My 125g 2 year Anniversary in Pictures

Since my "big" tank is now officially 2 years old, I thought I would give a quick recap of how I acquired the tank (for those who are new to the blog) and also show some pictures of how the tanks has changed over time.

History
For Christmas, 2006, my wife bought me a 14 gallon Biocube. (I always wanted a fish tank.) After doing some research and talking to some folks we decided that we could do a saltwater tank. And, thus was the start of my Obsessive Compulsive Reef Disorder, a term coined by my wife to describe by addiction to my reef tank!

Here is a pic of the original 14g Biocube:



Jump forward to the summer of 2007 and my wife and I make a deal, if I quit smoking I can get a bigger tank! So, my quest begins. I looked at all different tanks but had settled on a 180 or 220 gallon reef ready tank. So, I quit smoking and started my search. One night browsing eBay, I found a tank (running) for $1500 located about 90 minutes away. I made a half-hearted offer of $1000 thinking that was way low. The guy accepted. So, off to Mechanicsburg, PA we went, my brother-in-law, his buddy, and one of my reef club friends, to pack up this tank and its inhabitants. What a strange trip that was.

TODAY
Flashing forward to today, my tank has survived a mini-crash, my clownfish are breeding and my fish room has gone through a major renovation. Slightly off-topic, my eternally frustrating and pathetic battle with cigarettes continues.

So, here is the journey of my reef over the last 2 years in pictures...

This is what the tank looked like when I picked it up:



Yes, that is right... full of hair algae and rock, front to back, top to bottom. Barely room for a fish to swim!

And here is the tank, just a week later. Eventually, the tank had all new rock, and all new equipment. The only remnants of that set-up are the tank and stand and a coral beauty!


And after 1 month:


And from April, 2009:







And today:

COMING SOON!  I realized that I have not taken a decent FTS (full tank shot) in a long time.


My next post will show some of my coral growth over the last 2 years.