Well sort of. 
I must admit I always loved the idea of a reef tank but had the common sense to realize that with a 3 and 4 year old and an above average maintenance house it was a very poor time to consider it. I also don't like the idea of leaving town with something as potentially sensitive as a fully developed reef tank just waiting to have a disaster without you.
I was content to just go scuba diving.
My wife has had a life long dream to have a saltwater tank and the first I learned of any serious shopping on her part was when I was required to haul in from her car what I would guess was upwards of $1500 in stuff for a reef ready 75 gallon tank and sump and pumps and sand and rocks and led light and an rodi system and so forth.
I told her flat out I knew what she was getting into even if she didn't and she was on her own.
As expected that lasted a whole 5 minutes before I had to basically put it together and do all the plumbing for her while she dictated how everything was going to go and decided how the tank would be set up.
I have to give her credit for learning to do all the water checks and going through the cycling herself thanks to help from the really good LFS about an hour and a half away in MN.
She bought two clownfish which seemed a good start. But then before I had a chance to do my anal retentive level of research on any further purchases she decided to buy a whole bunch more and got some rather messed up fish advice I think from one of the lesser experienced people at the store (who also sold her two WAY too big wave makers).
Now in addition to the 2 clownfish there are 5 azure damsels (too many in my opinion) and 2 blue spotted/yellow watchman gobis (have to double check which) which would have been possibly one too many except by some bit of dumb luck they decided they like each other and both live in the same hole under some porous rock despite there being many other hiding spots available.
He also threw in a GSP frag with the fish and I took that off the little bit of floor tile with a razor blade and glued it to the in tank corner overflow where I can keep it under control.
With living things involved I can't really back out now and I do enjoy watching them.
So now I am doing a crash course in the fine details of everything.
Little irritated by how many completely contradictory answers there are for everything. For a hobby that is so scientific there seems to be a lack of solid facts to go on for a great many things.
So far I traded the 2 way too big wave maker/power heads in for the next size down and without coral to get in the way even those are a bit too big because if I use the random setting when they throttle up I get rolling sand dunes and fish working their tails off. I have them set on the lowest continuous power (30%) and that has created dunes no matter where I point them but they seem to be stable dunes now despite pretty good current almost everywhere. I will dedicate a thread with pictures to that issue at another time.
My current top issue is the brown something bloom that is the reason for a microscope on the way so I can definitively determine whether its diatoms or dino. That may get its own thread after the microscope ID gets done. If its not the lighting or overfeeding that caused it, its because the water with crud in it that the fish came in got dumped into the display tank (no QT and some issues getting the gobis out).
Then I have to figure out if the massive LED bar across the tank needs its settings fiddled with.
I'm sure eventually all the issues will get worked out.
Sorry no pics, its 1AM and I would have to blast white light (currently full dark) to get any kind of not blue pictures. Maybe later if someone wants them.
I must admit I always loved the idea of a reef tank but had the common sense to realize that with a 3 and 4 year old and an above average maintenance house it was a very poor time to consider it. I also don't like the idea of leaving town with something as potentially sensitive as a fully developed reef tank just waiting to have a disaster without you.
I was content to just go scuba diving.
My wife has had a life long dream to have a saltwater tank and the first I learned of any serious shopping on her part was when I was required to haul in from her car what I would guess was upwards of $1500 in stuff for a reef ready 75 gallon tank and sump and pumps and sand and rocks and led light and an rodi system and so forth.
I told her flat out I knew what she was getting into even if she didn't and she was on her own.
As expected that lasted a whole 5 minutes before I had to basically put it together and do all the plumbing for her while she dictated how everything was going to go and decided how the tank would be set up.
I have to give her credit for learning to do all the water checks and going through the cycling herself thanks to help from the really good LFS about an hour and a half away in MN.
She bought two clownfish which seemed a good start. But then before I had a chance to do my anal retentive level of research on any further purchases she decided to buy a whole bunch more and got some rather messed up fish advice I think from one of the lesser experienced people at the store (who also sold her two WAY too big wave makers).
Now in addition to the 2 clownfish there are 5 azure damsels (too many in my opinion) and 2 blue spotted/yellow watchman gobis (have to double check which) which would have been possibly one too many except by some bit of dumb luck they decided they like each other and both live in the same hole under some porous rock despite there being many other hiding spots available.
He also threw in a GSP frag with the fish and I took that off the little bit of floor tile with a razor blade and glued it to the in tank corner overflow where I can keep it under control.
With living things involved I can't really back out now and I do enjoy watching them.
So now I am doing a crash course in the fine details of everything.
Little irritated by how many completely contradictory answers there are for everything. For a hobby that is so scientific there seems to be a lack of solid facts to go on for a great many things.
So far I traded the 2 way too big wave maker/power heads in for the next size down and without coral to get in the way even those are a bit too big because if I use the random setting when they throttle up I get rolling sand dunes and fish working their tails off. I have them set on the lowest continuous power (30%) and that has created dunes no matter where I point them but they seem to be stable dunes now despite pretty good current almost everywhere. I will dedicate a thread with pictures to that issue at another time.
My current top issue is the brown something bloom that is the reason for a microscope on the way so I can definitively determine whether its diatoms or dino. That may get its own thread after the microscope ID gets done. If its not the lighting or overfeeding that caused it, its because the water with crud in it that the fish came in got dumped into the display tank (no QT and some issues getting the gobis out).
Then I have to figure out if the massive LED bar across the tank needs its settings fiddled with.
I'm sure eventually all the issues will get worked out.
Sorry no pics, its 1AM and I would have to blast white light (currently full dark) to get any kind of not blue pictures. Maybe later if someone wants them.
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