RosehipScapes
New Member
Greetings from the UK!
After 2 years keeping planted aquariums, in early summer I set up my first marine tank - an 8G bowl with mostly macroalgae. I really loved it, but I could hardly see anything through the curvature of the glass, so 2 months in, when I saw a perfectly-sized pile of cheap 20-year local liverock on ebay locally I jumped at it.
For over a year I've had this secondhand optiwhite tank and the filter in the shed, planned to be freshwater scapes that I never got around to, but I think this size works perfectly for marine and the sorts of tanks I love. Very useful that it happened to be the exact right size for that liverock...
100cm L x 40cm D x 30cm H - approx 125L (or 39.3in L x 15.7inch D x 11.8in H - approx 27.5G)
The filter is an Oase Biomaster Thermo 600 & I also have 2 small wave makers on the tank.
The light is currently a freshwater Twinstar 900, though I hope to change that to 3 AI Primes (2 fresh, 1 marine) to bring some of the colours out.
My aim is to make it feel a bit like rockpools in Devon, UK when I was a kid, with lots of seaweed and tiny creatures. Along with the macro algae, I've got a selection of cheap soft corals. I like to go with an ecosysytem plant-heavy method in my freshwater aquariums, and so far this seems to work well with marine too!
When I got the rock it looked like this, covered in cyano and aiptasia. I got it from a retiring reef-keeper couple in their mid-80s, so not surprised that maintenance was difficult for them when the tank was 3 foot high! With the shallow depth of this tank it's super easy to maintain. It has yellow sponges and tiny clams and tiny invasive corals (apparently, it's pretty though) and bubble algae (apparently fine in macro tanks?) and kenya trees and mushrooms and all sorts, so I'm very pleased.
After about 2 months, it looks like this. Cyano only in the front right corner (that was a battle), and aptasia seemingly gone (got 3 true peppermints in there cos I'm sure it's lurking). Note I was doing maintenance today so some corals are a bit inner than usual. So far really really enjoying it!
I'm quite happy with it now, just want a nice long polyp toadstool as my main big coral, and need a lid & to install UV so I can add more fish. My only fish in there atm is a barnacle blenny from my nano bowl, 1 inch of fish for 39inches of tank!
After 2 years keeping planted aquariums, in early summer I set up my first marine tank - an 8G bowl with mostly macroalgae. I really loved it, but I could hardly see anything through the curvature of the glass, so 2 months in, when I saw a perfectly-sized pile of cheap 20-year local liverock on ebay locally I jumped at it.
For over a year I've had this secondhand optiwhite tank and the filter in the shed, planned to be freshwater scapes that I never got around to, but I think this size works perfectly for marine and the sorts of tanks I love. Very useful that it happened to be the exact right size for that liverock...
100cm L x 40cm D x 30cm H - approx 125L (or 39.3in L x 15.7inch D x 11.8in H - approx 27.5G)
The filter is an Oase Biomaster Thermo 600 & I also have 2 small wave makers on the tank.
The light is currently a freshwater Twinstar 900, though I hope to change that to 3 AI Primes (2 fresh, 1 marine) to bring some of the colours out.
My aim is to make it feel a bit like rockpools in Devon, UK when I was a kid, with lots of seaweed and tiny creatures. Along with the macro algae, I've got a selection of cheap soft corals. I like to go with an ecosysytem plant-heavy method in my freshwater aquariums, and so far this seems to work well with marine too!
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When I got the rock it looked like this, covered in cyano and aiptasia. I got it from a retiring reef-keeper couple in their mid-80s, so not surprised that maintenance was difficult for them when the tank was 3 foot high! With the shallow depth of this tank it's super easy to maintain. It has yellow sponges and tiny clams and tiny invasive corals (apparently, it's pretty though) and bubble algae (apparently fine in macro tanks?) and kenya trees and mushrooms and all sorts, so I'm very pleased.
After about 2 months, it looks like this. Cyano only in the front right corner (that was a battle), and aptasia seemingly gone (got 3 true peppermints in there cos I'm sure it's lurking). Note I was doing maintenance today so some corals are a bit inner than usual. So far really really enjoying it!
I'm quite happy with it now, just want a nice long polyp toadstool as my main big coral, and need a lid & to install UV so I can add more fish. My only fish in there atm is a barnacle blenny from my nano bowl, 1 inch of fish for 39inches of tank!
