The Tank Arrives

I started looking in earnest about a month ago. I began by adding up all the start up costs for a Reef aquarium. Sadly, it ain’t cheap. The big decision was whether to build my own or go for the all in one system. I chose the all in one primarily for cost. While they are expensive for what they are, They are far cheaper than building my own system. The reason for this is that if I am taking the time to build it myself I know I would be choosing to “do it right”. MH lighting, sump, fuge, and not less than 50 gallons, probably a dedicated stand that I would probably build myself. To do this I would have 2 choices, piece meal used components from other frustrated hobbyists, or just buy new equipment. The first option would take months to pull together, the second would cost over $1k in start up costs, and that’s before the first coral or fish was dropped in the tank. Neither option appealed to me.
I went with the Aquapod 12 gallon. It fits nicely between my counter top and upper cabinets, although I can’t open the hood all the way when it’s tucked in there. I had to modify the hood slightly to be able to take it off for routine maintenance. I bought it from aquacave.com simply because it was the cheapest price I could find at $166 including shipping. It showed up well packed with no signs of shipping damage, but when I turned it on for a test run I noticed on of the LED moon lights was much dimmer than the other. Upon further inspection I found that the dimmer light was not mounted properly and was stuck inside the reflective hood. Time to break out the screwdriver. After taking the aluminum cowl off I found the problem was that the hot glue used to fix the LED in place had come loose from the aluminum. While I had the tools to fix it properly, I chose to go ghetto with the scotch tape instead. I wanted to get stet up, sue me. 5 minutes and I was on to the leak test, which we fortunately passed no problem.