Hi,
about 3 months ago I set out on a journey to start a marine tank, my GF really wanted pets and suggested that having some "nemo's" would be awesome. 8-9 years ago I had freshwater and really enjoyed it, but I moved out of my mom's place to the city, in shared houses, so I had to leave the hobby behind. Old tank, went for a natural look... yes it has algae
After a lot of research, I came to the conclusion that it could be easier* to keep marine fish. While doing the research (which i absolutely DO NOT regret) I quickly got everything together.
After all that I tried to kick start the Nitrogen cycle with Dr. Tim's which after 2 bottles didn't seem to work, I do blame Australia (shipping and storage) not the product. Water changes was the only thing keeping everything in check.
I added the fish (two clownfish) but had to keep changing the water due to ammonia building up, I did have RO by then. Looking back I should of waited it out, my last resort was getting live rock, I found a shop that sold live rocks, and they didn't look good. But they had a DT with some from the great barrier reef**.
Once added the change was extremely quick.
Ammonia dropped slowly and then Nitrates/Nitrites went to insane levels. Chaeto/refugium absolutely killed the problem before it became unmanageable, it grows extremely well! I got a DI addon for the RO system, its worth it... as long as you keep track of when you need to change your RO/ID filters! (Nearby pet/aquarium stores made it uneconomical in the long run to consider that option...buying their water.. also you never know how good they are in changing their filters). Currently ammonia/nitrate/nitrite is 0ppm (yes the cycle is continuous but atleast I can sleep knowing I did my best!
I went to Bali and saw the reef there, whether man/or natural events knocked/destroyed a lot of their reef (the one I visited anyway). The main take away was how important it should be to rehabilitate and protect what we have, as it does regrow but only when given a chance and time. Also had to get a power head as the flow in the reef was more than I imagined...
Since then I got a pearl goby, 6 stripped wrasse, 2 Zoahs (Green and a Red/Orange one), 1 green star polyp (which ejected a ball/frag and seems to be planning on ejecting more =.=), mystery mushroom but seems to be a nice/safe species (asked for suggestions on the ID in the softies section).
Had my first death, a hermit crab, he tried to molt but seemed to have died in the process... he smelt like death. It was surprising how attached we got the him
. We went out one Sunday to a river mouth and got the shells they like, (wayyyyyy above the water/tidal line [bone dry] so not to get shells that could be used by something, whether that was good or not is questionable /shrug/ )
Finally don't get a cheap blackbox... luckily it was refundable
all good you say?
I have learnt so much and continue to learn from the community.
I hope to continue many years into the future with this tank, if money starts to agree with me.. student. I'd upgrade to a bigger tank!
It was a bit of a vent and skimmed/proof read, so yeahhhh, but if you made it this far thanks!
*easier but more $$$... and once you visit a store with a coral section... you will probably want to have a reef aquarium =.=
**I hope it is sustainable otherwise I would feel heaps bad
about 3 months ago I set out on a journey to start a marine tank, my GF really wanted pets and suggested that having some "nemo's" would be awesome. 8-9 years ago I had freshwater and really enjoyed it, but I moved out of my mom's place to the city, in shared houses, so I had to leave the hobby behind. Old tank, went for a natural look... yes it has algae
- Curved front, 2nd hand, took out the back and replaced it with a dark glass + re sealed the silicone
- Cut my left thumb while getting old vinyl air tubing from a skimmer (skimmed my tendon approx 20%) and had to have surgery
- After surgery, one handed ... didn't stop me from continuing... painted an old work cabinet for the DT+Sump
- Resealed another tank (to be my sump)
Skimmer is hangon the back now..
- Figured out how to drill and cut glass @.@ (if you know what you want just pay someone =.=)
- Had to go to the plumbing section of Bunnings warehouse, usually total chaos, and with mixed fittings like... 25mm x 1" pvc valve socket.. pls keep it metric OR Imperial!!!!
- Final result was aprox. 110L/29Gal DT+Sump DT=57L/15Gal Sump=60L/15Gal-70L/18Gal
After all that I tried to kick start the Nitrogen cycle with Dr. Tim's which after 2 bottles didn't seem to work, I do blame Australia (shipping and storage) not the product. Water changes was the only thing keeping everything in check.
I added the fish (two clownfish) but had to keep changing the water due to ammonia building up, I did have RO by then. Looking back I should of waited it out, my last resort was getting live rock, I found a shop that sold live rocks, and they didn't look good. But they had a DT with some from the great barrier reef**.
Once added the change was extremely quick.
I went to Bali and saw the reef there, whether man/or natural events knocked/destroyed a lot of their reef (the one I visited anyway). The main take away was how important it should be to rehabilitate and protect what we have, as it does regrow but only when given a chance and time. Also had to get a power head as the flow in the reef was more than I imagined...
Since then I got a pearl goby, 6 stripped wrasse, 2 Zoahs (Green and a Red/Orange one), 1 green star polyp (which ejected a ball/frag and seems to be planning on ejecting more =.=), mystery mushroom but seems to be a nice/safe species (asked for suggestions on the ID in the softies section).
Had my first death, a hermit crab, he tried to molt but seemed to have died in the process... he smelt like death. It was surprising how attached we got the him
. We went out one Sunday to a river mouth and got the shells they like, (wayyyyyy above the water/tidal line [bone dry] so not to get shells that could be used by something, whether that was good or not is questionable /shrug/ )
Finally don't get a cheap blackbox... luckily it was refundable
I have learnt so much and continue to learn from the community.
I hope to continue many years into the future with this tank, if money starts to agree with me.. student. I'd upgrade to a bigger tank!
It was a bit of a vent and skimmed/proof read, so yeahhhh, but if you made it this far thanks!
*easier but more $$$... and once you visit a store with a coral section... you will probably want to have a reef aquarium =.=
**I hope it is sustainable otherwise I would feel heaps bad
