Good idea for a fun thread!
Growing up, my dad always had a reef aquarium. Even as a kid, I enjoyed looking at the exotic life he was able to keep. His setup involved a 150 gallon tank upstairs with a large sump made from a big stock tank he got from a farm good store. Unfortunately during a bad ice storm, we were without power for over a week which resulted in a total loss of his tank. When that happened, he decided to give it up.
About 7 years ago, my dad started to regain interest in owning an aquarium but chose to pursue a 300 gallon African Cichlid tank. This eventually sparked my interest as well to do a freshwater system. I initially wanted a Discus tank because of how beautiful and majestic they look, but ultimately chose to do a 125g planted community tank
After maintaining this tank for awhile, it eventually just sorta took care of it self which made my interest dwindle. To help reignite my passion, I thought it might be fun to do a small 20g planted betta tank upstairs
Again after getting the 20g going, I eventually found my interest weaning. This small tank has so many plants, that even a water change isn’t necessary. The plants absorb all excess phosphate and nitrate produced by the small population of livestock.
Around this time, I decided to start watching the BRS 52 weeks of reefing. I had always been super interested in marine fish and coral ever since my dad’s tank growing up. After finishing the series from BRS, I started watching and consuming all reef aquarium related videos I could find on YouTube. At this point, I knew I REALLY wanted to setup a reef system of my own. Based on everything I had watched and read, a reef aquarium would likely hold my interest where a freshwater system could not.
I spoke with the wife and after approval I started to slowly buy parts for my reef tank. I think I purchased my first piece (3x AI Hydra 32 HD) in the summer of 2023. I’ve always been a go big or go home kinda person and knew I wanted some premium equipment for my build. To make that feasible, I slowly bought and spread out the expenses of the tank equipment etc over the course of a year.
In May 2024, my WaterBox Infinia Reef 150.4 showed up and the rest is history
There has definitely been some hurdles to overcome which has made me question my decision to build the tank, but in the end I am very happy I did. Since building my reef, my dad has also decided to get back into the marine aquarium world and now has a 125g and 60g systems going.
The next step I wanna take in the hobby is getting into some more high end acros. I bought my experimental cheap Acros roughly 6 months ago which were all the size of my thumbnail when I got them. They have seen substantial growth and done well in my system in that time which seems like a good indicator to move onto some more challenging and interesting pieces.
