psykobowler
New member
We all had to start somewhere in this hobby and there were some things that we wish we knew before we ever started it. It would have saved me a lot of money and heartache if I had known what I now know. I was into koi before switching to saltwater and had gone through multiple nano tanks without an overflow before finally purchasing a used "reef-ready" aquarium in the bay area. Years have past before I realized that my reef-ready aquarium was way less than perfect. The truvu reef-ready tanks had 2 small openings on top which blocked pretty much most of the good light. I did not understand the reasoning behind an open rock work and had the pile of rocks look like everyone else. Tank looked like a fruit stand after placing corals. Over time detritus got trapped in the pile o' rocks and the tank goes into a full blown algae bloom. Algae would grow in back and it was difficult to clean behind the rock work because most of the top is covered by acrylic. The overflow plumbing was 1", easily clogs if there were bigger particles. The tank bowed a little and both overflows and built in dry boxes were taking too much real estate inside the tank. Here was how it looked like before. It was also before I discovered "gfo" and 20k radiums.
We moved from Natomas to Roseville and I wanted to get rid of the tank but John at yr said I would likely not get anything close to what I originally paid for it so I decided to incorporate it in my system by just adding boulders of live rock I already had. After a year, it also became hard to clean the detritus that built up on the bottom because most of the rock are in the way and I decided to get rid of the rock which I sold to multiple local reefers.
I decided to make it a display tank again and all the issues I had before started to surface again. It was difficult to clean the back and I now have to clean 2 display tanks. No good.
A week before the Super Bowl, one of the overflow clogged with the 1" piping so I had to tear it down. I transferred everything between my 300gallon display and my frag tank. I then drained it and loaded the tank to be delivered to Jeff (Ann). I told him that I hated this tank so much. I asked if he could hack it in half and turn it into a frag tank which he agreed. I also wanted him to redo the top and redo the overflow holes to accommodate a 1.5" bulkhead. He began work a week ago.
He put the tank on its side to remove the top. You can see I dremeled the top to put in the boulder rocks.
We moved from Natomas to Roseville and I wanted to get rid of the tank but John at yr said I would likely not get anything close to what I originally paid for it so I decided to incorporate it in my system by just adding boulders of live rock I already had. After a year, it also became hard to clean the detritus that built up on the bottom because most of the rock are in the way and I decided to get rid of the rock which I sold to multiple local reefers.
I decided to make it a display tank again and all the issues I had before started to surface again. It was difficult to clean the back and I now have to clean 2 display tanks. No good.
A week before the Super Bowl, one of the overflow clogged with the 1" piping so I had to tear it down. I transferred everything between my 300gallon display and my frag tank. I then drained it and loaded the tank to be delivered to Jeff (Ann). I told him that I hated this tank so much. I asked if he could hack it in half and turn it into a frag tank which he agreed. I also wanted him to redo the top and redo the overflow holes to accommodate a 1.5" bulkhead. He began work a week ago.
He put the tank on its side to remove the top. You can see I dremeled the top to put in the boulder rocks.
