icsparks
Community Member
After a 9 year break from the hobby I finely got my nerve back to try again.
My last experience with a reef aquarium turned into a nightmare when a freak ice storm knocked out my power for 5 days in the early spring of 2005. With that said, I lost everything in my 180 gal mixed reef. I had worked so hard and dumped so much money into it that the thought of starting over at that time was unbearable. With a broken heart and a lump in my throat I sold the tank and equipment and tried to never look back, well that is until now.
Moving forward, I just purchased a used 155 gal bow- front reef ready aquarium with stand, and canopy. My thoughts this time around are a little different. Although at first I just wanted to get my feet wet again with a FOWLR set up, but the more I think about my wants I don’t think I would be completely happy without having some softies to inhabit the tank, so I’m thinking more on a mixed reef- the sps. I was successful back in the day keeping all types of fish, coral and invertebrates plus I had every piece of equipment under the sun needed to help maintain the tank. Some of that equipment worked great and some was a constant pain to maintain. Now, that I have gotten a little older and I hope a little wiser I would like to spend my money on “reefer proven equipment†that works, verses equipment with adds that claim it’s the best and doesn’t even come close to a lower priced reefer proven knockoff. I’m sure most of you all have been down that road a few times with high priced less than adequate equipment.
As I do this build I will be asking many questions about setup, equipment and asking your general opinions and ideas to help me make cost effective and reasonable decisions to be successful. I know that over the past nine years I have forgotten even some of the basics of reef keeping and have some catching up to do. Please bear with me, as I travel down this exciting road again.
My last experience with a reef aquarium turned into a nightmare when a freak ice storm knocked out my power for 5 days in the early spring of 2005. With that said, I lost everything in my 180 gal mixed reef. I had worked so hard and dumped so much money into it that the thought of starting over at that time was unbearable. With a broken heart and a lump in my throat I sold the tank and equipment and tried to never look back, well that is until now.
Moving forward, I just purchased a used 155 gal bow- front reef ready aquarium with stand, and canopy. My thoughts this time around are a little different. Although at first I just wanted to get my feet wet again with a FOWLR set up, but the more I think about my wants I don’t think I would be completely happy without having some softies to inhabit the tank, so I’m thinking more on a mixed reef- the sps. I was successful back in the day keeping all types of fish, coral and invertebrates plus I had every piece of equipment under the sun needed to help maintain the tank. Some of that equipment worked great and some was a constant pain to maintain. Now, that I have gotten a little older and I hope a little wiser I would like to spend my money on “reefer proven equipment†that works, verses equipment with adds that claim it’s the best and doesn’t even come close to a lower priced reefer proven knockoff. I’m sure most of you all have been down that road a few times with high priced less than adequate equipment.
As I do this build I will be asking many questions about setup, equipment and asking your general opinions and ideas to help me make cost effective and reasonable decisions to be successful. I know that over the past nine years I have forgotten even some of the basics of reef keeping and have some catching up to do. Please bear with me, as I travel down this exciting road again.
