Our first reef tank journey

Doglips56

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My husband and I had a saltwater aquarium over 30 years ago. It was a 30 gallon long on an aluminum stand. We had aquarium gravel and an under gravel filter and I can’t remember what else. The only thing I honestly remember is cycling it with blue damsels and adding some yellow tangs that had icy and eventually died. We thought we knew what we were doing back then but now I just laugh when I think back to that. We’d had FW fish for years prior to that.
We’ve always wanted to set up another saltwater tank but just never did. About 6 months ago we decided we wanted to have a reef tank. Don’t even ask how we got the idea because I can’t even remember!
Started to do a bunch of research into it. Due to the expense we had to make a hard choice. Build a reef tank the right way and make that our retirement hobby or not and buy another RV. We decided on the reef tank and the jury is still out on that decision! Lol.
So, we spent months accumulating all the stuff. Then months of it sitting in boxes while we tried to wrap our heads around plumbing and rock work. Really, really, really wish I had known about R2R from the beginning because we may have made different choices. We started with dead dry rock to have a “clean” system without therisk of mast parasites. HA!!! Our “clean” system turned very dirty very fast when the dinos took over! What a nightmare. Have also lost multiple fish in QT which can be disheartening but all of our corals and the 5 fish in the tank are doing well now. Have a couple more fish in QT and several more on our “want” list. Below are some pictures for the system.

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Doglips56

Doglips56

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Just got home after a nearly 2 month hospital stay. Because my husband was torn between me, our brain injured son, work and other responsibilities the tank got minimal care. Feeding, ato top off and maybe an occasional water check. Growth has been EXPLOSIVE! If you compare these pic to my last update it’s insane. We brought in a mandarin goby and didn’t QT because we were told they don’t carry disease and die in QT. BIG MISTAKE. Lost it and at least half of my fish. About to start QT’ing 5 fish so I can add them all at once. Will be my last additions and I have a peaceful group now so hoping if they are QT’d together and added together these won’t be bullying. We’ll see. They’re all tiny so I don’t think adding them all at once will cause ant ammonia spikes, except in the QT which I’ll have to watch.
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Weasel1960

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WOW Nancy tank looks amazing. And your husband deserves a badge for keeping it up with everything he has had on his plate the last couple of months. Hope you have a speedy recovery and can take some time to enjoy the therapeutic benefits of watching your tank.
 

Jedi1199

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Just got home after a nearly 2 month hospital stay. Because my husband was torn between me, our brain injured son, work and other responsibilities the tank got minimal care.


Hope all is well now and everyone is in the peak of health.

Tank looks fantastic!! Looks like whatever you are doing, or not doing, is the right way to go!
 
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Doglips56

Doglips56

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So…I got deathly I’ll (not with COVID!) and spent months in the hospital. As you can imagine my reef tank was pretty neglected and when I got out of the hospital it WM was just way too much for us to maintain. We sold EVERYTHING except our 40 breeder and a small sump. My husband could t bear to part with his anemones so we kept that big rock they were on. We’ve had it set up for about 18 months but seams need to be re-silicones and we were able to get a 110 gallon tank for free. Budget is fairly tight these days so nothing fancy here. We have only one naso tang, a pair of clown and a Diamond goby currently and a few corals (pictures below). Today we will be moving the 40B to another area and putting the newly built 110 in its place. Very very excited! We built our own sump with a brand new 40B, used plain ceramic tiles for baffles and completely SPLURGED on a RS ReefMat! Very excited about that! Stay tuned for new additions to the tank!
These are pics of current 40B then below pics of new tank!
 

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Weasel1960

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So…I got deathly I’ll (not with COVID!) and spent months in the hospital. As you can imagine my reef tank was pretty neglected and when I got out of the hospital it WM was just way too much for us to maintain. We sold EVERYTHING except our 40 breeder and a small sump. My husband could t bear to part with his anemones so we kept that big rock they were on. We’ve had it set up for about 18 months but seams need to be re-silicones and we were able to get a 110 gallon tank for free. Budget is fairly tight these days so nothing fancy here. We have only one naso tang, a pair of clown and a Diamond goby currently and a few corals (pictures below). Today we will be moving the 40B to another area and putting the newly built 110 in its place. Very very excited! We built our own sump with a brand new 40B, used plain ceramic tiles for baffles and completely SPLURGED on a RS ReefMat! Very excited about that! Stay tuned for new additions to the tank!
These are pics of current 40B then below pics of new tank!
Sorry to hear you were ill. Sounds like you are making a comeback there and with your tanks. Looking good so far. Pets of any kind are good therapy. Keep up the good work, look forward to more on your new build.
 
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