*** Tank Talk with Top Lids & Avast Marine Giveaway!! WIN a Plank Autofeeder and Custom Lid for Your Tank!! ***

[Nate Chalk]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

My biggest achievement is and has been beating dinos .. much manual cleaning. Coral death. Cleaning. And booger slime.

Friends and mentors kept me in this hobby.

Proud to call those who I've come in contact with my friends and will support them however I can.

Automation helped a ton but it was a ton of work still.

 

[Reef Wizard]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

I think my proudest moment is getting rid of GHA for the first time. Its like raking leaves the more you remove the more it seems to come but persistence and patience won the day.

 

[El Toro]

OFFICIAL ENTRY
what a great way to learn about customer's needs!
Feeder: I havent taken a vacation this year and really need a good feeder for my Chromis school who get fed 5 times a day.
Tank Top: My corner tank had a broken glass lid when I bought it. No easy way to fit something on top so my tank is wide open currently. Great to have a new custom corner tank lid.

 

[El Toro]

OFFICIAL ENTRY
what a great way to learn about customer's needs!
Feeder: I havent taken a vacation this year and really need a good feeder for my Chromis school who get fed 5 times a day.
Tank Top: My corner tank had a broken glass lid when I bought it. No easy way to fit something on top so my tank is wide open currently. Great to have a new custom corner tank lid.

I am a Supporting member of this great Reef Hobby website.

 

[Trixter227]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

Not super significant hounstly. Ive managed to keep my reef running for over 2 years. Maybe not in great shape. But i have a issue jumping hobby to hobby so i pat myself on the back with a upgrade to do it "the right way"

 

[Fossilman06]

Avast Marine and Top Lids are teaming up to bring you an awesome and fun giveaway with a bit of a different spin!! Welcome to the "Tank Talk with Top Lids & Avast Marine Giveaway!!" Both Avast Marine and Top Lids have established themselves with a reputation for quality and innovation that leads to epic excellence! We're proud to have both of these great companies as sponsors of our community, and super excited about seeing them come together for this event!

Now, I said this giveaway has a bit of a different spin to it, and here's what I mean... One of the things we love about having a community like Reef2Reef is that we can come together over our passion for all things marine and celebrate the wonderful parts of the reef hobby, we enjoy showing off tanks, talking through complications, finding solutions, and celebrating progress toward those thriving beautiful reef aquariums, and we do all of that together in community! Well, in this event, you guys are going to get to talk through all of these different aspects of the hobby with the guys behind these 2 awesome brands.

Each day, you will be given a discussion prompt (or sometimes maybe more than one), and your response to that prompt is your entry to the giveaway! It really is that simple! Engaging in conversation about reefing topics with @Avast Justin and @Top_Lids is how you participate and WIN in this contest!!

The grand prize for this giveaway is a Plank Autofeeder and a large bag of Reef Jerky (feeds an average size tank for 5-6 months) from Avast Marine and a custom Luxury Lid from Top Lids w/ Food Regulator!

Also, in addition to that grand prize, the great folks at Avast Marine and Top Lids have said that they will be monitoring the giveaway with the plan to award bonus prizes to people they see who are completely engaged with the contest and the ongoing conversations in here! So keep your participation up, and you could win cool bonus prizes!

Ready to get started? Here ya go!

HOW TO ENTER

OFFICIAL ENTRY (Required): Make a post in this thread telling us about your tank and how you would use this prize if you win!

DAILY ENTRY OPPORTUNITIES: Here's how to get additional entries each day... Each day, one (or both) of the contest sponsors will post a discussion prompt. You get an entry to the contest by interacting with that prompt! (If there are multiple prompts, then multiple entries are possible for that day). Also, be sure to make ONE post in THIS thread for each entry. (Combined entries in a single post only counts as one entry.)

The goal is to keep the conversation going, learn and enjoy community, and win great prizes!!

BONUS ENTRY FOR R2R SUPPORTING & PARTNER MEMBERS: This is an entry option that is only available if you are a Reef2Reef Supporting or PartnerMember. If you are a supporting/partner member please make a post in this thread stating that you are a R2R supporter/partner. Our partner member drive is currently open! Get more info HERE!!

THE PRIZE

- 1 Plank Autofeeder from Avast Marine + a large bag of Reef Jerky (feeds an average size tank for 5-6 months)

- 1 completely custom Luxury Lid from Top Lids (max size of 72" x 26") + 1 Food Regulator with your choice of color

THE DRAWING

Entries will be accepted through December 22, 2023. We will choose the winner via a random number generator. The winner will be announced by Avast Marine and Top Lids in a special live stream on December 23rd. So be sure to join in for that drawing! (We will also tage the winner in this thread.)

Thanks again to Avast Marine and Top Lids for this awesome giveaway!

#r2rgiveaway

Very nice. That lid looks great and would be perfect for keeping my cat out. The auto feeder is clutch and would be perfect for business trips.

 

[GuppyHJD]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

I had a saltwater tank 15 yrs ago. Back then my lights were MH, the aquascape was tonga and figi rock, corals were few and far between, and the fish available were impressive. Two yrs ago, I setup a new system. Wow, things have changed. Unfortunately, my tank had LCA dinos. It took six months of testing, dosing and getting the parameters where they need to be.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I had a saltwater tank 15 yrs ago. Back then my lights were MH, the aquascape was tonga and figi rock, corals were few and far between, and the fish available were impressive. Two yrs ago, I setup a new system. Wow, things have changed. Unfortunately, my tank had LCA dinos. It took six months of testing, dosing and getting the parameters where they need to be.

Same here! And was it worth it. Yes.

 

[mww00ds]

Official Entry: I would actually like a proper top for either my 13.5 fluval with HOB refuge or for my 35 gal bowfront. Both currently have a piece of plexiglass that I was able to take from work before they trashed the them for scrape. I cut the piece to "fit" my tops but neither really does.

 

[mww00ds]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

Only been in the hobby for a few years, so. But one I was finally able to get past the ugly stage in my tank and get originally the aptiasia out of my first tank. Then I finally felt like I was doing something right. Then once I got past that point it was nice to see my corals start to not just survive but to grow and thrive. I was a master at killing xenia, gsp, and Kenya trees originally. Now my 13.5 has a nice pulsing xenia forest above with a RFA garden growing nicely below. Even find a baby RFA tonight.

 

[tbrown]

I had a saltwater tank 15 yrs ago. Back then my lights were MH, the aquascape was tonga and figi rock, corals were few and far between, and the fish available were impressive. Two yrs ago, I setup a new system. Wow, things have changed. Unfortunately, my tank had LCA dinos. It took six months of testing, dosing and getting the parameters where they need to be.

My first reef tank was a 75 I got at a thrift store. They had it marked $15 but gave it to me for $5 because they didn't know if it held water. I got home, bought a 250 watt MH, got some playground sand, and found some branches of dead coral somewhere... That was my tank and aquascape for a while until I started stacking some chunks of granite my buddy got from the ocean down south. I got the nasties a LOT (most likely from too much white light plus the kitchen window and from the silicates).

Ah the good old days.

 

[RJT]

Most significant achievement is the first time I was able to keep leopard wrasses. Now I always have at least one in my tank. At one time I had a dozen, pairs of all kinds. That when I realized very well how aggressive the Vermiculate leopard wrasses can be really mean.

 

[RJT]

I don't have any old equipment the old led lights that I had by Reef breeders lasted over 9 years until it seemed corals didn't like it anymore. I recently disposed of them.

 

[Mschmidt]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

I'm probably going with perseverance through fish and coral death. In money alone I've lost more in the reef than I have invested in my fresh water setups. Maybe my achievement should be learning from those mistakes. Now I have a serviceable reef with growing coral and fat, happy fish. And an increased temperance for spending!

 

[ctenophore]

TANK TALK: Post a picture of your oldest piece of aquarium equipment. Whether it's a vintage skimmer, an ancient test kit, or a relic from the early days of your reefing journey, share the story behind it for entry into the giveaway.

I think I can answer my own topic, right?
I got this book sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. I was a teenager Obsessed with saltwater tanks. I think my first tank with corals was 1991. I remember trying to build my own wet-dry/sump out of 1/8" acrylic sheet. I cut the panels by scoring and snapping them. It leaked horribly. I think I finally got it patched up well enough to hold water. Then I had to brace it between the back of the stand and the wall or it would bow out and pop a glue joint. Somehow my parents let me keep this thing on their carpet in the living room where it ran for several years

 

[ctenophore]

Interesting! I've run MH, T5, T12, and LEDs over the past 30+ years I've been doing aquariums (I actually started with the old 10 gallon with regular light bulbs). Living in Arizona, the heat distribution of the LEDs works a lot better, but it makes sense as watts are watts, ri?

Yes, and a photon is a photon. They all work to drive photosynthesis. The spectrum just makes corals look better by exciting various fluorescent pigments to give off pretty other colored light. I was curious about this so I tossed a few long polyp toadstool leathers in the algae reactor section of my sump, which is all red light. They look perfect and are growing nicely under a spectrum that you'd think wouldn't grow corals at all.

 

[ctenophore]

TANK TALK: Reflect on your most significant reefing achievement or milestone. Whether it's successfully keeping a challenging coral or achieving a stable and thriving reef, share the moment that made you most proud as a reefer.

For me this was probably keeping acropora in 1995 or so. At the time, it was practically unheard of outside of the public aquariums or the experts in FAMA like Julian Sprung and friends. I worked at a LFS in FL, and they got in a few pacific acroporas. The owner gave me one since I was the resident coral nerd. It was brown but did grow! I believe it was under VHO bulbs which was barely adequate at the time. I got my first MH setup soon after.

 

[tbrown]

I think I can answer my own topic, right?
I got this book sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. I was a teenager Obsessed with saltwater tanks. I think my first tank with corals was 1991. I remember trying to build my own wet-dry/sump out of 1/8" acrylic sheet. I cut the panels by scoring and snapping them. It leaked horribly. I think I finally got it patched up well enough to hold water. Then I had to brace it between the back of the stand and the wall or it would bow out and pop a glue joint. Somehow my parents let me keep this thing on their carpet in the living room where it ran for several years

My Mom recently gave me a similar book. I'm not sure where it is right now but it's a coffee table Marine Fish book. The book was too big for my parents' new house and she doesn't keep reef tanks anymore. She got it back in the mid 90s and it made it through 3 moves across state lines before she handed it off to me.

 

[Nate Chalk]

I think I can answer my own topic, right?
I got this book sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. I was a teenager Obsessed with saltwater tanks. I think my first tank with corals was 1991. I remember trying to build my own wet-dry/sump out of 1/8" acrylic sheet. I cut the panels by scoring and snapping them. It leaked horribly. I think I finally got it patched up well enough to hold water. Then I had to brace it between the back of the stand and the wall or it would bow out and pop a glue joint. Somehow my parents let me keep this thing on their carpet in the living room where it ran for several years

Super cool story . I too am obsessed and diy. Built the tank from sheet glass and sump from acrylic. Luckily have a close acrylic shop that will cut to spec straight cuts. Fabrication for a top is beyond my skill set currently. But man is acrylic fun to work with...

 

[rnb]

a lid would be awesome for my new aio build