Current FTS:
About 10 years ago, when I was a single college student with little in the way of either income or financial responsibility, I somehow kept a 70 gallon LPS/softie tank that was my baby... until I went on vacation and it crashed and burned while I was away due to a power outage.
Now, as a boring, stable adult with disposable income and only a modicum more financial responsibility I've had the itch to set up a tank again. This time, however, I have a husband who definitely does not understand the appeal (or... ahem... the cost) so I'll be going much more modest in size.
I joined WAMAS, picked up a barely-used IM Nuvo Fusion 30L from a fellow member a couple weeks ago and have been slowly getting it set up in the dining room. (I told the husband it was either going downstairs in his precious man cave/movie room or in the dining room and let him choose...) I made a lot of stupid mistakes way back when from rushing and have no desire to repeat them, though I'm sure I'll find new ones to make anyways.
Tank - IM Nuvo Fusion 30L on an Aquatic Fundamentals 50/65 stand, because the $300 price tag on the IM stand is ridiculous.
Lights - Current USA Orbit Marine LED - which I suspect will not be enough once I get some LPS, but I'll upgrade when I get there. LEDs were definitely not a 'thing' when I was last in the hobby so I have some learning to do.
Other hardware - RO Buddie 4-stage filter for water and two Hydor Koralia Nano 425s for flow. 150w Eheim heater. Also a Coralife BioCube skimmer that I got for free that fits nicely in the back.
Live rock/substrate - decided after some deliberation to go with "real reef" (aka not real reef at all) live rock from Reef eScape, with some significant reservations, mostly because of ten year old memories - that still haven't faded - of trying to catch a #$%$^ mantis hitchhiker in my last tank. It's... not as ugly as I'd imagined? Substrate is a shallow aragonite bed.
Tank's been up and cycling for about a week now. I tossed a small piece of raw fish in to give the bacteria something to chew on (even though the LR went straight from the LFS to the tank, I just can't resist pressing the system a bit). I kept checking params with the Seachem tests and getting no free ammonia, minimal total ammonia, minimal nitrites, low nitrates. Odd, but maybe the LR was really doing the work already? I listened to the little voice in the back of my head that said to order the Red Sea test kit I originally wanted and would you look at that... total ammonia 0.6, nitrates 0.5, nitrites 5. That's what I thought. So we are actually getting a bit of a cycle going. Onward! Wish list/project list: 1. Tunze 3155 ATO - if anyone has one used for cheap, hit me up!
2. Better LEDs