Pleasure and PAIN

My my my... It has been a very trying battle starting my reef aquarium. Getting all the equipment and having everything work together like it is suppose to can be a headache within itself. Why do we put ourselves through all the pain and suffering, lol. I start out with nothing at all when I decided to start my reef aquarium. So what I did was made myself a checklist of everything that I needed. Believe me it will help you more than you know. Before you even by an aquarium there are a lot of things that you are going to want to know. Where am I going to put it? Do I have the time to maintain it, because a reef setup requires a lot more attention than a freshwater. Learn the terms and write them down because during your research you will come across them over and over. Know what size you want and figure out where your going to place it. Once you know where it's going make sure your floor can support the weight of your reef setup. They can be really heavy and the last thing you want is your system to cause problems with your structure. I chose to get rid of my piano that I know weighed over a ton and placed my aquarium in it's place. Something else you should check is the plug outlets. You will need multiple outlets for all the equipment your hooking up. I chose to run my reef on it's on separate breaker. Yes more work, but well worth the investment. I replaced the original sockets with GFCI sockets because of dealing with that much water so close working sockets. Last thing you want to do is to fry yourself before you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.