dickwilly
07-19-2008, 06:30 PM
Hey guys thought it was about time I put up my tank specs. But first i thought it a good idea to show how my current venture into this hobby has developed.
I first got into marines when I was 14, at that time external filters were the best thing in the world and if you didn't have one you had no chance. As a 14 year old of course I didn't have the funds for an external so opted for the next best thing (????), the good old undergravel filter. Tank was filled with tap water and salted. Well given the (what I now consider) shocking tank setup, it didnt do that bad, all was going well for a year, had a couple of clowns, a blue damsel, a couple of mollies (they were put in there to seed the tank on direction of local garden centre and never got round to getting rid of them), a few mushies and a torch coral. Then over Christmas we went to Scotland (nice) and came back to find there had been a power cut (not so nice). As the tank was on a circuit breaker (in case of mishaps) the power never came back on to the tank (really not nice). The tank was now a very smelly green soup and over £150 worth of stock dead, for a 15yr old this was the end of my marine adventure.
Roll on 10 years and after a degree in marine biology (whilst at uni I'd run a temperate marine tank, filled with all the local pickings) i thought it would be nice to set up a little nano. Based on my previous knowledge of the marine hobby (going back 10yr) I set up my external filter, filled with salted tap water and got going. All things considered it was OK and looked like:
August 2006
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T1%2021-08-06%20%28Large%29.jpg
It was stocked with a pair of TMC clowns, but after the hot summer and massive temp swings they both got white spot and past away. A couple of PC's over the top for lighting.
As always, after a shot time I wanted bigger, so set up a slightly bigger tank. After doing lots and lot of research and finding out the hobby had moved on some what, I stocked up on LR and got a skimmer and made the external filter redundant:
September 2006
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T2%2004-09-06%20%28Large%29.jpg
Things went from strength to strength, kind of. As we all do I made common newbie mistakes - e.g. red gorgonian and sun coral, both of which finally ended up in the big fish tank in the sky (saying that I still have one sun coral polyp on a bit of LR):
Jan 2007
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T3%2008-01-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
After a year of power compacts I thought it time to get on the metal halide band wagon. So splashed out on a cheap Jap import 150w unit with twin actinics - Turns out it was an awesome purchase and I love it.
August 2007: 10min after turning on the MH for the first time.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T4%2002-08-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
Things started getting better now, much more experienced in the whole marine vibe and was pretty proud of my tank (for a small one):
December 2007
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T5%2002-12-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
Then it came time for me to vacate the house i was living in. And as always is the case things didn't got too smoothly. The Sunday before a potential buyer of the house was due to visit I was rudely woken at 6am (very hungover in a strange house in Leeds) with my brother screaming down the phone that my tank had over flown and water was pouring into the kitchen below. OH DEAR. Got back home 30min later and found my Aquamedic auto top up had stuck on and dumped 25L of RO into the tank. After much mopping, lifting carpets and hair dryer action. Plussing moving my tank and contents across the room....all was OK. And a few days later the tank looked like:
March 2008
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T6%2005-03-08%20%28Large%29.jpg
No livestock was lost during all this - thank the gods.
2 months later and it was time to move out. To which end I found myself homeless (the buyer that looked round after the flood ended up buying the house :D). So it was time to move back in with the folks. So I got myself a 2ft cube and set that up to shift my stock over to.
So that's a brief history so far. I'll put up my current tank details soon. (i'm sure you can't wait)
Ric
I first got into marines when I was 14, at that time external filters were the best thing in the world and if you didn't have one you had no chance. As a 14 year old of course I didn't have the funds for an external so opted for the next best thing (????), the good old undergravel filter. Tank was filled with tap water and salted. Well given the (what I now consider) shocking tank setup, it didnt do that bad, all was going well for a year, had a couple of clowns, a blue damsel, a couple of mollies (they were put in there to seed the tank on direction of local garden centre and never got round to getting rid of them), a few mushies and a torch coral. Then over Christmas we went to Scotland (nice) and came back to find there had been a power cut (not so nice). As the tank was on a circuit breaker (in case of mishaps) the power never came back on to the tank (really not nice). The tank was now a very smelly green soup and over £150 worth of stock dead, for a 15yr old this was the end of my marine adventure.
Roll on 10 years and after a degree in marine biology (whilst at uni I'd run a temperate marine tank, filled with all the local pickings) i thought it would be nice to set up a little nano. Based on my previous knowledge of the marine hobby (going back 10yr) I set up my external filter, filled with salted tap water and got going. All things considered it was OK and looked like:
August 2006
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T1%2021-08-06%20%28Large%29.jpg
It was stocked with a pair of TMC clowns, but after the hot summer and massive temp swings they both got white spot and past away. A couple of PC's over the top for lighting.
As always, after a shot time I wanted bigger, so set up a slightly bigger tank. After doing lots and lot of research and finding out the hobby had moved on some what, I stocked up on LR and got a skimmer and made the external filter redundant:
September 2006
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T2%2004-09-06%20%28Large%29.jpg
Things went from strength to strength, kind of. As we all do I made common newbie mistakes - e.g. red gorgonian and sun coral, both of which finally ended up in the big fish tank in the sky (saying that I still have one sun coral polyp on a bit of LR):
Jan 2007
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T3%2008-01-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
After a year of power compacts I thought it time to get on the metal halide band wagon. So splashed out on a cheap Jap import 150w unit with twin actinics - Turns out it was an awesome purchase and I love it.
August 2007: 10min after turning on the MH for the first time.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T4%2002-08-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
Things started getting better now, much more experienced in the whole marine vibe and was pretty proud of my tank (for a small one):
December 2007
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T5%2002-12-07%20%28Large%29.jpg
Then it came time for me to vacate the house i was living in. And as always is the case things didn't got too smoothly. The Sunday before a potential buyer of the house was due to visit I was rudely woken at 6am (very hungover in a strange house in Leeds) with my brother screaming down the phone that my tank had over flown and water was pouring into the kitchen below. OH DEAR. Got back home 30min later and found my Aquamedic auto top up had stuck on and dumped 25L of RO into the tank. After much mopping, lifting carpets and hair dryer action. Plussing moving my tank and contents across the room....all was OK. And a few days later the tank looked like:
March 2008
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/T6%2005-03-08%20%28Large%29.jpg
No livestock was lost during all this - thank the gods.
2 months later and it was time to move out. To which end I found myself homeless (the buyer that looked round after the flood ended up buying the house :D). So it was time to move back in with the folks. So I got myself a 2ft cube and set that up to shift my stock over to.
So that's a brief history so far. I'll put up my current tank details soon. (i'm sure you can't wait)
Ric