Posted 18 March 2018 - 05:38 PM
I started with a small, freshwater 25L thing that was one of those gifts that end up costing the gifted person money, brother has a river turtle of some kind and they broke the tank when moving it so ordered a replacement tank, it was too small, dopey had ordered the wrong one and was too expensive to return, so my mother stepped in, oh Ade has always wanted a fish tank, give it to him, well Ade has always wanted a fish tank but didn’t get one because he works strange hours and goes back home to visit the folks every 4 weeks on his long weekend off from work so never got one for those reasons. Well this Tetra starter tank isn’t really good for much, I think it’s intended for shrimp keeping or something. It’s tall but narrow so rules a lot of species out so off I went to the local aquarium supply shop for recommendations and came back with some Panda Cory Catfish and a Siamese Fighter who had loads of character bit kicked the bucket and got the 12 gun salute around the U-bend just after the New Year. Just have the Cory’s in there now but have decided to draw the tank down as they die off and won’t be replacing anything in there, don’t worry, I’m still caring for them as I should. But on one trip to the store they had a display tank by the entrance, having wanted a bigger tank and debated long and hard about a larger fresh water or marine one this settled the argument, marine it was. Cue lots of reading up and lots of saving of pennies. Finally had enough saved last summer to go for the Red Sea Reefer 250, the shop we’re using a 350 but I didn’t have the space for the extra foot in length between the 2. Yes it was pricey, the lights were the biggest eye opener for me. WOW. But good lighting is a must, especially for the corals. So in there at the moment I have 2 Ocellaris Clownfish, there were 6 Green Chromis but now 3 A’s they tend to pick on each other, the smallest usually getting the worst of it, one Yellow Tang, one Flameback Dwarf Angel, one Jewelled Blenny who has tonnes of character which is helped by having a face like Homer Simpson, here’s a Dwarf wrasse in there too who I see rarely, usually feeding time as he likes it in the live rock, I forget his specific species within the Wrasse family but his colouration got me, looks different in every light as it changes throughout the day. Also have a few Hermit Crabs for clean up duties, several corals that I need to look in to fragging off as some are getting nice and big. There’s room for a few more fish and corals but adding stuff slowly so not as to crash the tank. Also most of my fish were bought young so have some growing to do, the clowns especially. There’s something to do maintenance wise on a pretty much daily basis but I enjoy it for the most part, sometimes that skimmer reeks and makes me gag but then the hours I can spend watching the tank make it worthwhile. Did have to get a mesh top for the tank though as one or two of the critters were prone to jumping when spooked when the lights shut down at night, even with a gradual draw down programmed in to the timer.
