AboveTopSecret Saltwater Reefer Community

Good afternoon and happy Monday, members of ATS,

Let's talk about reefing!

I've had my tank for nine months, parameters are stable and coralline algae is growing.

Where is the ATS reefing community? Does ATS already have a group of people who talk about saltwater reefing and fishkeeping? If so, where can I find it? If not, how do I begin one? I know I'm not the only reefkeeper, here

It's my pleasure to show you my little cube of the ocean: A Waterbox 10 cube with external cannister filtration, AI lights, protein skimmer, and Nero 3 wavemaker. I have two clownfish (paired) and two mandarin gobys/dragonets (paired).

Here's a sample of pictures I've taken:
























I hope we already have a reef group. I am here and am eager to join and contribute. Otherwise, I want to found a reefing/aquatics ATS group, because it's high time we had one

I am a young female reefer, with previous freshwater experience and a love for research. In all, I have four small tanks, three of which are freshwater. Reefing is such a fun and unique hobby, and I wish I had peers with reef tanks. It appears that I've stumbled into a hobby full of people with a median age of 50 or something

Jokes aside, I can't wait to talk about reefing on ATS!

[My clownfish pair are named Mr. Darcy and Ms. Bennett; The Mandarin dragonets are Mr. Rochester and Ms. Eyre]

[My other tanks are: 1. Golden Axolotyl tank // 2. Blood Parrot Cichlid tank // 3. & one male Betta tank]

I fear I've turned into a crazy marine biology enthusiast. Send help and coral frags


Kindly,

Rukia

Oh, REEFer Community not "Reefer" Community.

Due to fire, they are mutually exclusive...


Carry on!

a reply to: rukia

What a trip with the black light...

I'm more of a fisher myself, and this thread just made my cone wobble....

a reply to: Terpene

UV and violet are necessary for growing corals, since corals like light on the blue spectrum. I have two AI Prime lights 16k reef lights, but programmed one on my cichlid tank.

And if there isn't interest in saltwater reefkeeping on ATS, then there is now. I'd come here for that information.

It's very fun

If nobody besides me has a coral reef tank, then you guys need to go do some research and then go buy your setup and livestock.

Give it a try. It's such a challenge

a reply to: Butterfinger

i would think that saltwater refer would be to high in sodium.
not good at all for the health conscious.

a reply to: Butterfinger

a reply to: BernnieJGato

Quite the contrary: Fish are peaceful and watching them is beneficial for one's health.

So if you haven't thought about a saltwater tank until right this moment, then that's the sign you need to go out and get crackin'!

a reply to: rukia

I've heard that keeping fish can really help out with stress and depression. Primarily due to all the indoor fins.

I'll see myself out.

originally posted by: Butterfinger
Oh, REEFer Community not "Reefer" Community.

Due to fire, they are mutually exclusive...

Carry on!

Speak for yourself, I was outside a bit ago. Right about 4:21pm thinking about what to add to the rice when...

I was astonished to see how Reef er was in Science and Tech.

I am so glad I did! These colors are gorgeous!!!

a reply to: Bigburgh


I do refractometer tests on the daily. Hanna Marine checkers--they're science equipment. Keeping your alkalinity, calcium, phosphates, and nitrates (among about 80 other things) parameters steady is chemistry and taking care of the fish and the corals and the environment is biology and also chemistry. You should look further into reefing: It takes quite a bit of hard work.

One must know how to be safe and confident around toxins, like palytoxin (found in zoanthids, it's very lethal). In fact, I wear heavy-duty shoulder-length chemical spill gloves to clean my tank I need goggles as well and a face mask for some of the things I do to get those Hanna test results

Why didn't you think it was science and technology? If you're not joking, brother, then that's quite comical!

a reply to: rukia
Amazing shots! Never saw reefs like that during all my scuba dives. You bring up an important point about UV light and coral reefs. That's why it is so important to remove UV blocking sun lotion when one goes snorkeling or diving in the sea.

yup I have a 75gallon shallow reef I would love to share it and would have already if uploading pictures to ATS wasn’t some impossible nightmare. At best I click the upload button and redirects me to a blank ats page with no options. Been over a year and I’ve been unable to upload.

My 75gallon is a full mixed reef with around 55 species of coral from soft leathers,zaos, couple LPS and few plating SPS and lots of acro SPS. The fish are 1 engineer goby, 1 toomni tang, 4 yellow damsels and 1 Picasso clown and a cleaner shrimp. About 8 species of hermits and 6 species of snails.
The live rock I got the real deal right from Fiji about 15 years ago when it was still legal lol. So I have lots of sponges and difference small invert population.

I have A 40gal cube as well that’s home to another 10 or so corals the more invasive ones like gsp,Xenia mushrooms and colts they all struggle over each other into a overgrown coral jungle. Home to 3 peppermint shrimp 1 baby fox face rabbit fish who will go into my main tank when it’s bigger 1 Xenia File fish and 4 pajama cardinals.
a reply to: rukia

a reply to: rukia

Lol, I like π.

S&F, I love aquariums. I'd love to have one but these babies are so much more in prices since I last checked.

The Pittsburgh Zoo has a great aquarium that I do enjoy.

a reply to: Athetos

Message a moderator, it worked for me

a reply to: Bigburgh

Cool! I was born in Pennsylvania! Small world

This is probably my next hobby I already own most the stuff from growing a hydroponic garden just need a tank

And I talked the kids into fish over dogs I'll take that any day

I want to do fresh water aquaponics so I can get some food out of it as well

a reply to: Bigburgh

Thank you!



But now those are dead, because of a hitchhiker. Parameters are stable so I sent off for one of these bad boys: ICP-OES Test Kit

The fish are fine, but yeah it was a whole ordeal, the hammer, open brain, and torch retracted and then died in a sequence, with three days between each death. Nothing being dosed, no visible chemical warfare, parameters stable: But the hammer and open brain had signs of being mailed to me incorrectly and exhibited algae growth on delicate sections of their skeleton. The sellers of these corals instructed to not dip them (I always dip coral), and I followed those instructions and had a mass die-off.

It was sad, but I did get a large refund.

Also, sometimes things happen that we don't understand at all. Many long-time reefers confirm that much remains a mystery, since the hobby is quite new.

originally posted by: Athetos
yup I have a 75gallon shallow reef I would love to share it and would have already if uploading pictures to ATS wasn’t some impossible nightmare. At best I click the upload button and redirects me to a blank ats page with no options. Been over a year and I’ve been unable to upload.

My 75gallon is a full mixed reef with around 55 species of coral from soft leathers,zaos, couple LPS and few plating SPS and lots of acro SPS. The fish are 1 engineer goby, 1 toomni tang, 4 yellow damsels and 1 Picasso clown and a cleaner shrimp. About 8 species of hermits and 6 species of snails.
The live rock I got the real deal right from Fiji about 15 years ago when it was still legal lol. So I have lots of sponges and difference small invert population.

I have A 40gal cube as well that’s home to another 10 or so corals the more invasive ones like gsp,Xenia mushrooms and colts they all struggle over each other into a overgrown coral jungle. Home to 3 peppermint shrimp 1 baby fox face rabbit fish who will go into my main tank when it’s bigger 1 Xenia File fish and 4 pajama cardinals.
a reply to: rukia

Members say use this link: img.abovetopsecret.com...
it works for me
I could never upload either, but something happened ?

Years ago I raised seahorses, but the work involved finally got to be too much. I sure did enjoy them, though!

I hope everybody with reef tanks get the unload function figured out so we can see more pictures!

a reply to: rukia

Oh good lord this is going to suck me right back into the hobby. I've been out of saltwater reefing since our power went out and I lost thousands of dollars in corals. Corals older than my children. I am stupid for not having a battery backup but saltwater was a pain in the @ss and was costing me hundreds of dollars in electricity.

Is it cheaper now with LEDs? I wouldn't even know where to start again. I was recently given a brand new 7 foot 260 gallon tank from my brother in law who bought the glass tank 15 years ago and never set it up. I'm contemplating doing a Wisconsin native fish riverbank look. Should be 1/8th the price of saltwater.