This thread is a long time coming. I had my first saltwater tank in the late 80s when I was in high school back when you could still buy dead coral skeletons from Pier One Imports. I had a couple other FOWLR tanks up through the mid 90s and up until about 2004, but never ventured into reeefing until I got the bug again about a year and a half ago. I had a few tank/sump overflows due to an old CPR siphon overflow not repriming after power outages on my last tank which was taken down around 2004 when we moved to a different city.
My wife's memories of that last tank were mostly of the wet floors and not the beauty of the tank, so she was not excited about it when I first mentioned setting up a new tank. To help alleviate her fears, I decided to start small this time and ease her in to the idea of having another tank. I set up a 10 gallon back in October of 2017. I could not believe the changes that had taken place in the hobby since my last tank in 2004. Back then, the ETSS downdraft skimmer was all the rage and compact florescents were actually considered a good option for lighting. Anyway, I set up my tank and ran it until it was too full to fit any more livestock. I bought a 40B at a PETCO $1/gallon sale and slowly started picking up gear to build it out. I finally decided the time was right when we planned a vacation that would take me away from my tank for a week. I was still using my old CPR overflow and was terrified it would lose siphon while I was gone, so the first thing I bought for the tank was an Eshopps Eclipse L overflow. I know it's a little big for the 40B, but I wanted to run a Bean Animal overflow and the smaller Eclipse units only have two returns. I managed to get it set up and running a week before we went on vacation. Before I post any pics of the 40B, I will start with some progression pics to show how I got where I am today.
My wife's memories of that last tank were mostly of the wet floors and not the beauty of the tank, so she was not excited about it when I first mentioned setting up a new tank. To help alleviate her fears, I decided to start small this time and ease her in to the idea of having another tank. I set up a 10 gallon back in October of 2017. I could not believe the changes that had taken place in the hobby since my last tank in 2004. Back then, the ETSS downdraft skimmer was all the rage and compact florescents were actually considered a good option for lighting. Anyway, I set up my tank and ran it until it was too full to fit any more livestock. I bought a 40B at a PETCO $1/gallon sale and slowly started picking up gear to build it out. I finally decided the time was right when we planned a vacation that would take me away from my tank for a week. I was still using my old CPR overflow and was terrified it would lose siphon while I was gone, so the first thing I bought for the tank was an Eshopps Eclipse L overflow. I know it's a little big for the 40B, but I wanted to run a Bean Animal overflow and the smaller Eclipse units only have two returns. I managed to get it set up and running a week before we went on vacation. Before I post any pics of the 40B, I will start with some progression pics to show how I got where I am today.
