[mathias999us]

First, I'd like to give a brief description of my background and experience in the hobby. If you couldn't care less, just skip to the next post...

I had several freshwater tanks growing up as a kid, but nothing special or out of the ordinary. When I bought my first house in 2002, it had a perfect build in cabinet that was perfect for a big long tank. So, I bought a six foot long 135 gallon glass tank to put on the cabinet with the intention of keeping an iguana. But, the shop that I bought the tank from was a reef shop, and when I went to pick the tank up, I saw my first reef tank, and was impressed. The iguana idea was quickly thrown out the window in favor of a reef tank, and I proceed to buy hang on equipment, substrate, and live rock, having no real clue what I was doing. I ran this tank for 2 years, and kept a variety of soft corals in it under power compact lighting. Things survived OK, but the tank never flourished. I read and learned an awful lot during this time, and I knew the next time around would receive a lot more up-front planning.

Then, I decided to build a nano tank. I bought an Alife 6 gallon glass cube (basically like the nano cubes), and did a bunch of mods to it. Upgraded the lighting, flow, filtration, plumbed in a 2.5G fuge with chaeto, temperature controller, ATO, etc. This tank was a LOT easier to maintain than the poorly planned 135g, and it did rather well. But, then due to my career, I had to move from Southern California to Minnesota after it had been running for 7 months, so I tore it down and sold off all of the livestock.

I've been in Minnesota for about 16 months now, and I'm ready to set up another reef tank, which brings me to my 3rd reef tank...