Back after 20 years!

[ksliech]

Hi everyone!

Back in the early 2000's I was a very heavy reefs.org user (monkeyboy if anyone's from that era!), and after taking down my tank back in 2004, I'm finally back baby! Currently in the design phase of my new tank, which will be either a Cade REEF 600 or 900 S2. Yowza have things changed in the intervening 20 years. Here's what I've noticed:

• The deep live sand beds are gone! Where are those 6" DLSBs?!
• Folks are less afraid of nitrates! (this was a big driver of the DLSBs)
• Mechanical filtration was a big no-no, but now everybody's got a ReefMat! Kind of a slick innovation, solving the problem of wanting to get some mechanical filtration in there without having it constantly submerged
• Out with the metal halides and in with the LEDs!
• The style of lighting today seems to be shifted more towards the blue end of the spectrum vs the warmer lighting I'm used to. I suspect this has to do with optimizing for PAR, but I'm still trying to understand.
• The pumps are all DC with variable speed! A true miracle.
• reefs.org is apparently looong gone
• Everyone here seems super nice!

I now embark on figuring out what kind of lighting and filtration setup to do, and will get a build thread going once I make some moves. In the mean time, just wanted to say hi and share some pics of my tank at its peak in 2003. It was a 4'x2'x2' 120G tank with a custom AquaC sump with refugium and skimmer, 2x400W 6500k MH w/ 2x110W actinics, precision marine calcium reactor. Highlights were the great SPS growth, breeding banggai cardinals, a rhomboid fairy wrasse that took ages to track down and procure, and my beloved mystery wrasse.

 

[revhtree]

Welcome to your new home for saltwater reef aquarium resources and fun! Welcome to the family!

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Welcome to Reef2reef!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Reefer Matt]

 

[danenelsen]

Hi everyone!

Back in the early 2000's I was a very heavy reefs.org user (monkeyboy if anyone's from that era!), and after taking down my tank back in 2004, I'm finally back baby! Currently in the design phase of my new tank, which will be either a Cade REEF 600 or 900 S2. Yowza have things changed in the intervening 20 years. Here's what I've noticed:

• The deep live sand beds are gone! Where are those 6" DLSBs?!
• Folks are less afraid of nitrates! (this was a big driver of the DLSBs)
• Mechanical filtration was a big no-no, but now everybody's got a ReefMat! Kind of a slick innovation, solving the problem of wanting to get some mechanical filtration in there without having it constantly submerged
• Out with the metal halides and in with the LEDs!
• The style of lighting today seems to be shifted more towards the blue end of the spectrum vs the warmer lighting I'm used to. I suspect this has to do with optimizing for PAR, but I'm still trying to understand.
• The pumps are all DC with variable speed! A true miracle.
• reefs.org is apparently looong gone
• Everyone here seems super nice!

I now embark on figuring out what kind of lighting and filtration setup to do, and will get a build thread going once I make some moves. In the mean time, just wanted to say hi and share some pics of my tank at its peak in 2003. It was a 4'x2'x2' 120G tank with a custom AquaC sump with refugium and skimmer, 2x400W 6500k MH w/ 2x110W actinics, precision marine calcium reactor. Highlights were the great SPS growth, breeding banggai cardinals, a rhomboid fairy wrasse that took ages to track down and procure, and my beloved mystery wrasse.

That’s an incredible looking aquarium! I’m pretty new, but I’m sure the industry has changed a lot in the last two decades. Welcome back!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

a warm welcome! your tank looks amazing!

 

[Doctorgori]

welcome

 

[CO2TLEY]

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

So many new things out there. Welcome back

 

[crazyfishmom]

Welcome!!!!! Excited to see how your tank progresses once you get it going!

 

[PharmrJohn]

Dude. I thought stuff had changed after 12 years out! But 20 years? Yeah, you've got some studying to do! I addition to learning all about the new and improved hardware, there is SO MUCH MORE information in general. The detail to which things are explained is astounding. I suppose most of it was out there, but the Internet was young and the world was much bigger. Now, that information highway is such that one can find everything about anything. Quite a marvel. And it hit home when you mentioned your reef site was gone. I used to be a 3reef guy. It's long gone as well. You'll like it here man. So Greetings and Welcome to our collective obsession!

 

[DDenny]

 

[jsker]

 

[zheka757]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Idech]

Hello and welcome ! I’m very interested about how things used to be done in the past. I’ll be following your build thread for sure !

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Welcome to reef2reef!!!!!

 

[Ocean_Queenie]

Hello & Welcome!

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Hi everyone!

Back in the early 2000's I was a very heavy reefs.org user (monkeyboy if anyone's from that era!), and after taking down my tank back in 2004, I'm finally back baby! Currently in the design phase of my new tank, which will be either a Cade REEF 600 or 900 S2. Yowza have things changed in the intervening 20 years. Here's what I've noticed:

• The deep live sand beds are gone! Where are those 6" DLSBs?!
• Folks are less afraid of nitrates! (this was a big driver of the DLSBs)
• Mechanical filtration was a big no-no, but now everybody's got a ReefMat! Kind of a slick innovation, solving the problem of wanting to get some mechanical filtration in there without having it constantly submerged
• Out with the metal halides and in with the LEDs!
• The style of lighting today seems to be shifted more towards the blue end of the spectrum vs the warmer lighting I'm used to. I suspect this has to do with optimizing for PAR, but I'm still trying to understand.
• The pumps are all DC with variable speed! A true miracle.
• reefs.org is apparently looong gone
• Everyone here seems super nice!

I now embark on figuring out what kind of lighting and filtration setup to do, and will get a build thread going once I make some moves. In the mean time, just wanted to say hi and share some pics of my tank at its peak in 2003. It was a 4'x2'x2' 120G tank with a custom AquaC sump with refugium and skimmer, 2x400W 6500k MH w/ 2x110W actinics, precision marine calcium reactor. Highlights were the great SPS growth, breeding banggai cardinals, a rhomboid fairy wrasse that took ages to track down and procure, and my beloved mystery wrasse.

Welcome back i remember you dude i swear i remember your user name, i was on there as ClamCrazy i had a big clam collection i was always posting pics of, a few more things I could let you win on that’s changed over the past 20 years not only is Nitrates a bad thing anymore neither are phosphates, you can run your phosphates a little higher than the .003 that everyone likes to be at, I’m at .25 at times and nitrate at 40 and my Corals absolutely love it, as far as Lighting goes like you, I am the old metal halide guy and if you’re looking for some LEDs that are as close to metal halide as you can get, you might want to go with the Kessil’s, proteins skimmers are a thing of the past awesome my friend algae scrubbers are the way to go. They are absolutely amazing, the people you hear speaking ill of them are the guys that haven’t used one yet but they are a complete game changer, feel free to hit me up if you need any info on anything I have a Lotta good connections for livestock as well I could set you up with, people are spending thousands of dollars just for one mushroom these days. It’s absolutely crazy.

 

[Buckster]

Hello and Welcome back to the hobby and to R2R! Your tank looked awesome. I'm sure your new build will be just as good if not better