New to saltwater

WildOne

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Nov 17, 2025
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Under the snow, laurentians
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Canada
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Hello!

I am from the frozen north. I have so far zero experience with saltwater aquariums, but I am planning to make on in anywhere from 6 months to a year. So i'm learning and designing. For obvious reasons, it would be better for me to finish building the toddler's room before I put an aquarium in it. She loves fish. I can't keep my aquariums clean cause she kisses the fishes (through the glass, thankfully! gotta keep little fingers out of there).

I'm very much a maker. My biggest crafting project is my house. I couldn't buy one, so I built it... with my partner and some friends.

I have a fair amount of experience with freshwater, had a tank as a kid too, but I don't really do conventional aquariums. My current 30 gallons is covered in leaves, mulm and decomposing wood bits, lively microfauna and aquaponic filtration. Its a DIY (with some design issues, really). I used to work in wastewater treatment and did some research in pisciculture effluent treatment, so building my own filters in freshwater wasn't nearly as... alien as the sea stuff. I started reading. A lot.

Other then engineering, I farm. Permaculture style. If you want a description of permaculture, well, its a design method where you plan the ecosystem for you veggies and nuts and whatever. Soil ecology, predator habitat, etc. A good description might be this: "you don't have a slug issue, you have a duck deficiency". We built our arduino controlled heating germination bench, and the greenhouse should end up on a raspberry pi, maybe with home assistant.
 
Welcome to your new home for saltwater reef aquarium resources and fun! Welcome to the family! :D
welcome-home-logo-greeting-png.1484246
 
Welcome to Reef2Reef!
 
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you like DIY stuff, you might have found the right place. I'm pretty sure the community will be able to help you with creating a reef tank that fits your style of unconventional tanks while also giving you enough guidance so your first reef tank can be a success.
 
Hello!

I am from the frozen north. I have so far zero experience with saltwater aquariums, but I am planning to make on in anywhere from 6 months to a year. So i'm learning and designing. For obvious reasons, it would be better for me to finish building the toddler's room before I put an aquarium in it. She loves fish. I can't keep my aquariums clean cause she kisses the fishes (through the glass, thankfully! gotta keep little fingers out of there).

I'm very much a maker. My biggest crafting project is my house. I couldn't buy one, so I built it... with my partner and some friends.

I have a fair amount of experience with freshwater, had a tank as a kid too, but I don't really do conventional aquariums. My current 30 gallons is covered in leaves, mulm and decomposing wood bits, lively microfauna and aquaponic filtration. Its a DIY (with some design issues, really). I used to work in wastewater treatment and did some research in pisciculture effluent treatment, so building my own filters in freshwater wasn't nearly as... alien as the sea stuff. I started reading. A lot.

Other then engineering, I farm. Permaculture style. If you want a description of permaculture, well, its a design method where you plan the ecosystem for you veggies and nuts and whatever. Soil ecology, predator habitat, etc. A good description might be this: "you don't have a slug issue, you have a duck deficiency". We built our arduino controlled heating germination bench, and the greenhouse should end up on a raspberry pi, maybe with home assistant.
Welcome! I am also a big fan of permaculture, but given my time and space restraints, I only have a couple fruit trees in my small yard. We're looking forward to helping you on your saltwater journey.
 
Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you like DIY stuff, you might have found the right place. I'm pretty sure the community will be able to help you with creating a reef tank that fits your style of unconventional tanks while also giving you enough guidance so your first reef tank can be a success.
Its one of the reasons I picked this forum. Seems full of makers! Googling things about aquarium DIY controllers landed me here.
 

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