M1i1t1c1h1
Community Member
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2020
- Messages
- 38
- Reaction score
- 45
Hello, my name is Mitch and this is my second attempt at reefing.
I started about 7ish years ago with a 50 gallon tank. With extremely limited information, I ended up failing after about a year. On top of my own inexperience and knowledge, a large part of it was because I was going to a horrible local pet store who (in retrospect) was trying to take advantage of a young kid rather than help out a new reefer.
I ended up having to get rid of my tank the night after it almost set my house on fire. Being young and dumb I didn't know better and had all of my equipment plugged into 1 circuit. One night I woke up to the smell of smoke. I walked out of my room and I could barley see 2 feet in front of me! Thankfully there was no actual fire, just a severely melted powerbar. After the firefighters were called and they made sure everything was okay, my Mom made me get rid of my tank.
7 years later and I'm ready to take another crack at it! I have a house of my own and I'm married with a 6 month old. This time I am doing things right! I am an electrical apprentice now so I ran 2 separate 20 amp GFI protected circuits dedicated for my tank (which is now 125 gallons). Right now I am cleansing my old aquarium rocks (on week 2 right now). I set them up in a dark room with a heater, protein skimmer, and some pumps for flow. I added a bottle of bleach in approx. 40 gallons of water. This week I did a 75% water change and filled it back up with just fresh water. I am going to do this for a total of 1 month.
I started doing research many months ago. I'm sure MANY people here have heard of Bulk Reef Supply and there many awesome youtube videos! I have been studying them for a while now.
My tank goals are as such:
125 gallon bare bottom tank with like corals
Approx. 40 gallon sump/refugium
Chaeto in the sump along with copepods
UV sterilizer running at approx. 360gph to kill algae blooms
Temporarily I am going to manually dose trace elements (still researching different kits but I am open to suggestiongs) but I plan on getting a calcium reactor down the road if things continue to work out
running an undersized protein skimmer
media blocks
and weekly 10% water changes to start
I am going for a semi ULM method (ultra low maintenance method from Bulk Reef Supply) or something similar. Ultimately I know it is going to largely depend on what I actually want in my tank in regards to corals. I don't want anything super fancy in terms of fish. For now I am happy to have common damzels, tangs, etc. although down the road I might want to get a mandarin.
I am looking forward to meeting many other reefers in the community! Unfortunately at this stage it's unlikely that I will be able to be of assistance to people asking questions, but perhaps one day I will!
I started about 7ish years ago with a 50 gallon tank. With extremely limited information, I ended up failing after about a year. On top of my own inexperience and knowledge, a large part of it was because I was going to a horrible local pet store who (in retrospect) was trying to take advantage of a young kid rather than help out a new reefer.
I ended up having to get rid of my tank the night after it almost set my house on fire. Being young and dumb I didn't know better and had all of my equipment plugged into 1 circuit. One night I woke up to the smell of smoke. I walked out of my room and I could barley see 2 feet in front of me! Thankfully there was no actual fire, just a severely melted powerbar. After the firefighters were called and they made sure everything was okay, my Mom made me get rid of my tank.
7 years later and I'm ready to take another crack at it! I have a house of my own and I'm married with a 6 month old. This time I am doing things right! I am an electrical apprentice now so I ran 2 separate 20 amp GFI protected circuits dedicated for my tank (which is now 125 gallons). Right now I am cleansing my old aquarium rocks (on week 2 right now). I set them up in a dark room with a heater, protein skimmer, and some pumps for flow. I added a bottle of bleach in approx. 40 gallons of water. This week I did a 75% water change and filled it back up with just fresh water. I am going to do this for a total of 1 month.
I started doing research many months ago. I'm sure MANY people here have heard of Bulk Reef Supply and there many awesome youtube videos! I have been studying them for a while now.
My tank goals are as such:
125 gallon bare bottom tank with like corals
Approx. 40 gallon sump/refugium
Chaeto in the sump along with copepods
UV sterilizer running at approx. 360gph to kill algae blooms
Temporarily I am going to manually dose trace elements (still researching different kits but I am open to suggestiongs) but I plan on getting a calcium reactor down the road if things continue to work out
running an undersized protein skimmer
media blocks
and weekly 10% water changes to start
I am going for a semi ULM method (ultra low maintenance method from Bulk Reef Supply) or something similar. Ultimately I know it is going to largely depend on what I actually want in my tank in regards to corals. I don't want anything super fancy in terms of fish. For now I am happy to have common damzels, tangs, etc. although down the road I might want to get a mandarin.
I am looking forward to meeting many other reefers in the community! Unfortunately at this stage it's unlikely that I will be able to be of assistance to people asking questions, but perhaps one day I will!
