Hello Everyone, Im new to the forums and somewhat new with coral reef tanks. Before I post up my 55 gallon tank. Here's a history of my short aquatic life and how it began.
I had a 50 gallon freshwater tank that was destroyed from the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, basically flooded a good part of the house and all the livestock did not survive. My father wanted a replacement but wanted to go to the dark side with saltwater. We acquired a 55gallon Seaclear Reef Ready tank with built in corner overflow. The 48x13x19 acrylic tank was wrapped all around with Oak cabinets. The cabinet was retrofitted with 4x48" vho Icecaps and filtered with a fluval 301 canister filter. Tank had about 100lbs of liverock, bare bottom and about 15 assorted damsels. My dad knew nothing much about saltwater tanks, he would top off the evaporated water with tapped water and only did a 10 gallon water change about once a year
hwell: Surprisingly 6 years later 12 damsels from the 15 are still alive. Then came around the bad news. I guess we really never did maintenance on the fluval canister and the impeller rotor melted causing an electrical shortage with a tank full of fish soup.:faint:
Took a break from our fishtank leaving it dry and empty for three years, til we decided to make it alive again. We bought a fluval 303 and remove most of the live rocks and added aquarium gravel to cover the bare bottom. The Icecap light setup we had under the canopy no longer work, must of shorted out during the fluval accident. So we just mounted a basic 50/50 power compact light. This time we somewhat started on a better path when we met with Tom, from Carson Tropical fish. We got our premixed saltwater to fill up the tank and a pair of false percula clowns and again more dreadful damsels :a21: This time we did our monthly maintenance with 15% water change and change out media and cleaned out the fluval 303. This setup lasted about 4 years, til we then took a break and fell off with maintenance. Everything of course didnt make it and our tank look like the green long beach waters.
2003 was the year we started to make our tank alive, especially when the tank moved from our living room to my own bedroom. I was now 18 years old :a37: and wanted to have sharks in my tank. Didnt really know anything at all, but first thing first. I remove all the gravel and live rocks from the tank, and loaded 60lbs of live sand, new premixed water from Carson tropical fish and bought a banded bamboo shark from Tiki's tropical fish. I thought i was the coolest kid to have a shark in my tank, yet to have it in my room. three days later my shark died and so did my fluval 302 canister filter. Since I was a college student, didnt have time to take care of the tank and lost interest. So it was left dry in my room for another 3 years til my dad wanted the tank back in the living room.
2007 My dad remove the sand, put back some aquarium gravel with a about 15lbs of dried live rock and some decoration coral. My dad bought a Rena Filstar xp3 canister filter and replace the power compact light with two 24" fluorescent under cabinet lighting. Added 4 Blue damsel fish, 1 3-striped damsel, 1 yellow tail damsel, and one baby false percula clown fish all from Tiki's tropical fish store for $25:high5:
2010 Our tank is still alive, but it sure looks like long beach waters. Could barely see through the glass covered with green slime algae. My dad never did a water change on the tank, just went back to his old habbit of topping the evaporated water with tapped water. All the fishes where still alive and they grew from 1" when we first got them to about 3-4"inches now. My cousin called me and told me to swing by his house, he picked up a 55 gallon clear for life trapezoid tank. It had a 48" t-5 lighting and hang on back protein skimmer with a fluval 304 canister filter. I really had no idea was the heck t-5 and protein skimmers where. He had fishes i have never seen before, a blue tang, a flaming hawk fish, and of course nemo! He basically woke me up and inspired me to give some love to my own tank at home.
This is where I get back into the hobby........
I had a 50 gallon freshwater tank that was destroyed from the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, basically flooded a good part of the house and all the livestock did not survive. My father wanted a replacement but wanted to go to the dark side with saltwater. We acquired a 55gallon Seaclear Reef Ready tank with built in corner overflow. The 48x13x19 acrylic tank was wrapped all around with Oak cabinets. The cabinet was retrofitted with 4x48" vho Icecaps and filtered with a fluval 301 canister filter. Tank had about 100lbs of liverock, bare bottom and about 15 assorted damsels. My dad knew nothing much about saltwater tanks, he would top off the evaporated water with tapped water and only did a 10 gallon water change about once a year
hwell: Surprisingly 6 years later 12 damsels from the 15 are still alive. Then came around the bad news. I guess we really never did maintenance on the fluval canister and the impeller rotor melted causing an electrical shortage with a tank full of fish soup.:faint:Took a break from our fishtank leaving it dry and empty for three years, til we decided to make it alive again. We bought a fluval 303 and remove most of the live rocks and added aquarium gravel to cover the bare bottom. The Icecap light setup we had under the canopy no longer work, must of shorted out during the fluval accident. So we just mounted a basic 50/50 power compact light. This time we somewhat started on a better path when we met with Tom, from Carson Tropical fish. We got our premixed saltwater to fill up the tank and a pair of false percula clowns and again more dreadful damsels :a21: This time we did our monthly maintenance with 15% water change and change out media and cleaned out the fluval 303. This setup lasted about 4 years, til we then took a break and fell off with maintenance. Everything of course didnt make it and our tank look like the green long beach waters.
2003 was the year we started to make our tank alive, especially when the tank moved from our living room to my own bedroom. I was now 18 years old :a37: and wanted to have sharks in my tank. Didnt really know anything at all, but first thing first. I remove all the gravel and live rocks from the tank, and loaded 60lbs of live sand, new premixed water from Carson tropical fish and bought a banded bamboo shark from Tiki's tropical fish. I thought i was the coolest kid to have a shark in my tank, yet to have it in my room. three days later my shark died and so did my fluval 302 canister filter. Since I was a college student, didnt have time to take care of the tank and lost interest. So it was left dry in my room for another 3 years til my dad wanted the tank back in the living room.
2007 My dad remove the sand, put back some aquarium gravel with a about 15lbs of dried live rock and some decoration coral. My dad bought a Rena Filstar xp3 canister filter and replace the power compact light with two 24" fluorescent under cabinet lighting. Added 4 Blue damsel fish, 1 3-striped damsel, 1 yellow tail damsel, and one baby false percula clown fish all from Tiki's tropical fish store for $25:high5:
2010 Our tank is still alive, but it sure looks like long beach waters. Could barely see through the glass covered with green slime algae. My dad never did a water change on the tank, just went back to his old habbit of topping the evaporated water with tapped water. All the fishes where still alive and they grew from 1" when we first got them to about 3-4"inches now. My cousin called me and told me to swing by his house, he picked up a 55 gallon clear for life trapezoid tank. It had a 48" t-5 lighting and hang on back protein skimmer with a fluval 304 canister filter. I really had no idea was the heck t-5 and protein skimmers where. He had fishes i have never seen before, a blue tang, a flaming hawk fish, and of course nemo! He basically woke me up and inspired me to give some love to my own tank at home.
This is where I get back into the hobby........
