Wayne Powell
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2020
- Location
- Waterdown, ON
...I seem to be in good company here, lots of users coming back to the hobby after a long time away. Although I had been a hobby aquarist all my life (55 now), I was that guy for whom any family and friends coming from Hawaii on vacation and elsewhere would bring back those huge dead acropora skeletons of several kinds (we were in Vancouver)... that were in some original saltwater fish only tanks. Being a bit of an ecologist (and a UVIC Marine Biologist wannabe until I learned I could not scuba) I remember feeling awfully guilty about those reef coral skeletons in the early 80’s....
For me it was more than 20 years ago (after moving to Toronto) that I custom built and drilled an overflow in a thick glass 15 Gallon Tall (with 10 gallon sump) reef tank in a peninsula cabinet I built, and even built a huge (for this tank) 4’ x 4” Acrylic Protein Skimmer with a venturi that ran from the sump on up to above the top of the display tank in the enclosed side of the peninsula cabinet. It was all self contained and automated with off the hardware store shelf and home made electronics (my “other” hobby). I don’t even remember calling it a “Nano” at the time, but people were impressed by the success of such a small tank, and it came down to the water quality, the amount of oxygen injected by that giant (for this tank) skimmer. All cured live rock (up top and some in sump), live sand, then anemone, clowns, a coral banded shrimp, snails and hermits, I think one mushroom coral, all the beautiful life that emerged from that rock (including Apstasia which I kind of liked at the time, and grew slowly as the tank, with that huge skimmer, was very quick to process and remove nutrients.). Had some nasty battles with a “thumb splitter” who would actually grab and pull on the stick I was trying to squish him with, and fire worm.... lots of coralline algae, never had any hair or bubble algae. Fluorescent lit and a moon light, all on timers, homemade wave timer... you get the picture. I’m trying to remember the LFS, it was a place in Scarborough I think, the main guy there was great, I met Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung there.
We loved that tank so much. Unfortunately we had to move and I found a home for everything except the tanks, the sand and “live” rock that I let dry out (and still have along with a 10 gallon bucket of dry, uncaked , and unused Coralife “Scientific Grade” Marine Salt) - hoping to one day redo the glory.
Well the protein skimmer fell one day, cracked and I could not stand to look at it in that state so it got turfed. More recently after a “down-size” of sorts I was finally encouraged to let those original tanks go too.
I was about to sell or giveaway a new, unused original Fluval Spec 2 (2 gal) I had bought (with thought of using as a frag quarantine, or maybe just a desktop planted freshwater tank)... when I got it in my head to maybe do a small, sparsely inhabited pico reef. I also picked up a Fluval Nano Marine LED somewhere along the way, and a protein skimmer that fits nice in the AIO sump... and still have a miniature rio pump. Hmm.... really I shouldn’t do less than a 5 gallon. But I wonder. Is it possible, with some form of ATO and weekly water changes, and a long period of cycling, whether I can bring that coral sand and dead live rock (dry rock, but real reef rock) back to some successful life as a true pico pico. I still like mushroom corals and clean-up crew, maybe a cleaner shrimp? Would a Gobi, cleaner shrimp pair be successful in a 2 Gal aquarium with a couple inches of coral sand (I always believed in a thick sand bed with sand sifting critters, or a little help now and again from a chop stick.).
I think I need a new Marine LFS in my area (Waterdown / Burlington) to latch on to (once the world gets a little more stable again).
What do you’ll think? Am I crazy? And hello, my name is Wayne.
For me it was more than 20 years ago (after moving to Toronto) that I custom built and drilled an overflow in a thick glass 15 Gallon Tall (with 10 gallon sump) reef tank in a peninsula cabinet I built, and even built a huge (for this tank) 4’ x 4” Acrylic Protein Skimmer with a venturi that ran from the sump on up to above the top of the display tank in the enclosed side of the peninsula cabinet. It was all self contained and automated with off the hardware store shelf and home made electronics (my “other” hobby). I don’t even remember calling it a “Nano” at the time, but people were impressed by the success of such a small tank, and it came down to the water quality, the amount of oxygen injected by that giant (for this tank) skimmer. All cured live rock (up top and some in sump), live sand, then anemone, clowns, a coral banded shrimp, snails and hermits, I think one mushroom coral, all the beautiful life that emerged from that rock (including Apstasia which I kind of liked at the time, and grew slowly as the tank, with that huge skimmer, was very quick to process and remove nutrients.). Had some nasty battles with a “thumb splitter” who would actually grab and pull on the stick I was trying to squish him with, and fire worm.... lots of coralline algae, never had any hair or bubble algae. Fluorescent lit and a moon light, all on timers, homemade wave timer... you get the picture. I’m trying to remember the LFS, it was a place in Scarborough I think, the main guy there was great, I met Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung there.
We loved that tank so much. Unfortunately we had to move and I found a home for everything except the tanks, the sand and “live” rock that I let dry out (and still have along with a 10 gallon bucket of dry, uncaked , and unused Coralife “Scientific Grade” Marine Salt) - hoping to one day redo the glory.
Well the protein skimmer fell one day, cracked and I could not stand to look at it in that state so it got turfed. More recently after a “down-size” of sorts I was finally encouraged to let those original tanks go too.
I was about to sell or giveaway a new, unused original Fluval Spec 2 (2 gal) I had bought (with thought of using as a frag quarantine, or maybe just a desktop planted freshwater tank)... when I got it in my head to maybe do a small, sparsely inhabited pico reef. I also picked up a Fluval Nano Marine LED somewhere along the way, and a protein skimmer that fits nice in the AIO sump... and still have a miniature rio pump. Hmm.... really I shouldn’t do less than a 5 gallon. But I wonder. Is it possible, with some form of ATO and weekly water changes, and a long period of cycling, whether I can bring that coral sand and dead live rock (dry rock, but real reef rock) back to some successful life as a true pico pico. I still like mushroom corals and clean-up crew, maybe a cleaner shrimp? Would a Gobi, cleaner shrimp pair be successful in a 2 Gal aquarium with a couple inches of coral sand (I always believed in a thick sand bed with sand sifting critters, or a little help now and again from a chop stick.).
I think I need a new Marine LFS in my area (Waterdown / Burlington) to latch on to (once the world gets a little more stable again).
What do you’ll think? Am I crazy? And hello, my name is Wayne.
