[KevinK]

ok, so it would be family that triggered it, however it has a long stories

we immigrated from Holland, where I as a kid always had water somewhere, and had at the top about 10 FW tanks (salt water is almost un affordable as already electric would set you back about $ 0.33 a KHW) as well as fish and corals art cheep.

beside the tanks I had a 10.000 gal koi pond with lots of 20" + koi's and as a hobby I had a wholesale in importing kois and supply's local fish - garden centers.

arriving in Canada, what do you do, water is itching and would have loved to get a nice big koi pond, however where we live (Victoria) there is the racoon, sea otter and lots more, so by the time you are set up and running, it is a nice $ that eventually would be wiled animal foods (we could not integrate a pond in the house, at least not a decent size one)

so, itching, itching, and ad least a nice water feature in the yard, but no fish.

than my cousin wanted to change his fish only tank to a coral tank, so I could have all equipment, rock etc. what would be a nice saving.

so now a tank

we went where thy build tanks, and as we had some saving in the decoration / equipment we decided to spend some of the saving on the tank, and asked what thy had as bigges thy had for us.

we ended up with a 350 gal tank that needed a spot in the house + a opening in the wall to get it in.

space wise we went for a fish only, as it would still be less space needed for filter, les light and than les money to start.

soon after the tank was in, someone gave me a mushroom frag (WHAT IT WAS GROWING) even under ordinary light, so, would be nice to have some corals, so we got a few more, and soon it was time to get everything changed (light, pumps, gravel bed out - LS in, filter) so all set up, ready to do it over, but now for corals.

and as you se the pictures under my profile (albums) I cant complain.

it is still part DIY, however everything is running as it should, everything is growing so.

things I might change would be:

- in stead of 4x 150W DE HQI I would put 4x 250W (dont know how much of a difference it would make, things are growing now, so maybe I will first change one ore 2 to se what it douse for the tank and corals.

beside the 4x150 w DE HQI there is 2x 54w - act + 2x daylight T5

- adding more fish, only have 3 tangs, -- 5 clowns --- 2 fire fish and 2 shrimps ------> probably a 4 ore 5 yellow / orange anthias would be nice

- change the skimmer neck on my DIY on my 6 feet skimmer from a 3 inch to 5 1/2 inch --- skimmer is running fine, however skim mate could be darker if you ask me, is still a bit light, and the neck is always full of junk, so a larger diameter should be easier to tweak, as so far it has always bin fairly wet skim

- build a 60 inch square tank 28 inch deep, fiberglass and 2 windows, placing it on a 45 degree angle in the wall (having the filter room in the back)