I have been in this hobby for a little over 3 years now and what can I say, the community and hobby itself has definitely blessed me up with an experience that I cannot be grateful enough for. I started this hobby as a sophomore in college because I have always had an obsession with the ocean ever since I was younger thanks to my father, who grew up and worked as a fisherman to support the family.
From the time I can remember, every time I became interested in something, I usually developed an obsession toward it and would advance fairly quickly in that subject/field. I attribute this to my ADHD, which I feel like I can use to an advantage for certain things. Anyways, I eventually found that there was a huge market for corals and eventually capitalized off of it by buying and propagating corals, starting from the lower ends and working my way up to the high end corals. After a few months, I eventually started to make enough where I could pay off the rest of my tuition, plus enjoy a fairly nice life style compared to the average college student. It was literally a fun hobby that I genuinely enjoyed that generated me a nice income. I had many people want to come to the house to see the tank just because the idea of a college student having one of these was crazy and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I eventually got a few more of my college friends to hop into the hobby and they are still going to this day.
That leads me to today, where I am sitting here at 3 AM writing this post. I have been planning to break down my tank for the past 5 months as my time is running out.....sadly, I am graduating college within a month. The last memory of me being in an actual class was last March, right before Spring break. I remember that time like it was only a month ago, my Spring break trip got canceled and we were told we would not be returning for the school year. "At least I can enjoy senior year" - is what I thought, until the time came to where we were informed that my senior year was going to be held virtually. Not only that, but FedEx managed to delay shipments on multiple occasions within a 1 month time span, losing me a whole years worth of tuition. However, I realize that many more people were effected in worse ways, and I would not be where I was right now without this hobby.
This community has treated me so well and I mean the community as a whole. I have made many friends in college, however, I feel like I have made many more "connections" through this hobby. I'm not sure if I'm just doing things wrong with making connections in college, or if it's just the perks that come with the hobby. I have met many great and wonderful people in this hobby and today, consider quite a few of them to be close friends of mine. Being a younger person in this hobby, I often come across many older people who are professionals at their jobs. Often times, they give me life changing advice that I am ever so grateful for. This is why I encourage young people my age to start a hobby like this as it is different and teaches people about investments. I also feel like I found success in this hobby as I always go for 100% customer satisfaction and respect toward the other party - something that is not too common these days.
So back to graduating college, I graduate in 1 month and I need to move out before the end of May. My fish tank still has a fair amount of coral and live stock in it, which I have had trouble selling off as they hold a fair amount of value. In short, I have decided to give all of equipment and basically everything to my father who has never reefed a day in his life.
Growing up, I was the youngest of 4 kids. My parents were always at work to support my older siblings college and costs of living. Before I was born, my father was a fisherman out on the docks of Houma, LA - about 45 minutes out from NOLA. He did this from the time he came over here as a Vietnamese refugee at the age of 14 until he was 35. Around that time, my mother had been working at a grocery store for over 10 years where she eventually saved up enough money to buy out the grocery store, while still supporting her siblings, parents, and the family. Eventually, my parents open up a nail salon and found a good ol' life out here in the middle of Mississippi. My parents did not even finish high school and were able to raise and support 4 children who successfully finished college. My father has always had a koi pond and has always taken great pride in it. He would always show it off to his friends, even going as far as to get a a couple 2 foot long monster koi fish - which quickly prompted his friends to follow along and build koi ponds of their own. I have always taken an interest in it and would always help him out when I was younger.
My father is approaching his 60's and has recently been facing some health problems. He still runs the nail ship with my mother, and they plan to retire in a few years. After graduating, I plan on moving down to Jackson, MS where I will use my gap year doing a masters program while I await my medical school application. (If anyone is on an admittance committee, please take your chances with me and you will not regret it! ) The college I attend now (University of Mississippi, or Olemiss) is only 45 minutes away from where my parents live, so home isn't too far. However, I will be moving almost 4 hours away and will not be able to see them nearly as much if I am working in the hospital and in medical school.
As a thank you for all that my parents have done for me, and as an anniversary present as their anniversary was a few days ago, I have decided to go all out and get my dad a RedSea Reefer XXL 750. He has never reefed a day in his life and his only experiences are with a koi pond. It will be a fun time to see how this adventure goes, but I am starting him out with a reef ready tank. The updates should be pretty drastic as I will only be able to see the tank when I go home. The better thing is, it is a continuation of my own creation, as he is getting my livestock and the rest of my equipment. Just as I am a continuation of him. Hopefully, this hobby will provide him with as much joy and serotonin as it has provided me, and in turn, better his health. I know that this hobby is a stress reliever for many of you fellow hobbyist so let's hope that my father finds the same joy in it. Thank you for reading this far if you took the time to read everything.
PS. My parents do not know how much I spent on this. They are insanely cheap and think I only spent $800 on the entire setup, and I do not know they know the true size of the tank yet. If they found out how much I spent on the tank (I used my money, obviously), it would be 4x worse than what y'all's wives would do. I also want to thank everyone who has supported me and bought from me. Without you guys, I never would have been able to afford this and even be at where I am today.
Tank: Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 (160g)
Sump: Red Sea Sump (40g)
Lights: Kessil AP700s (2 as of right now)
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160
Return pump: Syncra 7.0 (1900g/h)
Powerheads: Vortech MP40wqd (2)
Refugium light: Kessil A80
90 LB live rock
Livestock
Fish
- Blue Tang 1x
- Purple Tang 1x
- Yellow Tang 1x
- Gem Tang 2x
- Naso Tang
- Melanaruss Wrasse 1x
- Cleaner Wrasse 1x
- Six Line Wrasse 1x
- Clownfish 3x
- Yellow watchman gobies 6x
- Green mandarins 2x
Inverts
- A lot
Corals
- Radioactive bounce mushroom colony
- Sunkist bounce mushroom colony
- Mama bounce candy crush mushroom
- 4x Colorado Sunburst Anemone
- Bowsers zoas x200
- High end zoa garden
- First coral ever (petsmart toadstool)
- Rainbow chalices
- Jawbreaker mushrooms
- Bahama Mama mili colony
- Ora Frogskin tort colony
- JF Kung Pao Monti colony
- 2x Hellfire torch colonies
- Random torches
Estimated arrival: 4/21
My tank before:
From the time I can remember, every time I became interested in something, I usually developed an obsession toward it and would advance fairly quickly in that subject/field. I attribute this to my ADHD, which I feel like I can use to an advantage for certain things. Anyways, I eventually found that there was a huge market for corals and eventually capitalized off of it by buying and propagating corals, starting from the lower ends and working my way up to the high end corals. After a few months, I eventually started to make enough where I could pay off the rest of my tuition, plus enjoy a fairly nice life style compared to the average college student. It was literally a fun hobby that I genuinely enjoyed that generated me a nice income. I had many people want to come to the house to see the tank just because the idea of a college student having one of these was crazy and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I eventually got a few more of my college friends to hop into the hobby and they are still going to this day.
That leads me to today, where I am sitting here at 3 AM writing this post. I have been planning to break down my tank for the past 5 months as my time is running out.....sadly, I am graduating college within a month. The last memory of me being in an actual class was last March, right before Spring break. I remember that time like it was only a month ago, my Spring break trip got canceled and we were told we would not be returning for the school year. "At least I can enjoy senior year" - is what I thought, until the time came to where we were informed that my senior year was going to be held virtually. Not only that, but FedEx managed to delay shipments on multiple occasions within a 1 month time span, losing me a whole years worth of tuition. However, I realize that many more people were effected in worse ways, and I would not be where I was right now without this hobby.
This community has treated me so well and I mean the community as a whole. I have made many friends in college, however, I feel like I have made many more "connections" through this hobby. I'm not sure if I'm just doing things wrong with making connections in college, or if it's just the perks that come with the hobby. I have met many great and wonderful people in this hobby and today, consider quite a few of them to be close friends of mine. Being a younger person in this hobby, I often come across many older people who are professionals at their jobs. Often times, they give me life changing advice that I am ever so grateful for. This is why I encourage young people my age to start a hobby like this as it is different and teaches people about investments. I also feel like I found success in this hobby as I always go for 100% customer satisfaction and respect toward the other party - something that is not too common these days.
So back to graduating college, I graduate in 1 month and I need to move out before the end of May. My fish tank still has a fair amount of coral and live stock in it, which I have had trouble selling off as they hold a fair amount of value. In short, I have decided to give all of equipment and basically everything to my father who has never reefed a day in his life.
Growing up, I was the youngest of 4 kids. My parents were always at work to support my older siblings college and costs of living. Before I was born, my father was a fisherman out on the docks of Houma, LA - about 45 minutes out from NOLA. He did this from the time he came over here as a Vietnamese refugee at the age of 14 until he was 35. Around that time, my mother had been working at a grocery store for over 10 years where she eventually saved up enough money to buy out the grocery store, while still supporting her siblings, parents, and the family. Eventually, my parents open up a nail salon and found a good ol' life out here in the middle of Mississippi. My parents did not even finish high school and were able to raise and support 4 children who successfully finished college. My father has always had a koi pond and has always taken great pride in it. He would always show it off to his friends, even going as far as to get a a couple 2 foot long monster koi fish - which quickly prompted his friends to follow along and build koi ponds of their own. I have always taken an interest in it and would always help him out when I was younger.
My father is approaching his 60's and has recently been facing some health problems. He still runs the nail ship with my mother, and they plan to retire in a few years. After graduating, I plan on moving down to Jackson, MS where I will use my gap year doing a masters program while I await my medical school application. (If anyone is on an admittance committee, please take your chances with me and you will not regret it! ) The college I attend now (University of Mississippi, or Olemiss) is only 45 minutes away from where my parents live, so home isn't too far. However, I will be moving almost 4 hours away and will not be able to see them nearly as much if I am working in the hospital and in medical school.
As a thank you for all that my parents have done for me, and as an anniversary present as their anniversary was a few days ago, I have decided to go all out and get my dad a RedSea Reefer XXL 750. He has never reefed a day in his life and his only experiences are with a koi pond. It will be a fun time to see how this adventure goes, but I am starting him out with a reef ready tank. The updates should be pretty drastic as I will only be able to see the tank when I go home. The better thing is, it is a continuation of my own creation, as he is getting my livestock and the rest of my equipment. Just as I am a continuation of him. Hopefully, this hobby will provide him with as much joy and serotonin as it has provided me, and in turn, better his health. I know that this hobby is a stress reliever for many of you fellow hobbyist so let's hope that my father finds the same joy in it. Thank you for reading this far if you took the time to read everything.
PS. My parents do not know how much I spent on this. They are insanely cheap and think I only spent $800 on the entire setup, and I do not know they know the true size of the tank yet. If they found out how much I spent on the tank (I used my money, obviously), it would be 4x worse than what y'all's wives would do. I also want to thank everyone who has supported me and bought from me. Without you guys, I never would have been able to afford this and even be at where I am today.
Tank: Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 (160g)
Sump: Red Sea Sump (40g)
Lights: Kessil AP700s (2 as of right now)
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160
Return pump: Syncra 7.0 (1900g/h)
Powerheads: Vortech MP40wqd (2)
Refugium light: Kessil A80
90 LB live rock
Livestock
Fish
- Blue Tang 1x
- Purple Tang 1x
- Yellow Tang 1x
- Gem Tang 2x
- Naso Tang
- Melanaruss Wrasse 1x
- Cleaner Wrasse 1x
- Six Line Wrasse 1x
- Clownfish 3x
- Yellow watchman gobies 6x
- Green mandarins 2x
Inverts
- A lot
Corals
- Radioactive bounce mushroom colony
- Sunkist bounce mushroom colony
- Mama bounce candy crush mushroom
- 4x Colorado Sunburst Anemone
- Bowsers zoas x200
- High end zoa garden
- First coral ever (petsmart toadstool)
- Rainbow chalices
- Jawbreaker mushrooms
- Bahama Mama mili colony
- Ora Frogskin tort colony
- JF Kung Pao Monti colony
- 2x Hellfire torch colonies
- Random torches
Estimated arrival: 4/21
My tank before:
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