Here’s my little, “How I got back into the hobby story.”
While taking our first beach vacation in 10 years I cut my foot on a horseshoe crab. When we got back from vacation we decided to go to our LFS to check out the horseshoe crabs. They didn’t have any but while there we got to looking at the fish and remembering how fun it was to have a marine tank. After much discussion among the family, we agreed to one 55 gallon tank. We found a nice looking tank and stand for cheap, got it cleaned up, and BAM I was in love again. You can find the details of that build here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-in-the-hobby-again-55g-soon-to-be-reef-tank.859006/
My wife and I had agreed to a budget for the hobby. Not two months in I was already exceeding that budget and wanting more. So I had to find more money. I found it by donating plasma. I was a little hesitant at first but it’s a great way to earn extra money and help people. Now that I had extra money coming in I decided to go big, my LFS had a 120g setup for sale. This took some convincing but the wife finally agreed. We would keep the 55g and get the 120g. Went down the LFS and put a deposit down. The plan is to move the contents of my 55g to the 120g and use the 55g for more aggressive fish.
Now that the plan was in place and the aquarium mine(in layaway), all I had to do was wait and donate plasma….or so I thought. The biggest aquarium I had before this was a 75g and I lived in apartments so I hadn’t given much thought to how much weight a floor could hold. Now that I’m a homeowner and adding around 1,400lbs to my dining room floor I started thinking about it. Can my floor safely support this amount of weight? The answer was a no. While there was little risk of the aquarium crashing through the floor, there was going to be structural issues that would make it unsafe. After much research and consultations with “professionals,” I decided to place two support posts with aluminum bars underneath the two joists supporting the aquarium. I did some blocking around the two main joists to improve the overall strength and cut down on any bounce. Here’s a couple of photos of it finished and a link to my other post about it
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-reinforced-floor.868355/
Now that the floor was reinforced all I had to do was wait another two weeks to take possession of the aquarium.
Planning to move a 120g tank and stand is difficult. I kept worrying that my wife and 15yr old boys wouldn’t be strong enough to move it. When moving day came it was just my wife, Ethan, and me to move it. Thankfully the LFS loaded everything into our SUV so we only had to carry them into the house. If you’re ever in the Dayton, Ohio area check out Gerbers Tropical Fish, they are an amazing store...more like a warehouse. Their staff is friendly and helpful. Finally, after a month, I got it home. It was just as heavy as I expected but we were able to get it into the house and where we wanted it. Here it is in the dining room where it will stay.
While taking our first beach vacation in 10 years I cut my foot on a horseshoe crab. When we got back from vacation we decided to go to our LFS to check out the horseshoe crabs. They didn’t have any but while there we got to looking at the fish and remembering how fun it was to have a marine tank. After much discussion among the family, we agreed to one 55 gallon tank. We found a nice looking tank and stand for cheap, got it cleaned up, and BAM I was in love again. You can find the details of that build here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/back-in-the-hobby-again-55g-soon-to-be-reef-tank.859006/
My wife and I had agreed to a budget for the hobby. Not two months in I was already exceeding that budget and wanting more. So I had to find more money. I found it by donating plasma. I was a little hesitant at first but it’s a great way to earn extra money and help people. Now that I had extra money coming in I decided to go big, my LFS had a 120g setup for sale. This took some convincing but the wife finally agreed. We would keep the 55g and get the 120g. Went down the LFS and put a deposit down. The plan is to move the contents of my 55g to the 120g and use the 55g for more aggressive fish.
Now that the plan was in place and the aquarium mine(in layaway), all I had to do was wait and donate plasma….or so I thought. The biggest aquarium I had before this was a 75g and I lived in apartments so I hadn’t given much thought to how much weight a floor could hold. Now that I’m a homeowner and adding around 1,400lbs to my dining room floor I started thinking about it. Can my floor safely support this amount of weight? The answer was a no. While there was little risk of the aquarium crashing through the floor, there was going to be structural issues that would make it unsafe. After much research and consultations with “professionals,” I decided to place two support posts with aluminum bars underneath the two joists supporting the aquarium. I did some blocking around the two main joists to improve the overall strength and cut down on any bounce. Here’s a couple of photos of it finished and a link to my other post about it
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-reinforced-floor.868355/
Now that the floor was reinforced all I had to do was wait another two weeks to take possession of the aquarium.
Planning to move a 120g tank and stand is difficult. I kept worrying that my wife and 15yr old boys wouldn’t be strong enough to move it. When moving day came it was just my wife, Ethan, and me to move it. Thankfully the LFS loaded everything into our SUV so we only had to carry them into the house. If you’re ever in the Dayton, Ohio area check out Gerbers Tropical Fish, they are an amazing store...more like a warehouse. Their staff is friendly and helpful. Finally, after a month, I got it home. It was just as heavy as I expected but we were able to get it into the house and where we wanted it. Here it is in the dining room where it will stay.