Mr.Reeefer
Member
Hi Reefers,
My name is Brock and I reside in Sydney Australia. I am 29, engaged, own two cafés and work my ass off basically.
I am a crazy fisherman, I have been fishing and camping since I was little, and I would say my passion for my home reef tank and the great outdoors has stemmed from there.
I have tremendous respect for the ocean and it inhabitants, I have felt at first hand the fury of the ocean, and I have witnessed a first hand the disrespect people treat our ocean with.
I have wanted a saltwater tank for eleven years now, when I was 18 I bought a book which explained the setup and care for a saltwater tank, after reading this I decided that I couldn't afford it and also I was too busy with friends and didn't have the time for it also, so it has been on hold for 11 years.
My in-laws recently went to England to visit family, while they were away I was in charge of their cichlid tank. I found this rather easy even though I was only shown how to do a water change once before they left, and never kept fish before.
I added more fish, rock and plants and only had fish die due to tank aggression, which I worked on, had to trade in some really aggressive zebras etc.
My Fiancé seen how much I enjoyed the fish tank, so she recommended I start a little one in our room. I thought about it for a week and then headed down to a local LFS and before you know it I had purchased a little 140L tank. The tank was sent away to have the overflow installed and the holes drilled for return and outlet to sump.
While this was happening I built my own stand, and started researching and researching.
Two weeks later I picked up my tank, installed my backdrop, setup my sump, bought all necessary hard and soft plumbing, and got to work.
One week later I had my sand in, water in, and started the cycle process, and I found all this so exciting! my fiancé didn't get the excitement as it to her was just a tank with water however, for me it was so much more, it was the start of something special, the start of a new tank and the start of a long future in the hobby of saltwater reef tanks.
After one week of the water circulating and adding a couple of drops of bio aid every couple of days, I Purchased 15kg of semi cured LR, I put that in the tank and once again was so excited and once again my fiancé didn't get it, now to her it was water and rock in a tank.
After a week and a half and doing regular water checks my ammonia spiked up as the LR had allot of growth which was dying off.
I received a call from my local LFS, he asked if I wanted to buy LR from his established tank of five years, I had seen the pieces previously in the shop and told him they are really nice. So I pulled my 2 big lumps of rock from my tank, took them back and put his two nice pieces in my tank as I couldn't fit it all. They came with some mushies which I was over the moon about as now I had some colour in the tank.
Another week and a half went by and my ammonia was at 0, nitrate 20ppm, nitrite 0, ph 8.4, ch 11.
I did my first water change and two days later bought my valentini puffer. Now my fiancé was interested!!
Since then I have added a flame angel, pair clarkii clowns, blue tang, yellow tang, cleaner shrimp and long nose hawkfish. They all get along which I am also very happy about.
I have white sabae nems, goniopora's, tubipora's, tricolphilia's, suncoral's, hammer corals, torch coral, squamosa clams.
One month ago when I purchased the yellow tang, a week later all my fish had white spot. So off I went to the local LFS, new tank, filter and heater and medication. I had to move all corals and remove most LR to be able to catch the fish. Two weeks the fish spent in hospital. Since the filter had not a chance to cycle I was on daily water changes, I would take 20 litres from my main tank and put that into the hospital and top up the main tank with fresh salt water. This was hard work!!
All fish survived and were white spot free so it was all worth it.
Since then I have bought some small bio balls and I put these into cloth sacks, I leave these in my sump just in case I need to set up the hospital tank on short notice again, I will have some cycled filtration media and won't be on daily water changes!!
I know I have corals that I should not have in there as yet as my tank is not mature enough, I know that I have more corals than I should at the moment as once again my tank is not mature enough. What's done is done and while they are happy and alive I will keep them, if I find any of them dying off or not doing so well I will return them back to any local LFS that will take them as I currently have a zero mortality rate and I plan to keep it that way.
I will post pics once I work out how this is done.
Happy reefing!!
My name is Brock and I reside in Sydney Australia. I am 29, engaged, own two cafés and work my ass off basically.
I am a crazy fisherman, I have been fishing and camping since I was little, and I would say my passion for my home reef tank and the great outdoors has stemmed from there.
I have tremendous respect for the ocean and it inhabitants, I have felt at first hand the fury of the ocean, and I have witnessed a first hand the disrespect people treat our ocean with.
I have wanted a saltwater tank for eleven years now, when I was 18 I bought a book which explained the setup and care for a saltwater tank, after reading this I decided that I couldn't afford it and also I was too busy with friends and didn't have the time for it also, so it has been on hold for 11 years.
My in-laws recently went to England to visit family, while they were away I was in charge of their cichlid tank. I found this rather easy even though I was only shown how to do a water change once before they left, and never kept fish before.
I added more fish, rock and plants and only had fish die due to tank aggression, which I worked on, had to trade in some really aggressive zebras etc.
My Fiancé seen how much I enjoyed the fish tank, so she recommended I start a little one in our room. I thought about it for a week and then headed down to a local LFS and before you know it I had purchased a little 140L tank. The tank was sent away to have the overflow installed and the holes drilled for return and outlet to sump.
While this was happening I built my own stand, and started researching and researching.
Two weeks later I picked up my tank, installed my backdrop, setup my sump, bought all necessary hard and soft plumbing, and got to work.
One week later I had my sand in, water in, and started the cycle process, and I found all this so exciting! my fiancé didn't get the excitement as it to her was just a tank with water however, for me it was so much more, it was the start of something special, the start of a new tank and the start of a long future in the hobby of saltwater reef tanks.
After one week of the water circulating and adding a couple of drops of bio aid every couple of days, I Purchased 15kg of semi cured LR, I put that in the tank and once again was so excited and once again my fiancé didn't get it, now to her it was water and rock in a tank.
After a week and a half and doing regular water checks my ammonia spiked up as the LR had allot of growth which was dying off.
I received a call from my local LFS, he asked if I wanted to buy LR from his established tank of five years, I had seen the pieces previously in the shop and told him they are really nice. So I pulled my 2 big lumps of rock from my tank, took them back and put his two nice pieces in my tank as I couldn't fit it all. They came with some mushies which I was over the moon about as now I had some colour in the tank.
Another week and a half went by and my ammonia was at 0, nitrate 20ppm, nitrite 0, ph 8.4, ch 11.
I did my first water change and two days later bought my valentini puffer. Now my fiancé was interested!!
Since then I have added a flame angel, pair clarkii clowns, blue tang, yellow tang, cleaner shrimp and long nose hawkfish. They all get along which I am also very happy about.
I have white sabae nems, goniopora's, tubipora's, tricolphilia's, suncoral's, hammer corals, torch coral, squamosa clams.
One month ago when I purchased the yellow tang, a week later all my fish had white spot. So off I went to the local LFS, new tank, filter and heater and medication. I had to move all corals and remove most LR to be able to catch the fish. Two weeks the fish spent in hospital. Since the filter had not a chance to cycle I was on daily water changes, I would take 20 litres from my main tank and put that into the hospital and top up the main tank with fresh salt water. This was hard work!!
All fish survived and were white spot free so it was all worth it.
Since then I have bought some small bio balls and I put these into cloth sacks, I leave these in my sump just in case I need to set up the hospital tank on short notice again, I will have some cycled filtration media and won't be on daily water changes!!
I know I have corals that I should not have in there as yet as my tank is not mature enough, I know that I have more corals than I should at the moment as once again my tank is not mature enough. What's done is done and while they are happy and alive I will keep them, if I find any of them dying off or not doing so well I will return them back to any local LFS that will take them as I currently have a zero mortality rate and I plan to keep it that way.
I will post pics once I work out how this is done.
Happy reefing!!
me