I'm finally gonna do it. This will be my build thread. You can all thank R2R for nagging me into it. I guess it was time.
So 20 years ago I had a 180 gallon Glass cages tank with a 55 gallon sump, a 20 long and a 10 that was supposed to be my quarantine tank (but ended up being overflow for extra livestock). Metal Halide lighting with actinic VHO supplement, H&S Skimmer, refugium, pretty much full bore. Life happens, I changed jobs, spent a lot more time away from home and when I was home had other things to do. I could see the tank was suffering from neglect, and eventually I gave away all the livestock except for a few corals I wanted to keep and a clownfish. I shut down everything but the 20 and for YEARS ran nothing but a power filter and T5 lights. Oddly enough, everything thrived, even on water changes that stretched for months in between.
Eventually things changed, kids left home, job got closer to home, and the bug returned. You are now caught up to February of this year.
I startd looking around and MY how things had changed. No one (or very few) people exalting Metal Halide, VHO was non existent, and LED is all the rage. T5 seemed to be an acceptable lighting option for the masses, but LED seems to have taken over. Then I ran accross a BRS (God bless those guys) video on All in One tanks. I researched it (ok, watched Youtube videos) for awhile, then found Reef2Reef. More reading and research, and I decided to go NUVO 40. Big enough to house what I already had with room for growth, small enough to maintain without too much effort. I ordered it from BRS and started building the cabinet.
So 20 years ago I had a 180 gallon Glass cages tank with a 55 gallon sump, a 20 long and a 10 that was supposed to be my quarantine tank (but ended up being overflow for extra livestock). Metal Halide lighting with actinic VHO supplement, H&S Skimmer, refugium, pretty much full bore. Life happens, I changed jobs, spent a lot more time away from home and when I was home had other things to do. I could see the tank was suffering from neglect, and eventually I gave away all the livestock except for a few corals I wanted to keep and a clownfish. I shut down everything but the 20 and for YEARS ran nothing but a power filter and T5 lights. Oddly enough, everything thrived, even on water changes that stretched for months in between.
Eventually things changed, kids left home, job got closer to home, and the bug returned. You are now caught up to February of this year.
I startd looking around and MY how things had changed. No one (or very few) people exalting Metal Halide, VHO was non existent, and LED is all the rage. T5 seemed to be an acceptable lighting option for the masses, but LED seems to have taken over. Then I ran accross a BRS (God bless those guys) video on All in One tanks. I researched it (ok, watched Youtube videos) for awhile, then found Reef2Reef. More reading and research, and I decided to go NUVO 40. Big enough to house what I already had with room for growth, small enough to maintain without too much effort. I ordered it from BRS and started building the cabinet.