As many of us have had an interesting/ troubling start to 2020, we all deal with stress and hardship differently. I for one do what most people would never dream of, spend money, and find a challenging hobby to distract me from "reality".
As far back as I can remember my father had kept cichlids, and that hobby has continued on with me. I have a fairly established 60 gallon African cichlid tank for going on about 7-8 years now, with a few fish being 6-7 years old. Like most things I do, I go overboard and it has waaaaay to much filtration, but these little duuudes make one heck of a mess.
I have always dreamed of having saltwater, but was afraid of failure, and the cost. Well if 2020 has shown me anything, its to throw all things out the window and go for it.
In comes countless hours of research( as I was furloughed at the time), internal debate about spending money I really shouldn't during this time, but who am I to kid, its just money, and maybe this little tiny piece of the ocean could bring me some joy and entertainment.
So sticking on a budget ( or so I thought ) I made the decision, that an AIO would be my best option. Its got everything you need in one small convenient package, RIGHT???? Being semi limited on space, as the 60 gallon tank is in my living room. I convinced myself that my new " room light" as I sold it to myself would be the FLUVAL EVO 13.5 which would fit perfectly onto my dresser. I mean how much money can you spend in a 13 gallon tank??? That following week I picked one up from my LFS along with some live rock, water, and live sand. Which timed perfectly with my upcoming shipments from amazon/ bulk reef supply, and other vendors... Refactometer, upraded sicce 1.0, random wave generator, dr tims, hipargero upgraded led,red sea test kit, cobalt heater, ( who said what about a budget).. I was in, even more than I realized. Hunting on local facebook groups and craigslist at all hours of the night. I scored battery backups( as living in Florida we lose power all the time), a brand new jeabo pp4 and new aqua auto smart ato.... SOOO this budget thing is kind of out the window, but my tank was up and running, seemingly cycling fairly quickly, and on my way to my little slice of reef heaven.
Then the real trouble starts, I find YOU... with all your help and advice which seemed great. So im researching, and learning and reading... lots of reading.. learning a lot about patience, "take your time MQG", nothing in this hobby comes quickly I keep reading, take your time...... dangit a live sale from top shelf aquatics tomorrow.. WELP I was in, and I may have spent the batter part of that weekend scrambling to refresh my phone/ computer screen to snatch up my first corals. I purchased some things I shouldn't have with such a young tank, but so far so good. I am testing daily, and seemingly all things are going well. My fingers are crossed, testing regular, and my hopes are currently high.
I have already learned a ton from this forum, I know there will be plenty of mistakes, and questions( mostly just lurk and read), but hope I can update this in the near future with lots of pictures of my success, and at times my failures.
Thanks for all the knowledge, please keep posting things that make my reef journey easier.
P.S I did say battery backups earlier.... and may have also bought a 20L as a frag setup, and found a kessil 350 on craiglist for $100-------- dangit
HELLO,
MY NAME IS MQG AND I APPARENTLY ALREADY HAVE A PROBLEM........
As far back as I can remember my father had kept cichlids, and that hobby has continued on with me. I have a fairly established 60 gallon African cichlid tank for going on about 7-8 years now, with a few fish being 6-7 years old. Like most things I do, I go overboard and it has waaaaay to much filtration, but these little duuudes make one heck of a mess.
I have always dreamed of having saltwater, but was afraid of failure, and the cost. Well if 2020 has shown me anything, its to throw all things out the window and go for it.
In comes countless hours of research( as I was furloughed at the time), internal debate about spending money I really shouldn't during this time, but who am I to kid, its just money, and maybe this little tiny piece of the ocean could bring me some joy and entertainment.
So sticking on a budget ( or so I thought ) I made the decision, that an AIO would be my best option. Its got everything you need in one small convenient package, RIGHT???? Being semi limited on space, as the 60 gallon tank is in my living room. I convinced myself that my new " room light" as I sold it to myself would be the FLUVAL EVO 13.5 which would fit perfectly onto my dresser. I mean how much money can you spend in a 13 gallon tank??? That following week I picked one up from my LFS along with some live rock, water, and live sand. Which timed perfectly with my upcoming shipments from amazon/ bulk reef supply, and other vendors... Refactometer, upraded sicce 1.0, random wave generator, dr tims, hipargero upgraded led,red sea test kit, cobalt heater, ( who said what about a budget).. I was in, even more than I realized. Hunting on local facebook groups and craigslist at all hours of the night. I scored battery backups( as living in Florida we lose power all the time), a brand new jeabo pp4 and new aqua auto smart ato.... SOOO this budget thing is kind of out the window, but my tank was up and running, seemingly cycling fairly quickly, and on my way to my little slice of reef heaven.
Then the real trouble starts, I find YOU... with all your help and advice which seemed great. So im researching, and learning and reading... lots of reading.. learning a lot about patience, "take your time MQG", nothing in this hobby comes quickly I keep reading, take your time...... dangit a live sale from top shelf aquatics tomorrow.. WELP I was in, and I may have spent the batter part of that weekend scrambling to refresh my phone/ computer screen to snatch up my first corals. I purchased some things I shouldn't have with such a young tank, but so far so good. I am testing daily, and seemingly all things are going well. My fingers are crossed, testing regular, and my hopes are currently high.
I have already learned a ton from this forum, I know there will be plenty of mistakes, and questions( mostly just lurk and read), but hope I can update this in the near future with lots of pictures of my success, and at times my failures.
Thanks for all the knowledge, please keep posting things that make my reef journey easier.
P.S I did say battery backups earlier.... and may have also bought a 20L as a frag setup, and found a kessil 350 on craiglist for $100-------- dangit
HELLO,
MY NAME IS MQG AND I APPARENTLY ALREADY HAVE A PROBLEM........
