fish aquariums?

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

does anyone here keep fish? o never had before, but i was living with a gal who had a fish. i ended up taking over the care for it and eventually, it became mine. nothing special. it was a koi...yea, i know, they go in ponds, not aquariums. since then, i got two more koi and have really gotten interested in them. i have them in about a 60 gallon tank, but i'm thinking of getting something around 100 gallon tank if i can find a good used set up. then i'd like to use the smaller tank to get some different, smaller fish

how about you guys...anyone into fish?

[MrBig Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MrBig]

Yeah Sam, I'm actually selling a 90gal. saltwater. I had coal and fish, i put $5000.00 into the tank but selling it for $800.00 So I know a lot about salt water fish and coral. The tank is full automatic the only thing you had to do is clean the sides, even the feedings are automatic.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

sounds totally amazing bro. i would love to have a set up like that. i think after i get a bigger tank, i'll keep the 50 gallon and put some different fish in it.

salt water really amazes me. i can get lost just looking in at that world. i was lucky enough to have been introduced to scuba diving at a young age. some of the salt water tanks i've seen remind me exactly of what i've seen on the ocean floor. i'd love to have that in my home. i wasnt even aware that things could be done automatically in a salt water tank...this is how little i know about the topic. why are you getting rid of your set up?

[MrBig Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MrBig]

Yeah I no what you mean, both the wife and I scuba dive, we do a lot of traveling to go diving. This is one of the reasons why I'm selling it, it's hard to find someone to take care of the tank. the kids don't know much about taking care of it, so I had to hire someone from our local fish store. I payed the guy $100 to basically watch the tank and when we returned we saw that he didn't do a very good job. Automatic, everything can be automatic it's only limited to how much money you have to spend on it.

Here's a pic of the tank when I had it set up.

[Pauliuch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pauliuch]

I too have had fish for years until not too long ago. Mostly salt water, last thing I had was african cichlids. The cichlids were great because you can have a decent amount of fish, there colorful and agressive and always on the go. But,,, man with them the bottom was always full of fish waste no matter how hard I tried to clean it. When you get a chance check out http://www.tbsaltwater.com/ it's where I would buy my live rock when I had salt water. You can also get a little educated from their site if that's the way you go.
A perfectly set up live rock tank can almost take care of itself, even without a filter, (you would need power heads and a good protein skimmer though), but make no mistake it's not exactly easy, but not impossible either. Great hobby.

[~BG~ Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ~BG~]

I have 75 gallon reef and a 50 fresh. Reefs hard, expensive and a lot of up keep. But amazing.

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

Mr Big. that thing kicks ass. i'd love to keep a salt tank and grow coral. its very calming to sit here in the living room and look over at my tank. i could imagine how nice it would be to look at that.

i have my dog, so i can relate to planning trips. makes things harder, but at least i can take her to someone else. for your tank someone would have to stop by your house. yea, lots of work

[~BG~ Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ~BG~]

Heres mine, see if if I can find a pic of my old one, was much nicer but broke, was a big loss.

[MrBig Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MrBig]

BG, awesome tank. Tell us a little about the tank, size, filter type and so on.

[~BG~ Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ~BG~]

Thanks, thats at its worst. I just killed off 1/2 my live stock by leaving my pumps off over night, did it twice in two months. This is actually a 55 gal, my 75 broke. Its got basic Rena canister filter, a protein skimmer, a few power heads and t-5 lights. Your tanks looked great, Im 3.5 years in, why did you take yours down? Im about ready to get rid of mine too........

[sam1976 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sam1976]

looks awesome BG. i'm totally humbled looking at the pics you guys have posted! one of the fish stores in my area have awesome salt water tanks. i can stand there and get lost in those little under water worlds. so many of the fish have so much more personality than what i'm used to seeing in fresh water. the guys at the store tell me that the main issue with salt water tanks is the upkeep. they said the main difference is, if you neglect fresh water for a wk, you'll probably be ok. if you neglect salt water for a wk, you're in trouble. i'd really like to set up a salt water tank. if nothing else, just start with different corals and build from there as i learn.

...if i only had the money to do everything i wanna do in life!

[MrBig Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MrBig]

Hey Sam, You can start small, my local fish store has a 10gal reef tank and it looks awesome. So you can start were ever you'd like to, it's like here, just do some research and when your ready, start off small. You can always go bigger when you think your ready to take on a bigger tank.

[~BG~ Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ~BG~]

Thing about small tanks is the less water you have the more drastic parameter changes acure. A 30 gal nano set up is great. You can get the full pro set up with LED's for $550 with stand. That's what I'm going to down grade to this winter. Small gobies, shrimp and crabs.

[MrBig Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MrBig]

Post some pic when you get it set BG!!! love to see it.

[Pauliuch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pauliuch]

Hey another thing to consider Sam, water quality is extremely important. I use only reverse osmosis water from my own filter when adding water and doing water changes which should be done often. something to look into.