KMSReefer
Community Member
I have been lurking here on the forum for a long time but haven't really had a chance to take the time to post along the way. I'm a bit late to the game with this but I figured I should finally get around to posting my build thread.
I have kept fairly detailed records along the way and have tons of pictures. I figure that since the tank is now fairly established and I am at a point where I am happy with the direction it is taking, I will create the thread in a way that highlights the mistakes I made along the way and what I have learned from the process.
To start here is a little bit about me. I got my start in the aquarium hobby while I was in the first year of my undergraduate studies (thanks to a bored friend with a betta fish). This friend would send weekly updates of her fish. As a joke I went to a LFS and picked up a fish myself so that I could reply with my own fish update. I was ensured by an employee that the 2.5 gallon tank would be more than large enough. Once I returned home and had it all set up, I decided to look the fish up. It turned out to be a bumblebee cichlid that would need a much larger tank. I went back to the store to try and return the fish and instead the manager traded me tanks for no extra charge as a show of good faith (29g so still to small but would allow for some grow out time). This led me to explore African cichlids and from there I went on to keeping a planted tank. Being easily bored and stubborn, when I was told cichlids and plants don't mix I decided to try it out. This is the planted cichlid tank I kept before switching over to reefing.
Last September, I moved home before getting married and moved the tank over 300km, half full of water in the trunk of my car(bad idea, I know). My parents, having watched the tank during our honeymoon decided they wanted to keep it. I was getting bored with it by that point and so I decided to set up a reef tank. Below is a picture of my reef tank how it sits now.
I have kept fairly detailed records along the way and have tons of pictures. I figure that since the tank is now fairly established and I am at a point where I am happy with the direction it is taking, I will create the thread in a way that highlights the mistakes I made along the way and what I have learned from the process.
To start here is a little bit about me. I got my start in the aquarium hobby while I was in the first year of my undergraduate studies (thanks to a bored friend with a betta fish). This friend would send weekly updates of her fish. As a joke I went to a LFS and picked up a fish myself so that I could reply with my own fish update. I was ensured by an employee that the 2.5 gallon tank would be more than large enough. Once I returned home and had it all set up, I decided to look the fish up. It turned out to be a bumblebee cichlid that would need a much larger tank. I went back to the store to try and return the fish and instead the manager traded me tanks for no extra charge as a show of good faith (29g so still to small but would allow for some grow out time). This led me to explore African cichlids and from there I went on to keeping a planted tank. Being easily bored and stubborn, when I was told cichlids and plants don't mix I decided to try it out. This is the planted cichlid tank I kept before switching over to reefing.
Last September, I moved home before getting married and moved the tank over 300km, half full of water in the trunk of my car(bad idea, I know). My parents, having watched the tank during our honeymoon decided they wanted to keep it. I was getting bored with it by that point and so I decided to set up a reef tank. Below is a picture of my reef tank how it sits now.
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