bigbugoutfitters
Active Member
4-13-23 update
My 75 started leaking easter morning, major bummer! To make things worse the dollar per gallon sale ended so i was unable to score a cheap replacement. On the bright side, i was able to make some changes I had been wanting to make.
I ended up not caring for the width of the 75 as a peninsula tank and had already been thinking about getting a new tank. In a perfect world i would have gotten a tank with the dimensions 36x30x18 as a replacement peninsula. Unfortunately we live in a far from perfect world so i purchased an aqueon 60 breeder that i was able to place on the old stand. I am much happier woth how my office is arranged now, although it has taken me all week to get to where i am now.
Original post:
So first off, it is a rare moment that i am not around water. I spend about 200 days a year in my drift boat or duck hunting boat, about 120 of those being up here in northwest montana on the kootenai river for work(i like to tell people that i have a fake job). Another 40-80 days a year i am wade fishing small streams or in swamps/marshes/lakes duck hunting. So overall i am either fishing or just wallowing around in water around 280 days every given year.
I spend the other 85ish days a year helping my wife with her gunsmithing work or tying flies for myself for my work season. Some years ill tie up to 4000. Former house was a point of sale 2 bedroom rental that was slowly sinking causing the house to have a respectable tilt, spare bedroom was storage/babies room for our 4 month old. This didnt leave much room for our flytying and gunsmithing. In may we moved into a 3 bedroom with a garage, and needless to say baby has her own room, storage moved out of the house and to the garage, and the spare bedroom has been turned into our office!
I noticed as we were moving in that they had an area built into to the wall for a small drilled fish tank… my wife noticed as well, and she said she thought that it would be fun to have a tank again. She may as well have brought a six pack to an AA meeting and thrown me a bottle opener.
A little more backstory… i promise im getting to the good stuff. Ive had fish tanks on and off since i was 5 or 6. First bass and bluegill i would catch at the local lakes, then cichlids, then a fowler, then a little reef, then a… you onow how it goes. When i first really started dating my wife i had a 90 gallon mixed reef and a 29 gallon frogfish(pacman may you rest in peace, why did you have to eat that whole frag plug, why!). Shortly after life happened and i just haven’t had the right opportunity to start back into the hobby. This was around 2017 or so.
ANYWAYS, ive got 85 days that im not out fishing or hearing the sound of moving water each year. That obviously wasnt going to do so i am nearing completion of a 75 gallon peninsula for our office that divides our work desks.
Equipment is as follows:
75 gallon aqueon tank 48.5x18.5x 21.25
Custom stand: 60x20.5x32
Lifereef overflow
Jebao dcq 5000 return pump
Reef octopus classic 110 s
Custom 29 gallon sump with space for an 8 gallon refugium.
2 ai prime 16hd
1 quanta reefcrest
1 jebao gyre 80
1 1250 gph aqueon circulation pump
200 watt finnex heater
45 pounds of dry rock and 15 pounds of live rock from an established tank .
40 lbs ocean direct sand
A significant amount of superglue
Hanna checkers for alk, ca, and phosphate, api nitrate, getting hanna nitrate checker next week.
Tunze ato.
Livestock
1 dusky wrasse
1 yellowhead wrasse
1 snowflake eel
1 longnose hawkfish
1 yellowtail damsel
inverts
1 pencil urchin
1 conch
1 tuxedo urchin
corals
rusty gorg
purple ribbon gorg
green cabbage leather
pavona
Gsp isolated island
F. Ricordea mushrooms
Yuma mushrooms
Superman rodh. Mushrooms
1 discosoma mushroom
Neon green acropora
Green stylo
Two different red monti caps
2 types of monti digi
Dragonfruit monti
Neon monti spongodes
Seasons greetings monti
Current tank photo 10-4-22
My 75 started leaking easter morning, major bummer! To make things worse the dollar per gallon sale ended so i was unable to score a cheap replacement. On the bright side, i was able to make some changes I had been wanting to make.
I ended up not caring for the width of the 75 as a peninsula tank and had already been thinking about getting a new tank. In a perfect world i would have gotten a tank with the dimensions 36x30x18 as a replacement peninsula. Unfortunately we live in a far from perfect world so i purchased an aqueon 60 breeder that i was able to place on the old stand. I am much happier woth how my office is arranged now, although it has taken me all week to get to where i am now.
Original post:
So first off, it is a rare moment that i am not around water. I spend about 200 days a year in my drift boat or duck hunting boat, about 120 of those being up here in northwest montana on the kootenai river for work(i like to tell people that i have a fake job). Another 40-80 days a year i am wade fishing small streams or in swamps/marshes/lakes duck hunting. So overall i am either fishing or just wallowing around in water around 280 days every given year.
I spend the other 85ish days a year helping my wife with her gunsmithing work or tying flies for myself for my work season. Some years ill tie up to 4000. Former house was a point of sale 2 bedroom rental that was slowly sinking causing the house to have a respectable tilt, spare bedroom was storage/babies room for our 4 month old. This didnt leave much room for our flytying and gunsmithing. In may we moved into a 3 bedroom with a garage, and needless to say baby has her own room, storage moved out of the house and to the garage, and the spare bedroom has been turned into our office!
I noticed as we were moving in that they had an area built into to the wall for a small drilled fish tank… my wife noticed as well, and she said she thought that it would be fun to have a tank again. She may as well have brought a six pack to an AA meeting and thrown me a bottle opener.
A little more backstory… i promise im getting to the good stuff. Ive had fish tanks on and off since i was 5 or 6. First bass and bluegill i would catch at the local lakes, then cichlids, then a fowler, then a little reef, then a… you onow how it goes. When i first really started dating my wife i had a 90 gallon mixed reef and a 29 gallon frogfish(pacman may you rest in peace, why did you have to eat that whole frag plug, why!). Shortly after life happened and i just haven’t had the right opportunity to start back into the hobby. This was around 2017 or so.
ANYWAYS, ive got 85 days that im not out fishing or hearing the sound of moving water each year. That obviously wasnt going to do so i am nearing completion of a 75 gallon peninsula for our office that divides our work desks.
Equipment is as follows:
75 gallon aqueon tank 48.5x18.5x 21.25
Custom stand: 60x20.5x32
Lifereef overflow
Jebao dcq 5000 return pump
Reef octopus classic 110 s
Custom 29 gallon sump with space for an 8 gallon refugium.
2 ai prime 16hd
1 quanta reefcrest
1 jebao gyre 80
1 1250 gph aqueon circulation pump
200 watt finnex heater
45 pounds of dry rock and 15 pounds of live rock from an established tank .
40 lbs ocean direct sand
A significant amount of superglue
Hanna checkers for alk, ca, and phosphate, api nitrate, getting hanna nitrate checker next week.
Tunze ato.
Livestock
1 dusky wrasse
1 yellowhead wrasse
1 snowflake eel
1 longnose hawkfish
1 yellowtail damsel
inverts
1 pencil urchin
1 conch
1 tuxedo urchin
corals
rusty gorg
purple ribbon gorg
green cabbage leather
pavona
Gsp isolated island
F. Ricordea mushrooms
Yuma mushrooms
Superman rodh. Mushrooms
1 discosoma mushroom
Neon green acropora
Green stylo
Two different red monti caps
2 types of monti digi
Dragonfruit monti
Neon monti spongodes
Seasons greetings monti
Current tank photo 10-4-22
Last edited:
