reintroduction.

Greetings to all my fellow 3reef members. I been gone for quite a while except for the sporadic post so I figured I should do a reintroduction thread. I was here and quite active for a while but took a break do to alot of things. I retired after 21 years of active duty Army service, bought a house, etc etc.

I never really got away from the hobby just away from the boards. Best part about buying a house is its an excuse to buy larger tanks and move all your livestock vs transplanting entire tanks. My 75g reef moved into a 110g (tall) reef. This was a tank I found on CL for only $200 for tank, factory crap light and stand.

There was several changes from my old set up. I added 50lbs of rock from reefcleaners, moved up to a 40b sump and a more gallon correct skimmer. I went from a 4 to a 6 bulb T5, and switched from GFO to biopellets. I know biopellets get mixed reviews, but I have to say they slowed then killed a GHA bloom I was getting at about the 4 week mark after being added. In fact my algae scrubber is starting to receed now and will probably be taken off line.



My 29 mantis tank, unfortunately is no longer a mantis tank as my mantis shrimp was my only casualty during the move. We took the loss kinda hard and are taking the break on getting another. This tank was transplanted to a 40 breeder at the time of the move. Stand I built myself, and the 40b is a petco dollar a gallon sale special. It is currently my grow out tank and is house a dog face puffer and a dragon wrasse.



I know when people say grow out tank people roll their eyes cause it never happens. I also managed to pick up a 150 tall on CL that is in the garage for super super cheap which I selling to support my most recent purchase, a 225g which is where my grow outs will be heading. Look for a build thread coming your way soon.

 

welcome good luck with your new setup

 

welcome back to the forums! Your stand is really nice as is your tank! Congrats on retirement and thank you for your service

With all this in the works, and being retired, hopefully you'll keep your builds updated on the forum!

 

lol, thank you. unfortunately retiring doesnt mean retired, it just means changing jobs.

I dont know if I did enough along the way picture of the 40 stand to make a build thread on it. It's a 1x4 normal tank frame with 1/4" oak, trim and molding all from lowe's. It's actually a goof that I went with cause I wanted the tank recessed a little lower so the trim was even with the top of the tank trim. unfortunately before I noticed what I did I had cut the trim short. that stuff is like $15 dollars a section and I didnt want to either reduce the frame to fit or but new. So it is the way it is for now. I may revisit it later though. Cause ultimately I want to drill the back and do a sump. Thats if I keep the tank/stand too. After i get the big tank running i want to either do all that to the 40 or find a round front corner tank and get another mantis shrimp.