[Dominat0r]

I just added my first fish. I got a Royal Gramma from a friend since he is pretty dam hearty.

I dropped him in there this morning and he is already eating brine shrimp =)

Pics coming soon as i can get him outside, mostly he is just in the rock trying to scope out a new home.

 

[Dominat0r]

Well, tank is looking good still. I dropped a piece of Riccordia and like 7-8 polyps of Zoos to check my water. My nitrates have dropped alittle...still sitting around 10-15. I also got a bag of Purigen in my filter now. This should help drop my nitrates. I think im just going to go for a small DIY fuge in the back. I just need to find a nice bright LED for a light back there.

Pic of my Gramma

 

[pheonix991]

I want tropical fish now!!! Man, I can't wait till I'm making money after college....

 

[Dominat0r]

Well, my nitrates still in the 10-15 area which is to high for my tastes. I went over to a friends house and raped his fuge of some cheato and some other type of plants. Hoping this will eat off the nitrates in my tank and bring them down lower then 5ppm.

 

[jun41]

Nice gramma highlife! I'm going to the Shedd this weekend so I'll post some pictures of their reef for the reefers over here.

 

[Chiliman]

This thread has really gotten me thinking about saltwater fish.

How much time goes into thie hobby daily? How dedicated must you be?

 

[jun41]

Chiliman,

It's not so bad. Most of maintenance is just feeding fish and doing water changes. Feeding fish is just feeding fish and water changes dont take too much time but depend on the size of your tank.

The most time will be spent initially when you set everything up or when you upgrade your tank etc. And to be honest a LOT of your time will be spent staring into it

. As long as you love your tank and fish then maintenance and things like that don't matter. Like I said before, maintenance is half the fun!

Do your research and have fun!

 

[Dominat0r]

Its been a while guys, tank is cycled nicely and now stuff starting to actually grow. My roccordias have split 2 times already...my gorgonian has grown a nice limb and repaired himself from when i first got him. I just got a new camara so the pic isnt perfect. Also just today got a new black sebae clown. I will wait a few days before to let him get comfortable before i start taking pics of him. Let me know how your tanks are going guys, pics and all =)

Btw, the algae in the back is Caluerpa, its in there to add some green also it helps keep my nirates down.

 

[Happy Camper]

Looks great. Thanks for the pics.

 

[Troyhoot]

Looks great. i just cant believe its only 12gal. Always meant to set up a reef tank just never been the right timing.

Before I sold all my tanks to move across country and be with my wife I had two 135's, four or five 30's and a few other oddball sizes. I never ran salt because I usually moved once a year or more. But I had discuss, snakehead, lots of cichlids. Favorite tank was when I bought a dozen piranha no bigger then a nickel and grew them to hand size. I even liked them better then the discus. I had a good cichlid mixture tank. some south africans along with a mated pair of jack dempsey in a 30. Had a south american redtail catfish that grew soo big, he was at least 18" long with he died. Ended up giving my snakehead to the zoo he got so unruly.

Now we are settled in a house and baby is almost 6 months old. Few things to finish on the house then I can actually work on tank for the house. I want to go salt with live rock. Always thought I would go at least 135 since I like the 6 foot long tanks. Seeing how good your little 12 looks i might go smaller first

Hopefully this summer I can get a tank going.

 

[Dominat0r]

nano reefs are nice, but be aware if its your first reef tank....reason being is that there is alot that can go wrong and with a smaller amount of water in the tank, the margin for error is MUCH smaller....so if your temp start to go up, its going to go up much quicker and prob higher then a bigger tank.

However, just keep up your testing, watch the parameters...make sure to do monthly water changes and use good water to top off and you should be ok.

 

[archosman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Camper /img/forum/go_quote.gif FAMA had a guy building a 2000 gal. tank into the wall of his basement (built home). Some of the tank was lit with sunlight. Building the tank with three walls underground kept the tank temp. low. Didn't need a chiller as his sumps were underground too.

Holy crap... that's 16,680lbs. in water alone

 

[Dominat0r]

heres my new clown...he is a black sabae clown....got alittle yellow at the nose.

 

[amphead]

Very nice work, I love invertebrates! You are too knowledgeable to make the mistake that I made, when I was just beginning. Put a trigger fish in with my lobster and well ....... munch. ;-(
But I couldn't resist the colors of the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a or Picasso Trigger fish.

 

[Dominat0r]

yes, the triggers are very pretty fish.

Here is a better shot of my new clownfish