New member and new reefer. This is my first ever tank. It's a 5.5g bow front.
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What's in it:
<ul>
<li>5lbs Fiji Live Rock (uncured)</li>
<li>CaribSea Fiji Live Sand</li>
<li>Water from the LFS</li>
<li>Coralife 11\" T5</li>
<li>Marineland Maxi-Jet 400</li>
<li>7.5W Tank Heater</li>
</ul>My History
For Christmas, my 9-year-old got a betta. We heard that bettas were easy. Cool. We can handle that.
I killed it.
Figured out I was doing some things wrong. Fixed those things. Bought another one.
Killed it.
Fixed some more things. Bought another one.
It lived almost 5 days. Getting better!
Fixed what I thought was everything. Bought another one.
6 days later, played fish hospital all day long. Fish died during the night.
At that point, I gave up. VERY frustrated with the people at the chain store who had no clue what I needed to do to actually</em> keep these fish alive and healthy, I put everything in the closet and began to read...and read...and read.
Over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, I read everything I could find (including a couple of Julian Sprung's books). My brain was full. It was time to just start trying to do it.
So today, I headed to an LFS that I had been to a few times (Pure Reef in Alpharetta). It came highly recommended, and I had been very impressed the times I had been there. The experience was outstanding. They didn't try to sell me anything I didn't need, and their prices were comparable to online prices that I have seen.
I came home with everything I needed to retrofit an old 5.5g bow front that I had. It's smaller than I would have liked, but I had it and I knew that this was all going to be a huge experiment anyway. I'll go larger if I discover that I actually like this and</em> can keep from killing everything again.
Why uncured rock? I just wanted to see what all would be on there
I've got all the time in the world, so I don't mind the tank taking longer to cycle and maybe having to fight some battles along the way.
tl;dr: I'm brand new to reef tanks, and the 5.5g is simply because I already had that tank. I've read my brains out, and now I just need to do it</em> and see what happens.
I'm open to any and all comments. I have thick skin, so I don't mind you telling me where I totally screwed up It's the only way I'm going to learn.
What's in it:
<ul>
<li>5lbs Fiji Live Rock (uncured)</li>
<li>CaribSea Fiji Live Sand</li>
<li>Water from the LFS</li>
<li>Coralife 11\" T5</li>
<li>Marineland Maxi-Jet 400</li>
<li>7.5W Tank Heater</li>
</ul>My History
For Christmas, my 9-year-old got a betta. We heard that bettas were easy. Cool. We can handle that.
I killed it.
Figured out I was doing some things wrong. Fixed those things. Bought another one.
Killed it.
Fixed some more things. Bought another one.
It lived almost 5 days. Getting better!
Fixed what I thought was everything. Bought another one.
6 days later, played fish hospital all day long. Fish died during the night.
At that point, I gave up. VERY frustrated with the people at the chain store who had no clue what I needed to do to actually</em> keep these fish alive and healthy, I put everything in the closet and began to read...and read...and read.
Over the course of 4 to 6 weeks, I read everything I could find (including a couple of Julian Sprung's books). My brain was full. It was time to just start trying to do it.
So today, I headed to an LFS that I had been to a few times (Pure Reef in Alpharetta). It came highly recommended, and I had been very impressed the times I had been there. The experience was outstanding. They didn't try to sell me anything I didn't need, and their prices were comparable to online prices that I have seen.
I came home with everything I needed to retrofit an old 5.5g bow front that I had. It's smaller than I would have liked, but I had it and I knew that this was all going to be a huge experiment anyway. I'll go larger if I discover that I actually like this and</em> can keep from killing everything again.
Why uncured rock? I just wanted to see what all would be on there
I've got all the time in the world, so I don't mind the tank taking longer to cycle and maybe having to fight some battles along the way.tl;dr: I'm brand new to reef tanks, and the 5.5g is simply because I already had that tank. I've read my brains out, and now I just need to do it</em> and see what happens.
I'm open to any and all comments. I have thick skin, so I don't mind you telling me where I totally screwed up
It's the only way I'm going to learn.
