Hi, I'm Smithtoday! I love coral and saltwater fish.

Hi! I don’t feel like a simple list of what I have should be your first introduction to me and my tank, so I will give you a bit of how I came to where I am now. When I was young, we had a freshwater fish tank, nothing fancy, we kept basic fish like mollies, tetras, etc. I remember we had the tank next to our dining room table and would watch the fish swim around. I also remember marveling at the change that our silver mollie went through as it matured – changing from a beautiful gleaming silver to a stark black. The tank remained there in that spot until an argument erupted at the table, which resulted in my younger brother standing up abruptly, causing the chair to tilt back and smash the front pane of the tank. This, as you can imagine, was traumatic for all involved. We kept a fish tank off and on from that point until I went away to college.

It wasn’t for a few years after I began college, and after I returned from serving an LDS mission, that I realized I wanted – needed really – a new tank. I purchased a small 10 gallon, standard tank at the local big-box pet store and launched myself into what has now been 10 years of continuous fish keeping. I started with the typical tetras, plecos, etc. and eventually upgraded to a 20 gallon community, then 30 gallon, then 90 gallon african ciclid tank.

Eventually, I decided that I would take the next logical step – starting a saltwater tank. I began researching in late 2010 and finally convinced my wife to let me go for it. In February 2011, my first reef tank would be born.

I determined that I would buck the traditional advice of “go big, or go home” and my first reef tank was to be a 10 gallon standard tank. I relied heavily on information gleaned from online sources, such as nano-reef.com, from LFS workers, and from my own background in fish-keeping I loved my tank, but I was also juggling a 90 gallon cichlid tank, work, and family – something had to go. I had a decision to make, should I cut out the saltwater tank and go back to what I knew and was basically on autopilot, or should I jump into the reefing world with both feet? I decided to sell the 90 and upgrade the saltwater tank.

That pretty much leads to where I am today. I now have a 40 gallon breeder – or 40b as it is affectionately known in the hobby. It is a wonderful size for a saltwater tank, it gives plenty of room, but is not so big as to be prohibitively expensive. Please look around and see what I’ve been able to do with my little bit of the ocean. The pages above have descriptions and photos of my setup, and I’ll periodically post about my progress and changes I have made or am planning. Thanks!