My build thread

big deddy · May 2, 2018

So im not good at writing stories, but here we go. My adventure in aquariums start some 30 odd years ago. Around 4 years ago we, my wife and two kids" just returned from or yearly beach vacation. At the time i had a 75 gallon African cichlid tank. While looking through some local online classifieds i stumbled into one particular ad. A local college student was moving and was selling all his saltwater stuff. So i talked it over with my wife, and just leaving the beach helped with my argument. So i called this guy and agreed to meet up and see what he had. At this point, i have no idea i would be so in love with this hobby. So i go to this guys house. He has a couple tanks, but main display is i think a 150 tall. So i buy pretty much all of his liverock, livestock, and salt/chemicals. We start immediately changing over from fresh to saltwater. So i started my my " little reef" with his liverock. I added some bacteria in a bottle, and added live sand. Since i added a few dry rock. I dont have pictures of everything, but i have a few along the way. When i originally bought all his stuff, i got a few snails and crabs, couple clowns, and a cucumber. He also threw in a few cheap frags. Most of his good livestock sold before i bought my stuff. I was ok with that because i didnt wanna overload the liverock, sand, and bacteria from the bottle.

big deddy · May 2, 2018

So round 2. We both absolutely loved this saltwater thing. Only thing was that i liked coral better than fish. So we starting buying some frags here and there. Nothing super expensive of demanding. This didnt last long. At this point all i done was research on reef aquariums. So i called the college guy back and said do you still have the other hardware that i said i didnt need? By this i mean skimmer and wave maker and return pump. So i bought the reef octopus skimmer, "with advast neck cleaner" and got it ready for me to build a sump. I bought pretty much everything he had left. So i proceeded to build a sump. I had to look around for what i thought was the best size option for my stand. I settled on what i believe was a 23 gallon long. I had lowes to cut my baffles. Once the baffles were installed, i began plumbing the system.

big deddy · May 2, 2018

So round 3. I then purchased ocean revive leds and an ato from auto top off. My rodi water is stored in a brute trash can. We added a few lps frags, and a few shrooms. Everything was running smoothly and consistently. At this point, we were about a year and some odd months in. We throwed around the idea of getting a anemone. No one local "petco and lfs"had anything that looked healthy so we had all but gave up. Thought of ordering, but didnt know if the nems shipped as good as coral. One day cruising through the online classifieds i found one. Woman about 40 miles from me had a haddoni. We were actually wanting a carpet. So i call her and find out she is selling it because it has eaten pretty much everything she put in with it. I go look at the nem. She told me it was a killer. "It even eats clowns". I told her she should have got clarkii to put in with it. So i bought the haddoni and was on my way. I have lost a few fish to this nem, but i knew and know when i put a fish in it may get eaten..

big deddy · May 2, 2018

Round 4. So now im currently still loving this hobby. I recently bought a 150 and 40 breeder for a sump. Looking to making the move from the 75 to 150 sometime this summer. Currently my livestock is a yellow tang, 2 clarkii, a royal gramma, and 5 chromis. Coral includes hammer, frogspawn, orange octospawn, pink/green i think lobo, a couple toadstools, and some different zoas ., and one paly rock and miscellaneous mushrooms on rocks. Oh and ofcourse the haddoni. I will add more pics when i get a chance and am home. I dont know if this is what qualifies as a build thread, but its my build story, and how i became to love reefing.