just wondering.

 

I want to get into aquariums sometime, but I don't have any right now, except for a small aquarium that I'm not using. It got knocked down during the Northridge earthquake and I haven't had any fish since then. Tell me all about yours. Is it a lot of work?

 

My brother-in-law buys so much of that stuff the store he gets it from sends over a guy for free to help take care of his tanks.

 

I have a 50g with some soft corals. Colonial polyps and some sarcophytons. Fish are a clownfish (lost the male last week), flame angel, copperband butterfly, and a royal gramma. Various hermit crabs. Ofcourse live rock.

It's a nice fun hobby but it's definitely a big step up over freshwater as far as maintenance goes. For instance if your fish get a disease like ick and you need to treat the tank with copper you have to setup a separate tank and remove the fish to it for treatment since copper will kill corals and invertebrates. But it's the only real way to kill off that disease. So a pain in the patoot. Also when you change water you usually dont want to use tap. You buy RODI water from walmart or you filter it yourself. And salt must be mixed in and brought up to the right specific gravity before you put the water in your tank.

Someday I'll go back to freshwater again to change things up and take a break from all the work. But the fish are gorgeous and the invertebrates are really something to see in saltwater tanks.

 

We have nice setup here at work....Fresh water...Long nose Gars steal the show.
I inherited tank from ex employee...great way to waste time and relax.
My wife took over about 3 months ago and started going nuts.
We have about 8 fish now plus 3 suckers cleaning the glass....

 

Gars are cool. If any of you are just getting into aquariums I recommend picking up a book on "Cichlids". Great fish to have. Often nicely colored and they have some highly advanced parenting behavior. Really neat to see them lay eggs and then the parents herding the swarm of baby fish around the tank.

 

The Blood Parrots we have like to herd all the fish...almost funny...the smaller fish will hide in barrels..

 

i Just broke down a 72 gal all glass aquarium with a built in over flow and a 30 gal sump to hit the chally in the garage.
I had a 700+ watt light

various corals fish inverts etc...
been in the hoby for about 5 years

don't have any tanks going right now

its really fun to do but very expensive and I'd rather spend money on tires and gas right now.