Jay's Little Ocean - Creating a Grand SPS Dominated Aquarium on a Small Scale.

So my family and I have been in our new home for about 2 years now and after some back and forth thoughts about whether or not to get back into the hobby over the last few months I have finally decided to make the plunge. I started a few threads wanting because like all reef keepers, I had dreams of grandeur! I have what I consider a relatively larger home about 4,000 Square Feet, and I wanted to build the biggest and best reef aquarium that my home could hold. Now enter my wife who is much more grounded then me when it comes to things like... reality. She is much more sensible about making decisions and she recommended that I should start small. We have 4 children requiring constant attention as most children do, we have careers that take up another chunk of our lives and constant home improvements projects/maintenance that eat up some more time. So I figured she was right and decided that I should strive to build an amazing and thriving reef aquarium on a smaller scale. I have settled on a actual size of the aquarium just yet but I do feel that it will be around 20 gallons or so in total water capacity. To make it even more challenging, I love SPS Corals so this is going to be an SPS dominated build with maybe a single Maxima clam. So feel free to tag along on my little journey and lets see what fun can be had from this.

 

Sorry for the delay folks. I have been mostly focusing on work and my family. But finally after a few years, 2 homes purchases and 5 children... I thought it was time to jump back into the ocean and enjoy something outside of all my hard work.


For some time I went back in forth between wanting to purchase an aquarium or go the route of building on myself using wood and a waterproof saltwater epoxy like pond armor. But looking at all my the time I have on my hands I figured I better rethink my ambitions and start with something more manageable. So I settled on a Waterbox Aquarium Reef Pro 190.5 Plus Edition which is rated at 182.5 gallons (691 L). I originally wanted to place this in the finished basement of our home. But my wife said no one really goes down there and it would be a shame to not show off a beautiful aquarium. When she's right... she's right! So I am placing it the great room within the main floor our of home.


I went ahead and placed my order through Marine Depot but with there is about a 4 week lead time and with Hurricane Dorian getting ready to reach Florida this week I doubt I will see my aquarium any sooner, since there production facilities are located in Florida. So I will have to figure out something else to occupy my time until then.