May be getting into the hobby again next year

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've gotten rid of my tank, or posted anything here. I'll start off by explaining what happened before, what is happening now, and what will happen! I'll write assuming that the reader hasn't heard of me before.

I used to have a 90g tank. I was convinced by a co-worker to get into it! He would always talk about his coral, fish, and showed me amazing pictures. Obviously I gave in, and I decide to get a 90g tank. I rushed into it, which I wish I hadn't. I spent way more money than I thought I would, and my tank still wasn't anywhere near where I wanted it to be (not that I had a specific plan anyway). I had a reef tank with just a few corals and fish, which the corals didn't do too well. Eventually, I decided to get out of the hobby because, being only 19 at the time, I knew I couldn't bring that big of a tank into an apartment whenever I decided to move out. So, to save the money I'd be spending between then, and the moving out, I gave up the hobby then, so I could maybe start again at another time in my life.

For a while now, I was fixated on achieving my dream job, but decided that I really didn't like that area of study. I'm going to be switching into a chemistry-related program (still undecided on what program specifically) next year, because I've come to love chemistry. I'm doing this so I can eventually get a job so I can use my skills to better the reefing hobby.

Next year, probably mid-spring, I'm going to be in an apartment, and I'm hoping to get 2 small cube tanks. With these, I want to eventually test the effects of different chemical supplements on the environments. Both tanks will have the same things in them, but one will be untouched chemically (other than the important things like Mag, Alk, etc), whereas the other will be tried with things like vitamin C, etc. Don't worry, I won't start crazy experiments or try chemicals without knowing they're safe. I just want to see for myself, the effects of certain things on ecosystems.

I'm not going to be jumping into this too fast again. That was a big waste of time, money, and other things. I'm going to do research, plan everything out, and go from there.

Thoughts? Concerns?

By the way, glad to be back!

 

welcome back zero! I think your plan sounds just perfect!

 

Thanks, OFK! Any tips?

 

I hope you plan on sharing some of your results on here. It will be good to know how some things effect our systems against a control.

 

hmmmm....tips - patience and take things slowly - and keep livestock that you've always loved - oh, and have plenty of money I agree in hoping that you share your study information

 

I definitely will post about it! Not just the results, though. I'll open up a thread for whatever "experiment" I decided to try, post what I'll be doing soon, and give a daily update!

I have a few fish that I'm determined to get (eventually), but I'm pretty limited if I just get two 5G cubes (let's say).

Also, with reefsupplies.ca now getting into selling livestock, I won't have to deal with my LFS's inflated prices as much

 

I'm open to any stocking suggestions at this point. I'm planning on tanks being reef tanks, so, is there any fish/coral/invert you'd like to see part of this?