Lowlandreef
Active Member
Hello reefers!
I joined R2R yesterday, and I'm very excited about the warm welcome I got!
People told me already about the tank threads, so let's give it a shot. This might become a little bit of a long story, but we'll see how it goes.
As long as I can remember, I've been passionated about animals. When I was little I was watching National Geographic and Animal Planet all the time. Why watch disney movies, when you can get educated about animals am I right?
So when I was 6 years old I got my first pet: a rabbit. It was very exciting at the time, but it wasn't really for me. They just don't do very much... I took care of him the best I could, but he sadly passed away due to cancer at 8 years of age. In the meanwhile I always wanted a dog really bad. I could imagine all the adventures we could have together. My parents never allowed me another pet since we already had a rabbit. Since the bunny passed away, I saw some opportunities for a dog. 1,5 year after my rabbit passed away (in 2015), I got a dog! Very exciting and still the best thing that happened to me. The only thing I was missing, was a pet on my room. I spend a lot of time in my room due to studying. So I looked further for some awesome pets I could get on my room. I researched every possibility from parrots to chameleons. There was just one awesome idea that got stuck in my head: a reef tank! I know it took a little while, but we're finally on subject!
At first I was a little intimidated to be honest. There's a lot of info you need to know, and it costs a lot of money. The first thing meant it would cost a lot of time. That would be fine but the second was a bit harder since being in college doesn't really mean you have a whole lot to spend. I figured the best thing to do was to save some money first and get my knowledge up. During this time, the idea of having mandarin dragonet really kept me going. After about 3 years it was finally time and I started my tank. This was in march 2019.
Tank setup & equipment when I started:
- Red Sea Reefer 170
- AI Hydra 26 HD light
- Deltec 600IX skimmer
- Jecod DCS3000 return pump
- Jebao SOW4 wavemaker
- Real Reef Rock 17 kg (I think that's about 37.5 lbs)
- 3mm nautic marine coral sand 9 kg (I think that's about 20 lbs)
- Nautic Marine Osmose Reverse 190
- Red Sea coral pro salt
- Red Sea DIY tank screen
This is what it looked like:
After about 2 months of cycling I got my first livestock. I was very excited about this and I carefully planned it. All parameters were stable and I got my CUC: cleaner shrimp, scarlet reef hermit crab and a couple of trochus snails. A few weeks later I was ready for my first fish. I had thought this pretty well through in my head and got a firefish. I know they can be a little shy, so I thought if would add him first, he would get established better in the tank. At the beginning he did very well. He was a little shy but ate very well. After 2 weeks he just disappeared. I looked everywhere but couldn't find him.
At least I learned my first lessen: nothing goes as plan in this hobby.
In the few weeks after that I got 2 more fish. A yellow wrasse and a royal gramma. I was really stoked about both, since they are way more active than the firefish. Unfortunately I discovered my royal gramma had ich... Since I didn't have a QT, I saw him die and I couldn't really do anything about it. Since 2 out of 3 fish died, I wasn't very excited about the store I got my fish from.
Second lesson learned: buy your fish from a reliable store.
From now on I only went to the store I got all my equipment from. It's an hour drive to get there, but it's worth it.
The next fish I got there were my 2 black ice clown fish. As you can see in the picture below, I started buying more corals as well.
My tank was very stabile but I did have a lot of hair algae. I turned my lights down and got a LMB. I figured this would solve my problem. My LMB was a beast! He cleaned the tank very well and I got rid of al the algae. The only problem was he just wouldn't eat prepared foods. I tried every single food you could think of, but nothing worked. After 2 months he died, which was pretty upsetting to watch. RIP little fellow!
A few months after that my yellow wrasse died as well. He suddenly stopped eating, and again I tried everything but nothing worked. He died very soon after, and I felt really bad about it. He was the star of my tank and we won all the battles in the aquarium together. He survived ich, cyano, dinoflagellates, hair algae and the somewhat unstable parameters a new tank has (I know some of those aren't life threatening to fish). He even helped keeping my trochus snail population in check. I didn't knew I could get this attached to a fish. For a few months a didn't put much effort in the tank. I just fed my fish and that was it.
After all this it was time to move on, so I decided to get some new fish to get myself excited again. I got a blue/green chromis and a bicolor blenny. I also did a huge rescape and got some more corals. A few big waterchanges later, this is how the tank looked like:
We are getting pretty close to the present time now. I wanted to boost my filtration by setting up a refugium. This had a few reasons. I love mandarin dragonets (like I mentioned before), and I've heard that having an established aquarium and a refugium really boosts your chances of keeping one. Besides that, I hoped to get away with fewer waterchanges if got a refugium. So I bought the horizon zetlight E200s and got some chaeto.
I also really wanted a wrasse again, since I really enjoyed my yellow wrasse. So about a month ago, I got an Ornate Leopard Wrasse. Some of you might be worried now, since it's considered an expert only fish according to some people. I know what i'm doing and I also hatch baby brine shrimp for a more enriched diet. The OLW hid for the first 6 days, but got out a little after that. He still would be gone for some days after being out for a bit. I'm happy to say that he's doing very well, and I also got him to eat flake food. He only hides at night now, and is very comfortable around me
This is the tank now (did another rescape) with the refugium setup in the picture next to it.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my reefing journey to this point, and will keep following it from now on!
~Adriaen
I joined R2R yesterday, and I'm very excited about the warm welcome I got!
People told me already about the tank threads, so let's give it a shot. This might become a little bit of a long story, but we'll see how it goes.
As long as I can remember, I've been passionated about animals. When I was little I was watching National Geographic and Animal Planet all the time. Why watch disney movies, when you can get educated about animals am I right?
So when I was 6 years old I got my first pet: a rabbit. It was very exciting at the time, but it wasn't really for me. They just don't do very much... I took care of him the best I could, but he sadly passed away due to cancer at 8 years of age. In the meanwhile I always wanted a dog really bad. I could imagine all the adventures we could have together. My parents never allowed me another pet since we already had a rabbit. Since the bunny passed away, I saw some opportunities for a dog. 1,5 year after my rabbit passed away (in 2015), I got a dog! Very exciting and still the best thing that happened to me. The only thing I was missing, was a pet on my room. I spend a lot of time in my room due to studying. So I looked further for some awesome pets I could get on my room. I researched every possibility from parrots to chameleons. There was just one awesome idea that got stuck in my head: a reef tank! I know it took a little while, but we're finally on subject!
At first I was a little intimidated to be honest. There's a lot of info you need to know, and it costs a lot of money. The first thing meant it would cost a lot of time. That would be fine but the second was a bit harder since being in college doesn't really mean you have a whole lot to spend. I figured the best thing to do was to save some money first and get my knowledge up. During this time, the idea of having mandarin dragonet really kept me going. After about 3 years it was finally time and I started my tank. This was in march 2019.
Tank setup & equipment when I started:
- Red Sea Reefer 170
- AI Hydra 26 HD light
- Deltec 600IX skimmer
- Jecod DCS3000 return pump
- Jebao SOW4 wavemaker
- Real Reef Rock 17 kg (I think that's about 37.5 lbs)
- 3mm nautic marine coral sand 9 kg (I think that's about 20 lbs)
- Nautic Marine Osmose Reverse 190
- Red Sea coral pro salt
- Red Sea DIY tank screen
This is what it looked like:
After about 2 months of cycling I got my first livestock. I was very excited about this and I carefully planned it. All parameters were stable and I got my CUC: cleaner shrimp, scarlet reef hermit crab and a couple of trochus snails. A few weeks later I was ready for my first fish. I had thought this pretty well through in my head and got a firefish. I know they can be a little shy, so I thought if would add him first, he would get established better in the tank. At the beginning he did very well. He was a little shy but ate very well. After 2 weeks he just disappeared. I looked everywhere but couldn't find him.
At least I learned my first lessen: nothing goes as plan in this hobby.
In the few weeks after that I got 2 more fish. A yellow wrasse and a royal gramma. I was really stoked about both, since they are way more active than the firefish. Unfortunately I discovered my royal gramma had ich... Since I didn't have a QT, I saw him die and I couldn't really do anything about it. Since 2 out of 3 fish died, I wasn't very excited about the store I got my fish from.
Second lesson learned: buy your fish from a reliable store.
From now on I only went to the store I got all my equipment from. It's an hour drive to get there, but it's worth it.
The next fish I got there were my 2 black ice clown fish. As you can see in the picture below, I started buying more corals as well.
My tank was very stabile but I did have a lot of hair algae. I turned my lights down and got a LMB. I figured this would solve my problem. My LMB was a beast! He cleaned the tank very well and I got rid of al the algae. The only problem was he just wouldn't eat prepared foods. I tried every single food you could think of, but nothing worked. After 2 months he died, which was pretty upsetting to watch. RIP little fellow!
A few months after that my yellow wrasse died as well. He suddenly stopped eating, and again I tried everything but nothing worked. He died very soon after, and I felt really bad about it. He was the star of my tank and we won all the battles in the aquarium together. He survived ich, cyano, dinoflagellates, hair algae and the somewhat unstable parameters a new tank has (I know some of those aren't life threatening to fish
). He even helped keeping my trochus snail population in check. I didn't knew I could get this attached to a fish. For a few months a didn't put much effort in the tank. I just fed my fish and that was it.After all this it was time to move on, so I decided to get some new fish to get myself excited again. I got a blue/green chromis and a bicolor blenny. I also did a huge rescape and got some more corals. A few big waterchanges later, this is how the tank looked like:
We are getting pretty close to the present time now. I wanted to boost my filtration by setting up a refugium. This had a few reasons. I love mandarin dragonets (like I mentioned before), and I've heard that having an established aquarium and a refugium really boosts your chances of keeping one. Besides that, I hoped to get away with fewer waterchanges if got a refugium. So I bought the horizon zetlight E200s and got some chaeto.
I also really wanted a wrasse again, since I really enjoyed my yellow wrasse. So about a month ago, I got an Ornate Leopard Wrasse. Some of you might be worried now, since it's considered an expert only fish according to some people. I know what i'm doing and I also hatch baby brine shrimp for a more enriched diet. The OLW hid for the first 6 days, but got out a little after that. He still would be gone for some days after being out for a bit. I'm happy to say that he's doing very well, and I also got him to eat flake food. He only hides at night now, and is very comfortable around me
This is the tank now (did another rescape) with the refugium setup in the picture next to it.
I hope you all enjoyed reading my reefing journey to this point, and will keep following it from now on!
~Adriaen
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