Any reefers among us?

[Marc]

Just wondering if there's any reefers amongst us?
If so, what do you keep, and have you had it running long?

I have a 6x2x2 thats been running for 2 years... full with live rock, loads of fish, and the corals are coming along, but quite slowly.

Finding fish/corals where I live is very difficult unfortunately, especially as all the stock has to be imported, then distributed..
And the prices....

[dfiant]

I have had a love of aquariums for year, but never had the money or the space for them....until now. I started with a small reef aquarium and I am slowly building that up now that I have stabalised all the parameters in the tank.

I also built a Tropical Aquarium 3 weeks ago and have had a few problems, but those seem to be stabalising as well.

I have just bought UV sterilisers to keep algae under control. In the reef I was starting to get blooms of stringy algae all over my live rock, in the tropical I have a bloom of brown algae.

I have also just bought an RO/DI 4 stage filter which I will take delivery of next week.

The reef has cost a small fortune compared to the Tropical and even though I have a small coral reef (Quiet a few actually) about 1km away, corals and marine fish are costing $40-$150 each.

I am planning on building an Acrylic eith 6 or 8ft for the reef and building a 6ft'er for a Discus tank. I'm loving the Amazonian setups, and I just love the discus at my local Aquarium shop because they are so tame that they come to the surface for a pat and tickle when you go near the tank.

I have some video's of my Aquariums here

[Marc]

That sounds great, you must be as big a fish nut as me lol.

Ive got a Black Rhom in a 6x2x2 in my bedroom... hes 12 years old now, and as mad as ever!!

My reef is my real passion though, like you say, it's a money pitt.

I dread to think what I spend on it, but water wise I'm very lucky.
I live near an unpolluted beach, so I use natural sea water, that saves a fortune.

I apologise if I'm teaching you to suck eggs... but at a guess I would say your algae problem in the reef is down to either of 3 things... to much light, to many nutrients in the water, especially if you haven't been using RO water, and number 3 is water movement... mine has a turn over of nearly 50!!!

I'll check out your video when I get to my lap top

[dfiant]

Yeah I got the ocean less than 1km and 2 estuaries, one on either side. Tallebudgera creek is a bit murky at the moment and Currumbin is being dredged so phospates are high in that water. Algal blooms are a battle in Australia unless you can keep your tank in a room without windows. I have put the blooms down to finding that fine balance in my reef aquarium, also acid levels have crept up a little high hence the reason for RO/DI filter and introducing RO water to the system, as I want some algae for the live rock. Also using Purple Up.

The tropical aquarium is getting a fair bit of indirect natural sunlight which is hard to avoid, but I bought a filter with an inbuilt UV yesterday and we will see how that goes. It does 4 water changes an hour.

The marine does 8 an hour.

[Marc]

I have a UV on my reef, because the tank is opposite a window and gets full sun for a few hours a day, it keeps the algae at a minimum...
Well that and Mr Tang.... he loves munching on the stuff lol.

[dfiant]

Tangs are beautiful, but I'm not that keen on them because they seem to be nervous nellies and stressers. I'm kind of partial to Clown Fish (No, not because of Nemo), because they seem to have an outgoing personality and their 'I don't give a fuck' disposition. Also I am mesmerised by watching them because at times it seems like their cute little faces are human and they show emotion.

I have 2 Percula Clowns, 2 Chocolate Clowns, 2 Chromis, 2 Firetail Goby's, 2 Zebra Dart Gobys and 2 Banana Wrasse, in my Reef Aquarium. Also a large Mushroom and a couple of Polyp living Corals.

In my Tropical I have 20 Neon Tetra's, 2 red tailed Sharks, 3 Angel Fish (Who ever called them angel's must be disillusioned), 3 Serpae Tetra's, 2 Red Eye Tetra's, 2 Congo Tetra's and 4 fish that I cannot for the life of me remember what they are. I really want another half a dozen Angel fish, they are special.