RDA’s “Reef on a Whim”

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

It’s been a little bit,  friends.

 

 

I’ve been out of the hobby for what seems like a while. I sold all of my reefing stuff as I just didn’t have time anymore; I was focused on some career aspirations/still am. Anyways, the other day I was driving by my local LFS and decided to just pop in and see what was up. It made me really miss the hobby haha. Long story short, I ended up meeting an individual there that is pretty new to this forum @daisies_for_darby. (Always fun to meet people from the forum in real life). We talked for a little bit and to make an even longer story shorter I ended up I going over and picking up a “gently used” tank from them. (I guess they had plans for it on here, but ended up getting too busy and wanted to give it to a good home?) 

 

SO. I was talked into getting a dirty 5 gallon tank for $5. (Haha what did I do?! ) 

 

They did mention that they wanted to make it an old school reef or something along those lines. I’m personally into the more modern ways of reefing, but their ideas for it was kind of interesting. Either way, I was getting an itch for reefing again and I figured this would be a good, cheap opportunity to get my feet wet in an area of rimmed tanks that I normally don’t dabble in.

 

So here’s the plan: Cut my losses and throw it away in favor of a rimless tank 😉 jk. (But really, it’s a mess haha).

 

 

 

The real plan: Clean it up and make it a little low tech reef. Since I sold all of my stuff, I’ll have to get some new equipment, and at budget prices at that. Also a stand, ha, I have nowhere to put the darn thing; it’s sitting on my back porch waiting to be hosed off. I’ve also gotten some side glances from the Mrs. that say “What are you up to now?” 😅
 

It’s going to take some work, but I think it will turn out. If you have any ideas as to what I should put in it, don’t be shy with suggestions 😉

 

 

Equipment:

• 5.5 gallon Aqueon Aquarium

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Fantastic, welcome back. I had the cutest 5.5 kiss style tank. 20 years ago. A coral life mini T5 fixture, AC 50 filter, and a little power head. It only contained some softies and a blue devil damsel. Eventually upgraded to a larger tank. I hope you have fun with yours.

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

On 10/9/2022 at 5:48 AM, debbeach13 said:

Fantastic, welcome back. I had the cutest 5.5 kiss style tank. 20 years ago. A coral life mini T5 fixture, AC 50 filter, and a little power head. It only contained some softies and a blue devil damsel. Eventually upgraded to a larger tank. I hope you have fun with yours.

Thanks Deb!

That sounds like a fun tank! I’ve never really messed with soft corals all that much, especially leathers. Your 20 long is giving me some ideas though! 🙂

[The Rainy Day Aquarium]

Did a little cleaning yesterday while dinner was cooking. Wasn’t a very appetite inducing smell, and I may have eaten a little less because of it, but we got it done 😅🥴

Unfortunately I didn’t nab a photo of it all cleaned up; I’ll try to do that here soon. The heater is dead I think so that will be going in the trash. Also the filter isn’t my favorite (and pretty dirty), so I’ll probably be replacing that as well.