Aquarists unite: fish are friends, and food

a c i d.f l y

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fishtank.jpg


My 45g under 600w metal halid. Top rock was covered in a green mushroom coral.
 
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Aazrael

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This our livingroom right now, the TV got crammed into the left corner to make room for the tanks. :p
20181027_150752.jpg
 
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a_skeleton_03

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RedSea Max E260

Might buy this, it’s a couple hours away though.

Could just tell him to sell off the livestock.

I have been looking at Red Sea and their AIO solutions for a while and if I don’t buy this one then a new one is on the eventual purchase list.
 
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a c i d.f l y

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RedSea Max E260

Might buy this, it’s a couple hours away though.

Could just tell him to sell off the livestock.

I have been looking at Red Sea and their AIO solutions for a while and if I don’t buy this one then a new one is on the eventual purchase list.
Livestock including the coral? Cuz those green polyps alone would fetch a very nice penny where I live for just a small frag. The rest is basic stuff, but it at least looks like a very healthy tank. A couple hour drive would be pretty rough on the fish, not so much the coral, assuming you can keep the water flowing during transport.
 
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a_skeleton_03

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Livestock including the coral? Cuz those green polyps alone would fetch a very nice penny where I live for just a small frag. The rest is basic stuff, but it at least looks like a very healthy tank. A couple hour drive would be pretty rough on the fish, not so much the coral, assuming you can keep the water flowing during transport.
Yeah I just don’t expect that I can move 70 gallons of water and all the livestock safely. Because remember that I am not driving two hours to then toss it into an established tank.

If I can do a huge water move along with all the equipment maybe.

Maybe I can find his LFS and have them hold it for a couple weeks .... hrmm that might be a good idea.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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This was my reef tank about three years ago, a 50G Cadlights tank. Had it up for about 5 years before it finally crashed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to it because my mom was sick.

I miss the hobby a lot but boy it was definitely a time sink and a constant source of anxiety.
8494EBF1-221B-4C24-B4FC-324098D53650.jpeg
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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RedSea Max E260

Might buy this, it’s a couple hours away though.

Could just tell him to sell off the livestock.

I have been looking at Red Sea and their AIO solutions for a while and if I don’t buy this one then a new one is on the eventual purchase list.

imho half the fun is researching, assembling, looking for livestock online, and slowly growing your tank into a customized masterpiece. Red Sea is a good AIO brand, but if you know what you're doing you can build yourself something better and cheaper through individual components. If you really want the tank I'd buy the hardware and pass on the livestock, not just because half the fun is populating your own tank, but like you pointed out you can't haul 70g of water. NEVER leave your livestock at a LFS unless they can stick it all in a closed loop isolated system. Leaving your stuff at the LFS is a guaranteed way to pick up diseases-- I learnt the hard way. If it's a hardcore hole in the wall coral store where the owner is a coral obsessed weirdo, then it's safe. But any standard LFS that pushes fish/ generic coral is filled with diseases in my experience.

EDIT: If I was going to do it again, I'd go with this company's tanks. Just gorgeous. Also, taking a look at that Red Sea guy's livestock, I'd definitely pass-- nothing special at all, justs some leathers and generic Zoas it looks like. Nicest piece is the hammerhead

IFALOS™ aquariums
 
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Aamry

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imho half the fun is researching, assembling, looking for livestock online, and slowly growing your tank into a customized masterpiece. Red Sea is a good AIO brand, but if you know what you're doing you can build yourself something better and cheaper through individual components. If you really want the tank I'd buy the hardware and pass on the livestock, not just because half the fun is populating your own tank, but like you pointed out you can't haul 70g of water. NEVER leave your livestock at a LFS unless they can stick it all in a closed loop isolated system. Leaving your stuff at the LFS is a guaranteed way to pick up diseases-- I learnt the hard way. If it's a hardcore hole in the wall coral store where the owner is a coral obsessed weirdo, then it's safe. But any standard LFS that pushes fish/ generic coral is filled with diseases in my experience.

EDIT: If I was going to do it again, I'd go with this company's tanks. Just gorgeous. Also, taking a look at that Red Sea guy's livestock, I'd definitely pass-- nothing special at all, justs some leathers and generic Zoas it looks like. Nicest piece is the hammerhead

IFALOS™ aquariums

Goddamn, that Mirtoan tank is awesome.
 
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Hosix

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This was my reef tank about three years ago, a 50G Cadlights tank. Had it up for about 5 years before it finally crashed when I wasn’t paying enough attention to it because my mom was sick.

I miss the hobby a lot but boy it was definitely a time sink and a constant source of anxiety.
View attachment 181478

I was the same...I had a 72 gallon reef tank. I bought my live rock online uncured. I cured it in my basement in garbage cans. The smell was something special. It was Tonga live rock? Dealt with cool critters. Glass anemones, gorilla crabs and bristle worms.

I did have a pistol shrimp who was a little bad ass. He only cane out at night but you could hear him cracking away at shit that messed with him

My tank crashed unfortunately. I moved into a new place and it was never the same. Fun, expensive and time consuming hobby.
 
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Frenzied Wombat

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I was the same...I had a 72 gallon reef tank. I bought my live rock online uncured. I cured it in my basement in garbage cans. The smell was something special. It was Tonga live rock? Dealt with cool critters. Glass anemones, gorilla crabs and bristle worms.

I did have a pistol shrimp who was a little bad ass. He only cane out at night but you could hear him cracking away at shit that messed with him

My tank crashed unfortunately. I moved into a new place and it was never the same. Fun, expensive and time consuming hobby.

Yeah it's a joy, guests are amazed, and a stylish tank makes your living room come alive, but there are those rare times where it will give you a heart attack. One day I remember waking up seeing my tank all cloudy, fish listless, and all the other corals closed. My pink pussy anemone had gotten sucked into my vortex powerhead which I had forgotten to re-wrap in its foam cover after cleaning. Had to cancel my entire day's plans as I ran to and from to the LFS to get gallons of salt water, a temporary holding tank, etc.
 
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Hosix

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Yeah it's a joy, guests are amazed, and a stylish tank makes your living room come alive, but there are those rare times where it will give you a heart attack. One day I remember waking up seeing my tank all cloudy, fish listless, and all the other corals closed. My pink pussy anemone had gotten sucked into my vortex powerhead which I had forgotten to re-wrap in its foam cover after cleaning. Had to cancel my entire day's plans as I ran to and from to the LFS to get gallons of salt water, a temporary holding tank, etc.

Ya when shit went wrong....it really went wrong. It’s scary how quickly a gorgeous tank can turn into a glass tank of brown rocks.
 
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Hosix

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To catch bristle worms I would use a chunk of shrimp inside a cut piece of pantyhose. I would rubber band a fishing weight to it. Sink it near the front of the tank and kill lights. After a few hours they would be stuck in the pantyhose.

Nasty fuckers. I never got stung by one.
 
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lurkingdirk

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I want to get a bunch of plants growing to make the tank beautiful, but my fucker fish keep eating the plants I put in. Any suggestions?
 
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a c i d.f l y

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I want to get a bunch of plants growing to make the tank beautiful, but my fucker fish keep eating the plants I put in. Any suggestions?
What fish do you have? What kind of lighting do you have? Are you prepared to invest about $250 in CO2 equipment and do you have a food grade local gas supplier? What size tank do you have? What substrate do you have? Pool sand, fine sand? Willing to dose chems or glut ($20/ga) daily?
 
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a c i d.f l y

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Someone outline a tank build for reef around $2,500 for me!!
What size tank and space do you have to place said tank? What's your water supply stats look like (TDS, hardness, Nitrate levels)? Do you have easy access to RO water or willing to plug one into your water supply? Do you have a water softener, and if so can you bypass it?

For fresh or salt, I've got a fuck ton of resources. And tips and tricks for maintaining. Wish I had the time to get into things to match the interest I had 20 years ago now that I have the funds to actually do so...
 
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a_skeleton_03

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What size tank and space do you have to place said tank? What's your water supply stats look like (TDS, hardness, Nitrate levels)? Do you have easy access to RO water or willing to plug one into your water supply? Do you have a water softener, and if so can you bypass it?

For fresh or salt, I've got a fuck ton of resources. And tips and tricks for maintaining. Wish I had the time to get into things to match the interest I had 20 years ago now that I have the funds to actually do so...
I was thinking 60-100G reef with soft corals like ricordea, zoa’s, mushroom, and blasto. Livestock would be things like a goby/shrimp pair, couple of ocellaris, anthias, chromis, and maybe 3 or 4 others. Maybe less fish but would evaluate. Mainly easy corals that spread well enough but don’t need a ton of dosing.

I do have filtration but not RO, I have a laundry room next to the room with a utility sink I would put it in that I could set all that up easily. I would do that by hand and refill an ATO weekly. No softener.

What I want for a build is tank, ATO, maybe auto doser for very minimal amount of elements, a WiFi controller, lights, sump, heater, pump, and heads. Basically a premium level of a Red Sea just not turnkey. I am great at plumbing and electrical.

Could totally figure all of this out on my own of course. I have been out of the game since ‘02 however.
 
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NeverlosT

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@a_skeleton_03 a lot of what your $ will get you is based on where you are. Here in Cali the market is saturated and big money setups sell used for cheap. But when I lived in the northeast there was crap selling for top dollar.

Id look for a reasonably new tank that had been on a factory stand (most folks cant build a reliable stand), if they have rock that is great (rock from stores is silly expensive) everyone is nuts these days for LED lights, but I honestly think T5 is still the best so you can find a used ATI powermodule for not much money.

For filtration, you really just need a sump to hold filter socks, a skimmer, heater(s), and maybe a carbon and a gfo reactor, then the return pump.

AIO systems are cool but I find its too hard to upgrade the components due to the form factor of the setup.
 
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