The journey to this tank started years ago. I have my dad to thank for my love of aquariums. I was in 3rd grade when I set up my first tank. A 29 that my dad wasn't using, filled with fresh water, a tadpole, a crayfish, a bluegill and some minnows from the river at the local park.
He always had beautiful freshwater tanks with pretty angelfish and live plants, and I would get lost watching them.
I remember early on having an immense desire to learn everything i could to take care of each species i owned.
As the years went on i moved into tropical freshwater fish and began breeding easy species such as swordtails, guppies, mollies by the time I was 10 or 11.
Ironically about this time my dads passion for fish was coming to an end. And i quickly picked up pace.
In high school I worked for a pet store. Easy access to at cost equipment grew my hobby in aquatics and small animals. I quickly went to saltwater, owned and bred lizards and snakes, birds, and amphibians. My bedroom was wall to wall aquariums and cages.
When I went off to college my mother became the zoo keeper. I was 2 hours away at school and came down on weekends and breaks when I could, but it quickly became apparent my zoo needed to become much smaller.
I set up a 26 gallon bow front reef in my dorm room, and... an extra large Rubbermaid stock tank that housed a shark that I hatched from an egg. I quickly became known as Fish... the name has stuck to today and I answer to Fishy now.
After leaving school the addiction continued and i set up a local reef club, did tank maintenance on the side, and bred some basic saltwater fish like clowns and cardinals. I loved fragging and swapping corals, and had a large system in my garage.
One of my favorite memories was a tour of the facilities of Newport Aquarium in Newport Kentucky shortly after they opened with my reef club. The grand aspirations i had after coming home can't be described.
Most recently I've been out of the hobby, life changes, children, marriage, and divorce have shaped my life, moves and career changes. But I have the itch again.
I find myself looking for a house to buy and one of the deciding factors is how much room do I have for a tank and hopefully a fish room.
I have begun research on my dream build. Or one of them. A custom acrylic mixed reef. The tank will measure 72 inches long, 30 inches wide, and 24 inches deep. Ive already started to purchase equipment and i have an estimate on the tank i designed from glasscages.com. Shout out to @Joe Glass Cages.
So many things have changed since I was in the hobby, the vast amount of information is overwhelming. I hope to provide some insight into my journey in this thread. And hopefully inspire some people to think outside of the box and question what is commonly accepted as mainstream.
I also hope to inspire additional new reefers like my best friend @cmiller5617 who now has the dreaded saltwater virus. She has thrown fuel on the fire by deciding to jump right in and purchase a tank too. Her tank will be what keeps me going until I can set up mine.
This thread will chronicle the QT setup we have, the set up of her 75 gallon reef ready tank featuring her favorite fish a toby puffer and eventually my 225.
Thanks for reading.
He always had beautiful freshwater tanks with pretty angelfish and live plants, and I would get lost watching them.
I remember early on having an immense desire to learn everything i could to take care of each species i owned.
As the years went on i moved into tropical freshwater fish and began breeding easy species such as swordtails, guppies, mollies by the time I was 10 or 11.
Ironically about this time my dads passion for fish was coming to an end. And i quickly picked up pace.
In high school I worked for a pet store. Easy access to at cost equipment grew my hobby in aquatics and small animals. I quickly went to saltwater, owned and bred lizards and snakes, birds, and amphibians. My bedroom was wall to wall aquariums and cages.
When I went off to college my mother became the zoo keeper. I was 2 hours away at school and came down on weekends and breaks when I could, but it quickly became apparent my zoo needed to become much smaller.
I set up a 26 gallon bow front reef in my dorm room, and... an extra large Rubbermaid stock tank that housed a shark that I hatched from an egg. I quickly became known as Fish... the name has stuck to today and I answer to Fishy now.
After leaving school the addiction continued and i set up a local reef club, did tank maintenance on the side, and bred some basic saltwater fish like clowns and cardinals. I loved fragging and swapping corals, and had a large system in my garage.
One of my favorite memories was a tour of the facilities of Newport Aquarium in Newport Kentucky shortly after they opened with my reef club. The grand aspirations i had after coming home can't be described.
Most recently I've been out of the hobby, life changes, children, marriage, and divorce have shaped my life, moves and career changes. But I have the itch again.
I find myself looking for a house to buy and one of the deciding factors is how much room do I have for a tank and hopefully a fish room.
I have begun research on my dream build. Or one of them. A custom acrylic mixed reef. The tank will measure 72 inches long, 30 inches wide, and 24 inches deep. Ive already started to purchase equipment and i have an estimate on the tank i designed from glasscages.com. Shout out to @Joe Glass Cages.
So many things have changed since I was in the hobby, the vast amount of information is overwhelming. I hope to provide some insight into my journey in this thread. And hopefully inspire some people to think outside of the box and question what is commonly accepted as mainstream.
I also hope to inspire additional new reefers like my best friend @cmiller5617 who now has the dreaded saltwater virus. She has thrown fuel on the fire by deciding to jump right in and purchase a tank too. Her tank will be what keeps me going until I can set up mine.
This thread will chronicle the QT setup we have, the set up of her 75 gallon reef ready tank featuring her favorite fish a toby puffer and eventually my 225.
Thanks for reading.
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