since april of 2006... got a freshwater tank (in march)... have had them as a child growing up...
setup up a reef which was to be softie and ended up killing a few lps... like frogspawn, pogada cup to name a couple... softies never did too well, but didnt die... had some nice rock and critters though, even had (2) of the 48" 265 watt Coralife power compact fixtures... it was a 120 footprint, but was 3" lower so it was about 100g's... unfortunately i knew nothing of RC or even had internet, so all my knowledge initially was from some not so good, but decent, LFS... i had the proper setup as far as some idea of what kind of gear you needed... a cheap seaclone skimmer, good but really jus ok lighting PC's, a sump with fuge and cheato (now the stuff jus dies cuz of no nutrients) and ok flow... unfortunately i didnt understand nutrient levels like nitrates and elementals like alk especially... dosed blindly basically and jus didnt do well... but i had some nice fish, that if I got them healthy, they did really well, especially a chocolate tang, which i want another of to go with the purple and a few other fish that did well... but again, my lack of husbandry knowledge, and LACK OF PROPER OR ANY QT, ultimately killed all but the hardiest... but alot of times i would go through fish alot as i would get them, but then trade them in for whatever reason or another... so they didnt all die, like it was awful or anything... but i jus didnt know enough, and things didnt work out, and i moved to fish and inverts/fish only systems for a few years...
Setting up my 150g standard i had before i moved back east from Cali, which was setup in october 2008 until march of 09, did i even start to do things somewhat "properly"... as that is when i bought the skimmer i have now...and "Sploke" jus picked up the Oceanrunner 6500 i had for it as well lol... anyhow, i moved across country, and was without a tank for a year until april of last year 2010... which was the 40 breeder that now makes up my sump... and this is when i started keeping and learning about sps and really keeping a system as a much more serious, time consuming hobby... but to be honest, its exactly the kind of thing for me... i can definately see myself doing this in 10, 20 and 30 years down the road... and with any luck, and ALOT of hard work, diligence, and dedication, as well as having a life outside of the hobby (sort of lol), it will jus get bigger, better, and more beautiful in every aspect of this hobby, and every meaning of the word... especially for keeping coral
