Long story short.. at least I will try.
I was reefing 15 years ago, 240G tank in the same spot my new ice cream container sized 65G will go.
A poor beaten man starting again in the shadows of greatness.
Last tank was run by a PLC with ATO, AWC using NSW. I used sensors hooked up to the home alarm zone 4 & 5 to monitor the tank sump level low and sump level high (pump off) and temp. The alarm company would ring me to say when those zones went off, it happened a couple of times when power went off, and saved my bacon. One outage was for 3 days.... After all we paid them to monitor all the zones on the house so there was no extra cost. No tank control systems in those days! I like to think I was ahead of the game...
The killer was the sump, stupidly (excitedly originally) mounted under the house where the wind blows hard in winter, Auckland NZ get to 0 to -2C in winter and no amount of insulation could stop $800 power bills as the army of heaters ran hard. Add new kids, 9.0% interest rates and my hobby was domed. I lasted 5 yrs but when i needed to upgrade equipment kids **** won. So tank went and a couple of book cases were installed.
To be honest it was a relief for the tank to go, no more worry, a weight was lifted. People under estimate the responsibly a reef tank creates.
But I look back fondly like when the misses looked good after 2 beers... not 12..Lol. My Fav fish was a massive ****** trigger, he was the man. Tank was LPS with a huge anemone being centre stage. No idea what it was, funny thing it just grew and never split. Test water nope... only salt level and MH's... like 4 x 250's. The wife loved the fish, hated that power bill!
Fast forward 2021... Can I have a new tank, NO.
So we start small and carry on and on and on until they give in.
What the F#ck it a tiny little tank, not like the last one....might get those ***** teenagers to lift their heeds from their phones.
So I win, like I do... enough time for pictures!
Stage one... wooden stand, and i m no wood worker, hated building this thing. Wood is expensive here even though it grows like a weed, all exported so we have to pay export prices!
Big wall, small tank... How we are a shadow of our once great self.
You can see the holes in the wall from the last overflow heading down to the sump chiller.
I was reefing 15 years ago, 240G tank in the same spot my new ice cream container sized 65G will go.
A poor beaten man starting again in the shadows of greatness.
Last tank was run by a PLC with ATO, AWC using NSW. I used sensors hooked up to the home alarm zone 4 & 5 to monitor the tank sump level low and sump level high (pump off) and temp. The alarm company would ring me to say when those zones went off, it happened a couple of times when power went off, and saved my bacon. One outage was for 3 days.... After all we paid them to monitor all the zones on the house so there was no extra cost. No tank control systems in those days! I like to think I was ahead of the game...
The killer was the sump, stupidly (excitedly originally) mounted under the house where the wind blows hard in winter, Auckland NZ get to 0 to -2C in winter and no amount of insulation could stop $800 power bills as the army of heaters ran hard. Add new kids, 9.0% interest rates and my hobby was domed. I lasted 5 yrs but when i needed to upgrade equipment kids **** won. So tank went and a couple of book cases were installed.
To be honest it was a relief for the tank to go, no more worry, a weight was lifted. People under estimate the responsibly a reef tank creates.
But I look back fondly like when the misses looked good after 2 beers... not 12..Lol. My Fav fish was a massive ****** trigger, he was the man. Tank was LPS with a huge anemone being centre stage. No idea what it was, funny thing it just grew and never split. Test water nope... only salt level and MH's... like 4 x 250's. The wife loved the fish, hated that power bill!
Fast forward 2021... Can I have a new tank, NO.
So we start small and carry on and on and on until they give in.
What the F#ck it a tiny little tank, not like the last one....might get those ***** teenagers to lift their heeds from their phones.
So I win, like I do... enough time for pictures!
Stage one... wooden stand, and i m no wood worker, hated building this thing. Wood is expensive here even though it grows like a weed, all exported so we have to pay export prices!
Big wall, small tank... How we are a shadow of our once great self.
You can see the holes in the wall from the last overflow heading down to the sump chiller.