Thanks to the nice participants of this site I'm finally coming out of my shell (no pun intended) to start a chronical thread about my adventure in this hobby. Although I consider myself a beginner, technically I am not because I had a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium when I was teen (the 70's). I had relatively good success with my 55 gallon considering it had the old undergravel filter with the corner uplift tubes and no way of nutrient export but water changes. I grew up in Florida and was certified to SCUBA and would collect my own SW specimens, while my father was spear fishing. I would collect LR from the coastal waters to put in my tank. Not knowing that I was putting in a natural filter. I just found it easier to collect specimen by picking up the rocks and transporting them to my tank and was fascinated to see what came out of them. But the hobby has changed considerably in the last 30 years-thus I am a beginner. I have had a FW aquarium for the last 15 years however.
My adventure started when I began to pine for the Florida coast I remember as a child(after living in Virginia for 19 years) and remembering the joy, fascination, and awe I had of the ocean, the reefs and their inhabitants. So I broke down (in the best sense of these words since I know the reef bug is like a virus) and have immersed myself in this never ending quest to bring a little piece of the ocean inside my home and maintain it and nurture it like it is a fragile egg.
So I set up a 90 gallon Oceanic tech tank w/ a 15 gallon sump, a mag-900 return pump and an ASM G-1X skimmer. The lighting is a Coralife Aqualight Pro w/ 2-150w MH and 2-96w true blue actinics. Also equiped is a Red Sea 50mg/hr ozonizer, 2 Ecotech Marine Vortex propeller pumps to really get the flow going. I also installed a Neptune Aquacontroller III to handle the lighting the wave function and ozone input as well as future functions. The water is from a Kent Marine High S RO Filter in my basement. I have a Korallin Ca+ reactor but have not set it up yet. My little ecocosm has been up and running for 8 weeks. I purchased my live rock from TBSaltwter.com and put in 90lbs of live sand and 180lbs of LR. TBSaltwater has an interesting concept and method for delivering it's LR and it is beautiful and very ALIVE! It cycled relatively fast, about 3 weeks, with the ammonia level never exceeding 1.0. Even after 8 weeks there are so many living organisms that I watch my aquarium more than television.
The only specimen I have acclimated are the clean-up crew which consists of: 90 blue legged hermits
60 astrea snails
2 tiger tail cucks
4 peppermint shrimps
2 serpent stars
They did a great job in cleaning up the normal start up problems. Currently I have 2 fishes in quarantine, a Flame Angel and a Long Nose Hawkfish. I have not been able to secure a yellow tang in my area, but am hoping to get one soon. I want to upload some pictures, but until I figure out how to make the files smaller that isn't going to happen. Unfortunately, my digital skills are a little rusty. I will post soon though. I am excited about being a member of RS and look forward to seeing other tanks and hearing about your trials, tribulations and most of all successes. Happy reefing! :bouncer:
My adventure started when I began to pine for the Florida coast I remember as a child(after living in Virginia for 19 years) and remembering the joy, fascination, and awe I had of the ocean, the reefs and their inhabitants. So I broke down (in the best sense of these words since I know the reef bug is like a virus) and have immersed myself in this never ending quest to bring a little piece of the ocean inside my home and maintain it and nurture it like it is a fragile egg.
So I set up a 90 gallon Oceanic tech tank w/ a 15 gallon sump, a mag-900 return pump and an ASM G-1X skimmer. The lighting is a Coralife Aqualight Pro w/ 2-150w MH and 2-96w true blue actinics. Also equiped is a Red Sea 50mg/hr ozonizer, 2 Ecotech Marine Vortex propeller pumps to really get the flow going. I also installed a Neptune Aquacontroller III to handle the lighting the wave function and ozone input as well as future functions. The water is from a Kent Marine High S RO Filter in my basement. I have a Korallin Ca+ reactor but have not set it up yet. My little ecocosm has been up and running for 8 weeks. I purchased my live rock from TBSaltwter.com and put in 90lbs of live sand and 180lbs of LR. TBSaltwater has an interesting concept and method for delivering it's LR and it is beautiful and very ALIVE! It cycled relatively fast, about 3 weeks, with the ammonia level never exceeding 1.0. Even after 8 weeks there are so many living organisms that I watch my aquarium more than television.
The only specimen I have acclimated are the clean-up crew which consists of: 90 blue legged hermits
60 astrea snails
2 tiger tail cucks
4 peppermint shrimps
2 serpent stars
They did a great job in cleaning up the normal start up problems. Currently I have 2 fishes in quarantine, a Flame Angel and a Long Nose Hawkfish. I have not been able to secure a yellow tang in my area, but am hoping to get one soon. I want to upload some pictures, but until I figure out how to make the files smaller that isn't going to happen. Unfortunately, my digital skills are a little rusty. I will post soon though. I am excited about being a member of RS and look forward to seeing other tanks and hearing about your trials, tribulations and most of all successes. Happy reefing! :bouncer:
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