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Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by Gorbachev on Tue Nov 3rd at 6:29am 2009

I'm curious if anyone else here also has a saltwater aquarium. I started the hobby about 2 months ago and have thoroughly enjoyed it. To-date the only deaths were the result of fights or "disagreements" between a few livestock.

I've got a 20gal setup with about 11lbs of live rock and live substrate. (Considered micro in the world of saltwater tanks) I won't get into too much detail though if there's no-one else who knows a lot of the terminology, but I'm willing to chat about it if you want to know more.

The tank has cycled out the diatom bloom and currently the primary algae are coralline and hair algae.

The current inhabitants are:

Fish
3x True Percula (Clownfish)
1x Yellowtail Damsel
1x Yellow Watchman Goby
1x Green Clown Goby
1x Lawnmower Blenny

Invertebrates
2x Astrea Snails (one has a fan worm on its shell)
2x Nassarius Snails
1x Turbo Snail
1x Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1x Sexy Shrimp [EDIT]No longer MIA... just hides during the day, probably needs some buddies
1x Flame Scallop
1x Black Sea Urchin
5x Asterina Sea Stars
1x Small Pink Bubbletip Anemone
1x Small white tentacled/pink stock actinaria-type anemone (I want to say it's a long-tentacle sea anemone.)
& a few random sea fans, tube worms and sponges in the live rock


A few pictures from a month ago:










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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by Niborius on Tue Nov 3rd at 4:05pm 2009

I don't have one, but I wanted to say that this is a very nice one, so are the fishes.


Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nibgames



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by Riven on Wed Nov 4th at 1:08am 2009

For a time before I left my house, my father and I were interested in starting a 50 gal. (227.3 Liters) salt water aquarium we did a bit of research, but ultimately decided not to, due to the maintenance involved. But I could maybe see myself starting about the size you have there. -How much did it cost you to start one like that? -And did you start with everything you listed, or has that been a gradual increase?

Looks pretty nice, A lot of work involved though eh?


Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by G4MER on Wed Nov 4th at 4:22am 2009

YOU BASTARD! LET NEMO GO! smiley smiley smiley

Do you plan to add a background to that tank? Looks good though.. I could see a small one like that in my home.



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by Le Chief on Wed Nov 4th at 6:21am 2009

Looks pretty bare at the moment. You have a light so I reckon some plants would be a nice addition and perhaps some small riverstones or something. And yeah you should get a background they're really cheap.

Good stuff.


Aaron's Stuff



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by G4MER on Wed Nov 4th at 7:12am 2009

I like the idea of having a living reef.. with a couple small fish.



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by Gorbachev on Thu Nov 5th at 3:22am 2009

Ahoy...


Well, part of the allure of the marine tank is really having everything alive, putting a background kinda defeats the purpose. (Even the rock is "live", as it is coral that has died and been taken over by invertebrates, sponges, algaes, etc.) There really aren't plants for saltwater tanks, Aaron smiley that's what the algae is for.

The tank is actually a lot more alive and there are more things in it now than when that picture was taken. (The anemones, etc.) You actually don't notice the back at all usually. My original plan was for a very simplistic image... one or two rocks in the centre, with white fine-grain sand around. I've achieved it albeit slightly modified. I'll take more pictures and put them up for you guys to enjoy, I took some super macro pics of a couple inhabitants too.

I'd say the full setup plus creatures was about CAD1,000.00 and upkeep isn't too bad. And the creatures have been slowly added over the course of two months (1-3 at a time roughly)

Larger tanks are easier to manage than small ones though, so I kinda took a big dive into the hobby by making only a 20gal. Cost for supplies to make a larger tank was what stopped me.

My eventual goal when I own my own home is to have a custom made tank built into a wall dividing two rooms. I envision three "connected" portions with different styles of reef/creature & probably use my current one as a sump filled with mangroves/live rock for filtration. Total volume of that would be 150-200gal.


[Edit]And yes there's a lot to learn but it's worth it. (You need to watch things like lighting wattage/gal and types of lighting for inverts/corals, salinity levels, PH/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates and other things like calcium for certain creatures.) I don't have corals but they're a whole other ballgame.



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 Re: Saltwater/Marine Aquariums
Posted by FatStrings on Fri Nov 13th at 2:45am 2009

dang Gorb that's pretty awesome, I think I'll look into something like that when I ever get that kind of money

I've actually been putting some thought into a terrarium but this made me even more eager for it




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