Aquarium keepers of NS.

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Insane

I have a 50 gallon reef thats seen better days... I honestly don't have enough time or money for the upkeep and it pisses me off because I love the thing to death. I used to keep freshwater and that got pretty boring, but my friend just gave me a 20 gallon hex tank so I'll probably try to get that set up with some celestial danio's and some nice plants.

Feb 9 2011 10:36PM

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PON3

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+K for the stingray

Feb 9 2011 10:36PM

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Insane

Yeah, i know what you mean with the cost and time. I used to be contracted out duece bigalow style to go clean saltwater fish tanks at most local business and rich people's houses and reef tanks are hard work. Some of the tanks that i serviced were in the area of 80k-100k setups. The fellow who owns West Edmonton Mall has a custom made tank from my old work that was i believe a 700 gallon bowfront tank with a 150ish gallon sump tank, and an unlimited livestock budget for fish. We used to service this tank 2 times a week and deliver livestock to the tank at that time. It was an insane tank, and it needed 2 chiller systems hooked up to it to deal with the amount of heat from the lighting. I have seen some pretty crazy stuff in regards to saltwater fish tanks. Maybe you should retire the saltwater tank and go freshwater planted discus tank?

Feb 9 2011 10:51PM

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Conker

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Insane

why were you trying to kill your piranhas?

Feb 9 2011 10:54PM

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J-Evs

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No Life

awesome

Feb 9 2011 10:55PM

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Insane

the stingray was the most badass pet i have ever had. She was so friendly that you could lift her out of the water with your bare hands, hand fed fish to her, if you put you hand in the water pressed against the glass she would hover over your hand and just turn into a suction cup over you hand. She knew when you entered the room and would come and say hello. I have never another pet with that much intelligence, she was almost as clever as my dog.
Only downside to keep a stingray is the cost, and upkeep. It was weekly waterchanges in the tank. Premium food from the seafood shop was a staple food so you could not cheap out there either. And another factor in keeping one is risk of getting stung I supposed. I ended up selling her to a breeder.

Feb 9 2011 10:56PM

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Insane

they are cannibal by nature, its just a matter of time till one piranha remains. I had mine up to about 8inches in size before I got rid of the last one. Piranha are impossible to kill, in the wild they literally live in mud puddles for the dry season.

Feb 9 2011 10:59PM

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Insane

yeah I considered discus for a while but I'm not really into them. I really like small fish like neon tetras. I had this grand scheme that I was going to get a billion different little gobies for my SW tank, but that never happened. Right now I just have a clownfish in there, I think I've had her for four years now. I really just need to commit some money to it and get into a maintenance routine.

heres some zoanthids I had. (taken maybe 6 months ago) Unfortunately, these colonies look pretty shitty as of now...

and my clown. Shes chill.

Feb 9 2011 11:03PM

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max...

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Insane

here is mine. its not much but i take enjoyment in maintaining my little aquarium

Feb 9 2011 11:04PM

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blong131

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we used to have a 250 gallon saltwater setup with all your basics...loinfish, puffers, some big show angels, maroon clowns (theyre one of my favorites, dont know why), parrotfish, eels, what else? i dunno, this was quite a few years back. now its moved to a 325 gallon reef setup in my dads office, I think its less exciting (more plants, etc less fish) but whatever.

Feb 9 2011 11:06PM

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Insane

for a while i kept a 55 gallon planted discus tank. Discus are some freshwater fish that are far more colorful than most saltwater fish but require slightly less upkeep to keep alive. They are costly to buy though, range in price from 40 bucks - 500 bucks a pop. This is just a stock photo of random discus variants

Some freshwater plecos are pretty badass too, but again some of the rare plecos are 400ish bucks. Some semi fancy plecos can be had for about 30 bucks though.

Feb 9 2011 11:07PM

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soulskier

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i wish i had the time to mantain one like that, my family did when i was younger but eventually grew out of it

Feb 9 2011 11:17PM

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ALaw

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fuck stingrays those things scare the shit outta me

Feb 9 2011 11:18PM

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Mr.Fister

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Ridiculous

word,one of those fuckers got Steve Irwin .If it was your pet it would likely get to know you because they are rather clever as stated above.

Feb 9 2011 11:27PM

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2 of my friends had reef tanks back in the day. I helped a bunch in maintenance and whatnot. they are very expensive and time consuming but are honestly the most awesome things ever.

Don't remember the exact size but I'd guess 100 gallons or so. Tons of different soft corals, mushrooms, polyps. I would just sit for hours and watch the weird random creatures that come out of the live rock. Wish I had pics but some highlights

Had a mated clownfish pair that chilled in one of of the corals similar to this

The coolest corals were pulsing xenia. Mesmorizing to watch.

Mandarin Goby

And muthafuckin cleaner shrimp!

Feb 9 2011 11:34PM

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Insane

the start up investment of a saltwater tank is normal 3-4 times larger than a fresh water tank because there are quite a few more aspect to keeping a saltwater tank. Typically for every gallon of water you need a pound of live rock which is typically 6-10 dollars a pound. You need roughly 3-5 watts of light per gallon of water aswell to keep a vivid coral reef. Then you add in the live sand which is a bit more expensive than standard freshwater rock bed. A saltwater fish tank also needs a protein skimmer to skim scum/oil off the surface of water which is typically 300ish bucks aswell. Most reef tanks its ideal to run a sump tank aswell, which is basically a 2nd aquarium under the main tank which airates the water and can provide additional filtration in the form of additional liverock and algae that acts as a filter aswell. Its a massive investment but can pay off greatly if you dedicate time and effort into it.

I found in the prime of my fish tanking career i could maintain a typical 100 gallon reef tank in 1- 1.5 hours a week. When you first start up you can expect mixing salt and cleaning to take you roughly 3 hours a week on a moderate size tank. You must add freshwater into a saltwater tank everyday/ 2 days to combat change in salinity of the water due to evaporation. Salt is not really cheap by any standard but when bought in 50 gallon buckets, its not too bad. I cant remember exact costs of salt and chemicals for treatment but i would figure total cost per month to keep a tank rolling is 50-100 bucks a month. To stock a tank you will look to spend atleast 50 bucks a fish average since most saltwater fish are not captive bred, most are wildcaught. The power bill for you house will go up when you own a saltwater tank aswell, and if you live in a warm climate you need to hook an inline chiller into the water aswell to chill the water from the heat that is generated from the metal halide lighting coral needs.

Feb 9 2011 11:35PM

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what the fuck happened to the embeds god dammit

Feb 9 2011 11:38PM

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Addict

this is bullshit

Feb 9 2011 11:39PM

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Insane

pulsing xenia is a nice looking coral and dirt cheap and reproduces like crazy and needs virtually no light to grow but it can destroy the other coral in the tank because its so aggressive. It produces chemicals that kill nearby corals so it can expand and stings the shit out of corals it touches.

Corals are pretty mean to each other as a whole, surprisingly. SPS coral can take a real shit kicking when its around soft coral.

Feb 9 2011 11:39PM

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Insane

reef tank is probably a 20-30$ a gallon investment up front with averaged sized setup. I spent $1500-2000 on my 50 gallon, and then monthly its probably 30-40 bucks, plus electrical. What gets you is the fish and corals. you start getting the- "Oh that polyps only 80 bucks" mentality, and soon enough you're walking out of the fish store with $400 of coral and an empty wallet. If you want to have an epic tank you need to have bank hahaha.

Feb 9 2011 11:40PM

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Insane

reef tank is probably a 20-30$ a gallon investment up front with averaged sized setup. I spent $1500-2000 on my 50 gallon, and then monthly its probably 30-40 bucks, plus electrical. What gets you is the fish and corals. you start getting the- "Oh that polyps only 80 bucks" mentality, and soon enough you're walking out of the fish store with $400 of coral and an empty wallet. If you want to have an epic tank you need to have bank hahaha.

Feb 9 2011 11:40PM

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well i just post pics then (not of the actual tank)

Feb 9 2011 11:44PM

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Insane

werd, a frag of certain hardcoral can be 100-200 bucks a frag. Frags are a cut section off an established coral colony that will eventually grow into a new colony. Some softy frags are like 10 bucks a pop tho, zoo's are are awesome starter corals that can be as low as 10 bucks a frag and grow like weeds.

Feb 9 2011 11:45PM

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birdshake

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Insane

this thread is rad. I used to have a standard 10 gallon nanoreef in highschool. I was into reptiles more that fish so I had over 20 different reptiles and amphibians in my room and one salt water tank as well as a couple small under 1 gallon planted fresh water tanks. I definitely miss it now. but living on my own is pretty pricey, though I want to set up a freshwater planted tank in the near future. I also plan on building a living wall in my houses living room.

Feb 9 2011 11:46PM

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yea it did get a little out of hand, but that was towards the end when we disassembled the tank anyway. we all went off to college and actually left the tank with my friends mom to take care of for a while. by that point it was almost self sufficient, but she just couldn't do it herself forever. was pretty awesome though.

Feb 9 2011 11:46PM

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Insane

automatic feeders are horrible. Most fish can survive a good period of time without food. A saltwater fish eats mostly naturally occuring organisms that grow in the live rock of the tank. You can go for 3-4 days without feeding fish with no problem.

Feb 9 2011 11:49PM

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Insane

I had an electric blue crayfish for a few years, but gave him away because he was fucking chopping off all the roots of my plants in the tank.

Also had some vampire shrimp for a time which were pretty cool little buggers too, they were filter feeders so they didnt really fuck with plants.

Feb 9 2011 11:53PM

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I.B

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Crazy Fool

lol at little fish's

Feb 9 2011 11:54PM

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860media*

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Insane

Just picked up one of these yesterday. So majestic

Feb 9 2011 11:57PM

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JIBpsy^^

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Are there any really dope fish that are hard to kill that live in freshwater? (idealy not breaking the bank)

Feb 10 2011 12:05AM

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Dudesinpools

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Ridiculous

Always wanted this. $250 for Tank and everything in start up kit. Buy moon jellyfish for 20 or 30 bucks.

Feb 10 2011 12:07AM

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Insane

found some video of a young fresh water ray chasing some small ghost shrimp. Pretty awesome. I remember putting 50 shrimp in the tank at once for mine, and they would be gone by the morning and the stingray would have a visible pot belly.

Feb 10 2011 12:07AM

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Insane

we had a custom made globe style jellyfish tank at work and they somehow always found a way to find a "corner" and stop swimming and die. They are so damn hard to keep alive.

Feb 10 2011 12:10AM

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oh yea these guys are sweet

Feb 10 2011 12:33AM

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