Welcome to R2RHello! I'm a small business owner who also employs my husband full time. We work great together, but recently someone asked what we talked about if it wasn't work related or family related. Ouch. Neither one of us had much of an answer.
I had turned my hobby into a business and like many small business owners during covid, we were working more than ever and needed to reconnect and find something that was outside of work and family responsibilities. Although the kids are pretty interested in this new hobby of ours!
We bit the bullet and ordered our tank this weekend (Thanksgiving 2021). We ordered through our local fish/pet store who is very close by. They have a couple of pretty knowledgeable salt water folks that work there and one of them has been very helpful. I already had been reading here and following the brs guys plus a few others. (Research that helped me reel in the hours I usually would spend working too late!) So it was nice to be able to be on the same page with most of his recommendations, and know when I wanted something different.
We knew we could get help from them in person, but also knew we wouldn't be buying much(any?) in the way of corals, fish, or even CUC from them as their tanks are in pretty rough condition. Lots of algae, aptasia, gunk on plugs, in the tanks. We have yet to visit a few other fish shops that are further away....I hope that's not typical. (Guy said he needed a lot of that for the file fish, etc to eat...) So it felt good to be able to give them our business for the equipment at least.
Tank might arrive tomorrow, so we're pretty excited. Hubby is a gadget guy, fixes things, very handy. I love mixing colors and shapes, and all things biology/farming/animals so we think there's a good mix of things in this hobby to chat about and do. Heck, we're the type to go to Lowes on a infrequent date night.... A visit to a fish store or show could be downright amazing!
Getting a 65 gal jbj aio. Rodi unit is on order. He's ridiculously excited to get that installed! He wants "corals that swish" so I'm looking at mostly softies and LPS. Having to remind him that it will be a while before we get any corals. Kinda proud of my 12 year old (the youngest), he has declared we need black and white clown fish. No Nemo for him.
We're in Virginia, so it was nice to see two recent introductions from folks in Virginia. A bit nervous about the expense and possibility of failure, reef death, etc. But as my user name says, I gotta get a life! (User name same as my new instagram handle where I finally set up a personal account instead of just a business account) I have to admit, getting my mind off the business in the evening is helping me to focus better when I am at work, so there's that.
Looking forward to learning a lot and getting reefy with my hubby.
