SEAF
Member
Just joined this forum last week and have been soooo busy, I haven't had time to get back here. I got my first saltwater tank just a little less than a year ago. I would recommend to any new reef keeper to do it the way I did. I acquired a 20-high reef tank from a keeper who got tired of it after several years. She had let the light stay burned out for over a month and told me that probably everything on the 35 pounds of live rock was probably dead. I got it home, shifted it to a 20-long (for space reasons) and built a light fixture for it with full-spectrum fluorescents and a blue actinic... total of 79 watts. With my shallow tank, that lighting works great and I don't need those high-priced, energy-sucking lights you usually see on reef tanks.
Over the next few weeks, the tank slowly started coming alive! It came with one Hermit Crab and a Nassarius Snail. I began to notice all kinds of critters on/in the rocks and sand; Tube Worms, Feather Dusters, Brittle Stars and lots of Pods. I also have battled a couple of small Aiptasia Colonies. I added two large Blue Damsels, some more Hermits and some Turbo Snails. Then when I started adding corals; Frogspawn, Button Polyps, Green Star Polyps, Kenya Tree, and some Mushrooms; I had to get rid of the Blue Damsels. When they are as large as mine were, Blue Damsels are not reef safe... kinda like a bull in a china shop. Then I added an Ocellaris Clown, 2 Orbiculate Cardinals (not PJ's), a Royal Gramma and a Green Clown Goby.
I saw pictures of a Mandarin Dragonet (aka Goby) and wanted one! After reading up on Mandarins, I knew I couldn't put one in my tank as it was. I had lots of pods to feed him, but no place for them to breed and provide a continuing source of food for him. I also read that a Mandarin should be in no less than 40 gallons. So... I built a 20-long sump with a refugium. When the pod population was threatening to take over both tanks, I bought my Mandarin. I am a penny-pincher, so I bought the cheapest one I could find. Of course I got a wild-caught, sunken-bellied (ematiated), stressed-out fish at that price. For the first three days in my reef tank, he didn't move from under the rock that hid him. I figured he was going to die of starvation. Finally, he ventured out and gave me a glimmer of hope. I saw him picking at the rocks. I assume he was eating pods. However, he was still very sunken-bellied. Yesterday, with a baster, I squirted some frozen brine shrimp in the back of the tank where he liked to hang out. To my complete surprise and joy, he ate some of them! Today he ate some more. His sunken belly is gone and I think he is going to make it!!:clap2::dance: According to all I have read, that is really rare for a wild-caught Mandarin to eat frozen food.
I added another Ocellaris Clown at the same time as the Mandarin and he and his much larger counterpart get along famously! I recently added several Astrea Snails, a Cowrie Snail and a big pink Chiton. Today, I traded some macro algae from my sump for a few zoanthids and purple star polyps. I want one more fish... a very young (small) Blue Tang. I know... the tank is already over-crowded, but I have plans to build a bigger one.
So... I am addicted! I love my reef tank! I have a business of buying, selling and repairing tanks and equipment and buying, raising and selling fish. I have over 40 freshwater tanks set up in my home and 5 saltwater tanks. I spend more time on my reef tank than all the others put together.
Over the next few weeks, the tank slowly started coming alive! It came with one Hermit Crab and a Nassarius Snail. I began to notice all kinds of critters on/in the rocks and sand; Tube Worms, Feather Dusters, Brittle Stars and lots of Pods. I also have battled a couple of small Aiptasia Colonies. I added two large Blue Damsels, some more Hermits and some Turbo Snails. Then when I started adding corals; Frogspawn, Button Polyps, Green Star Polyps, Kenya Tree, and some Mushrooms; I had to get rid of the Blue Damsels. When they are as large as mine were, Blue Damsels are not reef safe... kinda like a bull in a china shop. Then I added an Ocellaris Clown, 2 Orbiculate Cardinals (not PJ's), a Royal Gramma and a Green Clown Goby.
I saw pictures of a Mandarin Dragonet (aka Goby) and wanted one! After reading up on Mandarins, I knew I couldn't put one in my tank as it was. I had lots of pods to feed him, but no place for them to breed and provide a continuing source of food for him. I also read that a Mandarin should be in no less than 40 gallons. So... I built a 20-long sump with a refugium. When the pod population was threatening to take over both tanks, I bought my Mandarin. I am a penny-pincher, so I bought the cheapest one I could find. Of course I got a wild-caught, sunken-bellied (ematiated), stressed-out fish at that price. For the first three days in my reef tank, he didn't move from under the rock that hid him. I figured he was going to die of starvation. Finally, he ventured out and gave me a glimmer of hope. I saw him picking at the rocks. I assume he was eating pods. However, he was still very sunken-bellied. Yesterday, with a baster, I squirted some frozen brine shrimp in the back of the tank where he liked to hang out. To my complete surprise and joy, he ate some of them! Today he ate some more. His sunken belly is gone and I think he is going to make it!!:clap2::dance: According to all I have read, that is really rare for a wild-caught Mandarin to eat frozen food.
I added another Ocellaris Clown at the same time as the Mandarin and he and his much larger counterpart get along famously! I recently added several Astrea Snails, a Cowrie Snail and a big pink Chiton. Today, I traded some macro algae from my sump for a few zoanthids and purple star polyps. I want one more fish... a very young (small) Blue Tang. I know... the tank is already over-crowded, but I have plans to build a bigger one.
So... I am addicted! I love my reef tank! I have a business of buying, selling and repairing tanks and equipment and buying, raising and selling fish. I have over 40 freshwater tanks set up in my home and 5 saltwater tanks. I spend more time on my reef tank than all the others put together.
