- Joined
- Jun 2, 2019
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I meant to start a build thread when I upgraded to my 525 xl nearly 3 years ago. I've had some ups and downs and at one point considered packing it all in as my interest in the reefing hobby waned. It's already had one reboot and will be coming up for another reboot in a few months time. The impending reboot seems to have rekindled my enthusiasm and this time I am determined to make a proper go of it. No more half arsing this hobby, only whole arsing from now on.
A bit of background catching up to do first though. I'll follow up with a few more posts to cover some of the drama I have had until the latest issue that is prompting the 2nd reboot.
Some Backstory
It all started with looking after the office goldfish which progressed into me getting my own tropical fresh water tank (33 Gallon Liter Juwel Rio) and dreaming of having a beautiful high tech planted tank one day.
Then I got a nano saltwater tank (5 gallon Fluval) which predictably resulted in the fresh water fishies being evicted from their tank soon thereafter and the Juwel being converted to a saltwater tank.
Fluval Spec circa 2014 with Pepper and Tony
I had reasonable success with this tank with just enough effort to make it interesting without being in the too hard basket. No testing, no dosing, just some clowns and some hardy corals and fortnightly water changes.
The tank stagnated a bit while I was working in Fiji for a couple months and then knowing an upgrade to a much bigger tank was on the horizon coupled with an epic overseas motorcycling trip meant I didn't pay too much attention to it and did bare minimum.
Juwel Rio circa 2018 went bare bottom to help with maintenance while away on trips, but never liked the look
Finally, the day came when I upgraded to a reefer 525xl. I had convinced my partner that a bigger tank would be so much easier to maintain and we could add so many more fish. He was easy to convince. The shiny rimless tank just looked so much nicer than my modified Juwel tank and I was looking forward to putting it all together.
That brings us up to early 2019. I'll cover the 525 build and early days in the next post.
Fish looking forward to their larger home- Red Sea Reefer 525 XL circa early 2019
A bit of background catching up to do first though. I'll follow up with a few more posts to cover some of the drama I have had until the latest issue that is prompting the 2nd reboot.
Some Backstory
It all started with looking after the office goldfish which progressed into me getting my own tropical fresh water tank (33 Gallon Liter Juwel Rio) and dreaming of having a beautiful high tech planted tank one day.
Then I got a nano saltwater tank (5 gallon Fluval) which predictably resulted in the fresh water fishies being evicted from their tank soon thereafter and the Juwel being converted to a saltwater tank.
Fluval Spec circa 2014 with Pepper and Tony
The tank stagnated a bit while I was working in Fiji for a couple months and then knowing an upgrade to a much bigger tank was on the horizon coupled with an epic overseas motorcycling trip meant I didn't pay too much attention to it and did bare minimum.
Juwel Rio circa 2018 went bare bottom to help with maintenance while away on trips, but never liked the look
That brings us up to early 2019. I'll cover the 525 build and early days in the next post.
Fish looking forward to their larger home- Red Sea Reefer 525 XL circa early 2019