Cali Kid Corals

Free from a retired hobbyist: Acrylic micro-reef

Howdy! I signed up for this forum to post this... I'm pretty sure I'm in the right place for this message, but please be gentle if not. Since I'm a stranger, allow me to introduce myself. In a past life I was a hardcore hobbyist, like reinforcing my floor for a 300-gallon reef tank, attending MACNA, and true story: back when he was a postdoc in NY I posted Craig Bingman's first message on rec.aquaria for him because he wasn't sure if his writing about calcium chemistry was good enough for the newsgroup. (Evidence:
) I understand he's no longer timid about contributing to the hobby. (-:

My last reef tank was an acrylic micro-reef, but it's been sitting empty on a shelf in my loft for a very long time. I've finally admitted to myself that I'm never going to set it up again, and I was about to offer it up on my local Buy Nothing group but then I realized that nobody there would understand the description. I checked Google to see if there was a marine aquarium society that I could reach out to, and here I am.

The system came from CPR in Arcata, and was pretty much the spiffiest pre-built micro-reef setup I could buy in the late 90s-- it lived in my office during the dot-com bubble. It measures approximately 18x18x12 with hood, and IIRC it was billed as 12 gallons. It has an integrated filtration chamber with a protein skimmer and I honestly don't remember much else about the details but I've included a photo of the back showing the chamber. The skimmer and powerhead are with the system. The hood has two 28W (I think) fluorescent bulbs, one daylight and one actinic, and both worked when I plugged them in. The lighting is by Custom SeaLife, who I remember as being highly respected although I understand they went out of business years ago. I suspect that fluorescent is now a synonym for antique, but there's room in the hood and I think it would be pretty easy to upgrade the lighting if you wanted to.

I would love to see this go to someone who would love and appreciate it as much as I did. The photos make it excruciatingly clear that it's in need of a thorough cleaning, but I have every reason to believe that the system is structurally sound and would make an excellent project for someone. It's currently located in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland, and I will happily gift it to the first person who claims it. I hope it won't be considered B/S/T if I say I'd love to see a photo if it gets set up as a showpiece again.

-Patti
 

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Now THAT is some funny S%^*!
You got me hooked like a mud sucker taking your bait. Where is chapter 5?
If you don’t write for a living, you should. I was throughly entertained, you had me on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what happens next.
 
Heh, thanks!

Chapter 5: I ditched the husband and let him keep the "fish tank" electrical circuit and the house attached to it, bought a condo, gave away some of the livestock and moved the rest to holding tanks, moved the aquarium, and then... never set it back up. I think I couldn't bring myself to go crawling around in yet another crawl space to reinforce another floor. Or maybe I did... I don't remember. I know I was busy enjoying being single again. About two years later I woke up one morning and decided that I hated my job and I was tired of living in Portland and screw it... I was going to quit my job and move to San Francisco. I gave away the remaining livestock (mostly live rock), sold the tank to a restaurant for stupid cheap, sold my condo, took off to Europe for the summer, then rented a house in the city and moved down here. I got here just as the dot-com boom was kicking into high gear, and that was quite the adventure.

I never set up anything other than the microreef, mostly because there were so many wonderful things to do down here that I just didn't have time or energy for it.
 
Heh, thanks!

Chapter 5: I ditched the husband and let him keep the "fish tank" electrical circuit and the house attached to it, bought a condo, gave away some of the livestock and moved the rest to holding tanks, moved the aquarium, and then... never set it back up. I think I couldn't bring myself to go crawling around in yet another crawl space to reinforce another floor. Or maybe I did... I don't remember. I know I was busy enjoying being single again. About two years later I woke up one morning and decided that I hated my job and I was tired of living in Portland and screw it... I was going to quit my job and move to San Francisco. I gave away the remaining livestock (mostly live rock), sold the tank to a restaurant for stupid cheap, sold my condo, took off to Europe for the summer, then rented a house in the city and moved down here. I got here just as the dot-com boom was kicking into high gear, and that was quite the adventure.

I never set up anything other than the microreef, mostly because there were so many wonderful things to do down here that I just didn't have time or energy for it.
That’s all in the past. What about now?!?
 
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