Chuck H.

Greetings Fellow Reef Addicts! Just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to the site and other members. My name is Chuck Horne and I'm in Chesapeake, Va. I've been in the aquarium hobby officially (meaning my OWN aquariums) since I was 15 or so...I'm about to hit 40 in May so I've seen some changes in the hobby. I do remember my parents HUGE (at the time) 10 gallon, metal framed aquarium that we had when I was little and I never got tired of staring at that thing. My folks supported my hobbies (numerous terrarium critters as well) and didn't mind making the living room, dining room, or kitchen bar space available for my charges.

At 15 and 8 months (old enough to get a work permit) I got my first dream job working Saturday's at Pets-N-Things near where I grew up in Norfolk. So began my exposure to marine aquariums, wet-drys, bio-balls, VHO, and lava rock. I don't recall skimmers or actual live rock being prevalent then. Bio-balls and DSL (rolled up polyfiber) were the biological filter media of choice. Corals were also almost non-existent. Everything was fish and bleached coral skeletons. Brought my first marine aquarium home around then too, 10 gallon aquarium, under gravel filter, Aqua Clear "Mini" at the time, 20 Lbs. of Dolomite, coral skeleton decoration, and my first ever marine fish to cycle that bad boy....a 1" Undulated Trigger! Yep, I was told they were tough as nails, would outgrow the tank in no time, but would be fun in the interim. Well he was on the bar in the kitchen, okay for awhile, but the salt creep and cords eventually got to my folks, so after a few months back he went. Ten gallon went to my room where I decided I wanted to breed Port Cichlids...supposedly the easiest cichlid to breed, yeah right! I had a 29 gallon FW tank all through high school with severums, Monos, keyhole cichlids, a Royal Pleco and others. Tank thrived...don't ask me how.

I enlisted in the USAF in 1989 and so my hobbies had to take a back burner (my folks kept the 29 up and running until they moved...and they couldn't wait for me to take my 3' iguana and Reggie the Ball Python to the pet shop for store credit). First duty station was Andersen AFB, Guam. Got PADI dive certified there...loved it. Piti Bomb Holes, "the" Blue Hole, Truk Lagoon, night dives, shore dives...man was it great. And, lizards everywhere! Anoles, Varanus indicus monitors, the occasional iguana, and geckos. Of course the dreaded Brown Tree Snakes, Marine Toads, and the biggest darn land crabs you've ever seen....I wish I had pictures...no digital cameras back then. Left Guam after my 15 month tour was up (I was home sick...if I knew then what I know now, I would have extended another year and spent every waking hour not at work underwater!). Ended up in NJ..McGuire AFB..no interesting critters there!

So my four year tour ended in 1993. I moved in with my brother who was here in Chesapeake (my folks moved just a little South in NC) and got a job at a local, 4 store chain called Pets Warehouse while waiting to hear from some local police departments I had applied too (I was Security Police in the USAF...seemed natural to be a cop). Wow, what a difference in the marine hobby did 4 years make! Live Rock was everywhere! Protein skimmers were starting to make an appearance, but people were still using wet/drys also. I really noticed some marine supplements, especially calcium and kalkwasser being used, and of course soft corals were being kept, as well as LPS (Elegance Corals were everywhere, so was Gonipora). I didn't jump right into another aquarium then, but I did eventually set-up a 29 with an Amiracle wet/dry, skilter, 3 24" NO flourescents (1 was actinic!) and some LR. Had this in my first apartment I shared with my future wife and another couple - also very understanding of my hobbies, since I had more lizards in the bed room! Worked at the pet shop, got promoted to assistant manager even, for about two years before the Chesapeake Police Department came calling. So in 1995 I was hired by the CPD, got married and bought a house...no aquariums now, only a few lizards.

In about 2002, I started to get the itch again for a nice marine aquarium. My wife was all on board, but she knew things would be expensive. Keeping with past trends...I elected to research setting up a 29. That's when I found Reef Central on the 'net. I read, read, and read some more to get up to speed on changes in the hobby. Wow, what people were keeping now! SPS...unheard of, now we're fragging them, growing them....giant clams! Wholly mackerel. I was stoked. Got my 29, Remora skimmer, dusted off the Amiracle wet/dry - no bio balls though!, 175 MH Bell pendant with a 6500k bulb, 2 24" NO actinics, and...."The Package" from Tampa Bay Saltwater. Loved it! The life on the rock, in the sand...we never got tired of staring at that aquarium. Had it up for about 6 months in 2003, then Hurricane Isabel came calling. My neighborhood lost power for a week. The tank crashed...I didn't have a generator or battery operated pumps, my wife and son (oh yeah, Kyle came along in 2000!) stayed with her folks who still had power, and of course after a natural disaster all hands are on deck at the PD. So, everything died, what could be salvaged...some CUC really, was taken to a LFS for some credit. Talk about a bummer!

My wife felt sorry for me...that Christmas she told me to lay away a tank, a bigger tank! I elected to get a 65 AGA Reef Ready, 20L for a sump, and I ordered...ready, a dual 400w MH and VHO actinic fixture from Ebay...can't even tell you the name of the company. Fixture looked nice (I think it is still in my attic) but was WAYYY too much, so much heat, VHOs wouldn't even stay on it got so hot. That didn't last long. Anyway, ordered some aqua-cultured LR from Fiji, got that bad boy up and running just prior to Spring in '04. We moved in August. The move went well, tank went in the living room of our new home. Lighting went from the 800 watt monstrosity, to two bell pendants, to a Tek fixture. Can't remember what all I had, was still shy of SPS, but had some softies and LPS and a cool Maroon Clown and her BTA. And Bryopsis. My advice to anyone who sees that vile weed, even a sprig, in your aquarium, prune, scrub, remove your rock, prune some more, do not let it spread and take hold, once it does....Broke the tank down and moved it to a back room (wife had some interior decorating ideas for the living room...that didn't include my tank!). Got some new LR and transferred all the livestock over. Bryopsis eventually came back, tried to keep it under control, but it was a losing battle (I didn't take my own advice...I didn't jump right on the first sprig...and this wouldn't be the last time).

So, I decided I wanted to get another Undulated Trigger. He wouldn't care about Bryopsis, and since he would be the only one in the 65...that's what I was going to do. But I still wanted a reef. In early 2008 I ordered my Nano Cube HQI. Got some LR from a very decent LFS (Fish Safari in Va. Beach), got it up and running, tweaked some things here, added some things there, experimented with skimmers, etc. etc. etc. Things were going well in Chuck's aquarium universe, I got my Undy in September of '08. Had my first Crocea, first SPS - Montipora sp., pair of Ocellaris with a BTA...awesome GSP, Ricordea, Sinularia, Toadstool,...and Bryopsis. Tech-M didn't work for me in the Nano. Broke it down in October of last year and started over on November 1. Decided my problem this last time was I had too much LR to make it practical to remove and scrub, plus quite a few corals were growing on the LR. So, after being quite impressed with the "minimalistic" thread on RC, I ordered a Nano box (15lbs) from the Doctors, a 20 lb of Fiji Pink, and went to work. It's been 5 months and things are moving along...I'll post some pics and maybe a video soon. I'm no where done stocking, especially corals, and only have 1 fish in there, a 6-line. I plan on one more fish, a Pygmy Angel (I know the 6 might have an attitude...he'll have to go if he doesn't play nice, I really want a Pygmy). Shamrok, my Undy, has quadrupled in size, eats from tongs, stares at me when I work out, and is just damn cool. His tank still has Bryopsis, he doesn't care and I prune monthly. I did just get a 1 gallon jug of Tech-M to give it one more try and I'm going to hook up two phosban reactors with media to see what I can do to help the process.

Well, I've been blogging - my first time! - for about an hour now. Son will be home from school soon, so I'm going to sign off. Glad to here. Hope to learn, get advice, maybe give it, and just admire what others are doing in this hobby that has been a lifelong love for me. Have a great day.