GoneReefin
Community Member
I’ve been a lurker here for quite a while and thought I’d finally say hi as I’m starting up my second tank. My first tank is a 55 gallon 4’ Petco special with a Fluval canister filter. For quite a while the tank ran great. Numbers were in check, fish were happy and I even had a half a dozen beginner corals in the tank that were doing great. My biggest mistake was setting up a tank while my wife was pregnant. For the first couple of months after my son was born I was actually able to keep up with the tank. Working from home and having a baby that slept 20 hours a day really helped. Then came month 3 and everything went downhill for a couple of months. I completely neglected my tank. I stopped being careful with my feedings and algae went out of control. Then I had something that infected all of corals and killed them off. If that wasn’t bad enough, I lost my favorite shrimp and another fish. I was devastated, but so freaking tired. Finally my wife and I got into a better groove around month 6 and I started getting the tank back into shape. Religious water changes, glass cleaning, careful feeding and cleaning the canister out once a week again brought the tank back as good as it was going to get. Now my decision is to start building up a cheap 55 gallon tank or step it up and do it the right way.
I’ll be honest, I completely rushed into my first tank. Live rock with live sand for that “instatank”, with minimal research. In the last 1.5 years I’ve spent most of my free time watching BRS videos, talking to others in the community and reading through this forum. Heck I feel like I know a lot of you. Among many mistakes, another was buying a stand that wouldn’t fit a sump. In the first 6 months of my tank I added 2 Kessil lights and 2 MP40s - I was buying for my next tank after studying up a bit.
Enter the Red Sea Reefer 350 G2. I looked at quite a few manufactures and landed on the 350 G2 mostly based on the size. I even looked at going completely custom but that adds up really fast. It fits perfectly in the entry way of my house which is right outside of my home office. I know this is probably blasphemy, but I don’t need a huge tank. I want to grow out a maintainable reef for me and my family to enjoy. I may create a build thread, but it’s mostly going to be a pretty basic tank. My goal is a healthy tank for my fish and coral along with making maintenance as easy as possible. Just today I got a quote to add a slop sink in my garage (which backs up to my tank) so I can automate water changes. Now I just need to decide if I can swallow a 3k job just to get running water in my garage.
My other big mistake with my first tank was rushing (I know I’m not alone here). My new tank has dry rock with my first attempt at a negative space aquaspace. I’m really happy with that as well. I’m going to take my time on this one. I’m curing the rocks now for about a week to make sure they aren’t leaching and I will start a fishless cycle followed by months with no lights. I’ll add some fish along the way while getting ready for coral. Anyway, it’s good to be here. Here’s a couple of pics of my tank as it stands today.
I’ll be honest, I completely rushed into my first tank. Live rock with live sand for that “instatank”, with minimal research. In the last 1.5 years I’ve spent most of my free time watching BRS videos, talking to others in the community and reading through this forum. Heck I feel like I know a lot of you. Among many mistakes, another was buying a stand that wouldn’t fit a sump. In the first 6 months of my tank I added 2 Kessil lights and 2 MP40s - I was buying for my next tank after studying up a bit.
Enter the Red Sea Reefer 350 G2. I looked at quite a few manufactures and landed on the 350 G2 mostly based on the size. I even looked at going completely custom but that adds up really fast. It fits perfectly in the entry way of my house which is right outside of my home office. I know this is probably blasphemy, but I don’t need a huge tank. I want to grow out a maintainable reef for me and my family to enjoy. I may create a build thread, but it’s mostly going to be a pretty basic tank. My goal is a healthy tank for my fish and coral along with making maintenance as easy as possible. Just today I got a quote to add a slop sink in my garage (which backs up to my tank) so I can automate water changes. Now I just need to decide if I can swallow a 3k job just to get running water in my garage.
My other big mistake with my first tank was rushing (I know I’m not alone here). My new tank has dry rock with my first attempt at a negative space aquaspace. I’m really happy with that as well. I’m going to take my time on this one. I’m curing the rocks now for about a week to make sure they aren’t leaching and I will start a fishless cycle followed by months with no lights. I’ll add some fish along the way while getting ready for coral. Anyway, it’s good to be here. Here’s a couple of pics of my tank as it stands today.
