Hi everyone!
I'm hopeful that I can gain some much needed insight into the reefing and marine saltwater aquarium community by joining forums such as this. I read somewhere that RESEARCH is a huge part of setting up and maintaining a little marine ecosystem in your home, and I figured that picking the brains of experienced aquarists was the place to start!
I am not totally new to owning aquariums. I had them as a child, but I don't fully count that as my parents were the maintenance crew at the time.
But I have successfully set up and maintained up to six freshwater aquariums at once over the past five and a half years.
At the moment I have a planted 20g freshwater tank, mainly home to my five-member Bumblebee Goby crew, as well as an albino pleco, and a trio of corys. I also have a 40g minimally-planted community tank housing two prehistoric dragon gobies and a spawning community of mixed mollies. Then comes my longest-standing tank (by just a few months) - my 75g Malawi Cichlid tank. Previous tanks included a 10 gallon dedicated to dwarf cichlids, another 10 gallon for the bumblebee gobies that got upgraded to the 20 gallon, and a third 10g for betas, gouramis, and neon tetras that I started with to be sure I was serious about aquarium keeping (turns out I was... VERY).
My heart and soul has always been drawn to the ocean, and it has been a dream of mine to set up a reef tank. While I'm still in the process of saving up for that initial start-up; I figured I would see what today's marine aquarist uses, some of the things to avoid or watch out for, and just general knowledge so that I can be as successful as possible.
I'm hopeful that I can gain some much needed insight into the reefing and marine saltwater aquarium community by joining forums such as this. I read somewhere that RESEARCH is a huge part of setting up and maintaining a little marine ecosystem in your home, and I figured that picking the brains of experienced aquarists was the place to start!
I am not totally new to owning aquariums. I had them as a child, but I don't fully count that as my parents were the maintenance crew at the time.
But I have successfully set up and maintained up to six freshwater aquariums at once over the past five and a half years.At the moment I have a planted 20g freshwater tank, mainly home to my five-member Bumblebee Goby crew, as well as an albino pleco, and a trio of corys. I also have a 40g minimally-planted community tank housing two prehistoric dragon gobies and a spawning community of mixed mollies. Then comes my longest-standing tank (by just a few months) - my 75g Malawi Cichlid tank. Previous tanks included a 10 gallon dedicated to dwarf cichlids, another 10 gallon for the bumblebee gobies that got upgraded to the 20 gallon, and a third 10g for betas, gouramis, and neon tetras that I started with to be sure I was serious about aquarium keeping (turns out I was... VERY).
My heart and soul has always been drawn to the ocean, and it has been a dream of mine to set up a reef tank. While I'm still in the process of saving up for that initial start-up; I figured I would see what today's marine aquarist uses, some of the things to avoid or watch out for, and just general knowledge so that I can be as successful as possible.
