The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

I agree 100%!

for those out there thinking "oh its just a fish tank. Whats the big deal."

Many of these tanks ivestments are wekk in the thousands. My 24 gallon tank certainly was. If you dont pay attention or cant take care of them for even a week. This can happen, and did to me.

That sucks so badly.
We have all been there.
My son lost a 75 gallon reef thanks to a hurricane.
I was lucky mine survived.
He then set it up again and it crashed again due to rust from the UV going in the tank.
Each time, he had the most unreal reef, due to working for the importer.
He got to take home all the frags on a regular basis and they would all grow to nice corals.
Lots of rare stuff and thousands of dollars lost.

I have a generator dedicated to my tank for power failures.
That is how crazy this stuff is.

[GKitty]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

wow... I think I just died a little inside.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by GKitty

wow... I think I just died a little inside.

Anyone can face that day in this hobby and boy, does it suck.

Here is a sucking story.
I have two mated Conspic Angels.
The larger, male, gets PO'd with the smaller one and goes all over the place chasing it, continuously, for days.
I decide to get the aggressive one out and sell it (that is where I got my money for my Clarion).
As soon as I pull it out and sell it, within a week or so, not having ever been harmed or injured, not showing any signs of stress, a $3K fish is belly up.
I could only imagine it died from heartbreak that I didn't give them a chance to work it out or go to counseling.
I guess I can laugh about it now as I was able to soon find another Conspic to replace her.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

haha nice! I have only seen a Clarion Angel once in my time as a reefer. they were demanding 3.5k and the one they had was full grown and its colors were pretty dull.

I got this guy when he was about the size of a very small Flame Angel.
Have had him for around 5-7 years, guessing but closer to the 7 mark.
He had his juvenile colors and lines.
As he became an adult, the lines left and the solid brown/tan face set in.
Cool to see transform.
I had another Emperor Angel that I raised from juvenile to full adult, that got along just great with the larger Emperor believe it or not.
Decided to sell him to make room for the growing fish.

[md4958]

Ive always wanted a salt-water tank.

On average how much time do you need to dedicate on a weekly basis to the maintenance of the average sized tank?

How difficult is that maintenance?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by md4958

Ive always wanted a salt-water tank.

On average how much time do you need to dedicate on a weekly basis to the maintenance of the average sized tank?

How difficult is that maintenance?

That will vary.
For most, early on in the hobby, they either do too much or not enough.

I believe in hands free.
Great equipment, like a massive skimmer, triple to quadruple what the tank would require normally.
Water changes once a month - I do 50%.
Remove the rocks (in my case as I have to bleach them), once a month, when I do my water changes.
My tank takes once a month, but that day takes me about 3-4 hours due to the slow process in bleaching the rocks, to ensure no chlorine back in the tank.
The same regimen is what I did for my customers for years.

[GKitty]

Beautiful tanks and fishies!!

We had a couple of freshwater tanks while I was growing up. Loved to sit and watch them.

Thanks for the pics.

Please, sirs, may I have some more?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by md4958

Ive always wanted a salt-water tank.

On average how much time do you need to dedicate on a weekly basis to the maintenance of the average sized tank?

How difficult is that maintenance?

Hey Moe-sy,
I keep a reef tank, and it's super low-end. Despite that it's gorgeous and there are so many awesome critters living in there that you can see something new every day.
I spend maybe an hour a week doing maintainence. That consists of scrubbing the inside of the glass every other day with a magnet thingie (takes 2 minutes) and cleaning the glass with windex because a lunare wrasse I have splashes water out of the tank every time it eats.
The best thing I ever did that made this so much easier on me is:
1.) Added plants
2.) Bought an RO unit (makes 100% pure water).
My tank has been 15 years in the making and has frozen twice due to power outages while I was away.
Despite that, not everything died.
I do a lot of things that guys say that you should never do, but it's because I've wanted to create a self-sustaining biosphere, or a symbiosis.
Withh fresh water tanks it's very easy to do. With reef tanks it's taken me 15 years to get it right.
Carlos' tank is the extreme polar opposite of mine. His is like a hospital while mine is like a swamp.
His costs a fortune, and while mine isn't by any means cheap, it's definately affordable.
It takes a few years to cycle your tank, or at least it has mine.
If you get a good light, a good filter, and a good skimmer, and an RO unit you're on your way. Then you use a lot of live sand, coral, live rock, critters (crabs and snails), and some little fish and watch it like a hawk and do lots of water changes.
Add some razorwire chaeta (a plant) and it will come with all the "bugs" you need. Little shrimp and worms and stuff. They clean the bottom and process all the waste. In turn that processed waste feeds the plants. The plants clean the water. The baby bugs feed the live rock.
When it's time to add corals, everything is there that they need.
While my tank isn't a striking art statement like Carlos', it's beautiful in it's own right because of all the colors and activity. Much like cigars, it's one's taste that dictates what they want.
What you want will dictate what you have to do and how much work you have to do.
Carlos has to know a LOT to keep the environment he's created. He has to be right on top of it, too.
Mine is a lot less delicate, and it takes care of itself for the most part.
I still have to pay attention to it though. I'd say I do as much work on my tank as I do on my cat. Maybe less.
Nothing is "hard" either.

You should try a little nano tank. They're little tiny desktop environments and you can put a couple little fish in there, some live rock and some corals. They're inexpensive and a real bang for the buck. Easy to care for, too.
That way you could see if you like it before going crazy and spending millions. Plus you could just move your stock to a bigger tank.
I bet you'd love it.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

Carlos has to know a LOT to keep the environment he's created. He has to be right on top of it, too.
Mine is a lot less delicate, and it takes care of itself for the most part.
I still have to pay attention to it though.

That is the beauty of a reef system v. a fish only.
The reef is truly very self sustaining other than water changes.
The critters, the live rock, the fish themselves all maintain it for you.
In a fish only system, more labor involved in cleaning the corals.

Knowledge wise, not really hard. I feed them when I remember. I change the water once a month, the month I remember. Once in a while, I may even remember to change the dirty, nasty old pad on the wet dry.

Do you have a refugium? Wet dry? or combination of both?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Blueface

That is the beauty of a reef system v. a fish only.
The reef is truly very self sustaining other than water changes.
The critters, the live rock, the fish themselves all maintain it for you.
In a fish only system, more labor involved in cleaning the corals.

Knowledge wise, not really hard. I feed them when I remember. I change the water once a month, the month I remember. Once in a while, I may even remember to change the dirty, nasty old pad on the wet dry.

Do you have a refugium? Wet dry? or combination of both?

Nope, Carlos, no refugium.
Actually I do, though. It's a giant wad of Chaeta that's jammed behind the mountain of rock.
I just cut it back when it grows out too far. I have to cut it back or tuck it back in about once a week. I tear about half of it out every few months and throw it in the garbage. I always look in the bucket and I'm amazed at how many shrimp and worms are flopping around.

[md4958]

Originally Posted by shilala

You should try a little nano tank. They're little tiny desktop environments and you can put a couple little fish in there, some live rock and some corals. They're inexpensive and a real bang for the buck. Easy to care for, too.
That way you could see if you like it before going crazy and spending millions. Plus you could just move your stock to a bigger tank.
I bet you'd love it.

Thanks for the info Mr. Shilala!!!

[Mark]

I am loving this thread! I got my first tank about a year ago and quickly upgraded to a 30 gallon with tropical fish. Eventually I would LOVE to have a reef tank, but the set up cost is a bit steep while I'm still in school.

I will have to enjoy vicariously through all your pictures. Thanks for sharing!

[md4958]

For a beginner, would you recommend a reef tank, or a fish tank? It is my understanding that you cant have many fish in a reef tank

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by md4958

For a beginner, would you recommend a reef tank, or a fish tank? It is my understanding that you cant have many fish in a reef tank

You can do either.
Just don't go crazy until you have it down.
Me? I would go fish only, then add corals or modify to a reef as you develop more.
In my case, I never finished developing as I stayed with fish only due to the kind of fish I wanted.
What I do recommend is to go as big as you can and have all the equipment you need before you add a drop of water, let alone fish.
Most don't do it that way and pay dearly.

[md4958]

Originally Posted by Blueface

You can do either.
Just don't go crazy until you have it down.
Me? I would go fish only, then add corals or modify to a reef as you develop more.
In my case, I never finished developing as I stayed with fish only due to the kind of fish I wanted.
What I do recommend is to go as big as you can and have all the equipment you need before you add a drop of water, let alone fish.
Most don't do it that way and pay dearly.

Thanks for the info.

sounds like its a whole 'nuther slope!!!

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by md4958

Thanks for the info.

sounds like its a whole 'nuther slope!!!

OMG!!!

You have no idea.

That tank of mine has around $12K in fish and another $10K (wholesale and doing it myself) in equipment.

Talk about a slope!!!
I was fortunate to do it as I was in the business, got the equipment wholesale, did my own labor, and bought the fish at wholesale, cheaper than the stores as I got them from the importer directly.
Otherwise, heck if I would have this.

You can imagine how much I look forward to hurricane season and power failures.

this thread has inspired me to look back into the hobby

[shilala]

Here's a start on the pics.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by shilala

Here's a start on the pics.

Beautiful Coraline.
First sign of a very healthy environment.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Beautiful Coraline.
First sign of a very healthy environment.

Thanks Carlos.
I can grow coraline like a wildman. I just got a whole bunch of base rock and it's getting taken over. I'm thrilled about it. (Doesn't take much to get me excited.)