Hawgstoppah Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 Hey I bet I am not the only one who has a home aquarium! Take a video of yours and let's share each others hobby! This is my 200 gallon setup: Quote
Weedy1 Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 Doesn't look like that Albino Rainbow has gone insane yet. Wait, the day will come and all others will fear. Territorial little freaks of nature they be. Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 16, 2014 Author Posted January 16, 2014 yeah, I heard that it is wise to only ever have one if you have one. The rainbow shark (non albino) is apparently much worse. In my tank the red tail keeps this albino in check, and luckily for me everyone gets along right now except for a large pleco I removed a while ago that would chase and even attempt to injure other fish that budded in on his feeding "area". kind of like me at dinner time lol Quote
lorney Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 Sure does make a guy miss having an aquarium. I had a bunch of different aquariums over a 20 year span of running them. Very peaceful and relaxing to just sit back and watch. The last one I had running was a 180 gal saltwater and took it down to move. We moved and I just don't have a place to set it back up. It has been sitting in the garage for the last few years. I don't have any video of it to share but I sure enjoyed it. Thanks for posting. Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 16, 2014 Author Posted January 16, 2014 I think my next project will be a saltwater with corals and fish. I hear they are extremely pricey to set up but once you have everything they are not too bad, can you confirm that for me? Quote
bigalcal Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 I work with a guy that has a saltwater tank with coral etc. Lost it all due to power outage during flood. Yes....It is expensive!! Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 16, 2014 Author Posted January 16, 2014 I work with a guy that has a saltwater tank with coral etc. Lost it all due to power outage during flood. Yes....It is expensive!! ouch Quote
lorney Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 It is quite a bit more expensive to get up and running. Once running it isn't too bad. It depends on what you want to keep in it. A fish only tank will be cheaper as you can get away with less lighting and fewer pumps to move water around. If you want to have corals in the tank there is a little more to it. Here is a picture of mine from when it was running. 2 Quote
lorney Posted January 16, 2014 Posted January 16, 2014 It is 180 gal with a 30 gal sump underneath in the stand. Wish I could set it up again but just don't have a place for it in the new house and my time is limited with two little kids now. It cost a lot to set up and I wouldn't even want to try and calculate the amount of money I spent but it was all good. Gotta spend our money on something right. When I shut it down I was able to sell all the live rock, fish and corals. Gave some of it away but was able to recoup a bit. Do you have an aquarium bcube? Quote
bcubed Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 I slowly worked my way up from a 5 to a 45 FW till a couple years ago when were renting.. Since we just bought our first place, and I have a pretty perfect spot picked out (in the 'fishing' room), I've been thinking of salt for a while, but as you mention pretty pricey to get into. Friend of mine is currently building a 400 gallon in his basement to top his dad's 250, so that will be pretty inspiring Quote
lorney Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Yeah that will be nice to see a 400gal up and running. It takes a while to get everything set up and to get the tank to cycle. I fought some algae problems for a while but after running for a while and getting things figured out, it all went away. Had really good encrusting coralline algae all over everything in the tank. When I shut it down I sold my live rock to an aquarium shop for what I paid for it. Price had gone up on rock and the owner of the store said my rock was so covered in encrusting algae he would have no problem selling it for a premium. It is an expensive venture and researching and designing your tank and sump before you get it up and running is important. I had a few friends that started and gave up after months of battling slime algae. A person can get into it for a lot cheaper if you buy a used tank and equipment. There are lots out there if you look for them. I thought about selling mine a few times but then I always think I may set it up again. I probably never will and could free up some garage space if I just got rid of it. Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 17, 2014 Author Posted January 17, 2014 Lorney that's a gorgeous set up. Some day I'll get into a salt setup! Quote
kritofr Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Beautiful Tanks so far, thank you for sharing your pics and video Unfortunately my time with having fish tanks came to a close before the era of Digital cameras. If I can find the motivation I should dig out some photos of the fish room as I was really into the breeding fish. Had 60 tanks set up at one time (no wonder my parents were happy when I decided to shut it down, now that I see my electricity bills) basically taking over the whole basement of the house. Had everything from 10gal tanks to a 220gal tank. Bred African Cichlids, live-bearers and Tetra's Never did get into the Saltwater, I found that Cichlids offered some great colours and my other tanks were a lot more live plants with a minimal amount of fish in them. Saltwater would have been a great experience but couldn't dedicate the finances to the extra expense. Hawgstoppah, you should give yourself a pat in the back. To get Irridescent Sharks to grow to that size (even the Bala Sharks) takes some great care and work 1 Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 17, 2014 Author Posted January 17, 2014 kritofr, Those Iridescents are barely 6 months old, they are growing crazy fast. In fact they may even outgrow this tank. The Balas will (hopefully) top out around the 10-13 inch mark and be the perfect size for this tank. Those Roselines should reach just around 6" and will compliment them nicely. I actually had another pair of iridescents not too long ago but gave them away. I felt I could not offer 4 of them enough tank room given how large the first two are now. I would have LOVED to see your fish room back in it's prime!! I may do cichlids at some point down the road in this tank if I look for a change. A big piece of driftwood and a slate wall would be brilliant in it. Quote
lorney Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 Kritofr, I had African cichlids too. They are interesting fish to have and you are right about the colors. The behaviour of cichlids is cool to watch. I did have some breed. I had a beautiful pair of Frontosa's that spawned a few times but had too many fish in the tank and never moved them to another tank to raise them so they disappeared. had another small tank with kribensis in it that used to spawn all the time in caves that I made for them. They would get all colored up and do their little dance and take turns going in and out of the cave to lay then fertilized. Pretty cool to watch. Mouth brooders are cool too watch too. I think if I was setting up a tank again it would be cichlids. The salt is cool but more expensive and more time consuming. I think I had 5 tanks set up at my parents house in high school and that was too many for them. 60 would have been cool because you could have so much different stuff. How was the humidity in the house? Quote
kritofr Posted January 18, 2014 Posted January 18, 2014 Hawstoppah, there was no prime for the 60 tank set up. The majority of the tanks were 10gallon to 15 gallon, pretty bland set ups too. Each tank would have one specific type of fish with the mix of fish needed to have the best chances of breeding. 3 or 4 females to one male with the live bearers, breeding pairs for the cichlids/ discus and tried many combinations with gourami's, etc, etc If you were to ask the parentals it was a organized chaos. Basically built what you see at the Aquarium shops but you would look in from the narrow ends rather than the broader front. I had my good tanks or I guess the "show" tanks that were set up throughout the house. All community tanks with regards to the 220gallon being designated to oscars, several large plecos and a red tail shark Was involved with the Calgary Aquarium Society; there were some families that had amazing fish rooms, Humidity. Never really noticed it but I was too young to worry about it. I started as a eager 12 year old and gave it up when I graduated high school. Might explain why the dining room table almost fell through the floor just above the fish room Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 18, 2014 Author Posted January 18, 2014 Did you run that whole fish room on one large filtration system, or did you have several throughout the home? Quote
kritofr Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Ran box filters or the old school sponge filters in the tanks. They all ran off of two airlines that we put in the room Had several power filters that I would move from tank to tank when I was cleaning the tanks For the show tanks I had a combination of underground filters with power heads along with either a canister filter or sump set up Quote
midgetwaiter Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Those Iridescents are barely 6 months old, they are growing crazy fast. In fact they may even outgrow this tank. You can be pretty certain of that. I used to work in a shop and I had some guy leave a garbage bag with a 24" at the front one day, that was fun. I used to have quite a few neat saltwater tanks, always had a soft spot for puffers and ambush predators like frogfish. HEre's one of mine from a few years ago. I don't have time for the SW any more, maybe some time I'll get one going. My current project is to try and spawn some Peacock Gudgeons, just need to track down some more males. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peacock_gudgeon Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 19, 2014 Author Posted January 19, 2014 How big is your tropical setup midgetwaiter? Is it worth it to try a small (40-50gallon) salt setup? Or would I be better off going 90-125 or bigger right off the bat. Quote
Dxh Posted January 19, 2014 Posted January 19, 2014 Don't mean to budge in here, but from what I have researched its much easier to maintain the proper PH level's etc in a larger aquarium for beginners to SW. I myself have been looking at investing in a nice set up. Everything I've read mentioned that if this is your first SW set up bigger is better. But i am definitely no expert on the subject Nice tank by the way Hawgstoppah! Quote
bcubed Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 Everything I've read has always said bigger is easier. Pretty easy to understand, as it will deal with fluctuations better. As they say, the solution to pollution is dilution! Quote
midgetwaiter Posted January 20, 2014 Posted January 20, 2014 How big is your tropical setup midgetwaiter? Is it worth it to try a small (40-50gallon) salt setup? Or would I be better off going 90-125 or bigger right off the bat. I have a 5g planted tank with the little guys in it and a 20g with some fancy goldfish. I had a 90 I was going to setup after we moved but it was damaged when some contractors were here and I haven't replaced it yet. I'm planning on a custom 240 in wall when I finish the basement.. It's common advice to go bigger when starting a SW tank but I'm not sure I necessarily agree. It's far more important to have a good idea what you want to keep and what limitations your equipment and livestock choices might might put on you in the future. If you look at forums out there it's very common to see people trying to remove a fish because it's started to kill corals they've decided to start buying etc. You need to decide if you want just fish or fish and corals. If corals, what kinds of corals? There is a lot of difference in requirements for lighting, filtration and flow rates. You will be most successful if you have a good plan. If you're going to stick to a few smaller fish and some relatively undemanding corals there are a bunch of all in one 30g tanks out there that are easy to manage. If you try and keep a wide mix of corals and fish who tend to not get along like Lorney you're going to need a bigger tank. Are you more interested in fish or corals? The best single bit of advice is, quarantine everything you buy for 7 days before it goes in the main tank. EVERYTHING. Quote
Hawgstoppah Posted January 21, 2014 Author Posted January 21, 2014 Yes I know. I actually need to get another quarantine tank for freshwater at some point. I have not replaced any fish in a long time right now. As far as saltwater, I think my best bet would be going mid size to large (60-200+ gallons). I'd want the whole experience from it, colorful fish, great corals, etc. I do know that I would have to research a TON before I decided to actually start anything up ...including some research on how to successfully push the idea on to the missus Quote
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