Just wondering if anybody on this forum has a saltwater aquarium. I have a 55 gallon coral reef tank stocked with fish and was curious if anybody else shares the joy of the hobby. I was also hoping to see pics, I'll post mine if there is a enough interest.
Ask Jimmy (opie), I know that he had (has?) an aquarium for a while. He can even tell you what not to do from experience.
Here are the pics, sorry there are a lot of them. And I work at the local fish store in town and I've seen how beer can destroy reef tanks. These are a few older pics.
i had a nice 55 gallon tank, but got too busy for it and gave it away. i now how a lil 15 gallon reef tank with a pair of clown fish. great hobbie, but its not cheap. porcupine puffers are my favorite. i loved my lil guy, he was like a puppy. would feed him out of hand. had some cool triggers too (clown, picasso). you have a beautiful tank. enjoy.
I can't even begin to add up the amount I've spend on it. Alot of my customers tell me about how their puffers will eat from their hands. I'm not a big fan of triggers, usually because they bite me when I'm working You should put up some pics as well.
Beautiful tank man. My bro has a 55 gal fresh water. Salt is too time consuming for him. He is thinking about planting it though. Keep up that great tank!
That is by far my favorite fish as well. People laugh when I try and explain them but this is a fish that truly has personality and cares about interacting with their owners beyond just the need for food. I call em water dogs because they're so friendly. I've got a spot I found off a Fort Lauderdale beach I go diving to see them. There are a lot of them on this particular reef out there. They'll swim right up to your mask and into your hands. I miss my tank and my lil puffer buddies. Had to get rid of it.... as another said..... Salt Water Aquariums are a great hobby but expensive and time consuming to keep healthy.
Nice tank man. I love the coral. Always wanted to try keeping coral but my taste in fish make it impossible. I love puffers, triggers, Lions, stuff that just don't mix with coral. See you have a Hippo Tang. How do those do for you? I could never keep them healthy. Always croaked within a month.
Ha... you laugh. I had a tank in college..... in a frat house no less. One party night my tank got deluged with beers. Lost every fish but this huge Lion Fish I had. That fish couldn't be killed. Ended up having to donate him to an Aquarium in Orlando he had gotten so big.
Freshwater planted tanks are just as beautiful. Plants like java fern, anubias and amazon swords really bring out the jungle look. Tell him to look into putting a co2 reactor on it, because it will cause the plants to go nuts and limit algae growth
I actually lost that hippo after having him a month an a half. It was sad because he was doing well but kept getting skinny. I realized the Vlamingi Tang that was in there with him would hog the food and not let him eat. I have since replaced him with a bigger one who has been doing awesome. Eating like a pig and is getting fat. Had him over a month now.
My first tank was a 20 gallon reef, but there are a lot of new developments with nano tanks lately. The oceanic biocube for instance comes in 8,14, and 29 gallons and has adequate saltwater filtration as well as reef lighting included. You do have a less tolerance with quality of course. Ammonia levels and etc are just more magnified with a smaller water volume. That said if you've had experience in the hobby before you can probably keep you're water quality where it should be. Anybody can really if they don't over feed and overstock, which are the two biggest problems that cause tank crashes.
I used to mess with tanks about a decade ago. Been wanting to get back into it, but yeah it's time consuming. Out here in San Diego, we have the Scripps Aquarium, right on the water. They have a spout that filters the ocean water so people can fill up and take it home for their tanks. When I was out there the owner of a local shop, Octopus Gardens, was there filling these big ol drums. He says its all he uses for his shop. More work than buying some salt and mixing, but hey, it's natural, and you get outside and go to the beach. My favorite fish was always the Mandarin fish. But they're hard to keep and they hide all the time. Also, I wonder what the technological advances are since then. If it's easier ...
If you had a tank with an octopus...... that's all youd have. Those things will eat anything and everything.
theyre amazing escape artists. you'd probably end up finding it on your living room floor. not a pretty scene.
right now, i have a live rock with live sand tank with the two clowns. some hermit crabs and snails too. and i feed them just a little once a day, and its hardly any maintenance. i just add distilled water every few days. the salt level stays the same whwile water evaporates. the tank stays balanced by itself because there is so little going on, and they pick at the "natural food available" in the tank too. plus they are a few years old now and pretty hardy. but once you get into corals...its hard and you gotta be on top of your levels at all times. no matter what you do, get live rock and live sand. dont get the fake stuff. i couldnt keep a fish alive with the fake stuff. its cheaper but i'll be damned if you succeed. once i cycled my tank with live rock and sand, i had tremendous success. i had fish for over 5 years before i gave my tank away. my current clowns are about 3 years a piece.
one day, something freaked my puffer out. he was near the size of a cantaloupe. it was really quite a site to see the transformation.
I was considering a tank a couple years ago and that's what I was deciding between; a tank with just an octopus or a tank with clowns and stuff. I had a tank with a clown trigger once and he attacked everything so I was leery of aggressive things. And I knew that octopi are aggressive. I ended not getting a tank for other reasons.
I've heard that, but if I were to ever get a tank I would want something fairly unusual and interesting. I think octopi are one of the most interesting creatures out there.
Live rock is the essence of a saltwater filtration system. Most people use wet drys with bio-balls etc, but all I have is a 10 gallon sump with a filter sock and a protein skimmer. Most of my filtration comes from my live rock.
Sea horses are very difficult and high maintence. They can't be kept in reef tanks because the strong current will blow them around, and they can't be kept with most fish species because the fish will pick on them or be food competitors which you can't have. Also while some people are able to train them to eat anything, most only eat live grass shrimp. Plus they can very from 50-200 dollars.
One of the most amazing documentaries I ever saw was one where they were trying to chase down a Mimic Octopus. If any of you haven't seen this yet, look for it. It's pretty amazing. It mimics over 15 species. Here are some videos [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8oQBYw6xxc"]YouTube - The Indonesian Mimic Octopus[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnfX2k9pmE8"]YouTube - Mimic Octopus - Lembeh Straits[/ame] Not sure what it's doing in this amateur video but it changes several shapes. It's pretty ccrazy [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aVbBq4TKP8"]YouTube - Amazing Mimic Octopus Hunting[/ame]
I've always wanted a saltwater tank, but know that I couldn't take care of one. I've always knew they were alot of work and my luck I would mess something up lol
We had one in our store once, it's really cool. It can mimic a lionfish, eel, and flounder to name a few. EDIT: Oops, I posted that before I looked at the video and I just realized I reiterated everything it said.
Thanks, I'd never heard of the mimic octopus. All octopi have blending, disguise abilities but this one takes it to another level.
It seems some creatures are either too fragile or too aggressive (like the octopus I like) to have with other fish/sea life in a contained space. To have a tank with such species you have to have just them and have to give up other cool stuff.
i had a beautiful clown trigger too. they are awesome looking but total bullies. in my tank, he was the newest fish and smallest. thats the only way to get one to fall in line with the rest of the tank. one cool "thing" i had with decent success was a sea apple. they usually dont live long in captivity, but i had mine for a few years. but it eventually started looking sick. and since they are very toxic and can wipe out an entire tank, i had to pluck him out and tried my best to euthanize him in fresh water. i didnt want it to take out my whole tank. but that thing was pretty amazing.
Octopi will eat everything. I've had a few customers who have done octopus tanks and they've said the same one problem arises. Typically in Saltwater tanks snails and crabs are used as a cleaning crew to well keep the tank clean. Octopi love nothing more than sucking out said invertebrates and having them as a snack. Needless to say it makes keeping your tank clean harder.
