Our New Aquarium: Post #7

More aquarium photos...

Here's Spike having a snack. Also see the feather-duster worms on the sand. The one immediately under Rebo is open, the one farther left is closed. Between them you'll see a white mound. That's a dead brain coral that we found on a beach in the Caribbean. The camera flash took away the shadows, so it's hard to see the ridges on it.

Peekaboo!
Angel's going through what my grandson calls "The Shrimp Wash":

This shrimp is busy on a mushroom:

This baby snail must have stowed away on one of the rocks we bought!

Another hitchhiker. This little guy on the glass is only 1/4-inch in diameter. He's some kind of starfish, and this is all the bigger he gets. We found several of these on some of the Fiji rock. In fact, those two light blobs behind him (one above, one below) on the rock are his cousins, I think.

Our New Aquarium: Post #6

Miscellaneous aquarium photos...

Angel and Zootie:
Spike, Zootie, and Rebo:

Wow, got nearly everyone in this shot! Including a shrimp. (Scooby is missing, as usual.)

We used three pieces of Fiji rock to create lots of nooks and crannies for the fish. It accidentally turned into a nice apartment complex, with upper and lower units. Spike and Angel get along famously and make good neighbors.

Looks like a shrimp has come to visit in the apartment. Also see the clownfish in the background.

We picked up two of these feather-duster worms and just love them! They zip back into their tube when something comes near, then come out when they feel safe.

Starfish and feather-duster:

More photos in next post!

Our New Aquarium: Post #5

Well, here's the big picture. We have a backdrop now, and we've installed new lights...a special kind that are best for fish and coral. (By "special" I mean "expensive.") We hooked the lights to a timer so the fish get a regular cycle of light and dark.

The light-colored rock on the left is from Tonga; the darker rock on the right is from Fiji. You can see the mushrooms on the Fiji rock.

We've upgraded our filtration system as well. Here's the basic setup, but we're not quite done yet.

The dirty water will come down into the left-most segment of the "eco-system," where we'll have put live rock rubble, then it flows into the large center segment. In that segment will be "Miracle Mud" and an algae called Cheato (CHAY-toe). The live rock begins the filtration, then the mud and algae really clean things up. From there the water flows into the right-hand segment and is pumped back up into the tank. Once we get everything in place, I'll put up another picture.

Many, MANY thanks to our son-in-law Chad, who worked several hours putting everything together for us! That includes shopping for all the plumbing hardware, measuring and cutting...we could never have done it without him.

Our New Aquarium: Post #4

February 20th was my husband's birthday, so guess what he got? Another fish! (Oh, you guessed it.) Our daughter Monica and her husband Chad took us to Planet Coral so he could pick one out. In the end, the guy at the store gave us the fish for free and said, "Happy Birthday." Way cool! So Monica's going to have to take Tim shopping again so she can actually buy him a fish.

The new guy is a Coral Beauty Angelfish. We haven't decided on a name for him yet, so we're calling him Angel for now. Isn't he pretty?I gave Tim a piece of live rock with plants growing from it. This is a really neat, bubbly kind of plant. It's actually a type of algae called caulerpa.
Turns out Spike likes to eat the caulerpa, and he's a pig, so I don't know how long the plant will last. But it looks pretty in the aquarium.

Somewhere along the way we had also picked up some coral. Here's a picture of one.

Our New Aquarium: Post #3

It was hard to wait a full two weeks after adding those last three fish, so we added another after only ten days. It's a diamond gobe, who's into sand sifting. He scoops up sand, cleans the algae from it, then it comes out through his gills. We appropriately named him Scooby.

Scooby immediately got to work building himself a home. He likes the ship, apparently, and scooped out a section under the bow. Here he is digging out rocks (crushed coral) from under the ship...

...and spitting it back out into a neat pile.

By the time he was done, he didn't have just a pile...he built an entire fort! On the next photo, I've marked the perimeter and the entryway so you can see it better.
After that, we didn't see him for a whole day or more. We hardly ever see him...he's even more skittish than Spike.

Speaking of Spike, he rarely gets moody anymore. He even eats from our hand! I'll get a picture of that later.

And speaking of the ship...nuts to all you reefers who don't like fake objects in an aquarium. All our fish love it! The shrimp have made it their home, and the fish swim through for a cleaning now and then. The fish will also hide there when spooked.

Our New Aquarium: Post #2

The tank is clean! That means it's time for fish. Here again, you're supposed to start slow and add fish only gradually. We started with a couple hardy varieties: two small clownfish and a foxface.
We named the foxface Spike because when he's upset, he'll spike out his fins. Don't touch...they're venomous!Foxface are moody critters...they get upset easily. Not only do they spike their fins, they change color and find a place to hide and pout. Here's Spike during one of his moody times.

The original names we had given the clownfish were too multi-syllabic, so we decided to change them. Now we call them Rebo and Zootie. (Only B5 fans will understand the reference. Zoot! Zoot!)
We also added more live rock. At this point in the game, we have to make sure to buy rock that's already been cycled. Otherwise it'll put too much ammonia in the system while it's cycling...and that's bad.

The new live rock has mushrooms on it. Mushrooms are sort of like anemones...actually somewhere between anemones and coral. Here you can see the starfish making his way around the mushroom rock.

Our New Aquarium: Post #1

We finally did it! For years we've been talking about starting a saltwater aquarium, and now we've taken the plunge! Although keeping a marine aquarium is a lot easier nowadays than in the past, we're finding it's still rather difficult, with a lot of work and expense. But the rewards are great. We're very much enjoying the view. Sometimes we even pull the couch up and just sit and watch it.
As you can see, we started out rather bleak...didn't even have a backdrop until recently. Just a large piece of live rock and a sunken ship. Oh, and some live sand on the bottom. Live rock is actually dead coral that contains bacteria natural to the oceans. The bacteria in the live rock and sand are natural filters for the aquarium. It's the live rock that make saltwater aquariums easier than in the past. This particular piece is from Tonga.

We purchase the saltwater already mixed. Our favorite store here in Springfield is Planet Coral. The people there have been very helpful to us newbies.

Anyway, we put in the live rock and live sand and waited for the water to balance. One thing they tell you about saltwater aquariums...you have to be patient. It took over two weeks before the water was properly balanced. You can tell because it starts to grow algae. See the brown slime on the top of the rock? That's the stuff we were waiting for.Once the tank has cycled, you can add the clean-up crew: snails, crabs, and cleaner shrimp. We also got a sand-sifting starfish.
The cleaner shrimp are loads of fun! They keep very busy all the time, and they'll even clean your hand. Here my granddaughter is having her hand cleaned. Their feet tickle, and their pincers feel like pin-pricks.

Now we have to wait until the critters have the place all cleaned up before we can add fish.