[jas3600]

Hello my new aquatic loving friends,

My name is Jamie; I live in Southeastern Ohio. Married for 4 years and my wife and I just had our first kid less than a month ago on March 5th. I took 5 weeks off from work to help my wife with our new born and decided to restock our empty reef tank.

I began this reef tank Aug of 2000, already had a stand and canopy for a 29 gallon tank, but discovered they made a 38 gallon tall with the same base dimensions. Bought the tall tank and a Custom Sea Life 65 watt compact florescent light with a dual bulb. As for the Protein Skimmer: I decided to get the Hang On Bak~Pak by CPR and bought 3 Rio 600's for flow.
First stock: Maroon Yellow Strip Clown, Mystery Wrasse, Flame Angel, and a Mandarin Goby. Brown Bulb Anemone, Green Mushroom Disks, and a white toadstool mushroom coral.

This worked wonderfully until Feb 01 when our area got a Winter blast ICE STORM and we lost power for 5 days straight. LOST IT ALL!!!

even the live rock turned brown... water was so cold because we had no heat in the house it was almost freezing 34 degrees. Couldn't even put my hand down in to get the dead fish out. We stayed with my parents they had a gas fireplace and roughed it out a few days.

Finally, got the tank cycled again and lots of coralline algae growth thanks to the purchase of Coralife 24" 2x65 130 Watt Power Compact Fixture adding some Kent Pro Buffer dKH and was ready to restock. Started with a pair of pink skunk clowns and a sebea anemone. This worked out until the clowns refused to let the amemone eat.

kept the clowns, but never restocked the aquarium with coral. A few Zoathid Pollips actually survived the cold death of 01 and still thrive today.

Lost the Clowns to an act of stupidity about three months ago. I had been busy getting our house prepared for the arrival of our Son and neglected to add water to the evaporated tank level which exposed the sensor to the heater. The sensor read the room temp and heated the tank accordingly until the it reached almost 100 degree's. I went in to feed the pair of Pink Skunks which I have had for 4 plus years to find them stuck to the side of the pump. Wondering WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED??? As soon as I reached in WOW!! that water was hot. TERRIBLE... I actually cried....

I just bought some new pumps two HYDOR KORALIA's 1 & 2 to replace the Rio 600's took the Rio off the CPR Bak~Pak and replaced it with an Accela Venturi Modified, which kicks some serious ass compared to the Rio for Skimming. Restocked the tank this week and I am really trying to become active again. I figured this forum will get my spirits back up and influence me to keep this REEF TANK up and going for many years.

Just introduced another Yellow Stripe Maroon Clown, Purple Firefish, and two Green Cromies.

Yellow Zoanthids Colony, Brown Toadstool, two Feather Dusters, and a medium to large Green Bulb Anemone.

Still can't get over the Mystery Wrasse from the first set up!!! I loved it and could never replace it. They are the best, but will eat up all of your crabs. R.I.P. Harassa ma Wrasse..

Thanks for having me,

I look forward to talking to all of you in the future.

Sincerely,
Jas