Are we having fun yet?

[mah0031]

Been reading on here a long time so it's time to start a tank thread. Being hard of hearing and hard headed I like to do things the hard way. Like hey lets take up RC Helicopters! Don't ask for any help do a bunch of reading form any source ,gather up some stuff make what you can to do it cheaper go for it.By the time I was done could hover any direction but once it got over 30 feet in the air my pocketbook made my knees shake and I had to come back down.Every time you crash it's couple hundred at least.Need to find less stressful hobby.
Son in law find new 37 gallon tank lid & filter setting on the curb brings it to me. Stick some freshwater fish in like the old days. That got boring fast always loved looking at salt water stuff at the fish store. Get on the old trusty internet start reading. Before long had a couple clownfish, add a couple more cheap ones then some more. Get out the old ruler start measuring fish (Shoot getting up to the max per five gallon rule) Better get a bigger tank
Buy a used 75 gallon on craigslist it was old enough the glass was in bad shape leak checked it tried to clean up the glass, final rinse cracked it. Well shoot now I have a base and no tank. Here we go again to the local FS pick up a new tank didn't have the foresight to buy drilled tank after all just going to be fish only tank not a reef tank. I had one canister filter planned to buy another that will get me started. Some dead rock some dead sand lets start a fish less cycle I read about. Here is the start October 2015

 

[Brew12]

Been reading on here a long time so it's time to start a tank thread. Being hard of hearing and hard headed I like to do things the hard way. Like hey lets take up RC Helicopters! Don't ask for any help do a bunch of reading form any source ,gather up some stuff make what you can to do it cheaper go for it.By the time I was done could hover any direction but once it got over 30 feet in the air my pocketbook made my knees shake and I had to come back down.Every time you crash it's couple hundred at least.Need to find less stressful hobby.
Son in law find new 37 gallon tank lid & filter setting on the curb brings it to me. Stick some freshwater fish in like the old days. That got boring fast always loved looking at salt water stuff at the fish store. Get on the old trusty internet start reading. Before long had a couple clownfish, add a couple more cheap ones then some more. Get out the old ruler start measuring fish (Shoot getting up to the max per five gallon rule) Better get a bigger tank
Buy a used 75 gallon on craigslist it was old enough the glass was in bad shape leak checked it tried to clean up the glass, final rinse cracked it. Well shoot now I have a base and no tank. Here we go again to the local FS pick up a new tank didn't have the foresight to buy drilled tank after all just going to be fish only tank not a reef tank. I had one canister filter planned to buy another that will get me started. Some dead rock some dead sand lets start a fish less cycle I read about. Here is the start October 2015

So much better than doing things the easy way!

 

[mah0031]

Well it took like FOREEVER but finally cycled. I did get fed up with it and added a bag of live sand and couple chunks of live rock. Been up and running 10-12 weeks. Early 2016

Add a few fish and we are on our way !! Of course that didn't last long, lets not pick fish on comparability but important stuff like looks, price especially price !!Ohoo look pretty corals. Start reading again ! The 2 bulb t8 light fixture is not going to do it gave some thought of building my own. Guess not Ebay to the rescue found 6 bulb t5 with led night light for less than $150 Canister filters not going to cut it either guess I'll build a refugium. More on that latter! One thing I thought was cool when I started was checking water, did you have a chemistry set when you were younger you add this and it turns blue add this and it turns red, but it didn't mean anything to ya. Now it dose, so water check day is like revisiting my childhood with purpose.
One thing I always fought was getting the salt mix right I had every manual measuring devise known to man (all cheap ones of course) and non of them gave the same answer! Broke down and picked up a Milwaukee Seawater Refractometer best money I ever spent.While I'm on the subject of testing I have tried all makes of tests,I use Hanna for dkh and phosphorus, had calcium tester could not get consistent results with it I now use Red Sea for ALL other test, while they may have more steps than others and they do take longer to get results I have had good luck with them and most importantly I trust them