- Joined
- Oct 23, 2018
- Messages
- 58
- Reaction score
- 79
This community of posters seems so great. I find myself on these forums quite frequently as I continue to learn about the hobby.
I have had fresh water aquariums off and on over the years (25 gallon tanks with a mix of plant and fish life in them.) Between school, moves, and life in general, the tanks would come and go. However I have always loved the hobby, and been intrigued by the idea of a saltwater tank.
I am the oldest of four siblings. When we were kids, my dad built a fish pond in our yard (a restaurant he worked for had a coy pond and when they decided to close, they were just going to let it dry out and let the coy die... so he built a pond at our house to move them to.) That pond was around for over a decade. The coy became large enough that the cats feared being eaten by them. The cats that didn't fear it, eventually feared getting baptized by one of us. Gold fish that acquired "jaws" titles in our house tanks and friend's tanks would be added to the pond. Tad pols, frogs, guppies, turtles, craw-fish.. all were welcome. Our neighborhood knew the pond. There would be an occasional wondering turtle that would get to a neighbors yard or into the street. Everyone knew where to return it to. We loved that pond. My next oldest brother and I especially.
The context of the back-story is that my brother also bought tanks, once he was able to. He is in the military, and didn't start buying tanks until he was able to start having off-base housing. Once he was in off-base housing, he got a 95 gallon tank. When he would go deployments, he would move it to my house, and I would watch it for him until he got back. We talked about salt water tanks, and how awesome it would be. But we always had fresh water, because it is what we knew, and because it was easiest to move when needed.
Recently, he decided he needed to downsize. So he offered me the large tank setup and all his goodies he had acquired over time. It had been in storage for some time because he was on the other side of the country during his last placement, and it wasn't feasible to move the tank. Because of this, there were no fish to move with it. I decided it would be fun to take it, and set it up as a salt water tank. It's a well used tank, and it shows. But it has been fun trying to clean it up and figure out ways to use/reuse the surplus of equipment.
So here I am now. After doing some research, I have set it up as a salt water tank. It already had everything and then some for fresh water setup. So all I needed to get was live sand and rock, and a skimmer. It has been up for 8 weeks now. I added two fish to the tank to start; so that it would start to cycle. Then, once I was comfortable with how they were doing, I added, six hermit crabs and three snails. During this time, I found I had a hitch-hiking baby snail, crab, shrimp, and what I am pretty sure is/was a baby starfish (I only saw it once, and haven't seen it again since.) Most recently, I added one shrimp and one mandarin.
So now I have:
Dog: (a clown fish)
Cat: (a damsel fish)
Three stooges: (the three snails)
Blue Squad One: (three blue leg hermits)
Red Squad One: (three red reef hermits)
Big Sexy: (a sexy shrimp)
Dragon: (a mandarin dragonet)
Crab Sidwalker: (I think an emerald crab)
Mystery Star: (I think he's a brittle star, based on research... but I've only seen him early on... so he may no longer be around)
Copebrine Squad: (copepod assortment and brine shrimp for cleanup and live food)
To-be-named: (baby snail)
I want to add more to the tank at some point, but I like to keep everything alive and healthy, so I am trying to do it slowly. My latest research is on ways to process nitrates with less-frequent/zero water changes. I also like DIY projects; and so far, making an algae scrubber and/or reactor seems far more cost effective than buying one.
I look forward to interacting with everyone on here more, and hopefully sharing some helpful tips as I get more experienced. I welcome all advice, feedback, and/or questions.
I have had fresh water aquariums off and on over the years (25 gallon tanks with a mix of plant and fish life in them.) Between school, moves, and life in general, the tanks would come and go. However I have always loved the hobby, and been intrigued by the idea of a saltwater tank.
I am the oldest of four siblings. When we were kids, my dad built a fish pond in our yard (a restaurant he worked for had a coy pond and when they decided to close, they were just going to let it dry out and let the coy die... so he built a pond at our house to move them to.) That pond was around for over a decade. The coy became large enough that the cats feared being eaten by them. The cats that didn't fear it, eventually feared getting baptized by one of us. Gold fish that acquired "jaws" titles in our house tanks and friend's tanks would be added to the pond. Tad pols, frogs, guppies, turtles, craw-fish.. all were welcome. Our neighborhood knew the pond. There would be an occasional wondering turtle that would get to a neighbors yard or into the street. Everyone knew where to return it to. We loved that pond. My next oldest brother and I especially.
The context of the back-story is that my brother also bought tanks, once he was able to. He is in the military, and didn't start buying tanks until he was able to start having off-base housing. Once he was in off-base housing, he got a 95 gallon tank. When he would go deployments, he would move it to my house, and I would watch it for him until he got back. We talked about salt water tanks, and how awesome it would be. But we always had fresh water, because it is what we knew, and because it was easiest to move when needed.
Recently, he decided he needed to downsize. So he offered me the large tank setup and all his goodies he had acquired over time. It had been in storage for some time because he was on the other side of the country during his last placement, and it wasn't feasible to move the tank. Because of this, there were no fish to move with it. I decided it would be fun to take it, and set it up as a salt water tank. It's a well used tank, and it shows. But it has been fun trying to clean it up and figure out ways to use/reuse the surplus of equipment.
So here I am now. After doing some research, I have set it up as a salt water tank. It already had everything and then some for fresh water setup. So all I needed to get was live sand and rock, and a skimmer. It has been up for 8 weeks now. I added two fish to the tank to start; so that it would start to cycle. Then, once I was comfortable with how they were doing, I added, six hermit crabs and three snails. During this time, I found I had a hitch-hiking baby snail, crab, shrimp, and what I am pretty sure is/was a baby starfish (I only saw it once, and haven't seen it again since.) Most recently, I added one shrimp and one mandarin.
So now I have:
Dog: (a clown fish)
Cat: (a damsel fish)
Three stooges: (the three snails)
Blue Squad One: (three blue leg hermits)
Red Squad One: (three red reef hermits)
Big Sexy: (a sexy shrimp)
Dragon: (a mandarin dragonet)
Crab Sidwalker: (I think an emerald crab)
Mystery Star: (I think he's a brittle star, based on research... but I've only seen him early on... so he may no longer be around)
Copebrine Squad: (copepod assortment and brine shrimp for cleanup and live food)
To-be-named: (baby snail)
I want to add more to the tank at some point, but I like to keep everything alive and healthy, so I am trying to do it slowly. My latest research is on ways to process nitrates with less-frequent/zero water changes. I also like DIY projects; and so far, making an algae scrubber and/or reactor seems far more cost effective than buying one.
I look forward to interacting with everyone on here more, and hopefully sharing some helpful tips as I get more experienced. I welcome all advice, feedback, and/or questions.
