the Art Mill studio
Community Member
Basically a newbie here...
going to use this as my "journal" so don't feel the need to read my long ramblings LOL
but if you do thanks =)
Almost 40 years ago (wow that makes me sound old) my first real job in high school was working at the LFS, I took care of all the tanks and got into saltwater the most. At home in my room I had probably 10-15 g tank (what would be called a nano these days) with a pair of clowns, an anemone (that I remember being white with Purple Tips)... those don't seem to be a thing now =D... and a chocolate chip starfish. I don't remember Corals being something that was even available. yes I might be that old.
Ive been petless (mostly dogs) for about 6 years now and have decided I'm done with all that. Ever since I moved into my forever home a year and half ago I've been thinking a lot about getting fish. So at the end of April I was doing some research for a art piece Im working on that has fish in it... while searching fish images I started to see things about reef tanks and basically have become obsessed! Down the rabbit hole, off the cliff, have gone to the dark side OBSESSED!!!
After seeing what's available now I figured if 40 years ago I could keep my Clowns alive with a Undergravel Filter, yes I said a undergravel filter... don't judge, that's we had back then LOL
So for the last 2 months I have been doing nonstop research watching literally hundreds of hours on YouTube (basically only watching videos about reefing, all regular show watching has been temporarily abandoned) Also for the last 2 months I have buying some equipment and such. I had decided to buy the Waterbox Cube 20 for my bedroom combo office, because that is where I spend most of my time during the work week.
But during my research I realized that having a "quarantine" tank really was probably the "right" way to do things... soooooo I had to make a plan for a second tank, but I don't have somewhere to hide it, (and visual is important to me) so that brings me to having purchased a second tank before the first one is out of the box!!! this may have become a problem =/
My mother said "so you have to have a tank to have another tank???" lol
and the answer is apparently YES!!!
I went with the Waterbox Pen Mini 15G and decided it will be a "Experiment / Quarantine Tank", I will practice all the things I want to do to the Main Tank in this tank. So I planned a space in my studio for the "Practice" Tank. I had to build a stand to make it work in the space I decided to put it... by the way Im really good at taking a project and turning it into a MUCH Bigger Project =D
So a month later the stand is built, last weekend I did my aquascape... (I already know what your going to say "its a quarantine tank NO sand, just throw some PVC pipe in" but remember its my practice tank and it still needs to be pretty) and FINALLY there is water in a tank!!!
My hope is to get the tank cycled and ready for corals and fish so they can hang out there while I get the 20G Cube ready.
After all the upfront costs (still ordering things daily... ugh)
I may end up with 2 VERY expensive boxes of water with no money left over for Corals or Fish...
LOL!!! Well if your still here, your a champ and deserve a gold star!!! =D Thank You
Here are some pics of the stand I built and my nice new tank ready to be filled with corals and fish, wish me luck...
going to use this as my "journal" so don't feel the need to read my long ramblings LOL
but if you do thanks =)
Almost 40 years ago (wow that makes me sound old) my first real job in high school was working at the LFS, I took care of all the tanks and got into saltwater the most. At home in my room I had probably 10-15 g tank (what would be called a nano these days) with a pair of clowns, an anemone (that I remember being white with Purple Tips)... those don't seem to be a thing now =D... and a chocolate chip starfish. I don't remember Corals being something that was even available. yes I might be that old.
Ive been petless (mostly dogs) for about 6 years now and have decided I'm done with all that. Ever since I moved into my forever home a year and half ago I've been thinking a lot about getting fish. So at the end of April I was doing some research for a art piece Im working on that has fish in it... while searching fish images I started to see things about reef tanks and basically have become obsessed! Down the rabbit hole, off the cliff, have gone to the dark side OBSESSED!!!
After seeing what's available now I figured if 40 years ago I could keep my Clowns alive with a Undergravel Filter, yes I said a undergravel filter... don't judge, that's we had back then LOL
So for the last 2 months I have been doing nonstop research watching literally hundreds of hours on YouTube (basically only watching videos about reefing, all regular show watching has been temporarily abandoned) Also for the last 2 months I have buying some equipment and such. I had decided to buy the Waterbox Cube 20 for my bedroom combo office, because that is where I spend most of my time during the work week.
But during my research I realized that having a "quarantine" tank really was probably the "right" way to do things... soooooo I had to make a plan for a second tank, but I don't have somewhere to hide it, (and visual is important to me) so that brings me to having purchased a second tank before the first one is out of the box!!! this may have become a problem =/
My mother said "so you have to have a tank to have another tank???" lol
and the answer is apparently YES!!!
I went with the Waterbox Pen Mini 15G and decided it will be a "Experiment / Quarantine Tank", I will practice all the things I want to do to the Main Tank in this tank. So I planned a space in my studio for the "Practice" Tank. I had to build a stand to make it work in the space I decided to put it... by the way Im really good at taking a project and turning it into a MUCH Bigger Project =D
So a month later the stand is built, last weekend I did my aquascape... (I already know what your going to say "its a quarantine tank NO sand, just throw some PVC pipe in" but remember its my practice tank and it still needs to be pretty) and FINALLY there is water in a tank!!!
My hope is to get the tank cycled and ready for corals and fish so they can hang out there while I get the 20G Cube ready.
After all the upfront costs (still ordering things daily... ugh)
I may end up with 2 VERY expensive boxes of water with no money left over for Corals or Fish...
LOL!!! Well if your still here, your a champ and deserve a gold star!!! =D Thank You
Here are some pics of the stand I built and my nice new tank ready to be filled with corals and fish, wish me luck...
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