Just some reminiscing

[sfsuphysics]

Well just recall what got me started in the hobby and I actually found some pictures I took and were hidden in some corner of the internet.

Here's where it started, a 10g tank, a 10g box of instant ocean salt, an air pump powered skimmer (quite nice actually) and a piece of plastic driftwood Oh yah, that's honest to god "Bio-Active" sand!

Added a few more things, a rock that most who have done freshwater might notice and a hang off the back filter, also some hoses to what was a really bad failed homemade filter that quickly got thrown out.

Enough of the setup, lets get some movement in there! My first two fish, Tom (the tomato clown) and Dart (the damsel) so named because the hollow end of the drift would would be his home as he'd dart in and out.

Then I added a piece of live rock, I remember feeling so proud for my one piece Not to mention that nice 13 watt fixture put a pretty pink glow.

Here's another picture of my two fish, January 2004, and I can happily say I still have both of them.

This is when I knew I had no hope, and was offically in trouble.

 

[GreshamH]

Love the drift wood look

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah I had that whole inland reef thing going

 

[Raddogz]

Wow, good post Mike. I went through pretty much the same thing when I started in this salt water hobby.

 

[Vincerama2]

Here is my 10g tank when I started it;

 

[Vincerama2]

Here is the algae bloom that followed

 

[Vincerama2]

And after a bit of clean up (time, patience, toothbrush and cleanup crew)

(And yes, I don't know how to link pictures properly)

 

[Vincerama2]

The tank was started 3 years ago, then was replaced with a 58g tank with sump, then I moved the 10g tank to work, where it is happily (and algae free) running.

The evolution of the tank can be seen in the second pic, where I added a homemade overflow and tried using a sump to help somehow. The first and third pic, you can see my HOB Prizm skimmer and a large HOB filter... eventually I went back to the overflow with a 10g sump...but I put an AquaC EV-120 skimmer in there! (ie a 120g rated skimmer for less than 20g of total water!)

The second pic was at the point where I was ready to give up. The third pic is where my spirits were lifted when Dane gave me some free (!!) Xenia!

V