Giving up was never an option.

[Tahoe61]

Since 1987 I have had a SW tank in one form or another, safe to say it's an obsession. In Jan 2018 I lost both tanks in a devastating fire. The members of R2R and R2R moderators and Rev showed incredible generosity after the event.
While getting our life back to normal David my spouse encouraged me to jump back into the hobby. To my immense surprise and delight an IM 40 showed up at my door (Thank You), so here we go again.

IM Nuvo 40 gallon.
Hamilton Bimini 250 watts of metal halide.
Tunze 6015/475 gph times 2.
Jager 100 watts.
Dry rock.
Live sand.

No skimmer for now, which is just fine. Eventually I will get back to corals, fish plans are Chromis school and a pair of Pink Skunk Clowns.

Tank has been cycling a week now, and I am thrilled to just sit and watch a box of water again.

It's a start.

 

[KJ]

Sweet looking tank Cheryl

 

[jsker]

I like it, that is a sweet tank

 

[sfin52]

Nice looking setup.

 

[hybridazn]

Fantastic!

 

[Rufus’ goofs]

Im happy to see you playing with water again.

I really like you’re aqua scape.

 

[DSC reef]

This is simply awesome!!!! So glad to see another tank started @Tahoe61

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Your tank looks great!

 

[pelphrey]

Welcome back! Did you use halides on the 2 other tanks, or decide to give it a try on the new build?

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome back! Did you use halides on the 2 other tanks, or decide to give it a try on the new build?

Used AI Hydra was not impressed long term, it seems like the light started to fail after 1.5 years intensity wise. I just got sick of messing with it every couple months, never got it dialed in.

Went ATI T5 on the last tank and loved it, no shimmer which I missed but the growth and coloration were awesome.

Used MH on a few tanks in the past and never had an issue with growing Acropora well, it was the heat that concerned me. The price was right for this fixture and I really like the MH look. I really like the way it mounts on the tank as well. Really looking forward to seeing how the corals will react to the 250 watts and the depth of the tank.



Thank you everyone for the checking out this low tech simple system.

 

[kschweer]

Woohooo! Very happy to see a new tank come together! I like the aquascape a lot!

 

[pelphrey]

Used AI Hydra was not impressed long term, it seems like the light started to fail after 1.5 years intensity wise. I just got sick of messing with it every couple months, never got it dialed in.

Went ATI T5 on the last tank and loved it, no shimmer which I missed but the growth and coloration were awesome.

Used MH on a few tanks in the past and never had an issue with growing Acropora well, it was the heat that concerned me. The price was right for this fixture and I really like the MH look. I really like the way it mounts on the tank as well. Really looking forward to seeing how the corals will react to the 250 watts and the depth of the tank.



Thank you everyone for the checking out this low tech simple system.

Thanks for taking the time to explain! Always interesting to hear from past/present halide users and the success!

 

[Fudsey]

Glad you are making a comeback @Tahoe61 ! ! !

Great to see a new build too

 

[ramona]

Very interested in your build; could you elaborate on your cycling strategy please?

 

[iemsparticus]

Yay! This is going to be awesome!

 

[Tahoe61]

Very interested in your build; could you elaborate on your cycling strategy please?

Yay! This is going to be awesome!

It's some what old school.

It's called a soft cycle, you do water change through out the initial cycle. We started doing this when live uncured rock entered the hobby. To preserve the life, sponges, algae and inverts you never let the ammonia get too high, once you see a slight rise in the ammonia cycle you do a water change. I have changed out 15 gallons on this tank in the 1st month. I will admit that this is probably more risky for newer hobbyist and I had my failures before adapting and fine tuning the process. My tank is 1 month old on the April 7th, I have fish and corals and inverts (hermits). I did add bacteria in a bottle and live sand but I would not recommend this method for newer hobbyist. I started cycling tanks to keep seahorses on the 70's so I have an eye for seeing potential issues before loss of live stock.

 

[mike werner]

first let me say I am very sorry to hear of your situation.a house fire is one of everyones biggest fears.i hope life has gotten back to normal or as close as it can after something so devastating.
I love the new tank and the scape.i'm an old school guy as well so that 250watt is a great choice to me.i still have one tank with one and it grows acro's from top to almost bottom.
what bulb did ya go with?the pics turned out great under it.

 

[Tahoe61]

first let me say I am very sorry to hear of your situation.a house fire is one of everyones biggest fears.i hope life has gotten back to normal or as close as it can after something so devastating.
I love the new tank and the scape.i'm an old school guy as well so that 250watt is a great choice to me.i still have one tank with one and it grows acro's from top to almost bottom.
what bulb did ya go with?the pics turned out great under it.

Hi Mike.

Life is getting back to normal faster than I imagined but that is because of the immense support (financial, and friendships and just people being kind).

The bulb is a Hamilton 250 watts, 14 k. I will change it out for a Phoenix DE is a couple months. My other favorite was the Radium but you can not get it in a double ended any longer.

Tomorrow I will post some FTS.

Cheryl

 

[mahindra.dev]

I don’t know anyone in the forum personally, but the forum makes
me feel I know everyone!!

So Sorry about the fire, but as you say giving up is never an option in life. Now, as I read the post 1987, I am saying to myself - your experience in the hobby and my age are the same . Soooo much to learn from the experienced reefers!!! Like soft cycling. I’ve not heard of that before..

Again: Congratulations on moderator of the month.. looking for your FTS. Following along!!!

 

[GoVols]

Life is getting back to normal faster than I imagined but that is because of the immense support (financial, and friendships and just people being kind).

The bulb is a Hamilton 250 watts, 14 k. I will change it out for a Phoenix DE is a couple months. My other favorite was the Radium but you can not get it in a double ended any longer.

Cheryl,
We are so happy that you already have a new setup this soon after the fire. Hope that the other parts of your life are coming together too.

(lol)
;Oldman over here and still miss those 20k MH Radium's too and they sure are magical bulb... ;Drool

From what I can tell those Phoenix bulbs are a great choice and I'm sure they have some great MH shimmer.

Tagging along as you go, Freddie