Salt Water Aquarium Build

Function: To create an ecosystem in my home which I could use to test and observe

Inspiration: I love the ocean. I have always thought that it would be amazing to have a little piece in my house for me to watch every day.

Methods: I bought a used saltwater aquarium without knowing anything about reef tanks. I made phone calls to aquarium dealers around the country to ask questions and I joined an on-line forum called Reef2Reef and soon began offering advice on trouble-shooting issues with both equipment and livestock. I advanced quickly through four tanks, buying used components and cobbling together what I needed from spare parts and ultimately settled with a 250 gallon saltwater tank filled with anemone, corals, and a huge variety of fish:  eels, Lion fish, a stingray, Box fish, Clown fish, Copperband Butterfly, Blue Tangs, just to name a few.  In addition to the intricacy of maintaining the proper balance and health of the animals, I set up a complex system of hardware and software to monitor the tank.  I plumbed a sump system tank under the main tank. I built my sump for filtration and incorporated a protein skimmer, heaters, calcium reactors, among other features.  I researched new computerized technology to automate some of the more involved tasks in maintaining a tank (water testing, chiefly) and installed a computerized system to monitor all aspects of tank health as well as a system to test for, and maintain, appropriate levels of alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. 

Outcome: I had an amazing tank for 3 years until I had to break it down after a series of issues beginning with the wildfires in 2018 and the subsequent power outages. I hope to one day start another tank (perhaps even bigger than this one).

Failures and Challenges: A few years ago, we had a large wildfire in our area and my family had to quickly evacuate our neighborhood for several weeks. It became urgently clear that I needed a backup system for my tank. When I tried to get a generator, everyone was sold out. I was then left with only two options. The first was to try to house my fish with somebody who wasn't being evacuated, and the second was to just leave them alone and pray. My lack of planning forced me into the second option and I decided to try to remotely control my tank. With saltwater tanks, there are 4 key points to good balance: light, water, heat, and flow. The biggest two are heat and flow. Those I addressed by hooking up a homemade li ion pack. I then hooked this system up to my DC water pumps. The fish ended up being fine and I had a aquarist friend check on my tank three days later to address any issues. I had no long term issues from that power outage. Unfortunately the fires caused many more which resulted in breaking down my tank as much of the livestock had perished.