Oregon Grown Reef
Valuable Member
Come one, come all.
I'll start off with a little history lesson. (get ready for a long read)
In 2012, I started dating this lass that had grown up with freshwater fish tanks. Since I thought that was cool and I wanted to show her that I was interested, I got a 10 gallon tank and threw some fish in. I did ZERO research on how to keep tanks. I used her for all of the info I needed. It turns out that freshwater really is more forgiving. I remember doing water changes without matching the temp at all. It was a free-for-all back then. I didn't have a single fish death. She gave me a 20 gallon tank for my birthday. Not long after that, I moved out and got rid of all of my fish. I didn't touch fish tanks for MANY years after that.
Fast forward to 2017. This lass and I decided we'd get married in August. Funny enough, we decided to use our wedding cash for a 29 gallon tank. We went with freshwater since we were familiar (enough) with it. Her father decided that because we were interested, he'd get us a 50 acrylic tank for Christmas that year. We had gone into our LFS a few times and seen the saltwater fish, but didn't have the tank prior to Christmas to want to keep saltwater.
This...is probably where my wife would tell you it all went downhill. We set up the 50 gallon tank as a saltwater tank. I was green, and I mean greener than your worst hair algae. I used conditioned tap water and a dual t5 fixture for the first 7 months. I was enamored with the colors of the fish. It's all I was interested in at that point. It wasn't until I bought my first coral that I got "bit" by the bug. I immediately bought 2 AI Prime HD because I read somewhere that I "needed" better lights. It was several more months before I got an RODI system. I went crazy at this point and started buying coral like mad. I thought my tank was the best there ever was.
THEN there was R2R. My eyes were opened at this point. It wasn't until I got here that I realized my LFS was only thinking about the bottom line. It took me a couple of years of reading and lurking to get to where I am now as far as knowledge. I still learn something new all the time. I'd include every detail about fish/coral loss, but I don't want to write too much. In fact, I'm already bored of reading what I'm writing...sooooo...
Here we are; thousands of hours of research, 3 current tanks, and too many monies to count later. I'm finally replacing my 50 gallon acrylic tank. I didn't know what a sump was when I first got it. Everything is still hang on back. My profile pic was the tank at it's best. I'm tired of looking at the heaters and HOB equipment. I see a layer of skimmate build up on top, and I want it gone. I want MORE ROOM.
In comes @Joe Glass Cages. He and I have been talking this past week. He just took my deposit today for a 150 gallon custom, low iron tank. It's your typical bean-animal overflow with 1" drains/returns, but it's MY typical tank. 48"x30"x24" of pure bliss. I have only heard good things about this company. Joe has been awesome to work with. I can't wait to build my stand/sump and get the tank in. I love woodworking, so building the stand might be my favorite part. The world is my oyster (whatever that means). It'll be some time before I get the tank, but I'm counting down the days. Look forward to many pictures to come.
Here are some pics (old and new) of all of my current tanks.
This was actually my very first coral. This is a (semi) recent pic. Started from just 2 heads. Fragged off 8 heads about a year ago. Now there's probably 40-50.
I'll start off with a little history lesson. (get ready for a long read)
In 2012, I started dating this lass that had grown up with freshwater fish tanks. Since I thought that was cool and I wanted to show her that I was interested, I got a 10 gallon tank and threw some fish in. I did ZERO research on how to keep tanks. I used her for all of the info I needed. It turns out that freshwater really is more forgiving. I remember doing water changes without matching the temp at all. It was a free-for-all back then. I didn't have a single fish death. She gave me a 20 gallon tank for my birthday. Not long after that, I moved out and got rid of all of my fish. I didn't touch fish tanks for MANY years after that.
Fast forward to 2017. This lass and I decided we'd get married in August. Funny enough, we decided to use our wedding cash for a 29 gallon tank. We went with freshwater since we were familiar (enough) with it. Her father decided that because we were interested, he'd get us a 50 acrylic tank for Christmas that year. We had gone into our LFS a few times and seen the saltwater fish, but didn't have the tank prior to Christmas to want to keep saltwater.
This...is probably where my wife would tell you it all went downhill. We set up the 50 gallon tank as a saltwater tank. I was green, and I mean greener than your worst hair algae. I used conditioned tap water and a dual t5 fixture for the first 7 months. I was enamored with the colors of the fish. It's all I was interested in at that point. It wasn't until I bought my first coral that I got "bit" by the bug. I immediately bought 2 AI Prime HD because I read somewhere that I "needed" better lights. It was several more months before I got an RODI system. I went crazy at this point and started buying coral like mad. I thought my tank was the best there ever was.
THEN there was R2R. My eyes were opened at this point. It wasn't until I got here that I realized my LFS was only thinking about the bottom line. It took me a couple of years of reading and lurking to get to where I am now as far as knowledge. I still learn something new all the time. I'd include every detail about fish/coral loss, but I don't want to write too much. In fact, I'm already bored of reading what I'm writing...sooooo...
Here we are; thousands of hours of research, 3 current tanks, and too many monies to count later. I'm finally replacing my 50 gallon acrylic tank. I didn't know what a sump was when I first got it. Everything is still hang on back. My profile pic was the tank at it's best. I'm tired of looking at the heaters and HOB equipment. I see a layer of skimmate build up on top, and I want it gone. I want MORE ROOM.
In comes @Joe Glass Cages. He and I have been talking this past week. He just took my deposit today for a 150 gallon custom, low iron tank. It's your typical bean-animal overflow with 1" drains/returns, but it's MY typical tank. 48"x30"x24" of pure bliss. I have only heard good things about this company. Joe has been awesome to work with. I can't wait to build my stand/sump and get the tank in. I love woodworking, so building the stand might be my favorite part. The world is my oyster (whatever that means). It'll be some time before I get the tank, but I'm counting down the days. Look forward to many pictures to come.
Here are some pics (old and new) of all of my current tanks.
This was actually my very first coral. This is a (semi) recent pic. Started from just 2 heads. Fragged off 8 heads about a year ago. Now there's probably 40-50.
