j_hambone
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2026
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 16
- Location
- Redondo Beach, CA, USA
- What state or country do you live in
- California
Hi there everyone 
. I used to have a small 10 gallon (I think that was the size) reef tank and used to frequent the forums as a lurker about 20 years ago (wow I feel old now). It’s nice to see the community is still thriving and I hope to one day be able to return the favor.
Since my original tank I’ve always had the desire to get back into it but life gets in the way. At one point I had a whole setup with 50 gallon display tank and under cabinet sump just about ready to fill and then I had to move so had to sell it all right before I was ready to fill it which was painful given the amount of time I invested in meticulously picking each and every component. Recently my wife bought my 6 year old son a 2 gallon freshwater tank for his birthday. Helping him set it up and (trying to) teach him about cycling the tank brought back that itch for a reef tank. I figured I’d just have a LOOK on offer up and see what a second hand setup would cost. Long story short I found a deal I couldn’t pass up and now have a 90 gal reef tank (I think it’s a bit less 70-80 gallon display with 20g sump - so maybe 90g total, not just the display) with all the hardware goodies that I picked up from a fellow reefer that was moving.
Being excited with having a new tank I went to the LFS and purchased some live rock (30 lbs I think), live sand and salt to get the aquarium filled up as quickly as possible to get the tank running and cycling. I also got about 100lbs of dry live rock from an existing reef tank for $100 from someone else that had been out of an aquarium for over a year (currently in a week long bleach cure). After almost having a heart attack at the LFS from seeing the present cost of reef life I quickly started thinking how I can rationalize this to my wife. It’s amazing the things we do for our children, right? :P.
Having an RO system in my home I started to fill the tank with water (< 10TDS) but getting tired of waiting for that to drip out i started lugging jugs back the grocery store water dispenser (<10TDS). The water has been cycling for about two weeks now with just the live rock, live sand and some bio balls dosed to 2ppm with ammonia.
I got most of the system set up - sump, skimmer, overflow plumbing, return plumbing, etc and thought I was off to a good start. I started reading the forums and realized that RO and RODI water are different and feel like I made a big mistake. I want to eventually keep corals and from what I’ve read RO water doesn’t cut it. I’ve purchased a DI unit and will be draining and refill the tank with RODI water next week when I get back home. This will also give me some time to aquascape the tank when it’s empty.
I have so many questions and these forums are a gold mine. Hope to learn a lot more and connect with some of the other reefers here in the future.
. I used to have a small 10 gallon (I think that was the size) reef tank and used to frequent the forums as a lurker about 20 years ago (wow I feel old now). It’s nice to see the community is still thriving and I hope to one day be able to return the favor.Since my original tank I’ve always had the desire to get back into it but life gets in the way. At one point I had a whole setup with 50 gallon display tank and under cabinet sump just about ready to fill and then I had to move so had to sell it all right before I was ready to fill it which was painful given the amount of time I invested in meticulously picking each and every component. Recently my wife bought my 6 year old son a 2 gallon freshwater tank for his birthday. Helping him set it up and (trying to) teach him about cycling the tank brought back that itch for a reef tank. I figured I’d just have a LOOK on offer up and see what a second hand setup would cost. Long story short I found a deal I couldn’t pass up and now have a 90 gal reef tank (I think it’s a bit less 70-80 gallon display with 20g sump - so maybe 90g total, not just the display) with all the hardware goodies that I picked up from a fellow reefer that was moving.
Being excited with having a new tank I went to the LFS and purchased some live rock (30 lbs I think), live sand and salt to get the aquarium filled up as quickly as possible to get the tank running and cycling. I also got about 100lbs of dry live rock from an existing reef tank for $100 from someone else that had been out of an aquarium for over a year (currently in a week long bleach cure). After almost having a heart attack at the LFS from seeing the present cost of reef life I quickly started thinking how I can rationalize this to my wife. It’s amazing the things we do for our children, right? :P.
Having an RO system in my home I started to fill the tank with water (< 10TDS) but getting tired of waiting for that to drip out i started lugging jugs back the grocery store water dispenser (<10TDS). The water has been cycling for about two weeks now with just the live rock, live sand and some bio balls dosed to 2ppm with ammonia.
I got most of the system set up - sump, skimmer, overflow plumbing, return plumbing, etc and thought I was off to a good start. I started reading the forums and realized that RO and RODI water are different and feel like I made a big mistake. I want to eventually keep corals and from what I’ve read RO water doesn’t cut it. I’ve purchased a DI unit and will be draining and refill the tank with RODI water next week when I get back home. This will also give me some time to aquascape the tank when it’s empty.
I have so many questions and these forums are a gold mine. Hope to learn a lot more and connect with some of the other reefers here in the future.
