Dgunn
Community Member
Hello everyone, I'm not new to the hobby, just trying to play "catch up".
I've had reef tanks since the late 80's while in college. I started keeping aquatic animals after bringing home a leopard frog from college that was supposed to be used in a lab experiment.
Each group was asked to guilotine the live frogs and attach electric current to the legs and watch them move. Our lab instructor said that if we couldn't kill the animals we could take them home. I soon added goldfish to his tank, which lead to a freshwater tank, then a saltwater tank and finally added live rock and corals that were available from a lfs. At the time, about 1988, live rock came from Florida, Hawaii and Mexico. I used a trickle filter with Biopack media and filter floss, lighting was 40 actinic white and actinic bulbs in a shop light fixture, then power compact bulbs. Skimming was hang-on the back Turbofloater .
All of the information that was available was through the advice of the fish store owner or monthly publications like Marine Fish Monthly - there was no internet at the time. I taught middle school science for a few years and used the tank as a teaching aid in the classroom.
Fast forward to the 2000's, I reset up the 75 gallon tank that I had in Arizona after college when I moved to Ohio. The tank was an in-wall in the basement of our home with a nice fish room area behind it. I upgraded to a 90 gallon and finally a 120 over the course of a few years. I also tried keeping a 210 gallon tank for about a year but I found that it was too expensive to stock and maintain.
Eventually I settled on the 120 gallon tank with built in Megaflows due to the footprint size and ease of keeping.
A lot of the rock and sand was moved from tank to tank as I upgraded. Lighting was T12 VHO, then MH then a T5 8 bulb fixture.
I took down the 120 gallon to prepare for a move in 2014 and sold all of the live rock corals and fish, I some of the pumps, lights, tank and misc. heaters, plumbing parts, testing supplies etc.
After retiring a year ago I feel that it is time to reset up what remains of equipment, add a few items and some coral frags and a few fish. I'd like to go slow this time around and find the best deals on equipment and not cause any problems from the start like I've had to deal with in the past.
Things have changed somewhat since I left the hobby 6 years ago. LED lighting was at its infancy, DC pumps were just starting to come on, wave pumps were becoming more popular, bare bottom tanks were becoming more common place. I have discovered a valuable asset in the BRS videos that I have been watching, and with what I've read online.
I would like to start a build thread soon so I've been snapping a few pictures of the remaining equipment and tank and how I'm setting up the new system.
I never hung out on this forum before, mostly RC back in the day, so I hope to meet some new friends.
Doug
I've had reef tanks since the late 80's while in college. I started keeping aquatic animals after bringing home a leopard frog from college that was supposed to be used in a lab experiment.
Each group was asked to guilotine the live frogs and attach electric current to the legs and watch them move. Our lab instructor said that if we couldn't kill the animals we could take them home. I soon added goldfish to his tank, which lead to a freshwater tank, then a saltwater tank and finally added live rock and corals that were available from a lfs. At the time, about 1988, live rock came from Florida, Hawaii and Mexico. I used a trickle filter with Biopack media and filter floss, lighting was 40 actinic white and actinic bulbs in a shop light fixture, then power compact bulbs. Skimming was hang-on the back Turbofloater .
All of the information that was available was through the advice of the fish store owner or monthly publications like Marine Fish Monthly - there was no internet at the time. I taught middle school science for a few years and used the tank as a teaching aid in the classroom.
Fast forward to the 2000's, I reset up the 75 gallon tank that I had in Arizona after college when I moved to Ohio. The tank was an in-wall in the basement of our home with a nice fish room area behind it. I upgraded to a 90 gallon and finally a 120 over the course of a few years. I also tried keeping a 210 gallon tank for about a year but I found that it was too expensive to stock and maintain.
Eventually I settled on the 120 gallon tank with built in Megaflows due to the footprint size and ease of keeping.
A lot of the rock and sand was moved from tank to tank as I upgraded. Lighting was T12 VHO, then MH then a T5 8 bulb fixture.
I took down the 120 gallon to prepare for a move in 2014 and sold all of the live rock corals and fish, I some of the pumps, lights, tank and misc. heaters, plumbing parts, testing supplies etc.
After retiring a year ago I feel that it is time to reset up what remains of equipment, add a few items and some coral frags and a few fish. I'd like to go slow this time around and find the best deals on equipment and not cause any problems from the start like I've had to deal with in the past.
Things have changed somewhat since I left the hobby 6 years ago. LED lighting was at its infancy, DC pumps were just starting to come on, wave pumps were becoming more popular, bare bottom tanks were becoming more common place. I have discovered a valuable asset in the BRS videos that I have been watching, and with what I've read online.
I would like to start a build thread soon so I've been snapping a few pictures of the remaining equipment and tank and how I'm setting up the new system.
I never hung out on this forum before, mostly RC back in the day, so I hope to meet some new friends.
Doug
