Hello - old aquarist trying to get back into it

I had a 180 Oceanic tank with saltwater fish and some easy corals for years. (sadly killed alot of cute fish over the years). Sold the tank and house and move aboard a boat for 12 yrs...now back on dirt and looking to setup another tank. WOW things have changed...my old Metal Halide lights appear to have gone out of favor. My sump with blue bio-balls appears to be old school too.
I am surprised how hard it is to find a good fish/coral store in Florida. So far one store is advising against rimless tanks (owner has seen too many seal failures) and the other store is 15-25% higher than online. Today I went to shop for a Eshopps S-200 skimmer and the shop is $70 higher than Eshopps website.
Anyway...I am gonna figure this out and hope to have a tank 90-120 gallon with some fish by Christmas.
Welcome to R2R and back to reefing. Lots of knowledgable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.
 
Hey! Welcome to R2R!! Personally, I have 6 tanks and every single one is rimless, I’ve never had a problem. Definitely invest in a better brand like IM (innovative marine), Red Sea, or WaterBox. These seem to have pretty good track records. I still use the blue bioballs along with filter floss for filtration in my AIO tanks, the bioballs also go into the sumps of the larger tanks. Good luck with finding a tank and LFS that works for you!
 
Hello and welcome to R2R!

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I'm in Cape Coral and there are a number of LFS in the Cape and Ft Myers area. There is also a local club, although it's starting to go downhill IMHO. But they have a good website/forum at: https://www.swfmas.com/forum/

There is a page there that lists most of the local stores along with hour (maybe old data due to COVID-19).

They are doing a field trip (annual event) to the Florida Keys to go snorkeling the weekend of June 27th & 28th. My wife and I are going down during the week (less crowded).

Personally, I do most of my shopping online as most of the LFS are more about fish and corals than about hardware.

I've been in the hobby about 20 years. At one point I had 4 tanks totaling 600g of saltwater in the house. Now I just have a DIY 90g rimless reef tank (36x30x20) and a 16g Rock Flower Anemone breeding tank. Photo is from the setup in January 2020.

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If you want to chat, send me a PM. We can even exchange emails or phone numbers there if you want.
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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