Hello Everyone, I joined this forum because the other forums I have been on in the past have started to be filled with drama and poor information and poor practices. I was told by a fellow reefer that RC is a great forum and I figured now at the beginning of my upgrade would be a perfect time to join.
Next Thursday my new 220g Tank will arrive. I currently have a lot of the equipment other than Lights, powerheads, and skimmer. The tank will be SPS dominate by far with a few LPS corals possibly. I am still in much of the planning phase and searching for good deals on quality equipment in my local area. lets come back to the tank in a few after I explain my experience in the hobby so far.
Like many people I started off having freshwater tanks as a child. My dad and bread and raised cichlids together when i was 12. We had about 5 tanks set up that had breeding pairs of cichlids in them I really enjoyed spending the time with him and really enjoyed raising the fish and selling them to our local fish stores. After a few years he lost interest in it but we still had a 90g aquarium so I took it over and kept some larger fish that now looking back I would of never kept in that size tank. I had a large oscar, a really big Jack Demps., a blood parrot, and a few other aggressive cichlids. After a while my passion for the hobby grew and when I was 18 I decided to sell the fish and take down everything and started a planted aquarium with Blue and gold German Rams. I loved the tank and had it for a few years. It started out as just a tank with some plants in it then I added t5ho lighting, then added Co2 dosing and started using fertilizers and really getting involved in it. The tank was Stuffed full of plants and looked amazing however it was to the point that I was trimming plants every couple of days and this got old so I started thinking what else could I do? Well I decided to turn the tank into a saltwater tank. So I sold all my plants and equipment and got enough money from it all to fully fund swapping it to a reef tank. I did this about 5 years ago. The reef tank started out with a bunch of live rock I got from a guy really cheap who was getting out of the hobby and I bought some white and blue Reefbreeder LED's off ebay...not sure if they where reefbreeders then but look and function the same as they are now. I had a fuge and a sandbed you know the whole thing. Looking back on it I am really glad I did everything the first time because it made me grow and understand over time what functions I liked and didnt like. I found after a couple of years I dont like having a sandbed so I have been running BB tanks ever sense. I also found that I dont like having a fuge and I DONT like Live rock. The live rock I got from the guy was covered in pests and I had no clue at the time what was good or bad. I had been in freshwater and didnt know about all the pests.
So I did a mixed reef to start with and had a really hard time. One thing that took me a long time to figure out the BIG 3 Calc, Alk, Mag. So long story short I almost gave up on saltwater a couple of times because I couldnt get anything to grow. Well that is behind me. 2 years ago I got it all figured out and I had a great LPS reef tank. It was full of corals, had great growth. about a year ago all my coral and fish died in a "power outage" while I was out of town. My sister was looking after my house while I was gone for a week, she was just feeding the cat and dog because I had everything automated for the tank so she didnt have to worry about it including feeding. Well something happened and the braker kicked off that the tank was on so even though she was there she didnt know anything was wrong because the tank was in the basement and she never went down there while I was gone. I came home to a brown slime. everything had died the tank temp was in the 60s so all the coral died and then all this fish died as well.
So I hung it up for the past year and have just had my rock in saltwater and a powerhead. Over the last year I have really missed having a tank and my wife started to push me to get back into it. So I decided to do so. I recently bought a 220g tank that should be in next Thursday. Ill be using my sump from my 90g for now. Its just a simple 30g breeder that has a skimmer section and a return.
Some Changes I have made.
First of all I got a dedicated breaker for JUST my tank and it should never get kicked off being alone before the breaker powered my entire basement.
Second I am going all SPS, this is a new challenge for me but I am up for it.
Third I am not going to do the LED route. I am debating T5ho/leds or MH/T5ho - I am leaning towards MH/t5ho because of the 30" depth of the tank. If my tank was in the 24" range I would go t5ho/led for sure.
there will be more to come when things start moving along.
Next Thursday my new 220g Tank will arrive. I currently have a lot of the equipment other than Lights, powerheads, and skimmer. The tank will be SPS dominate by far with a few LPS corals possibly. I am still in much of the planning phase and searching for good deals on quality equipment in my local area. lets come back to the tank in a few after I explain my experience in the hobby so far.
Like many people I started off having freshwater tanks as a child. My dad and bread and raised cichlids together when i was 12. We had about 5 tanks set up that had breeding pairs of cichlids in them I really enjoyed spending the time with him and really enjoyed raising the fish and selling them to our local fish stores. After a few years he lost interest in it but we still had a 90g aquarium so I took it over and kept some larger fish that now looking back I would of never kept in that size tank. I had a large oscar, a really big Jack Demps., a blood parrot, and a few other aggressive cichlids. After a while my passion for the hobby grew and when I was 18 I decided to sell the fish and take down everything and started a planted aquarium with Blue and gold German Rams. I loved the tank and had it for a few years. It started out as just a tank with some plants in it then I added t5ho lighting, then added Co2 dosing and started using fertilizers and really getting involved in it. The tank was Stuffed full of plants and looked amazing however it was to the point that I was trimming plants every couple of days and this got old so I started thinking what else could I do? Well I decided to turn the tank into a saltwater tank. So I sold all my plants and equipment and got enough money from it all to fully fund swapping it to a reef tank. I did this about 5 years ago. The reef tank started out with a bunch of live rock I got from a guy really cheap who was getting out of the hobby and I bought some white and blue Reefbreeder LED's off ebay...not sure if they where reefbreeders then but look and function the same as they are now. I had a fuge and a sandbed you know the whole thing. Looking back on it I am really glad I did everything the first time because it made me grow and understand over time what functions I liked and didnt like. I found after a couple of years I dont like having a sandbed so I have been running BB tanks ever sense. I also found that I dont like having a fuge and I DONT like Live rock. The live rock I got from the guy was covered in pests and I had no clue at the time what was good or bad. I had been in freshwater and didnt know about all the pests.
So I did a mixed reef to start with and had a really hard time. One thing that took me a long time to figure out the BIG 3 Calc, Alk, Mag. So long story short I almost gave up on saltwater a couple of times because I couldnt get anything to grow. Well that is behind me. 2 years ago I got it all figured out and I had a great LPS reef tank. It was full of corals, had great growth. about a year ago all my coral and fish died in a "power outage" while I was out of town. My sister was looking after my house while I was gone for a week, she was just feeding the cat and dog because I had everything automated for the tank so she didnt have to worry about it including feeding. Well something happened and the braker kicked off that the tank was on so even though she was there she didnt know anything was wrong because the tank was in the basement and she never went down there while I was gone. I came home to a brown slime. everything had died the tank temp was in the 60s so all the coral died and then all this fish died as well.
So I hung it up for the past year and have just had my rock in saltwater and a powerhead. Over the last year I have really missed having a tank and my wife started to push me to get back into it. So I decided to do so. I recently bought a 220g tank that should be in next Thursday. Ill be using my sump from my 90g for now. Its just a simple 30g breeder that has a skimmer section and a return.
Some Changes I have made.
First of all I got a dedicated breaker for JUST my tank and it should never get kicked off being alone before the breaker powered my entire basement.
Second I am going all SPS, this is a new challenge for me but I am up for it.
Third I am not going to do the LED route. I am debating T5ho/leds or MH/T5ho - I am leaning towards MH/t5ho because of the 30" depth of the tank. If my tank was in the 24" range I would go t5ho/led for sure.
there will be more to come when things start moving along.
