I also was tired of having a Red Sea wavemaker fail in one channel, 2 turbelles failing on me (almost brand new), replacing the mag pump on my Lifereef calc reactor every 4 months (go figure why) and its leaks since new, Red Sea ozone reactor failing to produce ozone after 1 year, the power cable that fed the house exploded once (I think due to overcharge by my 4 x 400w radiums and more), the bottom glass of the tank broke once, a flooding caused by my ro/di filter (that was my fault as I installed it improperly), dealing with a mag 18 pump which was insufficent for my Aqua C 400 skimmer (which I replaced for an Iwaki pump), testing with 10, 14 and 20k MH´s and ballasts, tank temp was generally 88 degrees so in summer I had to sleep elsewhere (the tank was in my bedroom) so I could keep the windows open to lower the tem., etc.
So after putting down the tank I was relieved... but I couldn´t overcome the fact that I like this f... hobby so much! so since then and as of this day, in my sleep I dream that I´m scuba diving, or that I have a reef tank, or whatever insanity you can imagine related to corals and reef fishes.
So after 10 years I decided to give it a new try, but now things are different, as I live in my own apartment now so I will hardly move, I have a small room that will be the "tank room" which has solid floor (not carpet as before) and LED´s fixtures use so much less power than MH´s and there is no need to replace them (apart for changing new and improved models), DC pumps are more efficent than AC, the temp in my apartment is much lower than my previous house, so I will not struggle with lowering the temperature, etc.
It seems it´s the correct time now to start things over. So I ordered the following equipment:
- 110 gal. AGA with extraclear glass,
- 40 gal sump
- 3 x Radion 30 G4 PRO
- 2 x Vortech MP40 pumps
- 1 x Vectra M pump
- Korallin calcium reactor
- Elite Reef Octopus 200-int
And my next aquisition will be an Neptune´s APEX controller and ozone generator.
This time I went to a much smaller tank and I think it´s size will easen its maintainance, of course it will be a SPS´s tank
Wish me luck and I will keep you posted about the progress.
Pictures to come very soon.
Regards
Marco:thumbsup:
I started in this hobby aprox. in 1998, with a 30 gal tank which was a monumental disaster due to my lack of knowledge, after that I moved to an 80 gal tank which did much better and then by year 2000 I bought a 300 gal tank which did very good thanks to reading many books and for the advice I received in here.
Unfortunately in 2007 I had to move to another city so I had to tear my tank appart and I swore I would never buy another one (yeah right)... until now.
To be honest, I was very, very tired of cleaning the tank, skimmer, calc. reactor, pumps, etc. I also got red flatworms which I treated with flatworm exit, red bugs which I treated with Interceptor and then AEFW which I didn´t treat at all.
I also was tired of having a Red Sea wavemaker fail in one channel, 2 turbelles failing on me (almost brand new), replacing the mag pump on my Lifereef calc reactor every 4 months (go figure why) and its leaks since new, Red Sea ozone reactor failing to produce ozone after 1 year, the power cable that fed the house exploded once (I think due to overcharge by my 4 x 400w radiums and more), the bottom glass of the tank broke once, a flooding caused by my ro/di filter (that was my fault as I installed it improperly), dealing with a mag 18 pump which was insufficent for my Aqua C 400 skimmer (which I replaced for an Iwaki pump), testing with 10, 14 and 20k MH´s and ballasts, tank temp was generally 88 degrees so in summer I had to sleep elsewhere (the tank was in my bedroom) so I could keep the windows open to lower the tem., etc.
So after putting down the tank I was relieved... but I couldn´t overcome the fact that I like this f... hobby so much! so since then and as of this day, in my sleep I dream that I´m scuba diving, or that I have a reef tank, or whatever insanity you can imagine related to corals and reef fishes.
So after 10 years I decided to give it a new try, but now things are different, as I live in my own apartment now so I will hardly move, I have a small room that will be the "tank room" which has solid floor (not carpet as before) and LED´s fixtures use so much less power than MH´s and there is no need to replace them (apart for changing new and improved models), DC pumps are more efficent than AC, the temp in my apartment is much lower than my previous house, so I will not struggle with lowering the temperature, etc.
It seems it´s the correct time now to start things over. So I ordered the following equipment:
- 110 gal. AGA with extraclear glass,
- 40 gal sump
- 3 x Radion 30 G4 PRO
- 2 x Vortech MP40 pumps
- 1 x Vectra M pump
- Korallin calcium reactor
- Elite Reef Octopus 200-int
And my next aquisition will be an Neptune´s APEX controller and ozone generator.
This time I went to a much smaller tank and I think it´s size will easen its maintainance, of course it will be a SPS´s tank
Wish me luck and I will keep you posted about the progress.
Pictures to come very soon.
Regards
Marco:thumbsup:
