Hello from Storrs, Ct.
I work as a Project Mgr. for a control contractor and my wife works in Construction Finance at UCONN. She bought the house in 1994 and it came with the built in 120g tank. I met her in 1996 and we got married in 1997. The tank sat there empty until 2005. We knew nothing about reefing but got lots of help from our LFS, Aquatic Wildlife in Manchester Ct. We filled the tank with well water and 60 pounds of sand and mixed the salt right in the tank. We also bought a couple power heads and used them to keep the water moving.
Over the next 6 months we added an ETSS sump and Protein Skimmer, an Iwaki return pump, a CPR overflow box, A CPR HOB refugium, A Current 72" light fixture with 4 Dual Actinic T8s and 3-300 watt MH lamps and about 100 pounds of live rock and a 5 stage RODI unit. The rock we purchased piece by piece from many different fish stores if we liked the look of the rock. We learned all about the different algae and diatoms a new tank is prone to.
It was about 6 months before we added our first 2 clown fish. the next 5 years went very well. We added many new fish, clams and corals. the tank was looking great.
Along came the first of 2 big storms of 2011. We lost power for 9 days. We did all we could with battery backup and a generator but ended up losing all our livestock. It was heart breaking. We slowly started adding new fish and a few frags when along came the second big storm. We lost power for 10 days. We did much better this time to keep our livestock alive. When the power company connected us back up they single phased out house. My wife said she smelled something burning so I ran to the basement and shut off the main breaker. She called the power company and they said call the fire dept. right away. The Fire dept. went through the entire house with their Fleer Infrared camera and saw just about everything electronic or 120 volt had overheated. We lost out light, IceCap battery backups, return pump a stereo system and microwave oven. Long story short we drained the tank and walked away from reefing.
We decided with all this time on our hands (COVID-19) we would give it another try as much of our old equipment as we can. I was able to repair the return pump and replaced the T8 ballast on the light. The MH will eventually be replaced with new LED fixtures. We are stunned at how much the hobby has advanced in the 9-10 years we've been away.
Anyway that's our story.
Thanks all...
I work as a Project Mgr. for a control contractor and my wife works in Construction Finance at UCONN. She bought the house in 1994 and it came with the built in 120g tank. I met her in 1996 and we got married in 1997. The tank sat there empty until 2005. We knew nothing about reefing but got lots of help from our LFS, Aquatic Wildlife in Manchester Ct. We filled the tank with well water and 60 pounds of sand and mixed the salt right in the tank. We also bought a couple power heads and used them to keep the water moving.
Over the next 6 months we added an ETSS sump and Protein Skimmer, an Iwaki return pump, a CPR overflow box, A CPR HOB refugium, A Current 72" light fixture with 4 Dual Actinic T8s and 3-300 watt MH lamps and about 100 pounds of live rock and a 5 stage RODI unit. The rock we purchased piece by piece from many different fish stores if we liked the look of the rock. We learned all about the different algae and diatoms a new tank is prone to.
It was about 6 months before we added our first 2 clown fish. the next 5 years went very well. We added many new fish, clams and corals. the tank was looking great.
Along came the first of 2 big storms of 2011. We lost power for 9 days. We did all we could with battery backup and a generator but ended up losing all our livestock. It was heart breaking. We slowly started adding new fish and a few frags when along came the second big storm. We lost power for 10 days. We did much better this time to keep our livestock alive. When the power company connected us back up they single phased out house. My wife said she smelled something burning so I ran to the basement and shut off the main breaker. She called the power company and they said call the fire dept. right away. The Fire dept. went through the entire house with their Fleer Infrared camera and saw just about everything electronic or 120 volt had overheated. We lost out light, IceCap battery backups, return pump a stereo system and microwave oven. Long story short we drained the tank and walked away from reefing.
We decided with all this time on our hands (COVID-19) we would give it another try as much of our old equipment as we can. I was able to repair the return pump and replaced the T8 ballast on the light. The MH will eventually be replaced with new LED fixtures. We are stunned at how much the hobby has advanced in the 9-10 years we've been away.
Anyway that's our story.
Thanks all...
