Voodoodauley
New member
Hello, I started our first marine aquarium in Feb of this year. Our 7 year old son wanted a Nemo Tank. Needless to say, so did mom and especially DAD! hahaha... So Santa Claus brought him his wish. What Junior didn't know was that dad isn't rich and he cut a deal with a guy at work to get the tank.
Cut to the chase, it took a while for us to gather the needed things to get things started. Most notably a good book to read up. The booked helped a lot but I find that it only got me started and I have so much more to learn.
We cycled our tank well. We put Crushed Coral for substrate. After the tank leveled off we added out first specimens. We picked up a Chocolate Star Fish, a couple turbo snails, and a couple of Shrimp. We also added a couple Nemo clowns and three Green Chromis. We added everything spread out over time. Needless to say, it was hot or miss with us. We lost all of the fish pretty quick. The Chromis the first week and the clowns we lost after about a month from starvation. They simply wouldn't eat.
I made the mistake of adding a Red Banded Shrimp with our other shrimp and the Banded shrimp ending up getting arms ripped off in the process of killing our other shrimp. We got wise quick about mixing species.
We slowly have added live rock to our tank and still have about 50% (20 LBS) more to acquire. We use a Canister filter it has been working well for us. I was never a fan of under gravel filters when I was doing fresh water and this is why we chose a canister. I am happy with the results. I have been partially lazy and partially scared about water changes. I have been quite surprised at how well our tank has stayed leveled with the small bio-load and very few water changes.
We have begun adding new species again and are doing fabulous. I will have to pick up the water changes again now. We have A turbo snail, three bumble bees snails, and a Banded Snail. We have a green brittle star and a chocolate chip star. The inverts are doing fabulous. We have had the chocolate Chip since march or april. The Brittle since last month.
I decided it was time again and added a pair of Nemo's again. This time I was very careful and they are eating pretty well. They look happy and healthy so far. They worried me at first because they were being reclusive and hiding in the back towards the top by the filter tube. I left the light off for a day or two. Then flipped it on and they came right to the front and said Hello... we are your new neighbors... got any food? YAY!
We are slowly building our tank up a little at a time. I buy a species, then some live rock, and then equipment, etc. We need a skimmer soon I think. We intend to have a reef system eventually but being so new I am not in a hurry. I need to get a hang of the FOWLR first.
So far I am happy with my progress. I know some of my mistakes and have been careful to learn from them. We eventually will get a much bigger tank. For now, the 46 gallon seems to be a pretty good learner tank. We need to improve our lighting as we are using a regular full spectrum fluorescent intended for a freshwater system. I am hesitant to buy a good light as we are going to move to a larger tank once we get the live rock we need for this one. This bow front has a few issues I am not happy about. No need for that info at this time.
Thank you for reading about my experiences and I am looking forward tro learning from the community of Aquarist's.
:beer:
Cut to the chase, it took a while for us to gather the needed things to get things started. Most notably a good book to read up. The booked helped a lot but I find that it only got me started and I have so much more to learn.
We cycled our tank well. We put Crushed Coral for substrate. After the tank leveled off we added out first specimens. We picked up a Chocolate Star Fish, a couple turbo snails, and a couple of Shrimp. We also added a couple Nemo clowns and three Green Chromis. We added everything spread out over time. Needless to say, it was hot or miss with us. We lost all of the fish pretty quick. The Chromis the first week and the clowns we lost after about a month from starvation. They simply wouldn't eat.
I made the mistake of adding a Red Banded Shrimp with our other shrimp and the Banded shrimp ending up getting arms ripped off in the process of killing our other shrimp. We got wise quick about mixing species.
We slowly have added live rock to our tank and still have about 50% (20 LBS) more to acquire. We use a Canister filter it has been working well for us. I was never a fan of under gravel filters when I was doing fresh water and this is why we chose a canister. I am happy with the results. I have been partially lazy and partially scared about water changes. I have been quite surprised at how well our tank has stayed leveled with the small bio-load and very few water changes.
We have begun adding new species again and are doing fabulous. I will have to pick up the water changes again now. We have A turbo snail, three bumble bees snails, and a Banded Snail. We have a green brittle star and a chocolate chip star. The inverts are doing fabulous. We have had the chocolate Chip since march or april. The Brittle since last month.
I decided it was time again and added a pair of Nemo's again. This time I was very careful and they are eating pretty well. They look happy and healthy so far. They worried me at first because they were being reclusive and hiding in the back towards the top by the filter tube. I left the light off for a day or two. Then flipped it on and they came right to the front and said Hello... we are your new neighbors... got any food? YAY!
We are slowly building our tank up a little at a time. I buy a species, then some live rock, and then equipment, etc. We need a skimmer soon I think. We intend to have a reef system eventually but being so new I am not in a hurry. I need to get a hang of the FOWLR first.
So far I am happy with my progress. I know some of my mistakes and have been careful to learn from them. We eventually will get a much bigger tank. For now, the 46 gallon seems to be a pretty good learner tank. We need to improve our lighting as we are using a regular full spectrum fluorescent intended for a freshwater system. I am hesitant to buy a good light as we are going to move to a larger tank once we get the live rock we need for this one. This bow front has a few issues I am not happy about. No need for that info at this time.
Thank you for reading about my experiences and I am looking forward tro learning from the community of Aquarist's.
:beer: