New To ReefCentral
New To ReefCentral
Hi All, have been reading RC for quite some time, years actually but never joined in.
I have been in this hobby since I was 19 years old. So 24years now, I'm 43 years old. My first tank was a 4ft with undergravel filter and a clown fish. I have a photo somewhere it was a joke lol.
I lost that poor clown some weeks later due to having no idea about water chemistry. Trial and error and a few other losses saw me with a community tank of about 10 fishes. My brother decided to buy me a Polka Dot Grouper. Thinking this was a cool looking fish and in my naivety at the time -I allowed it.
Next morning, I had one fish. And he was in the PDG mouth. That fish went back to the LFS and probably didnt eat for a month.
I then moved to Darwin for about 12 months with work and setup a 1000L tank. Maintaining this tank was too easy. The temperature was constant, the water was immaculate (got it all directly from the shoreline where lower corals types thrived) and the lighting was made easy by a skylight in the roof of the home on stilts I lived in. I caught my own fishes mostly tomato clown and Butterfly (Chelmon Rostratus) at night about 50yards from the shoreline.
I put everything back into the sea when I left and was proud of myself for that. I didn't lose any fishes during that period.
Over to Perth for abut 6 years from there with a 400L aquarium. By now I had learnt enough to keep and maintain higher corals, although this was a time when I suffered a lot from fish disease (ich, velvet) and lost a few animals. I was not too ofey on UV sterilisers and the like and still got my water from the clean areas around Perth. Was probably not a good idea but its all I could afford with 2 kids and a mortgage.
Many more setups later I now maintain a 260L AquaNova cube. With a thorough understanding of everything, I have kept an Ocellaris clownfish since its birth in an aquarium tank for more than 8 years now. He (should I say) SHE, is my most prized participant in the hobby. It is my goal to keep her until she moves on and I think you cannot ask for more than this, to keep a fish from juvenile throughout its entire lifespan without loss or harm.
Will get some images up of the tank shortly.
S.G.=1.027 (refract), pH=8.3, Mg=1350 (salifert), Alk=9 (Sera), NO3 <5ppm (Sera), PO4=0 9Sera), Cal=440 (API), Temp=25.5
Clownfish 1, Blue tang 1, Yellow Tang 1, Blue Streak Goby 1, Fire Gobies 2, Clown Wrasse 1, Coral Beauty 1, Puffer 1
Corals: lots
Adam McCarthy
