little_old_man Posted December 23, 2012 Member ID: 1194 Group: ***- Inactive Clan Members Followers: 40 Topic Count: 436 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 6692 Content Per Day: 1.20 Reputation: 11691 Achievement Points: 53094 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 76 Joined: 02/27/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: April 16, 2023 Birthday: 04/15/1960 Posted December 23, 2012 So I've been looking for something different to get into lately, and I've finally settled on aquariums. Over 30 years ago I was heavily into keeping several salt water aquariums and loved it, but marriage, kids and all of the other stuff that life throws at you made it difficult to find time for. Three years ago my wife took my daughter to the county fair and came home with a goldfish as a prize. My wife keeps it in a bowl in the kitchen window and religously changes the water at least once a week and it's still going strong. A few months ago my youngest daughter decided she wanted some goldfish of her own, so I got her a 7.9 gallon tank and she has a few bug eyed goldfish in it. I'm not sure why but after setting up her little tank, I kind of got the bug again. With the horrible economy people are practically giving away used aquariums for pennies on the dollar, so I found this 30 gallon tank online and set it up in my family room with some salt water fish. These kinds of tanks are far more difficult to set up and maintain, but the end result is worth it as long as you are patient. You can't just fill a tank with sea water then throw a bunch of expensive fish in it. You start off slow with a couple small fish until the tank gets established with good bacteria, then slowly (over weeks and months) add additional fish. This 30 gallon has been set up for about 7 weeks and is almost ready for more fish. Being the obsessive person that I am, I knew that this 30 gallon just wouldn't be big enough, so I did some searching and found a 150 gallon. It's been set up for 2 weeks, and is big enough to add just about any species of fish that I want. Ulitmately you want the tank environment to mimic their natural environment as much as possible. In nature, the rocks and sea floor are covered with bacteria and little creatures that help keep the water clean, and that's what you want in a tank. They call the rock "live rock" and it's covered with little sponges and other critters that help eat the waste from the fish and keep the water clean. After several months of slowly adding new fish and other creatures, I hope both of my salt water tanks wind up looking like these. They will be full of live corals, fish, anenomes, sponges, crabs and snails. If I ever disappear from gaming for a long period of time just figure that I sealed my house off and turned it into one large aquarium. hxtr, Blackbart, PHUCKITMAN and 1 other 4 Awards
TBB Posted December 23, 2012 Member ID: 989 Group: *** Clan Members Followers: 25 Topic Count: 290 Topics Per Day: 0.05 Content Count: 21155 Content Per Day: 3.74 Reputation: 22847 Achievement Points: 151784 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 410 Joined: 01/07/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: 6 hours ago Birthday: 01/27/1946 Device: Windows Posted December 23, 2012 Looks so nice now you have to worry about Hxtr and his bitch Google moving in vipersniper, hxtr, little_old_man and 1 other 4 Awards
hxtr Posted December 23, 2012 Member ID: 220 Group: **- Inactive Registered Users Followers: 147 Topic Count: 595 Topics Per Day: 0.10 Content Count: 16950 Content Per Day: 2.94 Reputation: 13538 Achievement Points: 129714 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 120 Joined: 09/04/09 Status: Offline Last Seen: October 26, 2023 Birthday: 04/05/1970 Posted December 23, 2012 (edited) i got shotgun! lol i love a live coral tank. my buddy set one up and learned everything he needed and man it was so beautiful. He had a 50 gallon. But the life that can come from a live coral tank... cant get much better than that. Shrimp of all kinds of colors and much more. what are your plans LOM? Edited December 23, 2012 by hxtr
vipersniper Posted December 23, 2012 Member ID: 371 Group: ***- Inactive Clan Members Followers: 67 Topic Count: 64 Topics Per Day: 0.01 Content Count: 854 Content Per Day: 0.15 Reputation: 382 Achievement Points: 6772 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 0 Joined: 09/13/09 Status: Offline Last Seen: January 22, 2020 Birthday: 04/02/1962 Posted December 23, 2012 VERY NICE . Awards
little_old_man Posted December 23, 2012 Member ID: 1194 Group: ***- Inactive Clan Members Followers: 40 Topic Count: 436 Topics Per Day: 0.08 Content Count: 6692 Content Per Day: 1.20 Reputation: 11691 Achievement Points: 53094 Solved Content: 0 Days Won: 76 Joined: 02/27/10 Status: Offline Last Seen: April 16, 2023 Birthday: 04/15/1960 Author Posted December 23, 2012 i got shotgun! lol i love a live coral tank. my buddy set one up and learned everything he needed and man it was so beautiful. He had a 50 gallon. But the life that can come from a live coral tank... cant get much better than that. Shrimp of all kinds of colors and much more. what are your plans LOM? Right now I'm planning on making what they call a FOWLR tank (Fish Only With Live Rock). There are three kinds of tanks, 1. Reef Tank 2. FOWLR and 3. Fish Only. I like the looks of a reef tank but they are really sensitive to any change in temperature and water conditions, not to mention that a little chunk of live coral can cost $100 and to make a complete reef you need dozens of them if not more. One little problem with the water or if you have a power outage that lasts for a few hours and you can lose a few thousand bucks in coral. Fish can cost from $20 to $300, but they are easier to take care of and you can make a combo tank with less sensitive corals that look almost as nice. It's a work in progress and I'll probably change my mind many times how I ultimately want it to look. PHUCKITMAN 1 Awards
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