Weekly Discussion: If I could do it all over!

[jenglish]

What would you do differently? I'm not going to say I wish I would I had a 300 gallon instead of a 30 gallon but I know that I could have 70 galllon in nearly the same area. For a little more money I could have gotten a much better light fixture than the Nova extreme I have. I would have started with a sump instead of HOB equipment.

[fihsboy]

I got the chance to do it all over, and did. The only thing I regret doing, is not buying the skimmer I wanted at the get go. I started with a 29 gallon and it was just too small for my liking.......moved to a 45 and im happy as pie. All equipment has changed at least once on my tank....Good question though.

[Mr.Peanut]

The ONLY thing I would change is..........Not doing it sooner.

I wanted a saltwater tank forever. I just kept hearing the same thing over and over again. About how hard it is to maintain it and it's so expensive and blah blah blah. I shouldn't have listened to the "nay" sayers.

[Doug1]

If I could do it again I would go for a custom acrylic 180 in wall with a full compliment of tricked out life support including aux generator

[fihsboy]

If I didnt live with my parents still.......(im 20 dont hate)....I would buy a full scale generator to hook up to the whole house. Run the tank.....AC....and Fridge.

[mvsergi]

I'm still pretty new (almost 2 years) and have had much success and frustration as well. If I could do it again, I would opt for a more shallow tank. I ordered a 105 gal bow front corner corner tank which is sharp but at 32" deep I have a very difficult time working on or picking things off the bottom. Even with a 6" deep sand bed it's very tough.

[wharyat]

I've started over a few times always increasing system colume, "improving" each time i set up. It's mostly my own preferences that I'm trying meet.

In my latest iteration, I raised the stand height to fit all the equipment under the stand with the added benefit of better tank veiwing. Rasied the canopy for more light control. Designed around a more well thought out ventilation system. Centralized and am going to cleanly and deliberately route the power cords.

I'm sure I'll still have things that I want to change or wish i did different, but I'll do that when I put my in-wall corner tank in.

[jenglish]

My secret plan is to convince everyone to start a new build

[Hendersonracing]

If I had to start over I would have bought a little bigger tank say around 500 gallons and had it custom built to were it would only be 24" deep...I have a 30" deep now and its a paint getting to anything in the tank!

[fihsboy]

Ha, good plan. I just finished my build. Now its just a matter of fine tuning it and adding small changes, such as a controller and maybe a new cone skimmer.

[tdwyatt]

I wouldn't change a thing.


Even the screw-ups teach us something that helps ourselves and others become better curators.

I don't want to stifle discussion, so I'll drop my end concerning this POV, but seriously; I feel that even the mistakes along the way (and I've unfortunately made plenty) have helped me (forced me) to do research and learn more about the husbandry of what I keep, as well as what NOT to keep. It's also a teaching experience about how important good (preventative) maintenance is when you're trying to keep a Slice of the Ocean 200 miles from the nearest body of seawater.


JM2CW

[jenglish]

I have certainly learned a lot from mistakes. But I would like to think others can learn from each others mistakes as well When I look back at how I planned to set up my tank, the advice I was given, and how I set it up, the things I didn't take advice of others is typically what I end up wishing I did differently

[wharyat]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

I wouldn't change a thing.


Even the screw-ups teach us something that helps ourselves and others become better curators.

I don't want to stifle discussion, so I'll drop my end concerning this POV, but seriously; I feel that even the mistakes along the way (and I've unfortunately made plenty) have helped me (forced me) to do research and learn more about the husbandry of what I keep, as well as what NOT to keep. It's also a teaching experience about how important good (preventative) maintenance is when you're trying to keep a Slice of the Ocean 200 miles from the nearest body of seawater.


JM2CW

I'm the same way. I wouldn't go back and change anything, but I have learned to start new tanks differently.

That's sort of how I ran with the premise of the thread. I've learned a hell of a lot by having things fail, having certain inhabitants die, etc. All of that will shape how will start over on the next inevitable build.

[fihsboy]

I agree completly. Even though people tell you its not going to work, you have to see it for yourself a lot of times. Its like when your parents tell you not to put your hand on the stove......you dont learn your lesson until you do and it burns the snot out of you.

[fchidsey]

This is a really Loaded question! I think I have had a total of 8 saltwater setups. They were mostly set up with shoe strig budgets filled with poor information provided by greety LFS owners and a tank owner who wanted every thing now.

First off I would have NEVER put anything on a credit card for my tanks (off topic) this has been a long road of hard pain that we are still on getting out of debit, if I could teach everybody one thing, it would be not to use credit cards and the dangers of credit) off my soap box now.

with all that being said I would save for the tank I wanted and not settled for what fit in the budget at the time.

I would have done more reseach and though about what I wanted instead of making Impulse purchases at the LFS on fridays when their shipments came in.

other than that some of the hard tank lessons I have learned have been good ones that I think I had to learn the hard way.

My current build is pretty much what I have wanted since I caught the bug. Even though is has hit a finacnial wall we are still enjoying the tank because it is mostly set up and only going to need a few additions that will come in time.

Oh ya the other thing is that I wish I was exposed to TRT one month before I bought my first tank so I could have avoided may problems.