TexasYeti
New Member
Hi
So my history. Well I started keeping fish in the UK, back in the time when T.Rex was a pop group and not something seen in Jurrasic Park, David Bowie was still Ziggy Stardust and Vietnam was not a country we in the UK wanted to visit. I had 2 tanks, 12" x 12" x 24", with cast metal frames, which rusted. Lighting was high tech, 2 60 Watt house light bulbs per tank, filtration was a small bubble box filter with gravel and basic floss, which you cleaned out.... at times, but the fish survived because the fish available in the UK at that time were tough, or died within a couple of days.
I didn't understand for decades why the Blue Acara was so aggressive in the community tank, Oh how the internet would have been useful, and where I grew up, the library had nothing on tropical fish.
Lets leap forward a few decades, I've still had some tanks, had breeding Angels (Christmas Eve, and a house full of guests, when someone spots a clump of dots on one of the upright slates. "What's that?" So suddenly I have Joseph and Mary.
Move on a few years, and I've moved to Texas, I set up a tank with Cichlids, from that comes a second tank with peacocks, I find a local forum, but it's heavily occupied with these guys that live on the Dark Side of keeping fish. The extremists, the fanatics, the guys that must be richer than I can believe. They keep salt water tanks, and they... have coral!
Coral. The UK TV used to show Jacques Cousteau diving in coral reef's the diversity, the condition of the water, no one could do that surely. However these guys were, with success, but there's no way I could. But, the Darkside beckoned, they were so encouraging, so supportive, and then my dear lady bought me a tank, and said, you can go FW or SW.
I decided to leap into the Darkside, and found wonderful support (and that's what I love about this hobby, the support others give you), I set up a 30G tank, bags of LR, a sump, some successes, and of course some failures, would sit there and just watch all the life in the tank, discovering what a true eco system was about compared to a FW tank.
I, no we, bought a 75G tank (after a the good lady had set up her own 9G nano JBJ, I bought her for her birthday) and we expanded, don't think 48 inch LCD TV, think 48 inch Reef tank.
So, I/we have 3 reef tanks, my 30G sprung a leak, but I'd bought a 24G JBJ cube, which became the back up tank, and which is doing so well I don't want to move any thing.
Softies grow like weeds, LPS, which I love, grow well in both tanks (and again a big thanks to Ritter, and about 3 others that may be on this forum).
SPS. The 30G struggled, with is sump, and many died. However, in the 24JBJ my one Acan is showing life, my Cap Monti is spreading, in my 75G with compacts, the Cap Monti is spreading and thickening, and my Duncans, and other LPS are doing really well and my softies, they grow like weeds.
Am I getting it right? I've no idea. As the good lady said, "We don't keep fish, we don't keep Corals, we keep water."
Are we totally taken by the new additions of life into our family?
Yes.
So my history. Well I started keeping fish in the UK, back in the time when T.Rex was a pop group and not something seen in Jurrasic Park, David Bowie was still Ziggy Stardust and Vietnam was not a country we in the UK wanted to visit. I had 2 tanks, 12" x 12" x 24", with cast metal frames, which rusted. Lighting was high tech, 2 60 Watt house light bulbs per tank, filtration was a small bubble box filter with gravel and basic floss, which you cleaned out.... at times, but the fish survived because the fish available in the UK at that time were tough, or died within a couple of days.
I didn't understand for decades why the Blue Acara was so aggressive in the community tank, Oh how the internet would have been useful, and where I grew up, the library had nothing on tropical fish.
Lets leap forward a few decades, I've still had some tanks, had breeding Angels (Christmas Eve, and a house full of guests, when someone spots a clump of dots on one of the upright slates. "What's that?" So suddenly I have Joseph and Mary.
Move on a few years, and I've moved to Texas, I set up a tank with Cichlids, from that comes a second tank with peacocks, I find a local forum, but it's heavily occupied with these guys that live on the Dark Side of keeping fish. The extremists, the fanatics, the guys that must be richer than I can believe. They keep salt water tanks, and they... have coral!
Coral. The UK TV used to show Jacques Cousteau diving in coral reef's the diversity, the condition of the water, no one could do that surely. However these guys were, with success, but there's no way I could. But, the Darkside beckoned, they were so encouraging, so supportive, and then my dear lady bought me a tank, and said, you can go FW or SW.
I decided to leap into the Darkside, and found wonderful support (and that's what I love about this hobby, the support others give you), I set up a 30G tank, bags of LR, a sump, some successes, and of course some failures, would sit there and just watch all the life in the tank, discovering what a true eco system was about compared to a FW tank.
I, no we, bought a 75G tank (after a the good lady had set up her own 9G nano JBJ, I bought her for her birthday) and we expanded, don't think 48 inch LCD TV, think 48 inch Reef tank.
So, I/we have 3 reef tanks, my 30G sprung a leak, but I'd bought a 24G JBJ cube, which became the back up tank, and which is doing so well I don't want to move any thing.
Softies grow like weeds, LPS, which I love, grow well in both tanks (and again a big thanks to Ritter, and about 3 others that may be on this forum).
SPS. The 30G struggled, with is sump, and many died. However, in the 24JBJ my one Acan is showing life, my Cap Monti is spreading, in my 75G with compacts, the Cap Monti is spreading and thickening, and my Duncans, and other LPS are doing really well and my softies, they grow like weeds.
Am I getting it right? I've no idea. As the good lady said, "We don't keep fish, we don't keep Corals, we keep water."
Are we totally taken by the new additions of life into our family?
Yes.
