BryanC
New Member
Ok so here is my journey to date. An old roommates mother gave me a 55 gallon tank. A few years later I borrowed a book from another friends roommate because he suggested it after I sat in awe of his reef tanks. “Friends like these, Gary!” The book changed the way I would look at the world not just the ocean and all of inhabitants. It was The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner. As I dove into the book I realized this was a beautiful way to look at life not just simply keeping fish and coral in my home. There was no social media and the internet wasn’t what it has become but I was able to google search and try and consume as much information as I could. In doing so, I found a website that would help people with any and all aquarium keeping questions. After easily 5-10 emails back and forth much to my surprise the man replying to me this whole time was Robert Fenner! I thought it was so amazing that out of anyone out there I could have found and it was the author of the very book I had read a few times already. I told him how funny it was that agreed with everything he said since basically everything I knew was stolen from him. Bob taught many thing over the years and was gratified enough to allow me access to his website and I was able to actually write some of my tiny bit of knowledge and help out fellow reefers. Bob used his connections and helped me get a job in the industry at an aquarium I highly respect. Long story short after a 8-10 year hiatus I am coming back with this 65 gal all in one I have 2 Neptune sky’s in the hood. They are dialed down because they are only 4” about the water level. Drilled holes in the canopy to mount and allow rams to cool as required. I have a tunze waterproof refugium light w some chaeto from algae barn and a bioblock. 2 mp10’s on reef crest mode. Cor return pump. Neptune dos. Neptune AtK. Working on getting my recirculating Ro going and AFS. Started the tank back in mid March. Before that it was housing arrows! Haha what a waste. I saw the BRS guys talking about the rule of thirds and really liked that thought. I’ve always preferred SPS to other corals so I love the idea of the top third of my tank being open for the coral to grow. I ordered 20 lbs of the purple dry live rock from brs and had a bucket of Jakarta from long ago. I drilled some holes, inserted a few rods and added some putty and rock structure was complete. I’ve always loved wrasse so I made sure there are made caves and overhangs for them to zip in and out of. I ordered 5280pods also from algae barn and added them a couple weeks back. Oops forgot to say I cycled the tank with Dr. Tims ammonia chloride and nitrafying bacteria. That process took roughly 3-4 weeks for me to be able to add the AC and test at zero nitrates within 24 hours. At that point I started to turn the lights on for inevitable diatom bloom. This is when I added the pods so they had something to eat along with the plankton I was supplementing. After a couple weeks of this I had my first fish delivered from the Biota Group(they are so awesome!). She’s a beaut, Clark! Regal Angels have always been once of my favorites so figured this was a good place to start since these are now being bred(go Biota!!). Like I said, Mr Fenner was one of my idols and his ideology lives on with me and many like me. I used to talk about this and to take some family time away from the hobby and come back to see happening is truly wonderful and remarkable. Well I should have tried to pair the regals off the start but of course that idea came two weeks after my first girl arrived. Just today my second got here and I’ve drilled a piece of acrylic to accommodate them both until they no longer need to argue! So I have been meaning to update this thread and I look forward to my encounters with all of you and thanks for checking this out. Looking forward for my new buildout!
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