Please note: this is an extension of some posts that I started in the "show us your tank" thread. Rob & I decided that this would be a better place for these posts. After getting these posted, I will delete the similar (but much less detailed) posts in that section.
The following is a brief history of the various tanks I've had over the last 35+ years. Feel free to skip to the next post if I bore you.
The Beginning
I have been into aquariums since I was a young boy. I thank my uncle for getting me hooked. I remember him having 5 or 6 tanks, and despite it being in the late 1960's he was doing some pretty cool things. I remember him telling me that the most important thing was strong water circulation, and I never forgot that.
Over the next few decades, I would always have some kind of aquarium. Usually it was a small 10 or 20 gallon. I remember at age 16 trying to breed fresh water angels (I had a mated pair that laid eggs on my heater often) with no success.
The Middle
When I moved to California in 1981, I decided it was time to go saltwater. My first salt tank was a 55 gallon and used an undergravel filter with power heads. Even with such limited technology, I found it quite easy to keep most marine fish.
In 1989, I married my best friend in the world. At that time, we lived in a small 2-story townhouse. Despite it's size, we had 3 aquariums, all salt. The 35 hex was in the bedroom, and was my wife's tank. If I remember correctly, it had a small Flame Angel, a Cherub Angel, a Royal Gramma, and a few small Butterfly fish. Of course, like all the tanks, it used undergravel filtration and coral skeletons. My old 55 gallon found a home in the Living Room.
And in the Guest Bedroom - a 240 gallon tank. A friend of mine was moving out of the area, and could not take his tank with him, so I ended up getting an amazing deal on the tank. I couldn't afford a stand or canopy - so it sat on cinder blocks and plywood. In hind site, this was a blessing - as the tank survived the big earthquake we had a few weeks before we got married. The house shook back and forth in the same direction as the length of the tank. So even though it shifted a half inch off the blocks, and spilled some 40 gallons of water on each side wall (and over my prized collection of Star Trek: The Original Series VHS tapes - yes I'm one of those!) the tank made it. And despite a loss of power for 24 hours, so did all the fish in all the tanks. I was very lucky.
In 1992, my son was born. Because the townhouse was a 2-bedroom, and Kyle would be getting bedroom #2, I had to say goodbye to the 240. Of course, it's a trade I was happy to make!
The Beginning of The End (or Going Off the Deep End)
In 1993, we moved into a new house. At the same time, a friend of mine wanted a smaller tank, and I wanted a bigger - so we traded. He got my 55 and I got his 100. I got the better end of the trade, though if I remember correctly, some cash was involved!
A year later, I purchased my "dream tank" - a 125 with a beautiful gloss black stand and canopy. I remember telling my wife that this was the biggest tank I would ever want, or something to that effect. I would later eat those words. This was my first use of a wet/dry filter (I'm very old school and slow to change). This tank also is what pushed me off the deep end. I think it was around 1996 when I added a beautiful little 2" juv. French Angel. Over the next many years he would grow so much that I was forced to remove fish to keep the tank from being extremely over-crowded (though it was still over-crowded). It soon became apparent that either the fish had to go, or I needed a bigger tank. So with my wife's approval, and an "I told you so", I set off to learn all I could learn and design what would hopefully become my "real" dream tank.
I remembered having this 240 gallon many years ago ...
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