Hello from Marion

I've been out of the hobby for 8 years now, but have been itching to get back for a few years. Now I am in the early planning stages of my return to salt.


Back in the late 1990's we ventured into our first saltwater FOWLR tank. It was going to be quite a jump from the 10 gallon freshwater stuff that we had done previously, and we debated over size of the tank. I mean, 55 gallons seems to big compaired to a 10 gallon. We ended up going with a 75 gallon tank since it was almost the same footprint as the 55, but obviously more water/space the better. The tank was super successful and over time, due to taking things slow, we never really had any issues because of maintenance. We did have a peacock mantis shrimp appear after 2.5 years of having the tank (Must have been a hitchhiker somehow on the live rock) that took out some snails, coral banded shrimp, starfish, and was highly suspect in taking down our flame angel. He was caught and taken to the LFS as a free gift to them. I just wanted my one FOWLR tank, and the thing ticked me off for doing basically what it does naturally, so I don't blame it, but I didn't want it.

In 2002 we started up a seahorse species tank. I wanted to make sure that this thing was in a perfectly stable environment since seahorses are so sensative. We put a firefish and two clowns in there so that the tank had something to look at. These would eventually go into the 75 gallon when the seahorses came.

Anyway, things were going well, until one day in March 2003, during that time of year that you still need to run heat in the house for the overnight chill, we were out of town for 3 days. During that time, our programmable thermostat for our house (not fish tank) went nuts and had a catestrophic failure. It just showed "Err" on the display and the heat was cranked on for who knows how long. It was really difficult to breath in the house because it was so hot. Our cats managed to make it into the basement where it was a bit cooler, but they looked horrible too. Needless to say, we lost all of our fish, most of our inverts, a couple of corals that I was just starting to dabble with. So both tanks were basically reduced to graveyards. It was so heartbreaking.

Around this time, we were faced with a job change and a move from Dubuque to Des Moines. I didn't want to restock the tanks just to move them, but I did keep them running with the rock/sand/filters/heaters/lights/etc and kept feeding the tanks dead shrimp to try to get them healthy before the move.

So we had 2 unstocked tanks up and running for months before the move, and then they stayed unstocked for a few months after the move. It was still painful to think about the lost fish, both for the fish themselves and their fun personalities, and the financial piece of it. So much time and effort to get to the point where we were really enjoying the tank just to have it lost. We started to focus on just the smaller seahorse tank since it seemed easier to refocus on something where we never had the species in there yet.

We had a successful run with the seahorses for about a week. Despite best efforts, we were getting swings in water parameters that were really stressing the horses and us out. We had invested in really high end gear to try to ensure a happy environment, but we never figured out what happened. Needless to say, we drove from Des Moines to Chanpaign, IL to meet someone "half way" to their house and they took the seahorses. They had proven that they were successfully already keeping horses and it seemed like the right thing to do. I don't believe in sacraficing fish while trying to solve an issue like that.

Then, a decision had to be made. We were back to 2 empty tanks, and a 2nd heartbreak. So we started posting ads to sell the rock/sand/tanks/gear. The liverock was split between 2 people, one of them who goes by slovan at Reef Central, and the other person I don't remember. The sand went to someone else, and the main tank, stand, canopy, and lights were sold to someone else. The seahorse tank and all of the equpiment for it were sold to a guy down the street who wanted to set up a nano tank. It was a big nano by today's standards, but that was back when very few people had reef tanks smaller than 55 gallon, and those were considered small.

The rest of the equipment (skimmer, UV, canister filter, heaters, powerheads, etc) all were donated to Iowa State University's Marine Biology Club after they reached out to me looking for a donation of any equipment. That was back in 2004.

We moved to Marion last year and I am looking to do it (the tank) all over again, but with a 120 gallon tank. There are a lot of things that I will do differently as so much has changed in the 8 years since I sold everything. So much to get up to speed on, and so much money to start saving/gathering together. I was successful before by taking things slow, so I plan to do the same. Get the right equipment, and have a lot of patience, and I hope to be enjoying a nice FOWLR once more.

 

Thank you for the "welcome."

 

Thank you!

 

Thank you. Right now I am researching the heck out of lighting, mainly LED... So many different things to learn vs lighting I've had in the past, and so many different opinions out there.

I think that I finally have an idea of a good lighting option for FOWLR that might do some corals too, or easily upgradable later on if I decide to go that way. Fun stuff.

 

Thanks JB.



Now if I could just figure out why I am not getting email notifications of subscribed topics... Hmmmm...



Honestly though, I am not even looking into that yet. I'm spending a lot of time trying to sort through LED lighting options, and updating my tank build spreadsheet. Need to have something "presentable" to the wife in the next day or so. In her mind, $500 is a good place to start (minus rock, sand, fish), but we all know, including her, that it is a lot more than that to get started.

 

Heck with it. I just joined up! Now if the paypal information and GIRS membership information could get into sync...

 

Will do. Thanks!

 

No response yet, but I am sure that he will get my message. Probably at work like the rest of us (as supposed to be).

 

It is another sad day. Still not a member despite paying... /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/sad.gif

 

Great! Thank you.