reef tank


 
Clint

Clint

TVWBB Olympian
I got into reef tanks back in 2005/2006, & then neglected them since 2008. I still have a frogspawn coral that's hanging on. The tanks have been in my basement and have had received such little attention (quick glance each week & run the RO/DI filter long enough to fill the gravity fed auto top-off) that I was about to put it on craigslist or just get rid of my stuff.

I've always loved aquariums......spent all the $$ I got as a 14-16 year old kid at the pet store..... saltwater is even more interesting & captivating. I know there's a member here (sorry I forget your name!) who has a killer tank. Mine is much more humble, and might not be a permanent fixture, but I think I'm going to run with it.

I've forgotten most of what I knew, but that's easy :)

I moved the bookshelf from the dining room down to the basement, going to put a hobby table (electronics & rc <heli / quads / cars / boats>) where this stuff was........... so far I'm really enjoying the look and my imagination.

I'm going slow into it, but I think it's gonna happen (build cabinets & move the established one up).

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Absolutely know what you mean. I was in love with aquariums as a kid also. Had several of them growing up, maxing out with a 50 gallon tank which I made the stand for out of scrap lumber. My son still has the stand today. Mine were all fresh water but I sure had fun with them.
 
I even like goldfish tanks :)

I just like the activity. Imagine being entertained by that but not by watching football/baseball :)
(i played fb 9 years)

that's me :)
 
Here's the last living coral............ I took this as a before picture, I hope to bring it back!

It used to be one big organism but it's receded down to nothing.

My RO/DI unit started leaking ~3 weeks ago & I started using fresh water to top it off (not good), before I decided to give it another go.

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it's supposed to look more like this:

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I'm was an aquarium junkie as a kid living in the Chicago. I had twelve 10 gallon tanks and two 20 gallon show tanks in my bedroom on a large reinforced wall to wall counter my dad built for me. The ten gallons were breeding tanks.
To feed my hobby I bred fresh water fish mostly live bearers and Betas and sold them or traded for stuff at Van Oaks the local tropical fish store.
Really enjoyed it and made more money than a paper route.
Tried salt water twice and didn't have much success with it. So I gave it all up.
 
saltwater is easier now I think. The friend who got me interested would point out all the technologies & equipment whenever we'd wander through the pet stores.. He had reefs in the early 90s. Then I read a bunch about it.

One of my neighbors had a big show tank at the top of their stairs I remember as a kid in the early 80s, & the guy I credit for teaching me my trade had one in his living room...........

Always found them impressive, & I lean towards minimalism. Not sure where I'm going with this yet.

.......I had an uncle that had tanks like you said, Rich, and a friend bred a type of cichlid called frontosa (I had a lot of cichlids). I'd never seen anything like his setup/obsession, he'd sell them too. Reefs are a touch different, I think easier, maintenance-wise.
 
Oh yeah back in the late 50s early 60s salt water was unheard of. In the dead of winter my Dad would take me to downtown Chicago to the McCormick convention center when they had the annual tropical fish show. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful aquariums all fresh water except for a few salt water tanks. Back then they had to use purified ocean water and boy was that expensive, no synthetic like today.
With my fourteen tanks I had to have a herd of air pumps to run the filters some vibraters and some piston pumps. My room sounded like a swarm of locust lived in it. My Dad picked up a huge air compressor from a gas station that was closing down it must have been six feet tall. He put it in the basement and ran a line to my room, we built a manifold with 24 outlets one for each tank and two spares. He put two water traps and particle traps on it and two regulators to get the 300psi down to 3-5psi. That beast would run all my tanks and only came on once a day for about 10 minuets.
With the new technology they have today I'm sure it's much easier then back in the day.
 
Rich Dahl said:
Oh yeah back in the late 50s early 60s salt water was unheard of. In the dead of winter my Dad would take me to downtown Chicago to the McCormick convention center when they had the annual tropical fish show. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful aquariums all fresh water except for a few salt water tanks. Back then they had to use purified ocean water and boy was that expensive, no synthetic like today.
With my fourteen tanks I had to have a herd of air pumps to run the filters some vibraters and some piston pumps. My room sounded like a swarm of locust lived in it. My Dad picked up a huge air compressor from a gas station that was closing down it must have been six feet tall. He put it in the basement and ran a line to my room, we built a manifold with 24 outlets one for each tank and two spares. He put two water traps and particle traps on it and two regulators to get the 300psi down to 3-5psi. That beast would run all my tanks and only came on once a day for about 10 minuets.
With the new technology they have today I'm sure it's much easier then back in the day.
Click to expand...

that sounds pretty cool :)

my setup is just going to be live rock, sump, and a gravity-fed auto top-off. I don't even really want a protein skimmer (I have a couple). I'd like a couple fish eventually...... only had one or two - I think a bi-colored blenny..can't recall if there was another.
 
I got started with Guppies. The fancy ones were really colorful. I was fascinated with the live birth. Use to put the mamas in the isolation tank, so the fry would slip through the slotted bottom and not get eaten. Kinda fun to think about all this after so long.
 
Cliff Bartlett said:
I got started with Guppies. The fancy ones were really colorful. I was fascinated with the live birth. Use to put the mamas in the isolation tank, so the fry would slip through the slotted bottom and not get eaten. Kinda fun to think about all this after so long.
Click to expand...

That's actually what got me started in keeping tropical fish. The first really common tropical fish in the USA was the guppy arriving here about 1910. The looked nothing like the fancy guppy of today, more like minnows.
Started with a 5 gallon aquarium and went from there. They were prolific little suckers and soon I had guppies everywhere in anything that would hold water. Went to two more 5 gallon tanks separated the males and females and had the other tank as the baby tank.
One day when I was at the tropical fish store I ask the owner if he knew anybody that might want some. He said I should bring some of the adults in and if they were nice he would buy them for 10 cents apiece. Which in the late 50s was a great price. That's how I got started in my tropical fish business.
 
my cousins did guppies & had the live birth tanks - I didn't see (or remember) the whole process but I know what you guys are talking about. They had mollies too..... I stayed with them for a while & dug an old tank out for myself, it was about 8" front-to-back, 30" wide, & 20" tall.. I put a Jack Dempsy in there.....a big one... it didn't fare too well :)

I got a couple new lights, the good one's coming tomorrow, & then I stopped and got a couple frags a couple hours ago.. Wish me luck

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Rich, you mentioned Van Oaks. They had a store in Mt. Prospect that was nice, and Bill's Pet Shop in Des Plaines would buy Angel Fish from me.

The salt water reefs Clint talks about look interesting too.
 
I'm thinking you throw in a couple Rock Fish and in a year or so harvesting them for the BBQ :)
 
many years ago a buddy of mine had an aquarium, his tropical fish died so he put a bluegill in it.
one day while working near a creek I spotted a small catfish, grabbed it, got finned, but kept it alive in a soda cup of water until that evening.
went to his house, plopped it in the aquarium and the bluegill promptly ate it, in one bite.
I was not happy.
 
Bob H. said:
How about some shrimp in one of those tanks?
Click to expand...

There's a few types of shrimp,,,,, I might get one someday. There's some that even team up with fish (vid),

I got three firefish last night and some more test kits today that I'm about to test. I'm learning a lot and enjoying it so far.

I just texted this pic to my brother,,,,, not the nicest pic but:

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New addition last night - put a yellow tang in there. The firefish are terrified - I need to do some rockscaping to hopefully let them have a safe space.

I broke the remnants of the frogspawn coral heads into individual frags (purple frags front/center), I'm hoping I'll be able to nurse them back to life.

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I still don't know what I'm doing but I've broken out a pile of books, watched a bunch of videos,,,,,,worked on it a lot. Working on my old setup in the basement too, it's a mess but should be OK before long.
 
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