So it started one afternoon with boredom and Craigslist. 20 gallon long tank, good price, with stand and various "stuff", lol.
I had a few tanks as a kid, but my favorite part has always been tinkering (I remember being 11 or 12 and taking a few days to the arm from a ballast, heh)
So my 20 long went through a few phases, and I came to the conclusion of "man, this just isn't enough", so I went a bought a 60 cube! Had a pretty awesome "river" tank with little herds of cory's, small gang of pictus cats and another gang of glass cats with driftwood/live plants/rock work, loved it.
Had a realization a few months later, "man, this still just isn't enough" and had been casually researching saltwater for a few weeks at this point. Then the research bug hit, and I dove in, and I mean dove in with lead boots on.
So I made the leap, and went to the LFS to buy sand, rock, and 20 gallons saltwater and was hooked as soon as I tasted the salt (almost barfed from failed siphon attempts) and felt it burn in my veins! (Through cuts and scrapes from work, that is
)
And of course....I had a realization after putting that first damsel in (weeks later, after seeding with ammonia and monitoring)..."man, that poor damsel just doesn't have enough room"
So the next morning, I woke up and bagged all my fish/plants from the 60 cube, drove to lfs, got some credit, got more sand/rock/saltwater and spent the rest of the day breaking down/converting/resetting the cube.
We're at 7 months in at this point, and this is my first post here, so Hi Community!!
Pics are from tonight, I'll be sharing my established system, but it has been an ongoing build, as you'll see. I have both the 60 cube, and the 20 long sharing a sump. I got tired of the 20 being a pain to try and stabilize, so I utilized the extra water volume. It's a giant fuge, which is great, because fat mandarin is a buffet slayer.
Lemme hear what you guys think!
Stock list is:
2 mishap clowns
3 damsels (big solid blue/little blue with yellow tail in the 60, and a tiny neon velvet in the 20)
Spotted mandarin dragonette
Starry Blenny
Yellow tang
Cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
Red pistol shrimp
Chocolate chip seastar
5 small blue leg hermits
4 astralea snails
2 cerith snails
Corals:
Various zoas/palyzoas
GSP (don't judge, I love grassy fields)
Frogspawn (just got it a few days ago, I failed on a head of Aussie hammer and was scared to try euphyllia again, lol)
Duncan
Candy cane
Button
Red cap monti
And some unidentified cluster of orange polyps, I'll pic it if someone is up to the task, lol
The corals aren't at their best today, due that power was out for a few hours earlier
That's it for now! Thanks for the read
I had a few tanks as a kid, but my favorite part has always been tinkering (I remember being 11 or 12 and taking a few days to the arm from a ballast, heh)
So my 20 long went through a few phases, and I came to the conclusion of "man, this just isn't enough", so I went a bought a 60 cube! Had a pretty awesome "river" tank with little herds of cory's, small gang of pictus cats and another gang of glass cats with driftwood/live plants/rock work, loved it.
Had a realization a few months later, "man, this still just isn't enough" and had been casually researching saltwater for a few weeks at this point. Then the research bug hit, and I dove in, and I mean dove in with lead boots on.
So I made the leap, and went to the LFS to buy sand, rock, and 20 gallons saltwater and was hooked as soon as I tasted the salt (almost barfed from failed siphon attempts) and felt it burn in my veins! (Through cuts and scrapes from work, that is
)And of course....I had a realization after putting that first damsel in (weeks later, after seeding with ammonia and monitoring)..."man, that poor damsel just doesn't have enough room"
So the next morning, I woke up and bagged all my fish/plants from the 60 cube, drove to lfs, got some credit, got more sand/rock/saltwater and spent the rest of the day breaking down/converting/resetting the cube.
We're at 7 months in at this point, and this is my first post here, so Hi Community!!
Pics are from tonight, I'll be sharing my established system, but it has been an ongoing build, as you'll see. I have both the 60 cube, and the 20 long sharing a sump. I got tired of the 20 being a pain to try and stabilize, so I utilized the extra water volume. It's a giant fuge, which is great, because fat mandarin is a buffet slayer.
Lemme hear what you guys think!
Stock list is:
2 mishap clowns
3 damsels (big solid blue/little blue with yellow tail in the 60, and a tiny neon velvet in the 20)
Spotted mandarin dragonette
Starry Blenny
Yellow tang
Cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
Red pistol shrimp
Chocolate chip seastar
5 small blue leg hermits
4 astralea snails
2 cerith snails
Corals:
Various zoas/palyzoas
GSP (don't judge, I love grassy fields
)Frogspawn (just got it a few days ago, I failed on a head of Aussie hammer and was scared to try euphyllia again, lol)
Duncan
Candy cane
Button
Red cap monti
And some unidentified cluster of orange polyps, I'll pic it if someone is up to the task, lol
The corals aren't at their best today, due that power was out for a few hours earlier
That's it for now! Thanks for the read
