Welcome to the world of salt

I’ve recently taken up keeping a saltwater reef aquarium.  I was apprehensive at first, simply because I’ve heard that they can be very expensive.  After I was offered a deal I couldn’t refuse, I started my first reef tank.  Of course, I eventually transferred it over to my 40 gallon breeder aquarium.  It is the perfect size for a reef!

The transfer happened on December 14, just a few weeks ago.  So far it is doing great in the new larger tank.

Want to know about it?  Of course you do…

As far as corals go, I’ve got a few.  The soft corals (affectionately called “softies’) include hairy mushrooms, purple mushrooms, dragon eye zoanthids, green palythoas, sun palythoas, blue tubbs zoanthids, green crossette zoanthids, bumblebee zoanthids, whammin’ watermelon zoanthids, and some un-named purple zoas and orange zoas.  Oh, and don’t forget everyone’s favorites: green star polyps, pulsing xenia and some awesome purple star polyps.

Large polyp stony (LPS) corals include green candy cane, pink candy cane, branching hammer, pink torch, frogspawn and galaxea (tooth) coral.  These guys happen to be my favorite!

I do have some small polyp stony (SPS) coral.  These tend to be more finicky as far as water quality is concerned, but as long as I keep up with the water changes they show me some love.  I’ve got a Turbinaria cup coral, originally labeled yellow but it looks purple/green to me.  My Mycedium chalice coral is a nice one, though it is a slow grower.  I’ve also got a yellow Acropora coral, and it is a fast grower.  They are doing great so far, and I hope they last a long time for me.  Maybe they’ll get big enough to where I can frag them someday!

Other invertebrate citizens include a tiger pistol shrimp, a pair of peppermint shrimp, a red/yellow striped feather duster worm, many nassarius snails, a few scarlet hermit crabs and half a dozen blue leg hermit crabs.  There are some sponges on the rocks and hair worms in the sand, but I didn’t buy them.  They came with the territory… literally!

Fish… fish.  The most exciting part of an aquarium.  I’ve got an orange molly.  Yes, these fish can live in completely marine conditions.  They do a good job of picking at algae, even though they make the tank look freshwater.  I’ve also got 6 green chromis, an ocellaris clownfish pair that hosts in the hairy mushrooms, a pajama cardinalfish, a firefish, a high-fin redbanded goby that’s paired with the pistol shrimp, and thats it.  I may swap out the molly for a royal gramma one of these days, but only time will tell.  And my algae population.

Pics of all to come soon.