I'm Finished!

[Eric45]

After 5 years i've reached my goal and now its strictly a maintenence issue. Keep things stable, clean and growing. If I had to do it over again, it would probably take 6 months for me to reach this point. But the learning curve was fun.

[LeLutinBanni]

...You only have small frags.

[jaa1456]

Same thing I was thinking, plenty of room for. Growth

[Eric45]

Yup, they're small, but i like 'em.

[jpython]

nice looking tank ... what the volume

[pledosophy]

Watching your tank grow, and all of those critters flourish is what the hobby is about.

Congrats on reaching the next step.

[Eric45]

Thanks!! It's a 72 g. And I agree, watching them grow and tending them is what I aspired to in this hobby. Many times I never thought I'd get to that point.

[jwolcott]

Looks real nice, my problem is when I get done I start over.

[pledosophy]

Eric,

I have bought two frags for my tank in the past two years, both yesterday. :D Have not added a fish in that time (nor lost one)

It is quite a fun thing to watch them grow, to see how it develops, the maturity of it all.

I wish I could say I got there in 5 years, it took me closer to 8. Money was prohibitive too for me for a bit too.

[Portsie]

Nice tank! How old is your copper band? I'm thinking about getting one for my 72 bow. Does it pick on your corals?

[iwishtofish]

Looks great! Nice job! :)

[don_chuwish]

Finished? HAHAHAHAHAHAH!! Never.

[Eric45]

Copperband is pretty new and it may be starting to pick at the corals. In which case, I guess I'm not done yet :)

[Fretfreak13]

Hah, you mean you THINK you're finished. lol

Looks great.

[rrasco]

I'm kind of curious what you are done with? As long as there is water in that tank, you're not done. Getting the tank stable is one thing, keeping it there is another. However, I am genuinely curious which tasks you completed that allow you to feel 'done'.

[Pittsburgh]

I kinda see his point. Getting a reef tank to the point where new livestock and corals don't consistently perish 2-3 weeks after being introduced in the tank is an accomplishment. Believe it or not. Just getting to that point requires a lot of research and hard work maintaining the tank.

With that said, this is indeed just the culmination of the first step and there is a lot more equally important accomplishments ahead.

[ReefNOOBIE21]

i dont think you can ever finish with this hobby

[Eric45]

What I mean is that when I first envisioned the final product, this is what it looked like -- except it needs time to grow in as a few folks observed. In essence, all I have to do now is keep it stable and watch it grow. I need no more fish or corals -- except that I have to get rid of that new Copperband which is definitely nipping at my brain coral.