Aquarium-ists?

[Bass XL]

Anyone else here have Salt Water aquariums? My friend introduced me to this great little hobby about a year ago, and I'm full on addicted. It's so fun setting up tanks with coral, fish, and live rock. It's also great to learn about water parameters and the importance of those parameters. Anyone?

I had a 10 gallon set up, but recently purchased a 14 gallon BioCube. Fish aren't in it yet, as the tank is still cycling, but here's what the current set up is

Actinic light only:

.

And both lights.

[bigfruits]

ive had several reefs, right now i have a 50 gallon breeder with t5 lighting (individual reflectors) and a 100 gallon rated hang on skimmer...

those small tanks are great arent they? one bucket and youve done a water change! dont really need a skimmer if you change water frequently!

edit: become a member of reefcentral if you havent already. that forum is super busy and has tons of info.

[J Francho]

I don't currently have any tanks, but worked in the tropical fish industry for ten years.  Importing, wholesale, selling and installing custom tanks...

My absolute favorite reef tank was my little 15 gal. micro.  Ran it for 5 years or so, and cultured quite a few inverts in it.

[SoFlaBassAddict]

I got into it when I was younger.  Saltwater was just part of life down here in southern Florida.  My brother eventually worked in the aquarium business for a while.  I wish I had the time right now to really get back into it.  It was a lot of fun when we were able to collect fish from the reefs to bring back into the tanks.  Maybe I'll think about putting a tank together again for the kids.  They love fish tanks.

Now I just need to find a happy spot in the house...

[=Matt 5.0=]

[Fish Chris]

I've been into aquariums most of my life. Worked in 4 tropical fish stores, and on a fish farm in Arkansas.

I've kept just about everything in aquariums you could imagine.

One of my coolest aquarium pets, was an Octopus He would watch me walk to the fridge to get his food... and he would run up to the front glass, colors changes like every 1 second, from pale, to dark, purple, to brown, striped to spotted ! Crazy to watch ! As I reached up to the top edge of the tank, holding a little pink cocktail shrimp in my fingers, he would literally climb up to the edge of the tank, shoot out a few tentacles to grab my hand and fingers (freaked me out the first time he did it) but it was just to "secure his meal" .....then he would use another tentacle to wrap around the shrimp, and pull it back to his mouth. Once he was sure it was his, he would let go of my hand, and run back down the glass, and over to his favorite piece of coral, where his colors would now just go totally neutral, and he would blend right in with the gravel, and coral

I had a really cool aquarium / terrarium with Mud skippers too. {fish out of water } They would eat tubifex worms, right out of the end of an eye dropper, with you holding it. In fact, they would spring several inches off the ground, with their tail, to get to it The only time they would actually stay in the water end of the terrarium, was if one got it's but kicked by another. Then they would sit down their straight and stiff, and act like they were hating it Otherwise, they would just hop (on their front fins) over the edge of the water, jump in, and basically spin right back out, all in one motion, just to get wet, and get a mouthful of oxygenated water, once in a while.

Reef tanks are great too. I never kept them at home, but took care of plenty of them at my work.

Peace,

Fish

[.dsaavedra.]

freshwater here. i've got 4 sunfish: 1 bluegill, 2 pumpkinseeds, and 1 redbreast.

[7mm-08]

freshwater here. i've got 4 sunfish: 1 bluegill, 2 pumpkinseeds, and 1 redbreast.

That's awesome.  I've never done the saltwater thing but I've had several tanks with native fish over the years.  My faves were crawdads which were a blast to watch, and I loved my Warmouth but it got too expensive to feed the dang thing.  I swear he could eat his own weight in fish every day if I'd let him.

[.dsaavedra.]

freshwater here. i've got 4 sunfish: 1 bluegill, 2 pumpkinseeds, and 1 redbreast.

That's awesome. I've never done the saltwater thing but I've had several tanks with native fish over the years. My faves were crawdads which were a blast to watch, and I loved my Warmouth but it got too expensive to feed the dang thing. I swear he could eat his own weight in fish every day if I'd let him.

you've gotta get em eating pellets as  a staple then supplement with live food when you can/feel like it

[Bass XL]

Wow, glad to hear I'm not the only one! bigfruits: reefcentral is a pretty cool place. I'm a member over at nano-reef.com and those guys are awesome. Matt, that's exactly what I'm talkin about!! You have a pretty sweet clam there. I'm wanting to start out and get some Zoas here soon, but water parameters arent the greatest right now. Still have some ammonia, but hopefully soon. Like they say, when it comes to aquariums, nothing good happens fast. It's such a cool hobby.

Fish Chris: Funny you mention the Octopus. Ever since I saw this video-

I've wanted one. Not anytime soon, but when I get out of school, this guy is going smack dam in my living room. They're so awesome, and a good friend has one as well. Very entertaining creatures!

[Raul]

I had aquariums since I was 5 until about 12 years ago, I owned an aquarium store for about 10 years. So, you got a skimmer ?

People put too much emphasis on the oxydation of nutrients when where you should put emphasis on is removing nutrients before they need to be oxydized and cycled, the skimmer does that, remove the precursos of ammonia.

So you got an ozonizer ?

Ozone not only helps you keep your fish healthy ( desinfectant ) it enhances the job of the skimmer by denaturilizing proteins ( literally burns them ).

What else you got ?

Redox meter ? warm water densimeter ?.

[Bass XL]

I had aquariums since I was 5 until about 12 years ago, I owned an aquarium store for about 10 years. So, you got a skimmer ?

People put too much emphasis on the oxydation of nutrients when where you should put emphasis on is removing nutrients before they need to be oxydized and cycled, the skimmer does that, remove the precursos of ammonia.

So you got an ozonizer ?

Ozone not only helps you keep your fish healthy ( desinfectant ) it enhances the job of the skimmer by denaturilizing proteins ( literally burns them ).

What else you got ?

Redox meter ? warm water densimeter ?.

No, no, and no to all haha. I'm currently running/cycling a 14 gallon biocube, so theres really no need for a skimmer. The BioCube brand skimmers are garbage and I can get more out of weekly water changes. My buddy and I are getting a place here in a few months, and want to make our own frag tank, so we'll see how that goes. Just have to invest in some lights for the tank!

[bigfruits]

unless your doing SPS coral, you prob dont want to "filter" the water too much as it removes some beneficial things.

now im thinking about starting nano tank again. so easy to bring up trace element levels with just a bucket of salt water. all you need is live rock, salt water, power head, heater, sand. heck, you dont even need sand!

[Raul]

No, no, and no to all haha. I'm currently running/cycling a 14 gallon biocube,so theres really no need for a skimmer. . The BioCube brand skimmers are garbage and I can get more out of weekly water changes. My buddy and I are getting a place here in a few months, and want to make our own frag tank, so we'll see how that goes. Just have to invest in some lights for the tank!

Yeah right, if you want to believe so.  :

[Bass XL]

As for right now with only a 14 gallon, I just cant see justifying or it even being necessary. I mean sure it will help, but the skimmer itself will be bigger then my tank. I'll stick with water changes until someone wants to give me one 

[BassThumb]

I'm into reef aquariums, too. I broke down my last SPS tank about 4 years ago when I moved twice in one year and it became too much of a hassle. I had some RTN issues with some of my biggest and best Acropora colonies due to the move, including my sky blue tort and my big A. Milleporas. That was really frustrating to watch. Having to repeatedly move large SPS reef aquariums is enough to turn anyone away, at least for a while.

My last tank was a 120g mixed reeftank with over 150 SPS, LPS, ricordia, zoanthids, a half dozen Maxima clams, etc. I really liked the daily reefkeeping routine and I miss it, but when I sold the tank, stand, liverock, fish, and corals, I used the money to buy my first fiberglass bassboat, so it worked out alright in the end. I'm always tempted to set up again because I still have a lot of equipment in my basement...MH and T5 lights, Tunze pumps, wavemakers, two Deltec skimmers including an AP702, Deltec reactors, controllers, etc. I'm thinking it again now that my living situation is stable again and I won't be moving anytime soon. I might start with a nano zoanthid/ricordia reef because those are fun to collect and trade, and a breeze to take care of.

www.reefcentral.com

[BassThumb]

As for right now with only a 14 gallon, I just cant see justifying or it even being necessary. I mean sure it will help, but the skimmer itself will be bigger then my tank. I'll stick with water changes until someone wants to give me one

You can get away with it if you limit the fish to the bare minimum and feed very, very, very little. I've done it in the past, with a 20g tall nano reef full of soft corals, and just a pair of Percula clowns that hosted in a large green Sinularia. I did 25% weekly water changes and it was as clean as a whistle with no algae issues.

[Nice_Bass]

freshwater here. i've got 4 sunfish: 1 bluegill, 2 pumpkinseeds, and 1 redbreast.

What size tank do you use for this?

[.dsaavedra.]

freshwater here. i've got 4 sunfish: 1 bluegill, 2 pumpkinseeds, and 1 redbreast.

What size tank do you use for this?

55 gallons. its starting to get crowded with my bluegill approaching 7" and one of the pumpkinseeds around 6-6.5", and i have a giant piece of driftwood in there. i'm going to have to do some re-arranging soon, maybe get some smaller driftwood.

[CAdeltaLipRipper]

Lol salt water fish are too much work.I got a goldfish pond with a bluegill in it and a fish tank with baby juvenile bluegills and some little bullhead catfish in it

[J Francho]

Lol salt water fish are too much work.I got a goldfish pond with a bluegill in it and a fish tank with baby juvenile bluegills and some little bullhead catfish in it

Soon to be a big bullhead species tank, LOL.

[Raul]

As for right now with only a 14 gallon, I just cant see justifying or it even being necessary. I mean sure it will help, but the skimmer itself will be bigger then my tank. I'll stick with water changes until someone wants to give me one

You don 't need a monster size skimmer, Sanders manfactures a small sized skimmer ( up to 25 gal ) model called Piccolo, doesn 't cost a ton of money, is very small, works great in small aquariums and allows you to keep a lot more biomass than you can for a 14 gal tank.

You don 't see the need ----> my man, please pay attention to the advice somebody is giving you for free, I 've had aquariums for more time than you are old, look at it this way; I did a big bunch of mistakes and those mistakes did cost me my money, by paying attention I 'm saving you the money that cost me to learn from my mistakes.

Can you keep some biomass in 14 gal ? yes you can, with very little food, large volumes of weekly water changes ( 25-30% ) you can keep a few animals, but if what you are looking for is those super stunnig jaw dropping displays you see in magazines or in forums from die hard aquarists with that unit you have you are very far from it.

A friend of mine who also had an aquiarium store and I had this discussion he said it couldn 't be dome, I said it could be so we made a bet, the looser was going to pay for a nice dinner and drinks. I installed a 20 gal reef aquarium:

Material:

1 2 lamp hood

2 Coralife 20 watt lamps ( actinic/daylight )

1 BioLiife internal wet/dry filter

1 Sanders skimmer

1 AquaClear 201 power head

1 Air pump ( for the skimmer )

Later I added an ozonizer

This is what I had:

Fiah

1 Flame angel

1 Pseudochromis diadema

1 Square pink anthias

1 Yellow anthias

1 Bicolor blenny

1 Fiji damsel

1 Saddleback clownfish

1 Blue mandarin goby

3 Flame gobies

Tried to add a couple of neon gobies but the danged clownfish captured them and fed them to it 's anemone !  >

Corals

1 Elecance coral

1 Open brain coral ( red )

1 Open brain coral ( green )

1 Bubble coral

1 Star polips

3 Colonial anemones

2 Tonga leather mushroom ( soft corals )

Anemones

1 Sebae white

1 Sebae yellow

1 Purple long tentacle ( had 2 but the elanace coral ate one )

Moluscs

3 turbo snails

1 Tridacna clam

Crustaceans

2 Orchid shrimp

2 Common cleaner shrimp

2 Cleaner shrimp red

2 anemone crabs

Crowded ? yes, possible ? yes , long lasting ? yes with a bunch of work and technology it can be done but you have to do it right or everything will collapse and when it collapses it does it in an eyeblink. I kept the tank running for a couple of years until finally I had to sell most of the animals ( corals ) because thy just got too large for such a small place.

[BassThumb]

That's extremely crowded, but I bet it looked pretty cool.

Did your Sebae anemones ever brown up? A white, gray, or yellow anemone is severely bleached. I had a Sebae for 4 years and it started out stark white with purple tips, but eventually turned an iridescent, coffee-with-cream brown and grew to 20" before I sold it.

How big were the Flame Angel and Anthias after two years? Was the Flame aggressive and territorial?

[BassThumb]

Reef Central is the place to go for any and all saltwater aquarium info on the web.  This is a link to the Nano Reef forum for info specifically on reef tanks under 30G.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75

[Bass XL]

You had over 10 fish in a 20 gallon? No wonder it would collapse in a blink of an eye, and I would expect you to get a skimmer with that kind of bio load. Let me say, I do appreciate your help, but I am definitely not the only person that does this without a skimmer. If you are doing weekly water changes you can maintain good water quality without a skimmer. They're great, I'm not dismissing that, just not a "must have" if you can keep up with water changes on such a small tank.