retareefer
New Member
- Joined
- May 7, 2026
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 21
- Location
- Luling, Texas
- What state or country do you live in
- Texas
So, I picked back up in the hobby after not having had a tank since high school, started with a 2.5 gallon, moved onto a 11.3 gallon and then eventually a 55ish gallon within the span of 6 months.
Welp, the 55 gallon was an old used tank and busted a seam while I was at work, so of course I took the opportunity to upgrade, so here's my adventure with my new 75 gallon.
Here's the 55 before her demise: Up for a bit over a month and just got fish and entering the ugly phase, sump on for a week.
And after her very sad 1am demise(no loss of livestock though!):
So my wife gave me the advice that it is easy to ask for forgiveness instead of permission, so here we are:
Picked up this imagitarium 75 gallon for roughly $100 new, and a stand from a fellow reefer here in Austin who very generously gave it away for free.
Here she is set up with rocks and pumps, I use a seapora 300 HOB overflow. I don't have issues with HOBs and prefer the flexibility over drilling, not looking for convincing on that one. It's worked fantastic, but due to added head height my return pump will need replaced, it's just a little bit slow when maxed out and let's some bubbles accumulate in the siphon tube. It would take a long time to break the siphon but I don't take those chances.
Aaaaaand after a lot moving and getting things settled, the fish are in after being in tub jail for the day. I had to break their tank down at 1am.
I have a tiny little nano light on this bad boy for now, so it will be basically a fowlr with a couple low light softies that will survive until I decide on some budget lights, my nano is mixed reef and I'd like the same here eventually. More live rock is obviously also high on the list.
The stock list as it currently sits:
Black Clown Pair.
Engineer goby pair approximately 2 inches.
Banggai Cardinal x1
Blue Chromis x1
Blue leg hermit x2
Serpent Star x1
Snails in sump jail due to clogging my siphon tube
Pincushion urchin that's eating my nano until my algae is built back up x1
I think eventually a tomini tang is on the list, but not really sure what else I'd like beyond that. Any advice is appreciated
See y'all on the flip!
Welp, the 55 gallon was an old used tank and busted a seam while I was at work, so of course I took the opportunity to upgrade, so here's my adventure with my new 75 gallon.
Here's the 55 before her demise: Up for a bit over a month and just got fish and entering the ugly phase, sump on for a week.
And after her very sad 1am demise(no loss of livestock though!):
So my wife gave me the advice that it is easy to ask for forgiveness instead of permission, so here we are:
Picked up this imagitarium 75 gallon for roughly $100 new, and a stand from a fellow reefer here in Austin who very generously gave it away for free.
Here she is set up with rocks and pumps, I use a seapora 300 HOB overflow. I don't have issues with HOBs and prefer the flexibility over drilling, not looking for convincing on that one. It's worked fantastic, but due to added head height my return pump will need replaced, it's just a little bit slow when maxed out and let's some bubbles accumulate in the siphon tube. It would take a long time to break the siphon but I don't take those chances.
Aaaaaand after a lot moving and getting things settled, the fish are in after being in tub jail for the day. I had to break their tank down at 1am.
I have a tiny little nano light on this bad boy for now, so it will be basically a fowlr with a couple low light softies that will survive until I decide on some budget lights, my nano is mixed reef and I'd like the same here eventually. More live rock is obviously also high on the list.
The stock list as it currently sits:
Black Clown Pair.
Engineer goby pair approximately 2 inches.
Banggai Cardinal x1
Blue Chromis x1
Blue leg hermit x2
Serpent Star x1
Snails in sump jail due to clogging my siphon tube
Pincushion urchin that's eating my nano until my algae is built back up x1
I think eventually a tomini tang is on the list, but not really sure what else I'd like beyond that. Any advice is appreciated
See y'all on the flip!
