Reefer M4dness
Community Member
My wife and I are both new hobbyists with absolutely no saltwater experience. We have kept freshwater tanks in the past but after purchasing our new home we wanted to add a reef to our dining area. We conducted a few weeks worth of Internet research and scoured CL for an affordable set up to get us started. After finding several potential starter tanks we settled on a 36" 60gal rimless that was already up and running, livestock included.
After packing the entire set up in the back of the SUV we spent the rest of the evening tying to make water and re assemble all the pumps, lights, timers and hoses. Finally at 4am, we had liftoff. Things ran smooth for a few days, until we had a catastrophic sump failed that led to more than a few gallons of seawater dripping through the floor. I hastily through together an emergency sump out of a Rubbermaid box that didn't quite fit the cabinet and away we went. (Pictures below)
Now that we are all set up and have our lighting and feeding schedules ironed out we are doing our best to identify everything we bought so we can care for them properly as well as maintain the best water quality possible. Unfortunately we inherited a bit of green hair algae problem but Included in the deal were a testing kits, a UV sterilizer and an RO\DI filter system, so we are doing our best to rid our tank of the green stuff.
We have not added anything new to the tank yet because we are still trying to get to know everything we already have. I will include a bit of a photo dump of all the "stuff" in our tank. At the end I will put a few pictures of corals/frags and would be grateful if some of you more experienced reefers could help me identify exactly what we have.
After packing the entire set up in the back of the SUV we spent the rest of the evening tying to make water and re assemble all the pumps, lights, timers and hoses. Finally at 4am, we had liftoff. Things ran smooth for a few days, until we had a catastrophic sump failed that led to more than a few gallons of seawater dripping through the floor. I hastily through together an emergency sump out of a Rubbermaid box that didn't quite fit the cabinet and away we went. (Pictures below)
Now that we are all set up and have our lighting and feeding schedules ironed out we are doing our best to identify everything we bought so we can care for them properly as well as maintain the best water quality possible. Unfortunately we inherited a bit of green hair algae problem but Included in the deal were a testing kits, a UV sterilizer and an RO\DI filter system, so we are doing our best to rid our tank of the green stuff.
We have not added anything new to the tank yet because we are still trying to get to know everything we already have. I will include a bit of a photo dump of all the "stuff" in our tank. At the end I will put a few pictures of corals/frags and would be grateful if some of you more experienced reefers could help me identify exactly what we have.
It's nice that both you and your wife are venturing into the hobby together 
