The Life Aquatic
Community Member
Hi all! Getting back int the hobby after 10+ years. I'll give a bit of a backstory but hopefully not too much to bore anyone. I've convinced myself this is a terrible idea, but I'm doing it anyways!
I got into reefing around 2003. Earlier today I spent quite a bit of time trying to get into my ReefCentral account (registered 2004, last logged in 2013) only to find it's pretty dead over there and this seems like the new place to be!
I was in highschool at the time and got very serious about fish keeping. So much that I took a part time job at a LFS largely for spending money that went right back to the store (employee discount was great though).
My reef was a 65g reef with a 50g refugium, before they were all the rage. I started with LPS and softies (don't we all?) and went through a phase of keeping a pair of Rhinopias in the tank. I had to taper off quite a bit when I left for college in 2006 (school was 4 hours from home, and I would only come home maybe once every 1-2 months) and left the tank primarily in the hands of my parents and younger brother...it went from "thriving" to "surviving" but it's all I could ask for. I'm convinced the large fuge is what kept the tank going with barely any real maintenance for months at a time.
Circa 2010 I came back and was living an hour from home in an apartment so couldn't really take the tank with me. Tank was doing better but never what it was. A few LPS really took over the tank and it really wasn't getting the care it needed. Then in 2013 I packed up and moved across the country and broke down the tanks. Kills me in hindsight to look at my old "for sale" postings...sold off Fiji Branch, Marshall Island, etc. Live Rock that was in my tank for 5+ years for $2/lbs.
Over the past 10 years out here in California I've always missed my old hobby. I'd window-shop LiveAquaria Diver's Den etc. always thinking "should I?" but I moved around a lot still (8 homes in 10 years) and couldn't convince myself to do it. 2 years ago I bought a house, so I have the space now, and even though there's still a chance I may need to relocate at some point I decide to stop making excuses and jump back in! It was always a "goal" of mine as a kid (highschool me) to have a big tank and do it right, so after much deliberation I pulled the trigger on a custom 84 x 24 x 20 acrylic and will spare few expenses within doing this the right way (buy the wallet is telling met to try and phase it out at least...). I figured what better way to celebrate a remodel with brand new hardwood floors than to put 180g+ of saltwater over them (my parents would probably call it karma if anything happened, as teenage-me flooded their basement no less than 3 times). Note I also live in Earthquake country, which was another "maybe this is a bad idea" but I decided to give it my best shot to make this as quake-resistant as possible (nothing is quake proof, but large footprint acrylic should give me a better chance...or at least that's what I told myself). I'll do a build thread as things start coming in!
I've spent countless hours on research the past few weeks. It's amazing how much has changed (no more imported live rock?!? I guess it's for the best) but also how much has stayed the same. I will say, the level of sophistication seems to have gone up, which was a tad intimidating but also very cool to see the advancements.
Anyways, I dug up some old photos from RC. I lost all my photos of 5+ years of tanks when I lost my old digital camera and harddrives (no cloud back then) so it was nice to find a few pics even if they are crap and missing in-between years of growth. Nothing says early 2000s like low quality photo-bucket pics!
I got into reefing around 2003. Earlier today I spent quite a bit of time trying to get into my ReefCentral account (registered 2004, last logged in 2013) only to find it's pretty dead over there and this seems like the new place to be!
I was in highschool at the time and got very serious about fish keeping. So much that I took a part time job at a LFS largely for spending money that went right back to the store (employee discount was great though).
My reef was a 65g reef with a 50g refugium, before they were all the rage. I started with LPS and softies (don't we all?) and went through a phase of keeping a pair of Rhinopias in the tank. I had to taper off quite a bit when I left for college in 2006 (school was 4 hours from home, and I would only come home maybe once every 1-2 months) and left the tank primarily in the hands of my parents and younger brother...it went from "thriving" to "surviving" but it's all I could ask for. I'm convinced the large fuge is what kept the tank going with barely any real maintenance for months at a time.
Circa 2010 I came back and was living an hour from home in an apartment so couldn't really take the tank with me. Tank was doing better but never what it was. A few LPS really took over the tank and it really wasn't getting the care it needed. Then in 2013 I packed up and moved across the country and broke down the tanks. Kills me in hindsight to look at my old "for sale" postings...sold off Fiji Branch, Marshall Island, etc. Live Rock that was in my tank for 5+ years for $2/lbs.
Over the past 10 years out here in California I've always missed my old hobby. I'd window-shop LiveAquaria Diver's Den etc. always thinking "should I?" but I moved around a lot still (8 homes in 10 years) and couldn't convince myself to do it. 2 years ago I bought a house, so I have the space now, and even though there's still a chance I may need to relocate at some point I decide to stop making excuses and jump back in! It was always a "goal" of mine as a kid (highschool me) to have a big tank and do it right, so after much deliberation I pulled the trigger on a custom 84 x 24 x 20 acrylic and will spare few expenses within doing this the right way (buy the wallet is telling met to try and phase it out at least...). I figured what better way to celebrate a remodel with brand new hardwood floors than to put 180g+ of saltwater over them (my parents would probably call it karma if anything happened, as teenage-me flooded their basement no less than 3 times). Note I also live in Earthquake country, which was another "maybe this is a bad idea" but I decided to give it my best shot to make this as quake-resistant as possible (nothing is quake proof, but large footprint acrylic should give me a better chance...or at least that's what I told myself). I'll do a build thread as things start coming in!
I've spent countless hours on research the past few weeks. It's amazing how much has changed (no more imported live rock?!? I guess it's for the best) but also how much has stayed the same. I will say, the level of sophistication seems to have gone up, which was a tad intimidating but also very cool to see the advancements.
Anyways, I dug up some old photos from RC. I lost all my photos of 5+ years of tanks when I lost my old digital camera and harddrives (no cloud back then) so it was nice to find a few pics even if they are crap and missing in-between years of growth. Nothing says early 2000s like low quality photo-bucket pics!
