skyline99nissan
New Member
Hello everyone my name is Robby; glad to finally be a member here after using this forum over the past nearly 8 years into my saltwater journey. After the past few months expanding my knowledge into the hobby watching hours and hours of BRSTV videos (mentioning this forum thousands of times), reading posts on here, and personal experience; finally joined the forum.
My tank started in the summer of 2012 and is a 55 gallon when I acquired everything but the physical tank and stand. It started life as my buddies nano 26 gallon saltwater tank in 2010 that we both worked on and maintained in a joint venture to see if we could have a thriving saltwater tank. Figured 2 people doing the work would make it easier. The tank jumped to a 75 gallon tank for about a year then my buddy lost interest in the tank, and I was working a lot of overtime; and it turned into a hair algae forest of epic proportions. So I ended up with the setup minus the tank and stand after about 3 to 4 months of it being an algae farm (which oddly enough my buddy gave to me 6 years later due to it taking up too much space, and is now my freshwater tank). I just took down my 55 gallon Pacu tank and decided to finally jump into saltwater.
I used all the original equipment from the tank and just transferred it over since they were in the size range to work with the smaller tank. Then for the following 3 years I was recovering the entire setup from the infestation of algae and smaller degree the move. It has been a rough journey with the tank. From algae that refused to let go of the tank including lights off for nearly a week and marine algacide. A heater sticking on for no less than 9 hours making tank over 90 degrees and several heater failures just not working. Multiple power outages one lasted a few hours thankfully in the summertime. A cat breaking through the lid and going for a swim totally disturbing everything and knocking in the turned on light electrocuting the tank enough to trip the breaker. Full tank white out from cat peeing in the tank. Red film algae plague. Skimmer somehow pumped 30 gallons of water from the tank onto and then leaked through the floor into the room below which thankfully and oddly enough leaked directly into the sink below. A nearly total tank crash I'm now nearly fully recovered from. The tank itself leaked and damaged the stand so I had to run quickly to the only open store (Walmart) and buy a new tank and stand, enough water to make up for what was lost and that I didn't have stored, and enough storage totes to put the entire tank into before I lost everything.
I have now fully replaced every single component of the tank some multiple times; and even had to emergency replace the tank and stand before a total loss
Through all this I never actually gave up and never fully lost the tank. Lost all but one coral that is still alive but is healing lost tissue from the near crash. Several fish and likely hundreds of inverts. Spent thousands of dollars to keep it going. But; the tank still has one Yellow tail damsel from the original nano tank build going on 9 years old, and still has one remaining coral from the nano. 50% of the live rock is true Fiji live rock before they had to stop selling it and from the original tank 9 years ago along with the sand bed. The tank has 2 ocellaris clownfish that I believe have become a mating pair now, a yellow tail damsel, a firefish goby (I believe that's the name), and a scopas tang. Also has assorted snails and hermits, and a single blue ridge coral.
The stage with the tank now is I'm preparing it to be able to support some beginner level corals. I have the tank nearly stable and with the help of the sump I just finished installing a week ago well on my way. Sorry for the long post but after reading things on here and all the passion I've seen with this hobby; thought my tank journey would be of interest and helpful to get to know me
My tank started in the summer of 2012 and is a 55 gallon when I acquired everything but the physical tank and stand. It started life as my buddies nano 26 gallon saltwater tank in 2010 that we both worked on and maintained in a joint venture to see if we could have a thriving saltwater tank. Figured 2 people doing the work would make it easier. The tank jumped to a 75 gallon tank for about a year then my buddy lost interest in the tank, and I was working a lot of overtime; and it turned into a hair algae forest of epic proportions. So I ended up with the setup minus the tank and stand after about 3 to 4 months of it being an algae farm (which oddly enough my buddy gave to me 6 years later due to it taking up too much space, and is now my freshwater tank). I just took down my 55 gallon Pacu tank and decided to finally jump into saltwater.
I used all the original equipment from the tank and just transferred it over since they were in the size range to work with the smaller tank. Then for the following 3 years I was recovering the entire setup from the infestation of algae and smaller degree the move. It has been a rough journey with the tank. From algae that refused to let go of the tank including lights off for nearly a week and marine algacide. A heater sticking on for no less than 9 hours making tank over 90 degrees and several heater failures just not working. Multiple power outages one lasted a few hours thankfully in the summertime. A cat breaking through the lid and going for a swim totally disturbing everything and knocking in the turned on light electrocuting the tank enough to trip the breaker. Full tank white out from cat peeing in the tank. Red film algae plague. Skimmer somehow pumped 30 gallons of water from the tank onto and then leaked through the floor into the room below which thankfully and oddly enough leaked directly into the sink below. A nearly total tank crash I'm now nearly fully recovered from. The tank itself leaked and damaged the stand so I had to run quickly to the only open store (Walmart) and buy a new tank and stand, enough water to make up for what was lost and that I didn't have stored, and enough storage totes to put the entire tank into before I lost everything.
I have now fully replaced every single component of the tank some multiple times; and even had to emergency replace the tank and stand before a total loss
Through all this I never actually gave up and never fully lost the tank. Lost all but one coral that is still alive but is healing lost tissue from the near crash. Several fish and likely hundreds of inverts. Spent thousands of dollars to keep it going. But; the tank still has one Yellow tail damsel from the original nano tank build going on 9 years old, and still has one remaining coral from the nano. 50% of the live rock is true Fiji live rock before they had to stop selling it and from the original tank 9 years ago along with the sand bed. The tank has 2 ocellaris clownfish that I believe have become a mating pair now, a yellow tail damsel, a firefish goby (I believe that's the name), and a scopas tang. Also has assorted snails and hermits, and a single blue ridge coral.
The stage with the tank now is I'm preparing it to be able to support some beginner level corals. I have the tank nearly stable and with the help of the sump I just finished installing a week ago well on my way. Sorry for the long post but after reading things on here and all the passion I've seen with this hobby; thought my tank journey would be of interest and helpful to get to know me
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