randalli
Community Member
Hi,
I am a reefer for I guess 9 years now? At least I know that I was visiting the Canary Islands for the first time in January 2012 and observed the clumsiness of a couple of hermit crabs for hours over several days (guess my girlfriend has never had so much spare time on her hands
) and decided that it is time for me to switch to salt water. I ordered my first reef tank like one month later for my birthday. Yeah it went something like this.
Before that I had a 100g FW Tanganyika tank for 6-7 years and was pretty sure that I ultimately want to own a reef tank. Even though Tanganyika fish are the most interesting FW fish to observe imho and if reefing will for some reason become impossible for me, I would switch back to Tanganyika in an instant... But back to topic: The hermit crabs have been the push to reefing I needed I guess.
I started out with a 40g Aqua Medic cube and after having it for almost 9 years I switched to a 100g cube March 21.
TBH I do not have a lot a photos of my tanks since I only photograph what I want to sell.
So I only have like these two images below that are worth sharing really.
The first one is a close up look of my old 40g AM tank.
The second one is right after I set up my 100g tank. it looks pretty empty because I heavily fragged up all my corals and sold big parts of it to refinance the upgrade and a Mussa as well as the Turbinaria which took over my small tank. So I wanted to get rid of the Turbinaria from the first shot which (to put things into perspective) had a diameter of almost 15 inches and created just way too many dark spots in the tank. Same for the Mussa (not in the picture here) which outgrew everything. It used up what was left of the tank width on the left next to the green acro and killed basically everything else in its path.
The three oldest corals that I still own to this day are the green Fungia at the back, bottom right. The Axifuga in the front, bottom right. And a Seriatopora Celiendrum which peeks in on the middle right.
The Seria was my first SPS and I got it in June/July of 2012. The Axifuga and the Fungi came I think right before that. I have to frag the Seriatopora every 6 month because it outgrows everything. The Fungia is almost 15 inches by now and for some reason does not want to split itself but is a happy camper pumped up to the max with its tentacles out most of the time. The Axifuga had mixed times in my tank. It mostly is just opened up fully all day and I fragged it once when it was double the size it is now. But when the aforementioned Mussa was still there it suffered a lot and I had to place it to a different spot because it almost died.
All other corals in the new tank have nearly doubled in size since March. But unfortunately I have lost the pinkish Acro in the middle through unstoppable STN. It almost fully encrusted the stone it was on and then it all of a sudden started to STN. I dipped it and fragged it, even put it somewhere else but it just died and I don't know why because I got another one just after taking this picture that is still going strong
I will stop now and just say that replacing the old tank with the new tank was a big success story for me. Especially because the new tank is at the same spot the old tank was and I planned this replacement 2 month ahead and it worked out perfectly. If you want the full story and all the steps just ask me and I will publish a short story on this
Also just ask away on everything you want to know
I am a reefer for I guess 9 years now? At least I know that I was visiting the Canary Islands for the first time in January 2012 and observed the clumsiness of a couple of hermit crabs for hours over several days (guess my girlfriend has never had so much spare time on her hands
) and decided that it is time for me to switch to salt water. I ordered my first reef tank like one month later for my birthday. Yeah it went something like this.Before that I had a 100g FW Tanganyika tank for 6-7 years and was pretty sure that I ultimately want to own a reef tank. Even though Tanganyika fish are the most interesting FW fish to observe imho and if reefing will for some reason become impossible for me, I would switch back to Tanganyika in an instant... But back to topic: The hermit crabs have been the push to reefing I needed I guess.
I started out with a 40g Aqua Medic cube and after having it for almost 9 years I switched to a 100g cube March 21.
TBH I do not have a lot a photos of my tanks since I only photograph what I want to sell.
So I only have like these two images below that are worth sharing really.
The first one is a close up look of my old 40g AM tank.
The second one is right after I set up my 100g tank. it looks pretty empty because I heavily fragged up all my corals and sold big parts of it to refinance the upgrade and a Mussa as well as the Turbinaria which took over my small tank. So I wanted to get rid of the Turbinaria from the first shot which (to put things into perspective) had a diameter of almost 15 inches and created just way too many dark spots in the tank. Same for the Mussa (not in the picture here) which outgrew everything. It used up what was left of the tank width on the left next to the green acro and killed basically everything else in its path.
The three oldest corals that I still own to this day are the green Fungia at the back, bottom right. The Axifuga in the front, bottom right. And a Seriatopora Celiendrum which peeks in on the middle right.
The Seria was my first SPS and I got it in June/July of 2012. The Axifuga and the Fungi came I think right before that. I have to frag the Seriatopora every 6 month because it outgrows everything. The Fungia is almost 15 inches by now and for some reason does not want to split itself but is a happy camper pumped up to the max with its tentacles out most of the time. The Axifuga had mixed times in my tank. It mostly is just opened up fully all day and I fragged it once when it was double the size it is now. But when the aforementioned Mussa was still there it suffered a lot and I had to place it to a different spot because it almost died.
All other corals in the new tank have nearly doubled in size since March. But unfortunately I have lost the pinkish Acro in the middle through unstoppable STN. It almost fully encrusted the stone it was on and then it all of a sudden started to STN. I dipped it and fragged it, even put it somewhere else but it just died and I don't know why because I got another one just after taking this picture that is still going strong
I will stop now and just say that replacing the old tank with the new tank was a big success story for me. Especially because the new tank is at the same spot the old tank was and I planned this replacement 2 month ahead and it worked out perfectly. If you want the full story and all the steps just ask me and I will publish a short story on this
Also just ask away on everything you want to know
Last edited:
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