In October 2016, we closed on our first house and with the HOA fee covering the water bill I decided it was time to try a saltwater fish tank. I went to Premier Aquatics over my lunch break and saw that the ARC was having a bbq soon. Somehow I convinced my girlfriend, Dylan, at the time that it was going to be fun and that we should go! She wasn't immediately convinced but I dragged her along. Well things worked out well, I signed up for the club, won absolutely nothing in the raffle, and Dylan actually had a good time and gave me the go ahead to find a tank immediately.
We made a move on a 75 gallon setup, rented a van and drove down to Columbus GA to secure the first tank. Fast forward about a year and I had a pretty worthy setup. I had upgraded my lights to sb reef lights, got a new sump, skimmer, powerheads, secured plenty of corals and fish and things were moving along well.
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Then I came across another deal that was too good to pass up, I'm sure you guys know the feeling. It was a 120 with a beautiful custom stand and came with all sorts of extras. I can't tell you my secret for convincing loved ones to upgrade tanks, but it might have been the newly married bliss that convinced Dylan this was the last upgrade for a loonnngg time. Well I rented another van on a rainy day and spent half a day draining and moving another tank into a van. Moved a 120 with just 2 people. I layed down some new sand and started making fresh saltwater while working on plumbing. Got everything set up and running in a week with minimal losses (just a few frags that got misplaced and likely buried). This was in February of this year and as I stated was to be the last upgrade.
I love 85% of the 120, I am not a fan of the hang on back overflow at all, noisy and gives me a little anxiety knowing that it could be a failure point in the future. Also the center brace is a bit of a pain on a 5 ft long tank. The two sb reef lights that did a great job lighting the 4 ft, 75 gallon tank, came up a bit short on the 5 ft tank.
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I purchased 3 kessils which worked well, but I always had to offset the middle one to avoid the bracing. I then got some T5 retros that looked great, but then I had to re-do my whole canopy. It's been project after project with this tank so far, which sometimes is half the fun for me, but I just am not getting exactly what I need from the tank.
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So then we found ourselves at The Fish Store and looking at their display red sea 650. I mentioned that I saw one was being sold on the forum and that it was a pretty good deal... although still way more than we were planning on getting into. I wasn't even seriously considering making the upgrade, since it had only been 4 months since the 120 was set up. Well, as you can see from the title of this thread, a Red Sea Max S 650 LED is my Birthday and Christmas gift for the next decade.
We made a move on a 75 gallon setup, rented a van and drove down to Columbus GA to secure the first tank. Fast forward about a year and I had a pretty worthy setup. I had upgraded my lights to sb reef lights, got a new sump, skimmer, powerheads, secured plenty of corals and fish and things were moving along well.
Then I came across another deal that was too good to pass up, I'm sure you guys know the feeling. It was a 120 with a beautiful custom stand and came with all sorts of extras. I can't tell you my secret for convincing loved ones to upgrade tanks, but it might have been the newly married bliss that convinced Dylan this was the last upgrade for a loonnngg time. Well I rented another van on a rainy day and spent half a day draining and moving another tank into a van. Moved a 120 with just 2 people. I layed down some new sand and started making fresh saltwater while working on plumbing. Got everything set up and running in a week with minimal losses (just a few frags that got misplaced and likely buried). This was in February of this year and as I stated was to be the last upgrade.
I love 85% of the 120, I am not a fan of the hang on back overflow at all, noisy and gives me a little anxiety knowing that it could be a failure point in the future. Also the center brace is a bit of a pain on a 5 ft long tank. The two sb reef lights that did a great job lighting the 4 ft, 75 gallon tank, came up a bit short on the 5 ft tank.
I purchased 3 kessils which worked well, but I always had to offset the middle one to avoid the bracing. I then got some T5 retros that looked great, but then I had to re-do my whole canopy. It's been project after project with this tank so far, which sometimes is half the fun for me, but I just am not getting exactly what I need from the tank.
So then we found ourselves at The Fish Store and looking at their display red sea 650. I mentioned that I saw one was being sold on the forum and that it was a pretty good deal... although still way more than we were planning on getting into. I wasn't even seriously considering making the upgrade, since it had only been 4 months since the 120 was set up. Well, as you can see from the title of this thread, a Red Sea Max S 650 LED is my Birthday and Christmas gift for the next decade.
