yveterinarian
Super Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2012
- Location
- Innerkip, Ontario
Good Morning all!
I joined this forum last night after making a search for forums in Southwestern Ontario. I have had a freshwater tank for over 20 years and upgraded to a 65 gal bow front tank approx 7 years ago. It is well established and needs little maintenance.
Just over 2 years ago I decided to indulge in my dream of keeping seahorses and have a 35 gal tall hexagon tank for them with a 25 gal refugium/sump. It has been an uphill battle to obtain seahorses that were actually true captive bred and not corralled into a large tank in the ocean and converted to eating frozen food. Despite the setbacks, I still love them and am trying again. To this end I am a member of Seahorse.org.
During my quest for seahorses I got bitten by the reefing bug and purchased a 90 gal corner tank to begin my new interest. With this tank I have a 35 gal refugium/sump setup. I have plumbed this setup completely separate from the seahorse setup to minimize any cross contamination of bacteria or disease. I recently moved both setups to the basement and cut holes in the wall they are on into my laundry room so that my refugium/sumps can be in there. The advantage is no more bending and crawling into cramped space to maintain the refugia and empty the skimmers.
With the 90 gal setup I have a Corallife 125 gal protein skimmer, two Koralia 550 GPH circulation pumps, a Supreme Mag Drive 9.5 pump, a K.E.Y. E7848-D-TC fully programmable LED lighting array, 100 lbs of Marco rock, many pounds of Aragonite substrate to 5" deep and some Chaeto macro algae.
It has just finished cycling at the end of April and I am slowly stocking with CUC and corals. The cleanup crew includes: Fighting conchs, Nassarius snails, Ceriths, Zebra Turbos (can right themselves), 1 Chiton and some red leg Cortez hermits.
Currently, I have a beautiful yellow finger gorgonian, a red fan gorgonian, various small Zoas, a very small (approx 1/2-3/4" across) plate coral that came with a zoo frag I purchased and some mushrooms and rics. All of these I purchased when I only had the seahorse tank and I started with very small frags that were inexpensive so I could see if I could keep corals without them all dying.
So far the Gorgonians are doing very well and a couple of the zoas are thriving while the others are trying. The rics are doing OK and the mushroom looks sad. All are recovering from being kept in a 10 gal tank while the 90gal cycled and then being transferred to their new home. I also have a spotted Garden eel who has been with me for 2 years now and has been very forgiving of me and my struggles to learn about saltwater tanks.
The tank is going through a diatom bloom at present but it is now subsiding with the addition of Purigen. Once the bloom has ended and the corals are looking better I will post a picture of the new aquarium. For now, I am attaching pictures of the new arrangement downstairs and the rock formation I went with. I am so looking forward to my experience with this forum and meeting some people closer to my area who can help me troubleshoot while I embark on this journey into reefing!!
I joined this forum last night after making a search for forums in Southwestern Ontario. I have had a freshwater tank for over 20 years and upgraded to a 65 gal bow front tank approx 7 years ago. It is well established and needs little maintenance.
Just over 2 years ago I decided to indulge in my dream of keeping seahorses and have a 35 gal tall hexagon tank for them with a 25 gal refugium/sump. It has been an uphill battle to obtain seahorses that were actually true captive bred and not corralled into a large tank in the ocean and converted to eating frozen food. Despite the setbacks, I still love them and am trying again. To this end I am a member of Seahorse.org.
During my quest for seahorses I got bitten by the reefing bug and purchased a 90 gal corner tank to begin my new interest. With this tank I have a 35 gal refugium/sump setup. I have plumbed this setup completely separate from the seahorse setup to minimize any cross contamination of bacteria or disease. I recently moved both setups to the basement and cut holes in the wall they are on into my laundry room so that my refugium/sumps can be in there. The advantage is no more bending and crawling into cramped space to maintain the refugia and empty the skimmers.
With the 90 gal setup I have a Corallife 125 gal protein skimmer, two Koralia 550 GPH circulation pumps, a Supreme Mag Drive 9.5 pump, a K.E.Y. E7848-D-TC fully programmable LED lighting array, 100 lbs of Marco rock, many pounds of Aragonite substrate to 5" deep and some Chaeto macro algae.
It has just finished cycling at the end of April and I am slowly stocking with CUC and corals. The cleanup crew includes: Fighting conchs, Nassarius snails, Ceriths, Zebra Turbos (can right themselves), 1 Chiton and some red leg Cortez hermits.
Currently, I have a beautiful yellow finger gorgonian, a red fan gorgonian, various small Zoas, a very small (approx 1/2-3/4" across) plate coral that came with a zoo frag I purchased and some mushrooms and rics. All of these I purchased when I only had the seahorse tank and I started with very small frags that were inexpensive so I could see if I could keep corals without them all dying.
So far the Gorgonians are doing very well and a couple of the zoas are thriving while the others are trying. The rics are doing OK and the mushroom looks sad. All are recovering from being kept in a 10 gal tank while the 90gal cycled and then being transferred to their new home. I also have a spotted Garden eel who has been with me for 2 years now and has been very forgiving of me and my struggles to learn about saltwater tanks.
The tank is going through a diatom bloom at present but it is now subsiding with the addition of Purigen. Once the bloom has ended and the corals are looking better I will post a picture of the new aquarium. For now, I am attaching pictures of the new arrangement downstairs and the rock formation I went with. I am so looking forward to my experience with this forum and meeting some people closer to my area who can help me troubleshoot while I embark on this journey into reefing!!