[Nikki]

Does anyone here have saltwater or freshwater tanks?

We had a 55g freshwater tank almost two years ago, but now have a 29g saltwater tank. We've had it for exactly a year now. We have a maroon clown (had since maybe April '05), a coral beauty angel (just got her yesterday), a cleaner shrimp, a sand sifting seastar, two urchins, lots of random crabs, snails, etc. We only have a couple store bought corals.

Here are a couple pictures, it's a little dirty right now because our starfish died so we had to get another one. So it's been building up slightly more algae in the sand.

[NaTuReB0Y]

sea urchin sushi...yummmy!

[Nikki]

I can't get any good pictures of the new fish because she's still freaking out...here's what she looks like in whole:

[canucklion]

nice tank Nikki
I used to have a saltwater tank with a porcupine puffer, a mandarin goby, and some hermit crabs, and a freshwater with fancy-tailed guppies (those mofos breed like crazy). The saltwater tank is the best, though it costs considerably more money to maintain, but the colors you get from marine fish are just WOW

btw, the porcupine puffer I had was the most communicative fish I've ever owned, it actually recognizes me, and I used to feed adult brine shrimp to it with a plastic dropper, I would hold the dropper about 1/2 inch from the water, and the puffer would jump out and grab its food and if I put my finger into the tank, the puffer would actually stay stationary and let me pet him/her, way cool.

[timzerofive]

My friend's place in shadow park has a 100gal built into the wall saltwater tank, and literally a closet full of filtration system. There's this walk-in closet size room behind the tank with like 4 giant pumps and uv filtration system, its crazy. If you are in so cali though, you guys gotta check out Cerritos Library's giant tank.

[deutschmann59]

Hey, that's nice, Nikki! I haven't seen pics of your reef tank in a while! I finally got mine under control as far as nitrates, calcium, and salinity goes.

It turned out my hyrdometer was garbage, so I bought myself a refractometer for about $80.00 and now my salinity stays at almost perfect levels. Believe it or not, the refracto solved basically all my troubles! I was wondering why everything kept dying, but it turned out the hydrometer was so off, that I was shocking everything with water changes because the changes were so dramatic.

I've got a 29 gallon reef setup, and I just got a wet/dry filter good for tanks up to 150 gallons, because I want to upgrade in the future and I don't want to buy all the equipment again. So that filter added about 10 more gallons to the tank and the fish and corals couldn't be happier. They say the more water, the more stable your system is, and I believe that is true! I will post pics as soon as I can...a lot of livestock ended up dying on my because of the trouble with salinity, among other things, but now I think I've finally got everything under control.

Check back tonight...I'll try to post pics then

[Nikki]

looking forward to pics!

btw my fishy's names are Todd (maroon clown) and Tasha (coral beauty angel) lol

[vladinecko]

ha ha, i like the spiky one

[deutschmann59]

This is the best I could do...I don't know I can never get any decent pics of my tank. Either it's too light, too dark, or too blury. Well enjoy.

From the left, I've got a hippo tang, pseudochromis, bicolor angel, and a false percula clown, but they're all called "no-name"

You can't see the corals too well, but I've got sunflower and pulsating xenias near that bicolor angel, bubble coral by the tang, and regular xenias near the pseudochromis.

[Nikki]

very pretty, we had a hippo tang but they grow soo fast. we tried to transfer her into the 55g but she died a day after the transfer. they're very delicate.

here's an old picture with Dory in it...lol

[deutschmann59]

Thanks

Yeah I think we were talking about the tang once before. I had one before this, but was in terrible shape. It lasted in my tank less than a month from when I bought it.

But this new one is doing awesome! I have it since the end of October and scratch wood, it's doing just as well as ever.

But yeah, they do grow quickly. There's a chance the one I have could triple in size, and that's why they say tangs should be kept in a minimum of 75 gallons....but who cares!!! He's doing fine

[Nikki]

yeah, he/she/it looks great, very nice color blue.

[deutschmann59]

Originally Posted by Nikki

yeah, he/she/it looks great, very nice color blue.

Oh, ha ha ha thanks! Yeah, I don't know how to tell gender...apparently if you really wanted to get into it, you could look at certain features like dorsal fins, etc.

But for all intents and purposes, I'll just call him/her "it"

[UncleWede]

My son got a tank for Christmas, and is still trying to decide whether to go fresh or salt. We wanted to get him something small like a BOWL, so he could prove his intent to really take care, but grandma/pa intervened and got him a 30 gal. starter set.
I would LOVe to get a 75-100 gal and set it up salt with some really nice colors and "engineered" coral, but I'm afraid the little kids would get things into it, the power would get pulled, or I'd end up with 75-100 gallons on the floor one day.
Are there any salt fish that are as much fun to feed as Oscars?!!!!

[longtran]

i use to have a 125 gallon salt water tank. too hard to maintain. looking at these tank make me wanna set it up again. maybe this time i will set up a 40 gallon instead. what kind of filteration are you guys using? nikki your tank looks very healthy, what kind of filter are you using? wet/dry? protein skimmer?

[deutschmann59]

Originally Posted by longtran

i use to have a 125 gallon salt water tank. too hard to maintain. looking at these tank make me wanna set it up again. maybe this time i will set up a 40 gallon instead. what kind of filteration are you guys using? nikki your tank looks very healthy, what kind of filter are you using? wet/dry? protein skimmer?

The wet/dry that I have has a built in protein skimmer...the first chamber, but it works via the venturi air system. I had an Aqua C Remora hang on that was "injection" with no venturi, which was awesome, but there is no need for it now. I was able to hang it on the corner of my wet/dry, just to try it out, but it was kind of over kill and wasn't skimming anything out.

The reason I like the wet/dry is because it adds so much more water to the system and makes it more stable. The only thing is, since I've got bio-balls, they created much more nitrates that I would have liked. So now, instead of dripping the water over them, I just added more water to the wet/dry and now all the bio balls are completely submerged, so no more excessive nitrates. Basically, now the bio balls act like added live rock--nearly perfect bio filtration.

[BellasBmw]

My cousins go diving for urchins, and then we crack em open and eat the eggs inside with bread. Im personally not a fan , but my mom and aunts are crrrraaazy over it.

[Nikki]

Originally Posted by longtran

nikki your tank looks very healthy, what kind of filter are you using? wet/dry? protein skimmer?

thanks, honestly i'm not the maintenance person lol, that's my boyfriend. it's an eclipse tank, so all of the filtration is built in the top. i don't know much other than that but i will ask my boyfriend when he gets home.

[longtran]

Originally Posted by Nikki

thanks, honestly i'm not the maintenance person lol, that's my boyfriend. it's an eclipse tank, so all of the filtration is built in the top. i don't know much other than that but i will ask my boyfriend when he gets home.

really? i heard those eclipse filter system can handle the salt water fish tank but didnt realize how healthy the tank could be. i have an eclipse tall 40 gallon. dang, cant wait to get mine going. i wll post pictures once it gets going.

[Nikki]

Originally Posted by longtran

really? i heard those eclipse filter system can handle the salt water fish tank but didnt realize how healthy the tank could be. i have an eclipse tall 40 gallon. dang, cant wait to get mine going. i wll post pictures once it gets going.

Yeah the eclipse hoods are great. Mine's been up for a year, here are pictures of it's progression:

[longtran]

Originally Posted by Nikki

Yeah the eclipse hoods are great. Mine's been up for a year, here are pictures of it's progression:

how long did it take you to get the last picture?

[Nikki]

Well we spent $130 at the fish store today. It adds up quickly. We got a tiny blue hippo tang for $36 (great price- the last one we got was $50), a rock with some mushroom coral and a couple other corals on it, and a soft coral for the maroon clown to lounge in (hopefully).