[rhody605]

So I figure I will start with a background update.

I grew up on a farm 30 mins west of Edmonton. On which we had a man made pond 26 ft deep stocked with rainbow trout.

As you could probably imagine fish have been my liking for a long time.
But being around fish so much has also lost some of the allure as well.

Didn't stop me from getting a 33g fw tank right after I got my first job. It was stocked with simple fish danios and such. Being young and dumb I didn't keep care of it. But my mom did. Lol.
Few years passed and I moved out but my mom kept the tank.

So about 2.5 years ago I found on kijiji a 135g oceanic fw tank stocked with cichlids. Basically a steal I thought. $500 for slick looking tank with stand and lights and 150lbs of rock and crushed sea shell gravel and about 25 fish. First week fish got ich. A first for me. Which meant I didn't know any of the signs. Another first was google leading me in the wrong direction. I dosed salt as per recommendations of a fellow cichlid keeper. Lost half of the fish. Ended up setting up a 75g qt and used ich tablets. And did a 100% wc. Problem solved. A few months passed and fish were doing great even breeding.

At this point my salt water research began. Fw fish seemed boring to me. Cichlids are good but coral and sw fish are on a different level.

Bring us to aug 2011 I took the plunge and bought my first sw tank setup. From kijiji. An 80g with stand, 33g sump and small return and plumbing. To my knowledge I thought it was a good deal. But skimmer I got was broken. Lies. Lights were supposed to be included. Lies.
So saying that I researched plumbing and redid it. Bought a aqua-medic turboflotor skimmer. And a 120w led light fixture.

Plumbing was not fun. Previous owner used vacuum PVC for plumbing so bulkhead hole were too small. They used one return and one drain. Not very safe eh. So I had to polish the old holes in the over flow to fit proper bulkheads. And piped a new return up over the ugly eurobrace on opposite end of tank from the overflow. Yay success.

So bring us to feb 2012. Designing for next tank has been ongoing since shortly after acquiring the 80g system and seeing fellow can reefers systems.

I was wanting a 180g with dimensions of 72" x 28" x 20" (l x w h). external overflow. Was debating rimless or eurobrace. But eurobrace was edging out rimless. One reason being cleanliness. Constant cleaning and I aren't great friends.


Came across a new 225g (72 x 24 x
30 tall) for a little under half price. Not my favorite dimensions but external overflow and saving a lot from new price. I had to jump on it. Money saved = more equipment.

Pics to follow soon


Mike

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