Hello all!
I've decided its time to stop lurking these lovely forums and actually start posting here - thanks for having me
Spoiler:
First a little introduction, just skip if you'd rather read about the current tank!
I'd always wanted an aquarium but for years all the seemingly difficult technicalities eluded me, and I had convinced myself it was a hobby of only the most persevering geeks. After years of baby steps towards the hobby I finally decided to start small and simple 3 years ago, with a 10 gallon freshwater "aquascape" aquarium.
I stuck with this one for a bit more than a year before the thirst for salt became unquenchable. There's just something about saltwater fish, not to mention corals
I decided to get a 12g tank that would fit into my bookshelf, as I found it would fit into the livingroom better. However, being well into my medical studies the budget was quite limited and, as such, the tech VERY sparse. Cheap chinese lights were able to grow LPS and softies to some extent though, so I managed..
PREVIOUS SETUP
However, after finishing the studies and moving to a different city upon beginning my working life, I eyed an opportunity to finally upgrade some. My girlfriend does not care much for the looks of most aquarium furniture, and I have to say I share that sentiment. Its unfortunate, because I think a lot of people are put off from the hobby because of the idea of these huge boxes that take up giant space and dont really fit in. I therefore promised her I'd do my best to create an aesthetic setup that would also fit into our new quarters:
I had a 32 gallon tank made, and found a table pleasing to the eye. Didn't take me long to realise it might not hold the weight itself, and ended up spending half a dozen of trips to the local hardware store, blood, sweat and almost tears before i managed to reinforce it without ruining the looks (spoiler: people do not refer to me as a craftsman by any measure ) .
A couple of weeks later, about 8 months ago, water was poured in and the inhabitants from the previous tank joined the party:
Being fresh on the job as a rookie doctor the budget has still been quite limited, and I have to admit that the money I did spend was prioritised poorly - mostly on corals rather than tech.
One thing in reefing that is extremely important to me is keeping it simple. Less is more, and I've tried to stick to this with all of my tanks.
For 6 months the tank has been lit up by a single coral moon box LED. Kalkwasser and water changes were used to keep values in check. A canister filter with carbon, GFO and Biohome Pure rocks was installed to keep coral warfare toxins and nutrients at bay. So no sump, and no skimmer. After the first 6 months, the tank looked like this:
I tried to venture into the world of SPS other than the single montipora purple haze that has somehow survived through all my mistakes since a couple of weeks into the first tank. I noticed that most of the newly added SPS quickly began to brown out, and I released that phosphates and nitrates were unmeasurably low. Since then I've removed 3/4 of the Biohome Pure rocks, and almost tripled my feeding - still yet to see a change in values, but macro algae have begun growing again, and some of the SPS have started growing and regained their colours.
Unfortunately, after a little while STN suddenly came upon both my old friend montipora and a stylopora.
After the first 6 months Ive made a few changes. With a coral frag shipment with more than 20 frags landing soon I absolutely have no more room for frags, and finally I can focus on actually improving some of the tech. Here's a quick overview:
Current tank settings
Dosing: Single doser, dosing Tropic Marin's All-for-reef
Lights: Hydra 26
Circulation: 1x 2000 L/H Sicce Nano + 1x 2000 L/H tunze powerhead
Nutrient export: GFO and Biohome Pure rocks (claims to remove nitrates, which I guess is actually true) in a canister filter with carbon also.
No sump, no skimmer.
Most recent video:
I've decided its time to stop lurking these lovely forums and actually start posting here - thanks for having me
Spoiler:
First a little introduction, just skip if you'd rather read about the current tank!
I'd always wanted an aquarium but for years all the seemingly difficult technicalities eluded me, and I had convinced myself it was a hobby of only the most persevering geeks. After years of baby steps towards the hobby I finally decided to start small and simple 3 years ago, with a 10 gallon freshwater "aquascape" aquarium.
I stuck with this one for a bit more than a year before the thirst for salt became unquenchable. There's just something about saltwater fish, not to mention corals
I decided to get a 12g tank that would fit into my bookshelf, as I found it would fit into the livingroom better. However, being well into my medical studies the budget was quite limited and, as such, the tech VERY sparse. Cheap chinese lights were able to grow LPS and softies to some extent though, so I managed..
PREVIOUS SETUP
However, after finishing the studies and moving to a different city upon beginning my working life, I eyed an opportunity to finally upgrade some. My girlfriend does not care much for the looks of most aquarium furniture, and I have to say I share that sentiment. Its unfortunate, because I think a lot of people are put off from the hobby because of the idea of these huge boxes that take up giant space and dont really fit in. I therefore promised her I'd do my best to create an aesthetic setup that would also fit into our new quarters:
I had a 32 gallon tank made, and found a table pleasing to the eye. Didn't take me long to realise it might not hold the weight itself, and ended up spending half a dozen of trips to the local hardware store, blood, sweat and almost tears before i managed to reinforce it without ruining the looks (spoiler: people do not refer to me as a craftsman by any measure ) .
A couple of weeks later, about 8 months ago, water was poured in and the inhabitants from the previous tank joined the party:
Being fresh on the job as a rookie doctor the budget has still been quite limited, and I have to admit that the money I did spend was prioritised poorly - mostly on corals rather than tech.
One thing in reefing that is extremely important to me is keeping it simple. Less is more, and I've tried to stick to this with all of my tanks.
For 6 months the tank has been lit up by a single coral moon box LED. Kalkwasser and water changes were used to keep values in check. A canister filter with carbon, GFO and Biohome Pure rocks was installed to keep coral warfare toxins and nutrients at bay. So no sump, and no skimmer. After the first 6 months, the tank looked like this:
I tried to venture into the world of SPS other than the single montipora purple haze that has somehow survived through all my mistakes since a couple of weeks into the first tank. I noticed that most of the newly added SPS quickly began to brown out, and I released that phosphates and nitrates were unmeasurably low. Since then I've removed 3/4 of the Biohome Pure rocks, and almost tripled my feeding - still yet to see a change in values, but macro algae have begun growing again, and some of the SPS have started growing and regained their colours.
Unfortunately, after a little while STN suddenly came upon both my old friend montipora and a stylopora.
After the first 6 months Ive made a few changes. With a coral frag shipment with more than 20 frags landing soon I absolutely have no more room for frags, and finally I can focus on actually improving some of the tech. Here's a quick overview:
Current tank settings
Dosing: Single doser, dosing Tropic Marin's All-for-reef
Lights: Hydra 26
Circulation: 1x 2000 L/H Sicce Nano + 1x 2000 L/H tunze powerhead
Nutrient export: GFO and Biohome Pure rocks (claims to remove nitrates, which I guess is actually true) in a canister filter with carbon also.
No sump, no skimmer.
Most recent video:
Last edited: