What a ride it has been. I haven't done the best in keeping my build threads current, but here is a photo timeline of the strange trip it has been.
Here is what my first tank looked like. I was 15/16 years old. What drew me into the hobby was the colorful fish. I would weekly have a half hour of time to kill near a local fish store. Their saltwater fish were everything my freshwater cardinals and plattys aspired to be, bold! Bright! Attention grabbing!
I picked up (ok, my father bought me) a old tank from a Ronald McDonald house. It had seen its better days, there was marks on the glass and a name scribbled into the side, but I didn't care. I had an 8ft tank!
I thought that shells would be the best decor as that is what I think of when someone says beach, so I put a sand bottom on one part and medium crushed corals in the middle with larger grain sub-straight on the far right. Looking back I am not sure why I did this. I wonder if the idea of siphoning the gravel in my fresh tank made me put gravel like stuff in there, but wanting sand too I compromised? I am not sure. It sure looks silly. The lighting was some t12 bulbs. Nothing fancy, but just enough to light the tank.
I bought a couple of damsels and I was off. My filter was a canister filter (no sump at the time)
With Damsels:
I discovered Live Aquaria. I am not sure how, but I was hooked. I made sure to look at each new magazine. This was back when in their catalogue they had corals and fish, with prices too.
Not knowing what I was doing I bought some corals. And some more expensive fish. I had a small 2ft pc fixture that I was using to light the 1/4th of the tank that had corals.
Kept buying more corals, as the corals would expectantly die.
The tank sure looked funny.
At a Dr Fosters Smith open house I met some other reefers from my neck of the state (mpls) They told me about "The Reef Tank." That was the name of our local forum. I met up and started learning new things left and right. I upgraded everything....twice, maybe even 3x.
I got some t5's installed, built a canopy and stand, even drilled the tank and had a sump.
Here is what my first tank looked like. I was 15/16 years old. What drew me into the hobby was the colorful fish. I would weekly have a half hour of time to kill near a local fish store. Their saltwater fish were everything my freshwater cardinals and plattys aspired to be, bold! Bright! Attention grabbing!
I picked up (ok, my father bought me) a old tank from a Ronald McDonald house. It had seen its better days, there was marks on the glass and a name scribbled into the side, but I didn't care. I had an 8ft tank!
I thought that shells would be the best decor as that is what I think of when someone says beach, so I put a sand bottom on one part and medium crushed corals in the middle with larger grain sub-straight on the far right. Looking back I am not sure why I did this. I wonder if the idea of siphoning the gravel in my fresh tank made me put gravel like stuff in there, but wanting sand too I compromised? I am not sure. It sure looks silly. The lighting was some t12 bulbs. Nothing fancy, but just enough to light the tank.
I bought a couple of damsels and I was off. My filter was a canister filter (no sump at the time)
With Damsels:
I discovered Live Aquaria. I am not sure how, but I was hooked. I made sure to look at each new magazine. This was back when in their catalogue they had corals and fish, with prices too.
Not knowing what I was doing I bought some corals. And some more expensive fish. I had a small 2ft pc fixture that I was using to light the 1/4th of the tank that had corals.
Kept buying more corals, as the corals would expectantly die.
The tank sure looked funny.
At a Dr Fosters Smith open house I met some other reefers from my neck of the state (mpls) They told me about "The Reef Tank." That was the name of our local forum. I met up and started learning new things left and right. I upgraded everything....twice, maybe even 3x.
I got some t5's installed, built a canopy and stand, even drilled the tank and had a sump.