7th time is the charm?

Rwwilli · Jul 6, 2020

Newer to the site, but 16 years in and out of the hobby.

Been a long road. Started in salt water a long time ago. Funds were tight, career was fresh and life was just different. We started with a 55 gallon. Put it across two end tables with a 3 foot space with nothing in the middle of the tank. Posted and picture on an older site that was popular back then and was quickly informed that is wouldn't work. First of many times we would go back to the drawing board. I wish I still had that photo, truth be told it is probably floating around on some photo hosting site I have long since lost the login for.
We built our first stand with some 2x4's and 1x2's. Completely over built it, installed hinge assembly that quickly rusted and ceased to function, but we were darn proud of that stand. Sanded and stained to match the trim in our first house we filled the tank with tap water and salt. So there's that...Cycle started and as you would guess algae wasn't long after. RO system, no DI purchased along with some power compact lights and we were on the road again. Everything was hang on the back and was the cheapest stuff, but we could afford it; sort of. That tank lasted about a year and we found a deal on a 110 tall tank. Insert cringe here.
110 tank came with a stand and we sanded it down and stained it to match...again. Turned the 55 into a sump and we were on the road again. That tank while providing a ton of swim room was an absolute nightmare to maintain. Hang on the back everything again and some kind of squid return that rotated flow to each side of the tank. Had that tank for another year and a half or so but suffered many algae out breaks, fish die offs and poor coral growth. I believe weak lighting and depth of the tank really caused us to suffer the losses. When it was clean and running well it was a pretty tank, but we were still young, funds were always tight and it just didn't work. Decided to sell the tank and everything on a "fire" sale and dropped out of the hobby for awhile. Swearing to never return.
Several years later we moved to from a mid-size city to a large metro area; Kansas City. Got settled in to the new house and while venturing around the area stumbled upon a salt water fish store. Opps- here comes the bug. By now Craig's List is all the rage and we found a 72 gallon bow front tank with sump and all the equipment ready to run. Made some good friends that we have since lost touch with and typing this reminds me that I need to send him and email and see how they are doing; how's that trip down memory lane...
Along with the 72 we also decided to build my wife a BioCube 32 gallon, because why not? Funds were much better by now and both tanks did pretty good. We sailed along for a couple of years and were happy in the hobby. Kept all softies and some fish and had some good luck. Reading some more on the internet got me bit by the big tank bug and we decided to build a 220 setup with a custom 55 gallon sump. Along with this tank came some really nice G4 Pro lights and some other very good equipment. The 220 ran great for about a year and half and I got bored in the hobby. The tank was downstairs in the basement and with it just being the two of us we did not spend a ton of time downstairs. The tank began to suffer for this and rather than kill off everything we donated the fish back to the LFS and gave away most of everything else. Gave the wife the task to sell of the expensive equipment, lights, reeflink and power heads. She did an awesome job, except she couldn't sell one G4 Pro light. It got placed in the back of a closet.....

Stay tuned, but I am assuming you know where this is going.

SPR1968 · Jul 7, 2020

An even bigger tank! ?

Rwwilli · Jul 9, 2020

Some big life changes came along in May of 2019, the biggest being that my wife's 12 year old niece moved in with us. We go from 22 years together with no kids to a 12 year old young woman. In cleaning out what was a bedroom before, but had turned in a catch all room we found the one remaining light. When my face lit up my wife was grumbling to herself.
Like any good father figure I was quickly able to use the kid as an excuse to get back in to salt water. I could teach her about a world that she didn't know and we could put a tank up together; family bonding. So off to the LFS.
Found a 60 gallon cube that was not reef ready. I had told my wife I was going to do this tank on the cheap and go simple. Sumpless tank, HOB skimmer, light mounted on the tank, fish and softies.

MightyMO · Jul 9, 2020

Welcome to the community!!!

Rwwilli · Jul 9, 2020

Sanded, stained and sealed the stand. Showed the kid how to do it all, getting her to help was quite the challenge, but we got there. Got the tank up and going; cycled it and began adding fish and corals. Started slow like I promised the wife I would do. Since the tank is in the living room and near the big front glass windows we had some algae issues. Solved that by tinting the front windows which also helped lower the house temps. Win/win situation. As we all know having a sumpless system creates a special challenge. Algae continued to be an issue, I was always having some sort of an issue with the skimmer. Either working to much or not enough I could never get it set right or working right.

Que the research on an overflow and sump. Picture of the tank when we first added a few corals in Nov 2019

Rwwilli · Jul 9, 2020

In February of 2020 we found a good deal on a open box 30 gallon sump on BRS. Bought a HOB overflow and all the needed items to make it all work. Changed from running a skimmer to using an algae reactor and scrubber. The combination worked wonders. Cleared up the tank in about a month and really did great in bringing the algae under control. Once the scrubber took off I was able to remove the reactor and the scrubber was removing enough nutrients to kill off the algae in the reactor. That tank really took off-

WIReefer · Jul 9, 2020

Welcome back to the hobby!

schneidergarrettt60 · Jul 9, 2020

Welcome!
My one question is how is your niece liking the reefing adventure? That is cool and a big congratulations to you and a thumbs up that is a big commitment for helping out family especially a young woman at that age my daughter is 10 and can be very moody already I am dreading the teenage years haha. But like I said job well done!

Waters · Jul 9, 2020

Welcome

!!

Rwwilli · Jul 9, 2020

schneidergarrettt60 said:
Welcome!
My one question is how is your niece liking the reefing adventure? That is cool and a big congratulations to you and a thumbs up that is a big commitment for helping out family especially a young woman at that age my daughter is 10 and can be very moody already I am dreading the teenage years haha. But like I said job well done!

The niece is hit and miss with the tank. She turned 13 in April and has really become quite moody. We are trying to find things to keep her mind working and body active. Getting her face out from behind some kind of screen is hard. She has had a tough go of life so far and has not had good role models in turn she is extremely quick to give up on anything that is not easy. Her favorite sport is soccer and since she has has developed faster than her peers she was better at the sport; long legs and stronger body will do that. Now that her peers have caught up to her she is needing to practice in order to maintain the skill. That isn't easy and she doesn't like that. It is a daily challenge.

She is vastly improving though. Grades are all A's and B's and there is progress. It is slow and she can be taxing on the nerves when she is being a teenager. We will get there, but I can see that my wife and I made the right choice by not having kids. We do enjoy having her with us and we do find the satisfaction in watching her find success, but I believe that having kids would have driven us apart early in our relationship.

Rwwilli · Jul 9, 2020

For the next couple of months through this COVID mess and being trapped in the house the tank does wonderfully. We found a awesome new fish store that does weekly live auctions and those have be a good source of cheap(er) corals.

Woke up one morning to a reef tank that sounded weird. The overflow had lost suction and the tank was about to overflow. Quickly remedied the problem, but this cause worry to set in. What if we weren't home..what if...what if. I had been toying with the idea of moving to a slightly larger tank with more lateral swim room. I also wanted to reuse most if not all my current equipment. Another trip to the LFS and we found a 90 gallon starfire glass tank and matching stand. I sanded the stand and our niece stained and sealed the wood work all by herself this time. (Maybe a little guidance here and there, but she made us both proud) She really took her time and did a very good job.

New hybrid T5 setup just came in yesterday. We will use the G4 and the T5 over the new tank. It has been up and running since last Friday. I will continue to update as we move along with the new water cage.