innovusaquaculture
Active Member
The truth is I'm actually really bad at reefing. I've tried it several times over my life and always quit the addiction after a year or so. This is the longest, most expensive run I've ever had with my addiction. I need to admit I've killed lots of coral, fish and invertebrates. I didn't mean too. I didn't want too. I didn't just go out and buy live stuff with the intention of killing it. I just didn't know any better.
Let me tell you the whole story:
A long, long time ago I was diagnosed with a tumor in my head. It was a big one. They drilled a hole in my skull and took most of it out. That changed the course of my life pretty significantly. My professional career was over and I floundered around, pretty much useless to society. I can do some things, but not consistently enough that any employer would want me to work for them. My medical care is extremely expensive, even to this day. I work hard to contribute to society in any way I can, but money is not one of those things that is in my wheelhouse any more. But everyday my God provides for my needs and then some.
I got the opportunity to open and run a print shop as a hobby gone wild. It has been fun and I have been able to print things for the community I live in and do some work for large clients that pay to keep the shop open. It doesn't make any money, but I don't need any more than I have.
Enough of the back story.
I decided that I would build a 55 gallon reef tank in my office to grow some coral because I saw one for free on Craigslist. It was actually a gold fish tank in a tattoo place that was on a 24 in high stand in the waiting area. I didn't really think about it and set it up in my office. This was my first failure. I figured I was just going to grow some coral and it didn't really matter that I couldn't really see in the tank without sitting on the floor. I did OK for a couple of months until I flooded the tank with fresh water overnight because I left the top off water running. Reboot. I actually did the several, well OK many, times before I managed to get an auto top off system in place.
I failed again when I decided to add a "Tide Pool" tank to the 55 gallon tank. It actually over hangs the 55 gallon on a makeshift stand. I got so excited about the project when I got water in it that I put sand and rocks and fish in it. That was a mistake. I should have made a plan. I figured I would just move it later. Everything will just happen later. Later is always an option and seems to be easier then making and implementation of a good plan now. So, there it sits, and looks horrible. It is plumbed into the 55 and exchanges water with the 55.
Then I failed again. I decided I would solve the Tide Pool tank problem and the low 55 gallon tank problem by upgrading the 55 gallon tank to a 75 gallon tank and adding a sump, which a friend said I needed and I didn't disagree. So up went a dollar per gallon 75 gallon tank with a 40 gallon breeder sump. I connected it to my other two tanks and waited to start moving everything over. Then I got sentimental over the 55 and decided to keep both and just move the Tide Pool tank to it's own stand and jack up the 55 gallon tank and put bricks under the stand and make it higher. That was several months ago.
Then I failed again. A really nice guy knocked on my door and offed me a tank. What am I to do? I can always use a new tank. So I went and picked up a new, used 112 gallon tank. I thought I would surely be able to replace the 55 gallon tank with this 112 gallon tank and finally get rid of the 55 gallon tank. Then along came Ryan at BRS. Ryan managed to fill my head with visions of a completely pest and pathogen free system through a process called QT and fallow. I had to QT every fish for 45 days, every invert and coral for 76 days and let every tank that a fish was currently in for 76 days, so I started down that road. I built a 12 tank fish QT system and a 4 tank invert QT system and a 2 tank coral QT system.
Then I failed again. I decided to wait to move everything through in my current systems through the QT systems and QT fish for my 112 gallon system and I bought $1000 of coral on the WWC live sale that I really had no where to put when it came out of QT, except I knew in the back of my head that it might just motivate me to get my 4'x3' frag tank up and running. Because you know what I need like another hole in my head? Another tank.
So, I watch BRS YouTube videos and lots of others regularly because what else am I going to do while I wait for printers to print things, water changes? Who actually does water changes, not me! (Yep, another fail!) and came across Ryan sending off his tank water to AquaBiomics They offer 10 tests for a discount and I love discounts, so I sent off all of my QT tanks and every other tank I have to find out what was in each tank. I'll know next week what I've got!
This last week I set up an auto water change system on the "Main System", which is the three tanks that are all attached together and the 112 gallon system. It has now be changing out !one gallon of water per day. Roughly 150ml per hour every hour. This morning I sat in front of the 55 gallon tank for several hours. I was amazed. I have NEVER seen this tank looking as good as it does right now. I've been working at stabilizing the parameters for the last several weeks. Slowly raising the parameters to the recommended levels the Than at Tidal Gardens uses. Getting the dosing exactly right by adjusting in 5ml per day increments, not more, no less letting the Trident test for 24 hours. Being patient.
This next week I will set up the auto water change system on the frag tank. I've spread out my QT tanks all over the building, but a friend pointed out a place where they all could go in one place, so when the fish that are currently in QT come out of QT I will move all QT into one location and set up auto water changes on each individual QT tank.
This is a very long post of my first year in the reefing journey this time to say that I think I've learned something: I don't need to do every project that I think of, just because I think of it. I should probably just focus on the fundamentals of reef keeping. Just keeping things alive isn't goo enough. My doctor always says that being alive isn't good enough. He wants me to thrive. I finally know what he means. I want that for my reef.
Please take a second to check out the live stream camera inside the 112 gallon reef on YouTube @ Innovus AquaCulture YouTube. I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe and like the video. If you want to be notified of events that are going to happen in the tank, like the new fish being added this next week, click the notify bell and I'll send out notifications. Who knows, maybe I become a YouTuber!
Also, something is going to happen with the Tide Pool tank. I'll do a build thread for it.
Here is the build thread for the 112 gallon.
Let me tell you the whole story:
A long, long time ago I was diagnosed with a tumor in my head. It was a big one. They drilled a hole in my skull and took most of it out. That changed the course of my life pretty significantly. My professional career was over and I floundered around, pretty much useless to society. I can do some things, but not consistently enough that any employer would want me to work for them. My medical care is extremely expensive, even to this day. I work hard to contribute to society in any way I can, but money is not one of those things that is in my wheelhouse any more. But everyday my God provides for my needs and then some.
I got the opportunity to open and run a print shop as a hobby gone wild. It has been fun and I have been able to print things for the community I live in and do some work for large clients that pay to keep the shop open. It doesn't make any money, but I don't need any more than I have.
Enough of the back story.
I decided that I would build a 55 gallon reef tank in my office to grow some coral because I saw one for free on Craigslist. It was actually a gold fish tank in a tattoo place that was on a 24 in high stand in the waiting area. I didn't really think about it and set it up in my office. This was my first failure. I figured I was just going to grow some coral and it didn't really matter that I couldn't really see in the tank without sitting on the floor. I did OK for a couple of months until I flooded the tank with fresh water overnight because I left the top off water running. Reboot. I actually did the several, well OK many, times before I managed to get an auto top off system in place.
I failed again when I decided to add a "Tide Pool" tank to the 55 gallon tank. It actually over hangs the 55 gallon on a makeshift stand. I got so excited about the project when I got water in it that I put sand and rocks and fish in it. That was a mistake. I should have made a plan. I figured I would just move it later. Everything will just happen later. Later is always an option and seems to be easier then making and implementation of a good plan now. So, there it sits, and looks horrible. It is plumbed into the 55 and exchanges water with the 55.
Then I failed again. I decided I would solve the Tide Pool tank problem and the low 55 gallon tank problem by upgrading the 55 gallon tank to a 75 gallon tank and adding a sump, which a friend said I needed and I didn't disagree. So up went a dollar per gallon 75 gallon tank with a 40 gallon breeder sump. I connected it to my other two tanks and waited to start moving everything over. Then I got sentimental over the 55 and decided to keep both and just move the Tide Pool tank to it's own stand and jack up the 55 gallon tank and put bricks under the stand and make it higher. That was several months ago.
Then I failed again. A really nice guy knocked on my door and offed me a tank. What am I to do? I can always use a new tank. So I went and picked up a new, used 112 gallon tank. I thought I would surely be able to replace the 55 gallon tank with this 112 gallon tank and finally get rid of the 55 gallon tank. Then along came Ryan at BRS. Ryan managed to fill my head with visions of a completely pest and pathogen free system through a process called QT and fallow. I had to QT every fish for 45 days, every invert and coral for 76 days and let every tank that a fish was currently in for 76 days, so I started down that road. I built a 12 tank fish QT system and a 4 tank invert QT system and a 2 tank coral QT system.
Then I failed again. I decided to wait to move everything through in my current systems through the QT systems and QT fish for my 112 gallon system and I bought $1000 of coral on the WWC live sale that I really had no where to put when it came out of QT, except I knew in the back of my head that it might just motivate me to get my 4'x3' frag tank up and running. Because you know what I need like another hole in my head? Another tank.
So, I watch BRS YouTube videos and lots of others regularly because what else am I going to do while I wait for printers to print things, water changes? Who actually does water changes, not me! (Yep, another fail!) and came across Ryan sending off his tank water to AquaBiomics They offer 10 tests for a discount and I love discounts, so I sent off all of my QT tanks and every other tank I have to find out what was in each tank. I'll know next week what I've got!
This last week I set up an auto water change system on the "Main System", which is the three tanks that are all attached together and the 112 gallon system. It has now be changing out !one gallon of water per day. Roughly 150ml per hour every hour. This morning I sat in front of the 55 gallon tank for several hours. I was amazed. I have NEVER seen this tank looking as good as it does right now. I've been working at stabilizing the parameters for the last several weeks. Slowly raising the parameters to the recommended levels the Than at Tidal Gardens uses. Getting the dosing exactly right by adjusting in 5ml per day increments, not more, no less letting the Trident test for 24 hours. Being patient.
This next week I will set up the auto water change system on the frag tank. I've spread out my QT tanks all over the building, but a friend pointed out a place where they all could go in one place, so when the fish that are currently in QT come out of QT I will move all QT into one location and set up auto water changes on each individual QT tank.
This is a very long post of my first year in the reefing journey this time to say that I think I've learned something: I don't need to do every project that I think of, just because I think of it. I should probably just focus on the fundamentals of reef keeping. Just keeping things alive isn't goo enough. My doctor always says that being alive isn't good enough. He wants me to thrive. I finally know what he means. I want that for my reef.
Please take a second to check out the live stream camera inside the 112 gallon reef on YouTube @ Innovus AquaCulture YouTube. I would really appreciate it if you would subscribe and like the video. If you want to be notified of events that are going to happen in the tank, like the new fish being added this next week, click the notify bell and I'll send out notifications. Who knows, maybe I become a YouTuber!
Also, something is going to happen with the Tide Pool tank. I'll do a build thread for it.
Here is the build thread for the 112 gallon.
