This is how my story begins: I have a rich history of keeping and breeding freshwater fish during my teenage years,
and always wanted to switch to marines. After I got married in 1995, my wife and I started off with a few sea horses.
It was the days when drip-filters were cutting-edge technology and stuff seemed to be pretty scarce at the time.
We started slow and learned the hard way (there wasn't internet, lest MASA), but just when we thought
we had it figured life happened and we decided to postpone the hobby for a few years to get the kids sorted.
In December 2012 my wife and I bought a secondhand tank (1600x800x600). It was running for almost two years
when we bought it, but there were not much corals in and only a few fish. It had rather crappy hardware and
was running on a DSB that was barely alive. When we look at pics that were taken at the time, it looks very dull,
but we loved every second of it. Any sign of life (even during the night on the live rock) was something that we cherished.
With three kids and my wife being a homeschool-mom, money wasn’t always enough to do what we wanted, and the
tank is always on the bottom of the “money food-chain”!
Little by little the changes started to take place, and one of the major ones was getting rid of the DSB. We hit a
hard patch with cyno and I didn’t want to use chemicals as a solution. Better flow and good water husbandry, so I
built a reactor for about 4 litres of Seachem Matrix and it was running for 8 months before we did the
big sump revamp and removed the DSB.
Well the tank was getting populated and every now and again I would play around with some kind of enhancement or
try to improve on something in the line of filtration or lighting or whatever… never ending story – AWESOME!
The thing is, after about 18 months I realized that there were issues that I could not change while the tank is
operational, like the noisy overflow; the fact that the tank is too deep; the overkill on the TWO wide braces over
the top; the messy build - especially on the front panel and then of course - the constant urge for more room on
the substrate to put “something nice”.
@RiaanP didn’t help the cause when he started a thread on MASA in July this year called “what is that design
issue you wish you could change on your system?”
I know all the matured guys are now going: “I know where this is heading” and you are spot on!
TIME FOR A NEW BUILD!!!
I was playing around with sizes and was constantly reminding myself that “bigger is not always better” – we do
not live in Texas, and I don’t have the funding for something that I think will satisfy this ever-increasing lust for more reef!
I decided on an almost-cube that is 1200x1000x600 (water level on 580).
It is very close to the same volume that I now have (700 liters) so I will be able to use most of the stuff that I have.
I keep on telling myself that I am in no hurry, but to be honest, I cannot wait!
My reefing testosterone levels rocketed when the glass was delivered last week.
and always wanted to switch to marines. After I got married in 1995, my wife and I started off with a few sea horses.
It was the days when drip-filters were cutting-edge technology and stuff seemed to be pretty scarce at the time.
We started slow and learned the hard way (there wasn't internet, lest MASA), but just when we thought
we had it figured life happened and we decided to postpone the hobby for a few years to get the kids sorted.
In December 2012 my wife and I bought a secondhand tank (1600x800x600). It was running for almost two years
when we bought it, but there were not much corals in and only a few fish. It had rather crappy hardware and
was running on a DSB that was barely alive. When we look at pics that were taken at the time, it looks very dull,
but we loved every second of it. Any sign of life (even during the night on the live rock) was something that we cherished.
With three kids and my wife being a homeschool-mom, money wasn’t always enough to do what we wanted, and the
tank is always on the bottom of the “money food-chain”!
Little by little the changes started to take place, and one of the major ones was getting rid of the DSB. We hit a
hard patch with cyno and I didn’t want to use chemicals as a solution. Better flow and good water husbandry, so I
built a reactor for about 4 litres of Seachem Matrix and it was running for 8 months before we did the
big sump revamp and removed the DSB.
Well the tank was getting populated and every now and again I would play around with some kind of enhancement or
try to improve on something in the line of filtration or lighting or whatever… never ending story – AWESOME!
The thing is, after about 18 months I realized that there were issues that I could not change while the tank is
operational, like the noisy overflow; the fact that the tank is too deep; the overkill on the TWO wide braces over
the top; the messy build - especially on the front panel and then of course - the constant urge for more room on
the substrate to put “something nice”.
@RiaanP didn’t help the cause when he started a thread on MASA in July this year called “what is that design
issue you wish you could change on your system?”
I know all the matured guys are now going: “I know where this is heading” and you are spot on!
TIME FOR A NEW BUILD!!!
I was playing around with sizes and was constantly reminding myself that “bigger is not always better” – we do
not live in Texas, and I don’t have the funding for something that I think will satisfy this ever-increasing lust for more reef!
I decided on an almost-cube that is 1200x1000x600 (water level on 580).
It is very close to the same volume that I now have (700 liters) so I will be able to use most of the stuff that I have.
I keep on telling myself that I am in no hurry, but to be honest, I cannot wait!
My reefing testosterone levels rocketed when the glass was delivered last week.
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