Christian's Overstocked AP 24

reefer916 · Mar 7, 2011

Christian's Now Overstocked 45 Oceanic Wonderland

Hi everyone,

This is my son Christian's 24 gallon Aquapod that we bought used almost 2 years ago. Christian will be 4 in June and has been an avid reefer, since his 1st birthday. The funny thing is I never wanted a saltwater fishtank and my wife forced me to get Christian one for his 1st birthday because her Dad had a 50 gallon Fish only. Now he has a Mixed reef and we now have a 95,24,45, and 12 gallon mixed reefs, but this is probably one of our nicest.

Our 45 gallon Oceanic Tech tank is almost ready to transfer his corals and fish. Please let him know what you think about his tank. He loves positive feedback and looks forward to his 45 gallon. His little brother Cameron will be taking over the 24 gallon:)

24 gallon Aquapod
MP10ES
Phosban reactor with Chemi-Pure Elite
Water changes 3x4 gallons weekly with Reef Crystals
Daily dosing of 2-Parts Bi-Ionic
Skimmerless

Fish: Pair of Clowns
Corals: Too many to list, but over 70 different named corals. I think:)

Thanks for looking and any feedback is appreciated..

bkoppes · Mar 7, 2011

WOW!!! Christian has expensive taste in coral's for a 4 yr old and solid reefing skills. Very impressive tank!!

reefer916 · Mar 7, 2011

Looking at the pics I should have probably cleaned the sandbed and I need a new camera...lol

I forgot to mention our feeding schedule. We feed the chalices 2-3x per week Mysis and Cyclopeeze. The corals are fed daily with about 10-15 drops of Oyster and Phytofeast, along with 10 drops of Brightwells Coral Aminos. We're probably going to cut back on the Amino's because it causes diatoms to grow on the sandbed. Anyways, thanks for looking...

reefer916 · Mar 7, 2011

bkoppes said:
WOW!!! Christian has expensive taste in coral's for a 4 yr old and solid reefing skills. Very impressive tank!!

Thanks bkoppes,

Yeah, he definitely does have expensive taste. Although the addiction has definitely hit me:) Fortunately, his Mom keeps us under control, but what can I say. It's a great hobby for him to learn about chemistry, biology, oceanography, and responsibility.

boehm742 · Mar 7, 2011

WOW! That looks fantastic, Great work both of you! What your doing is great!

skinz78 · Mar 7, 2011

WOW awesome looking little tank, it looks way bigger than it actually is! Keep the pic's coming!

reefer916 · Mar 7, 2011

Thanks guys, I'll share your comments with Christian when I get home from work. We actually picked up another Bazooka Joe colony and a nice 6 eye frag of Original Mummy Eye yesterday. I'll post some pics later this afternoon:)

It's definitely a great hobby for both of us and I'm now teaching Christian about budgeting and investing. Although I could hardly say that this hobby is profitable, but it's a good lesson for him. It's more of a long term investment of education and time spent with his Dad:) One fairly new aspect is that we purchase named corals from reefers getting out of the hobby, taking a break, and shop around on Craigslist and the forums. We'll look for great deals purchasing corals or collections for 5%-20% of retail prices, but not low balling people and usually paying what they ask. I will even recommend that they frag them and sell the corals because they could recoupe a lot more money, but most prefer to just sell their collections rather than spend the extra time.

We'll then take frags from some of the corals and sell them to local reefers at a deep discount, but maintaining profitability. We'll sometimes ship and he will help prep the corals and packages for drop off at FedEX. Christian collects the money and divides it 50/50 and I shop around for the next one for us to review. For example, Chris (DakotasReef) sold us a 35-40 polyp colony of Nightmares for $175 and we discussed the profitablility of selling the polyps for $20 and keeping 20 of them for our collection. All he says is "That sounds like a great deal, so what's the profitability?":) "It's about a 129% return and we get 20 polyps to keep for your tank". Although Christian isn't even 4 yet and he is just starting to grasp money and how it works he's definitely a sharp kid. I also make sure to teach him that we need to keep frags for those reefers who are getting out, just in case they want to come back to the hobby. We also make sure to spend at least 20% of the money at the LFS to support them as well because they also have families to feed. I also tell him that we're helping the natural reefs by fragging aquacultured corals and sharing these wonderful corals with others. I'm hoping to teach him integrity, investing & profitability, saving, working, and seeing results from your labor. Something that most kids learn conceptually at school, but really never have real world experience till much later on.

I know it's a lot for a 3 1/2 year old to comprehend, but I wish I could get 100-300% returns on my clients stock portfolios. It's the old Buy Low and Sell High model, but at least if the coral market tanks we still have a nice tank to look at compared to the stock market..lol As long as he continues to enjoy it I'll support him in everything he wants to do, whether it's monetarily profitable or not it's a great hobby to be in. Thank you for the positive feedback and I'll be sure to share your responses with Christian when I get home. We'll definitely keep the pics coming:)

cmcneil · Mar 7, 2011

awesome little tank your son has there.i have got my stepsons into reefing as well and set them up a 15g cube.they are teenagers but love it.it is good to see you have got your son into the hobby at a very young age,he will be a wealth of knowledge by time he gets to be a teenager.

Captain Nemo · Mar 7, 2011

nice tank!! He does have very expensive taste. LOL!! But it does look great!! Take more pics! Tagging along!

fsu1dolfan · Mar 7, 2011

OMG you need a bummer sticker that says "My kid has a nicer reef than you"

Seriously though it is a great tank and learning experience for the little guy. What an awesome think to share with your son!!

sts04c · Mar 7, 2011

fsu1dolfan said:
OMG you need a bummer sticker that says "My kid has a nicer reef than you"

Seriously though it is a great tank and learning experience for the little guy. What an awesome think to share with your son!!

+1, now there is an idea.

Great tank, better father. Thanks for sharing.

reefer916 · Mar 8, 2011

Thanks everyone for the compliments and I do my best to try and raise my boys to the best of my ability. His Mom actually does most of the work raising them because I work alot, so the time spent with the kids is very valuable to me. This day in age it's so important to be involved with our kids and to teach them work ethic and how to be a good person.

I shared your comments with Christian last night and he loved them. His Mom thought it was cute that he jumped up and down and started dancing with his little brother. His little brother Cameron has a lot to learn about reefing because he's the hyper one of the two. He reminds me of Darla from Finding Nemo..lol

Here are some pics of our new Bazooka Joe colony and Mummy Eye frag we picked up on Sunday. Sorry about the pics because my camera's probably 6 years old..lol I also added pics of Christian's new Oceanic 45 gallon Tech tank that's been up for 2 months now. We're starting to add tester frags and we'll be adding fish this week. The last pic is a 80 BGM colony that we purchased 4 months ago. It originally came with 110 eyes, but we fragged it and sold the frags for $15-$20 an eye. This will be put in Christian's 45 gallon as one of the centerpieces.

Thank you again for the kind words and encouraging a little reefer. It's awesome being a Dad and watching the pure joy from a little boy, but also teaching him things in a fun way.

His favorite thing is when we sell frags and local reefers swing by to check out his tank or anytime guest come over he says "Do you want to see my fishtank?" It's funny to see peoples reactions because they're usually expecting a gold fish tank:)

By the way, I love the bumper sticker idea:) I just don't want his head to get too big..haha

Chris

Reed639 · Mar 13, 2011

Very Nice Tank!
You have a good variety of corals.
Keep Up The Good Work!!

JaysonMR · Mar 13, 2011

awesome thanks, nice pictures and corals.

akabryanhall · Mar 13, 2011

Man o man, at 4 years old, he is quite the accomplished reefer. I hope my 2 year old can be like that when he's 4!

underwaterfirefighter · Mar 13, 2011

Wow! I'm 10 times his age and my reef doesn't half that nice. Great job Christian! Keep it up Bro!

reefer916 · Mar 17, 2011

Thanks guys, Christian definitely loves his reef:) We just started moving some of the corals over to his new 45 gallon, so we'll be posting more pics soon. I'll share your comments with Christian, when I get home later today.

HomeSlizzice · Mar 19, 2011

WOW that is awesome what you are doing with your son. I don't have kids yet, and won't have them for a while (Hopefully, I'm 17, haha), but when I do I am definitely going to do this with my kids. The tanks look great, and the corals are awesome as well. One suggestion with the 45 tech is that I'd change up the aquascaping. It seems to be just a wall of rocks. I think if you went with a nice pillar, or two or three small bommies, or some type of minimalistic aquascape would open up the tank. It would also give you more viewing areas and places to put corals IMHO.

LiveRock27 · Mar 19, 2011

Great tank and really nice back story to the tank. Christian is a very lucky kid, but I love the fact that you have him involved with every part of this tank.

Sorry if I missed it in an earlier posting, but what lights are you running?

Keep the pictures coming and I am tagging a long.