k.schoff
New Member
Part 1: In the beginning there was water.
It all started with NextDoor. A drilled 50 gallon with a sump caught my eye; it was reasonably priced at $200. The lister was the wife of the owner, and she was ready for it to go, so younger me negotiated the price down a bit and set a pickup date. When my friend and I arrived to scoop the tank, the tank owner asked, “So how long have you been reefing?”. Bewildered, I responded that this was my first saltwater tank attempt.
Like a loving coach, who knew they didn’t have time to train me, and nonetheless attempted to alert me, the owner’s stream of consciousness began. First, “Watch 52 weeks of reefing”. I ask why he’s getting out of it, and he replies, “I just needed to upgrade to something bigger”. With one last gesture of good luck, he provided me parts of the plumbing for the pre-drilled bean animal overflow.
My journey had begun.
I brought it home, and got to work learning. When I pulled up the first 52 weeks of reefing video, I knew I was in for a journey. I bought some dry rock, sand, salt and some live rock. Then came the trip to Home Depot for two 35 gallon trash cans and a freshwater top-off Rubbermaid. BRS was like a taste of an addiction, and they sold me a 5 stage RODI, a pump, powerheads, heater, ATO, and I got to work curing the rocks in the circulating saltwater of a dark trash can. The room for the job needed to be the lobby of a duplex house. November turned to December and December to January. I chose a single T5 with two Kessler A80 LEDs.
Winter melted into spring, and still, I only had circulating saltwater. The day came to install the bean animal on the tank. It took a lot of gluing, trial and error to get the tank circulating. Yet, by spring of 2019, the tank was tightness tested and circulating water.
There was no outlet in the lobby. All the work I did to start the tank going was with a trusty 3-plug extension cord run from the basement through a storage little crawlspace under the lobby seat. A new circuit had to be installed by electricians. How much electricity was needed? I ran some rough math and I asked for a 20 Amp circuit with a GFCI. By beginning of summer, the electric was in paving the way for the reef to begin.
All that was left to prepare for the first inhabitants, was lighting. The T5 and and the Keslers fit right into the hood. At 11:22PM on 6/24/19, the reef lit up lIke midday, and the tank was fish and coral ready for the first time. Eleven days later on August 4th, the Apex arrived. With the quarantine tank ready in the waiting, all that was left to find were fish and corals.
As reefers, we have what might be called, “The Reefer’s Dilemma”. Our pets are environmentally impactful. The tanks that serve as their homes suck energy, use chemicals, and can steal fish out of the ocean. Yet, keeping our reefs is joyful, mentally stimulating, and serves as an environmental education (to us, friends and family). To address The Reefer’s Dilemma within me, I caused the install of an 11 MWh solar system, themed my tank South Pacific, and vowed to buy only acquacultured fish and corals. The solar watt array served to offsite the carbon use of electricity from the new reef. The theme served to keep all my animals together with other animals they would encounter in the ocean. Lastly, the acquaculture ensures that my impact on the wild reefs is kept to a minimum.
With my vision clear, infrastructure in place, and tank at “all systems go”, the obstacles had been removed. .
The pictures below
It all started with NextDoor. A drilled 50 gallon with a sump caught my eye; it was reasonably priced at $200. The lister was the wife of the owner, and she was ready for it to go, so younger me negotiated the price down a bit and set a pickup date. When my friend and I arrived to scoop the tank, the tank owner asked, “So how long have you been reefing?”. Bewildered, I responded that this was my first saltwater tank attempt.
Like a loving coach, who knew they didn’t have time to train me, and nonetheless attempted to alert me, the owner’s stream of consciousness began. First, “Watch 52 weeks of reefing”. I ask why he’s getting out of it, and he replies, “I just needed to upgrade to something bigger”. With one last gesture of good luck, he provided me parts of the plumbing for the pre-drilled bean animal overflow.
My journey had begun.
I brought it home, and got to work learning. When I pulled up the first 52 weeks of reefing video, I knew I was in for a journey. I bought some dry rock, sand, salt and some live rock. Then came the trip to Home Depot for two 35 gallon trash cans and a freshwater top-off Rubbermaid. BRS was like a taste of an addiction, and they sold me a 5 stage RODI, a pump, powerheads, heater, ATO, and I got to work curing the rocks in the circulating saltwater of a dark trash can. The room for the job needed to be the lobby of a duplex house. November turned to December and December to January. I chose a single T5 with two Kessler A80 LEDs.
Winter melted into spring, and still, I only had circulating saltwater. The day came to install the bean animal on the tank. It took a lot of gluing, trial and error to get the tank circulating. Yet, by spring of 2019, the tank was tightness tested and circulating water.
There was no outlet in the lobby. All the work I did to start the tank going was with a trusty 3-plug extension cord run from the basement through a storage little crawlspace under the lobby seat. A new circuit had to be installed by electricians. How much electricity was needed? I ran some rough math and I asked for a 20 Amp circuit with a GFCI. By beginning of summer, the electric was in paving the way for the reef to begin.
All that was left to prepare for the first inhabitants, was lighting. The T5 and and the Keslers fit right into the hood. At 11:22PM on 6/24/19, the reef lit up lIke midday, and the tank was fish and coral ready for the first time. Eleven days later on August 4th, the Apex arrived. With the quarantine tank ready in the waiting, all that was left to find were fish and corals.
As reefers, we have what might be called, “The Reefer’s Dilemma”. Our pets are environmentally impactful. The tanks that serve as their homes suck energy, use chemicals, and can steal fish out of the ocean. Yet, keeping our reefs is joyful, mentally stimulating, and serves as an environmental education (to us, friends and family). To address The Reefer’s Dilemma within me, I caused the install of an 11 MWh solar system, themed my tank South Pacific, and vowed to buy only acquacultured fish and corals. The solar watt array served to offsite the carbon use of electricity from the new reef. The theme served to keep all my animals together with other animals they would encounter in the ocean. Lastly, the acquaculture ensures that my impact on the wild reefs is kept to a minimum.
With my vision clear, infrastructure in place, and tank at “all systems go”, the obstacles had been removed. .
The pictures below
