Back to the hobby after a break

TailspotBlenny

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Hi everyone. I'm new to posting on this forum but have gotten a ton of helpful information just reading. I just came back to the hobby after taking 3 years off. I had to sell my 125 gallon reef tank when I moved out of state. I had it for 8 years and it had its ups and downs but overall I loved it and was really sad to sell off all the livestock and practically give away everything. I didn't know if I'd get another one, so that I could enjoy traveling without worrying about a tank. But I missed it so much I decided to get back in the hobby last Oct. 2022. I guess I've had fish tanks all my life and don't know if I'll ever want to be without one for very long because I always miss it and come back. After having freshwater tanks since I was in grade school, I got my first saltwater (fish only) tank when I was 17 years old (a very long time ago!) so I guess you could call it a lifelong addiction.

This time I decided on a smaller tank mostly because I wanted something a little less maintenance and smaller water changes. So I thought 40 gallons would be a good choice to have enough room for several small fish but low maintenance and I liked the size of the 40 gallon all in one by Innovative Marine. So far I like the filtration system in back and the quality is good. The only thing I miss about not having a larger tank is having a foxface or tang for algae control. I'm going through a really ugly algae phase right now, a very frustrating type of turf algae. Kind of like hair algae but very wiry and plastic like fishing line. I guess I should start a new thread for advice on that. My nitrates and phosphates are low. I just got an urchin and so far it's clearing some of the algae so I'm hopeful for that.

So anyway here are a few pics (my apologies for the bad iphone pics). I just started adding a few frags 2 weeks ago but the tank has been running with fish over 15 months now. I have a clownfish pair, royal gramma, bengaii cardinal, tailspot blenny, midas blenny, and springeri damsel. I'm prepared to get a small tank for the clowns if they get really aggressive when they get to breeding age (from past experience I'm expecting the worst) .

Thanks for reading!


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vetteguy53081

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Reef Devils

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Hi everyone. I'm new to posting on this forum but have gotten a ton of helpful information just reading. I just came back to the hobby after taking 3 years off. I had to sell my 125 gallon reef tank when I moved out of state. I had it for 8 years and it had its ups and downs but overall I loved it and was really sad to sell off all the livestock and practically give away everything. I didn't know if I'd get another one, so that I could enjoy traveling without worrying about a tank. But I missed it so much I decided to get back in the hobby last Oct. 2022. I guess I've had fish tanks all my life and don't know if I'll ever want to be without one for very long because I always miss it and come back. After having freshwater tanks since I was in grade school, I got my first saltwater (fish only) tank when I was 17 years old (a very long time ago!) so I guess you could call it a lifelong addiction.

This time I decided on a smaller tank mostly because I wanted something a little less maintenance and smaller water changes. So I thought 40 gallons would be a good choice to have enough room for several small fish but low maintenance and I liked the size of the 40 gallon all in one by Innovative Marine. So far I like the filtration system in back and the quality is good. The only thing I miss about not having a larger tank is having a foxface or tang for algae control. I'm going through a really ugly algae phase right now, a very frustrating type of turf algae. Kind of like hair algae but very wiry and plastic like fishing line. I guess I should start a new thread for advice on that. My nitrates and phosphates are low. I just got an urchin and so far it's clearing some of the algae so I'm hopeful for that.

So anyway here are a few pics (my apologies for the bad iphone pics). I just started adding a few frags 2 weeks ago but the tank has been running with fish over 15 months now. I have a clownfish pair, royal gramma, bengaii cardinal, tailspot blenny, midas blenny, and springeri damsel. I'm prepared to get a small tank for the clowns if they get really aggressive when they get to breeding age (from past experience I'm expecting the worst) .

Thanks for reading!


IMG_1608.jpg IMG_1614.jpg
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