Hello friends.
Its been a few years I have been in this forum and also a few years I had my last tank. I finally had some time and money to start a new tank and I thought I share my pictures with you guys since what I am doing might be a little different from the biggest part of SW tank owners.
A little about me - my name is Chris, I love the ocean, its my big love and I spent a LOT of time there every week. Either surfing or free diving / snorkelling and exploring miles and miles of reefs. I love to go especially into areas far from humans.
I wanted to build a little bigger tank with the goal to have it as authentic as possible, so the animals I take home from the ocean - which I always do only for a few weeks until I bring them back and get something new - feel no big difference to where I got them from. I don't buy fishes or even the salt. I use real ocean water which isn't easy but I find it worth the extra work.
The only thing that isn't 100% from the ocean in my tank is the gravel, which I bought from a gardening department and cleaned it very well. Everything else you see in the tank is from the ocean near my house or around the island where I live on - in Puerto Rico.
My interests goes mostly to moray eels - they just fascinate me for some reason and in the time im doing this I probably caught around 70 already and released them again - a few I sold to other people with the same hobby. I also had a bunch of octopus, but since I want the aquarium to run calm and for plants and animals to grow in peace, I won't get octopus anymore, at least not in the main tank. Also they don't go well with Morays.
I mainly like to have weird animals not a lot of people know about or have as pets, even though I don't consider them pets. So let me show you guys some pics. I wanted to bold a bar in my apartment that is used for the biggest part by the aquarium but still offers some space to eat or use it for other things without disturbing the tank. I thought about building it with wood, but since its a lot of weight and I wanted something earthquake ready, I thought of something fun and it came out quite nice.
After running the tank for a while I finally went off to the ocean to get some new friends for it. The first 2 visitors were 2 puffer fishes. From all fishes I like puffers the most because they have so much personality compared to other fishes which mainly just act territorial all the time.
Next was the first of 3 anemone that I have now including two of their shrimps, which I find mind-blowing beautiful, especially the wavy way they move all the time.
Cushion sea star (I sell them by the way if you are interested - in different colors and sizes).
A squid, but unfortunately I never managed to keep them alive in the tank so I won't get them anymore.
and this is one of the longest residents of the tank yet beside the first moray
The plants you can see here I sell as well as they work great in the aquarium and they grow nicely.
One of 2 anemone with pink tips I have. One of them moved up the the filter and live between them ever since.
A beautiful pistol shrimp (if you never heard of these I recommend you yo look it up on youtube. They have a very powerful weapon which is able to shot streams of water which for a moment reach the temperature of the sun - yes!)
and this is the main resident and attraction, a spotted moray - my favorite type in the tropical area i live in in the caribbean.
I will add more pics with time but I think thats enough for now and I hope you enjoy reading and watching the pics. Have a nice day everyone!
Its been a few years I have been in this forum and also a few years I had my last tank. I finally had some time and money to start a new tank and I thought I share my pictures with you guys since what I am doing might be a little different from the biggest part of SW tank owners.
A little about me - my name is Chris, I love the ocean, its my big love and I spent a LOT of time there every week. Either surfing or free diving / snorkelling and exploring miles and miles of reefs. I love to go especially into areas far from humans.
I wanted to build a little bigger tank with the goal to have it as authentic as possible, so the animals I take home from the ocean - which I always do only for a few weeks until I bring them back and get something new - feel no big difference to where I got them from. I don't buy fishes or even the salt. I use real ocean water which isn't easy but I find it worth the extra work.
The only thing that isn't 100% from the ocean in my tank is the gravel, which I bought from a gardening department and cleaned it very well. Everything else you see in the tank is from the ocean near my house or around the island where I live on - in Puerto Rico.
My interests goes mostly to moray eels - they just fascinate me for some reason and in the time im doing this I probably caught around 70 already and released them again - a few I sold to other people with the same hobby. I also had a bunch of octopus, but since I want the aquarium to run calm and for plants and animals to grow in peace, I won't get octopus anymore, at least not in the main tank. Also they don't go well with Morays.
I mainly like to have weird animals not a lot of people know about or have as pets, even though I don't consider them pets. So let me show you guys some pics. I wanted to bold a bar in my apartment that is used for the biggest part by the aquarium but still offers some space to eat or use it for other things without disturbing the tank. I thought about building it with wood, but since its a lot of weight and I wanted something earthquake ready, I thought of something fun and it came out quite nice.
After running the tank for a while I finally went off to the ocean to get some new friends for it. The first 2 visitors were 2 puffer fishes. From all fishes I like puffers the most because they have so much personality compared to other fishes which mainly just act territorial all the time.
Next was the first of 3 anemone that I have now including two of their shrimps, which I find mind-blowing beautiful, especially the wavy way they move all the time.
Cushion sea star (I sell them by the way if you are interested - in different colors and sizes).
A squid, but unfortunately I never managed to keep them alive in the tank so I won't get them anymore.
and this is one of the longest residents of the tank yet beside the first moray
The plants you can see here I sell as well as they work great in the aquarium and they grow nicely.
One of 2 anemone with pink tips I have. One of them moved up the the filter and live between them ever since.
A beautiful pistol shrimp (if you never heard of these I recommend you yo look it up on youtube. They have a very powerful weapon which is able to shot streams of water which for a moment reach the temperature of the sun - yes!)
and this is the main resident and attraction, a spotted moray - my favorite type in the tropical area i live in in the caribbean.
I will add more pics with time but I think thats enough for now and I hope you enjoy reading and watching the pics. Have a nice day everyone!
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thats the only pic i had from the moray.
