Subsea
7500 Club Member
To remove fish disease from entry level reefing is one goal of this thread. For many years I have seen this hobby get more & more expensive, thus creating barriers for many newbies. So the second goal is to consider less technology & money and more knowledge & understanding of how a marine ecosystem works.
My first marine aquarium was in 1971 when I entered the Texas Maritime Academy as a freshmen Marine Engineer. I set up a 55G tank as a Galveston Bay theme with UG filter using air pump. The substrate was crushed up oyster shells from the chicken feed store. There were no salt water fish stores in Galveston, Tx. I found one store that set up a tank with Condalacti anemone that he collected on granite rock jetties. However, instead of brown, these were red, green & yellow. Because I fished these jetties, I knew they were brown. When I asked him about the bright colors, he took me in the back room and showed me tanks that were red, green and yellow from food dye. Go figure.
OK. Back on subject of Holistic Reefing.
I like Caribbean lagoons as a theme with a heavy emphases on diverse filter feeders.
Set up a simple tank with diver collected live rock with no fish for 1 year. During that time, learn to be a good steward of the ecosystem under your charge. You will be surprised with what grows from this rock. In addition to colorful bryozons, ornamental seaweeds; the rock sprouts its own ecosystem when not foraged by heavy fish grazers.
Happy trails.
My first marine aquarium was in 1971 when I entered the Texas Maritime Academy as a freshmen Marine Engineer. I set up a 55G tank as a Galveston Bay theme with UG filter using air pump. The substrate was crushed up oyster shells from the chicken feed store. There were no salt water fish stores in Galveston, Tx. I found one store that set up a tank with Condalacti anemone that he collected on granite rock jetties. However, instead of brown, these were red, green & yellow. Because I fished these jetties, I knew they were brown. When I asked him about the bright colors, he took me in the back room and showed me tanks that were red, green and yellow from food dye. Go figure.
OK. Back on subject of Holistic Reefing.
I like Caribbean lagoons as a theme with a heavy emphases on diverse filter feeders.
Set up a simple tank with diver collected live rock with no fish for 1 year. During that time, learn to be a good steward of the ecosystem under your charge. You will be surprised with what grows from this rock. In addition to colorful bryozons, ornamental seaweeds; the rock sprouts its own ecosystem when not foraged by heavy fish grazers.
Happy trails.
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