Anyone Have a Marine/Saltwater Aquarium?

[ChristmasFnatic]

I had one as a kid, but I want to have one again. Clownfish, lion fish, seahorses(nh), damsels, wrasses, etc...

Anyone else?

[Archangel_Lost]

Yeah I have a 40 gal, corals lps and softies mostly, some fish, I have sort of let it go in the past year since I am anticipating a move and will probably completely break it down and start over a bigger tank after that, plus I have an aptasia problem that’s gotten progressively worse despite using aptasia-x, nudibranches, useless peppermint shrimp and now a useless filefish.

Anyway, it’s a fun albeit expensive up-front hobby that you have to keep on top of to a degree



Also if you want a lionfish it will probably have to be the only thing in your tank other than live rock.

And dwarf seahorses also require special tank specifications and would also require you to cultivate live phytoplankton and copepods since they only eat live food

[ChristmasFnatic]

Yeah I have a 40 gal, corals lps and softies mostly, some fish, I have sort of let it go in the past year since I am anticipating a move and will probably completely break it down and start over a bigger tank after that, plus I have an aptasia problem that’s gotten progressively worse despite using aptasia-x, nudibranches, useless peppermint shrimp and now a useless filefish.

Anyway, it’s a fun albeit expensive up-front hobby that you have to keep on top of to a degree

Damn. Sucks for the outbreak. I read it is so hard to get rid of it and basically just start from scratch.

Anyway, what type of fish you got before?

And did you use a sump? What were your equipment?

[wasp9166]

I had a 120

Prob had 6k in that tank

Sold it all for $400

Can't go on vacation ,maint everyday

It was fun ,albeit a pia

I had 2 sets of clowns

One in a purple tip seabae, and one in a rose bubble tip

Watching them with the eggs was cool ,but the pumps eventually get the fry

[Archangel_Lost]

Damn. Sucks for the outbreak. I read it is so hard to get rid of it and basically just start from scratch.

Anyway, what type of fish you got before?

And did you use a sump? What were your equipment?

Currently I have two ocellaris clowns that host a bubble tip anemone, a bristle tooth tang, a flame angelfish, a filefish, and a two foot long engineer goby

Yeah I have a 10 gal sump in my stand that I made out of a 10 gal tank and some DIY baffles off eBay, with a reef octopus skimmer, some chaeto and mangroves I got in the ocean in Florida in one of the chambers. Two AI primes for tank lighting and some rando grow bulb for sump light

[ChristmasFnatic]

I had a 120

Prob had 6k in that tank

Sold it all for $400

Can't go on vacation ,maint everyday

It was fun ,albeit a pia

I had 2 sets of clowns

One in a purple tip seabae, and one in a rose bubble tip

Watching them with the eggs was cool ,but the pumps eventually get the fry

Currently I have two ocellaris clowns that host a bubble tip anemone, a bristle tooth tang, a flame angelfish, a filefish, and a two foot long engineer goby

Yeah I have a 10 gal sump in my stand that I made out of a 10 gal tank and some DIY baffles off eBay, with a reef octopus skimmer, some chaeto and mangroves I got in the ocean in Florida in one of the chambers. Two AI primes for tank lighting and some rando grow bulb for sump light

Impressive guys. Show pics!!!

Wasp, why got rid of it

And also, 65gallons - is it fine to just have a sump and protein skimmer? I don't think I need a heater cuz I live in the tropics.

[LinuxJon]

Yeah I have a 40 gal, corals lps and softies mostly, some fish, I have sort of let it go in the past year since I am anticipating a move and will probably completely break it down and start over a bigger tank after that, plus I have an aptasia problem that’s gotten progressively worse despite using aptasia-x, nudibranches, useless peppermint shrimp and now a useless filefish.

Anyway, it’s a fun albeit expensive up-front hobby that you have to keep on top of to a degree



Also if you want a lionfish it will probably have to be the only thing in your tank other than live rock.

And dwarf seahorses also require special tank specifications and would also require you to cultivate live phytoplankton and copepods since they only eat live food

What happens if I just put a lionfish in with other fish?

[AncientYouth]

Also if you want a lionfish it will probably have to be the only thing in your tank other than live rock.

invasive cnts in the wild.....amazing looking tho

[ChristmasFnatic]

What happens if I just put a lionfish in with other fish?

Had lots of lions before, they eat small fish that can fit their mouth. They are not that fast but any small fish unlucky to go near its mouth is good as dead.

[Redfish225]

I have one, in my garage deep freezer.

[wasp9166]

Rel fell apart ,left house

You need a skimmer ,and a sump with pump

You're going to struggle with Temps as the pump and lights heat it up

I had to keep fans on my sump with temp probe and the lid cracked during day

Even with central air

[wasp9166]

I myself regret I don't have pics

Was pre cell phone ,and I'm not really a pic taker

I lost my corals not to temp or light spectrum ,but pH struggles

[FelixTheCat1919]

Nope. Been knees deep in the fishkeeping hobby before, butI am retired from it now.

[wasp9166]

I had 8 lights ,t 5 from reefgeek

4 sets of two,had them on timers to mimic sunrise and sunset

Half hour after sunset ,moonlights came on

Edit ,hah ,looks like reefgeek is no more

https://aquanerd.com/2014/12/reefgee...its-doors.html

Nothing good lasts anymore

[ChristmasFnatic]

I had 8 lights ,t 5 from reefgeek

4 sets of two,had them on timers to mimic sunrise and sunset

Half hour after sunset ,moonlights came on

Edit ,hah ,looks like reefgeek is no more

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/re...d-down.171322/

No plans to revisit the hobby?

[wasp9166]

No plans to revisit the hobby?

I can barely do car work bud,spinal arthritis ,so ,sadly

It's gone the way of skiing ,bowling etc

[ChristmasFnatic]

I can barely do car work bud,spinal arthritis ,so ,sadly

It's gone the way of skiing ,bowling etc

Sorry to hear. At least there is still gaming and listening to Aerosmith and GN'R!

[FelixTheCat1919]

Here's what will happen, OP:


1. You will get it
2. You will make noob mistakes
3. You'll start to really enjoy it
4 You'll become almost obsessive about it
5. Weekly visits to the pet shop/fish emporium
6. You're tank will become impressive
7. It will start to annoy you
8. A major chitty incident of somw kind will probs eventually happen
9. You'll get bored/fed up
10. You'll get rid of it
11. You'll re-tell this same tale to others one day



Mileage may vary. Could taie 1 year, could take 20 years to complete the process. 90% chance it happens within the first 5 years. If you make it a lifelong thing, then you'd truly be an outlier.

[wasp9166]

$50 a gal

Pretty close to working out to figure cost

[wasp9166]

Then you got electric ,and water changes, and water added everyday to counter evaporation

Fresh water, because the water evaporates, the salt doesn't

If you don't refill ,salinity goes up

And fish that die ,and fish that get killed by other fish

$50:,$100;a pop

It's an expensive hobby

[Deathstroke]

265 gallon:
Central / South American cichlids (4 severums, 1 green terror)
1 silver arowana, 2 freshwater stingrays, 6 silver dollars, 1 rhino pleco, and a few young Oscar’s but not small enough to be swallowed by the arow. I know I recall people keeping Oscar’s solo as “wet pets” because they get so huge, but that’s incorrect imo after years of research and experience Oscar’s are schooling species.

120 gallon with a 12” Flowerhorn a 10” 4 line pictus and a birchir . And I have four 5”
Polka dot catfish I got yesterday

I had fowlr tanks in past but was too drunk to remember those projects.

[Archangel_Lost]

Here was the last pic of mine I had in my phone. Have had some die off + aptasia outbreak since then though

I will probably do bigger saltwater tank in the future but doubt I will ever get much into corals again. Huge waste of money to buy an expensive one and then have it die a week later because of some minor water chemistry change, or because it just doesn’t like your water

[ChristmasFnatic]

Here was the last pic of mine I had in my phone. Have had some die off + aptasia outbreak since then though

I will probably do bigger saltwater tank in the future but doubt I will ever get much into corals again. Huge waste of money to buy an expensive one and then have it die a week later because of some minor water chemistry change, or because it just doesn’t like your water

Nice. Never tried corals. Might try a few.

Then you got electric ,and water changes, and water added everyday to counter evaporation

Fresh water, because the water evaporates, the salt doesn't

If you don't refill ,salinity goes up

And fish that die ,and fish that get killed by other fish

$50:,$100;a pop

It's an expensive hobby

Yeah it is. Glad the fish are cheap in my area, cuz I live near the sea. Wild caught. No one breeds here.

265 gallon:
Central / South American cichlids (4 severums, 1 green terror)
1 silver arowana, 2 freshwater stingrays, 6 silver dollars, 1 rhino pleco, and a few young Oscar’s but not small enough to be swallowed by the arow. I know I recall people keeping Oscar’s solo as “wet pets” because they get so huge, but that’s incorrect imo after years of research and experience Oscar’s are schooling species.

120 gallon with a 12” Flowerhorn a 10” 4 line pictus and a birchir . And I have four 5”
Polka dot catfish I got yesterday

I had fowlr tanks in past but was too drunk to remember those projects.

I remember a decade and a half ago, we talk about these. lol

Anyway ordered 2 80 gallon aquariums with sumps, protein skimmers, salt. Live sand and live rocks too.

[Deathstroke]

Oh wow. That’s good man! I never did sumps.

Fluval FX line and sponges only. Don’t forget a lawnmower blenny

And of course a tag team of 1 goby and 1 cleaner shrimp. It Still intrigues me their symbiotic bond they just natural form in saltwater aquaria!

[Leannoodle]

Used to have a few, buts it’s been a while.

My favorite was a 300 gallon all fish saltwater tank. Setup was a 70 gallon sump with a couple wet/dry filters, a couple skimmers, compact PC lighting in the sump with live rock and macro algae to keep PH consistent day/night, an automatic float feed connected to my RO tank so I didn’t have to worry about topping off all the time and an ozone generator. Had 35 or 40 various fish; a large mature French angelfish I had since it was a juvenile who was beautiful but an *******, a school of Achilles tangs, mature blue face angel, mature red bellied hawkfish, mature empower angel, some cleaner wrasses, a harlequin wrasse, a juvenile barracuda and some other various others mixed in that I thought looked cool. I tried keeping stingrays and even a leopard shark in the tank but the French angel kept beating the crap out of them so had to get rid of them.

I also had a 180 gallon freshwater tank at the same time with a school of 13 mature red bellied piranha I bought from a chain pet store as juveniles about the size of quarters because I thought they could be cool. They grew way faster than I thought they would. They were super boring though, too scared to eat if they saw you in the room, couldn’t have anything else in the tank with them because they would either eat it if the fish wasn’t aggressive or the piranha would get beat up if the fish was even a little aggressive because piranhas are actually pu$$is when there aren’t 200 of them in a school. I got rid of them when they turned on one of the weaker piranhas in the tank, I stuck my hand in to grab the remains and two of them went after my hand (they were always too scared to come near my hand in the tank before so I never worried about it) they ended up getting a couple good chunks out of my hand so I took them to a local tropical fish store the next day.

[Deathstroke]

There is a 220 gallon near me but it’s drilled and runs off a sump filtration. It will be freshwater. I am not very knowledgeable on using a sump but hiding all the equipment would be nice. The seller is telling me it’s s very simple setup. But that if I didn’t want to use the sump I can cap the plumbing and grab myself a couple Fluval FX canisters like I’m used to .

Back to work op

[FoulSmell]

I had a 375 reef with fish and a 125 gallon fish only.

I was in a bad car accident, then in the hospital awhile, when I got home everything was dead. Most of my corals were 8-10 yrs old and huge. I couldn’t bring myself to start over. Most of my “fish only” fish were a few years old and large as well. All stuff you can’t find/buy in pet stores. Crushed me.