Hello Everyone,
My Bio is extensive, some say interesting, I'll keep the intro short.
I've been into aquariums for 62 years. Since the first one was when I was 9, that makes me 71 years young, although some joints and muscles would argue that statement.
From 1946 to 1966 I was exclusively
FW. After a wedding in 1959 I expanded from two small tanks to a basement that soon swelled to 24 aquariums ranging in size from a few 10 gal, several 55 gal and a monster for the time an 80 gal, all FW. In 1966 I got bit by the
SW bug and set up my first, a 30 long. In a month everything was dead. Has anyone told you that the SW cycle is more important and more deadly than it's FW counter part? That's what I learned the first month.
By 1968 I was doing so well in SW, I began installing and maintaining them around my hometown, Madison, WI. I earned the moniker, "The Fish Man". I began selling off my FW and by 1972, I was strictly SW with 18 aquariums in my basement. Since 1968, I've been in the "business" in one fashion or another, even to this day.
From 1963 to 2001 I also held a "real" job. a pipefitter/welder. I retired in June 2001 and began looking for property in FL for retirement and to begin the final phase of my life long love of everything aquarium, our aquaculture facility. We moved into our "dream" home (we designed it) in FL in Sept 2005.
Our aquaculture facility was originally going to be a large greenhouse (36' x 40') but, in 2004 as our house was being finished, the hurricanes blew through and our plans took an abrupt turn. Three aquaculturing friends I'd met in FL had their greenhouses destroyed, flattened, complete destruction. One quite the business, two rebuilt but it took them two years to get production up so they could begin selling in enough volume to make any significant income. I figured, I'm too old to go through that. So...
We scaled back our plans and now have a building...
That we think will withstand the hurricanes. We have scaled back the volume of SW water for the aquaculture, too. We will have about 1200 gals to begin and see where we go from there. After all, I am 71 and retired.
Right now, I have a 135 gal mixed reef chuck full of coral frags, fish, RBTA, and inverts. Here is a pic of it...
It utilizes the
DSB in the DT plus a DSB in the
sump/
refugium, 1000
GPH Little Giant pump for circulation through the DT and Top Fathom
skimmer, Lifeguard 25 watt UV, plus 2 Koralia #4s for extra circulation. I've used PFO's Solaris
LED system since it's inception in Sept of 2006, purchasing each new model as they upgraded. The Picture above is with the latest, and greatest, I5 model. It's been up and running since February 2006 so, nearly three years.
Like all new systems it's had it's ups and downs. There is a build thread on another forum that is the most visited thread on that forum. It has 23,000 plus hits and over 600 posts. It is a daunting read BUT, I have been told many times by my peers, everyone should read it. I am humbled by the response. Not sure if I can post a link to it here or not. I guess if you would like to read it, you'll have to PM me. Or, if it is OK to link to it, a Mod will have to chime in and let me know.
Just think, this is the SHORT version of my introduction.
Dick
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