Hello

Hi everybody!

I'm new to the forum, and am looking forward to getting to know others and taking advantage of your experience and expertise as I set up my first saltwater tank.

We had fish when I was a kid, because my brother was allergic to anything with fur or feathers, and I've wanted to get back into the hobby for years. I'm a psychologist, and wanted an aquarium in my waiting room and/or therapy room, as they are calming to watch. I was able to do that when I moved to my current practice location, a house that I'm renting for my business. Anyway, the landlord had fish, and had left a 47g that is taller than it is wide (20"x18" footprint, 32" tall), along with a matching stand, a filter, a Figi "head" decoration, and some odds and ends. He said he'd be moving it out, but I asked if he minded if I used it instead, and he was fine with that. His wife later told me she thinks he was happy he didn't have to move it. Can't say I blame him - it weighs 70# empty, and the stand is about the same. Turned out the filter motor didn't work, and I prefer a natural looking setup with plants, wood, rocks, etc. as décor, so I was basically starting from scratch with everything but the aquarium itself, which is, of course, a huge savings. There is no way I could have purchased that tank and stand at full price. I have since moved it to a lower stand because I literally needed a stepladder to do anything but feed. Now I can put my whole arm into the tank while standing on the floor, instead of the top being over my head. Much more convenient! So I have that tank in my therapy room, and have acquired a bunch more (multiple tank syndrome struck early and with a vengeance - no remission in sight, alas).

I currently have 9 active tanks, mostly freshwater.
1: The aforementioned 47g, in my therapy room, was started with livebearers in late summer, 2010. The livebearers are all in other tanks now, and the 47g has 2 freshwater angels. Planning to add a small school of something bright and interesting that won't nip at the angels or be eaten by them - possibly rummy nose tetras - and a few peppered cories.
2: 14g with red cherry shrimp, neon tetras and cardinal tetras, plus an otocinclus. This was my second tank other than quarantine tanks, and is in my waiting room on top of a bookcase. I got it on Black Friday, 2010 specifically for neon tetras, and it has stayed in the same spot and with the same kind of fish since the beginning, though not the same fish. Unfortunately a year or so ago I had an infestation of the parasites that cause "Neon Tetra Disease" that essentially killed my original tetra population. One died, and I had to put down the rest - I felt like a mass murderer. I've been rebuilding since then, and am about fully stocked again. I have 8 neon tetras, 3 cardinal tetras (I'd like 2 or 3 more of those, but I have a hard time finding healthy ones locally), and a bunch of red cherry shrimp.
3: 20g long, heavily planted, with an otocinclus, albino cories, and swordtails, but I'm going to move the swords out to a larger tank and put my breeding guppies in this tank. It is currently between my waiting room and kitchen, where clients pass regularly, but will eventually be on a multiple tank stand in the waiting room, if I ever get the stand built.
4: 29g brackish with mollies and bumblebee gobies. Also between waiting room and kitchen. This started out as a freshwater with swordtails, mollies, cories, and otocinclus, and was my first attempt at a heavily planted, low-tech setup. Unfortunately my mollies weren't doing well, so I moved out the cories and otos and went brackish. My mollies are now healthy and breeding - I've got "grandkids" from the original 3 (1m, 2f), and I think a couple of the granddaughters are currently pregnant. Most of the plants didn't do well with the transition, so it now has mostly silk plants, along with a few hardy ones, like anubias and watersprite. The swords in that tank were from my original purchase in 2010, and they have since either died or been moved to other tanks so I could add more mollies and the bumblebee gobies.
5, 6: 2 more 20g longs that are currently being used as grow-out for mollies and guppies.
7: 45g with cories, swordtails and guppies, including several generations and all sizes of the guppies and swords. I've mostly been using it as a grow-out tank for these 2 species, but it will be my main display tank eventually. After I move the breeding guppies to the tank where I've had my breeding swordtails and vice versa I'm going to get some larger fish to add to the swordtails - not really big, probably 3-4" max; maybe some rainbow fish or something. I may leave "extra" adult guppies there, too, if I don't want to save their babies. This 45g tank is currently in my kitchen, but when I have my DIY multiple tank stand built, it will be in my waiting room, along with a 20g long and 2 10g tanks.
8:10g riparian tank with about 6g of water and a male half-moon betta who was originally in a 3.5g acrylic tank. When I freed up a 10g I moved him in. I will be adding more emmersed plants as pond plants and marginals come into season here, and a small school of hasbrosus cories. Currently on a kitchen counter, but will be one of the 10g's on the multiple tank stand.
9: My newest venture, a 10g that will be a pico-nano reef tank. At the moment it has 16# live reef substrate mixed with some regular sand, for a 2-3" substrate bed, and is still cycling. This will be the other 10g on the multiple tank stand. My decision to start a saltwater tank started out just as a way to breed brine shrimp for my bumblebee gobies. I was doing this in the 3.5g that used to house the betta, but I kept having trouble with the whole colony dying off after 3 - 4 weeks. I suspect it was due to ammonia and nitrite buildup, since filtering was a problem with inhabitants so small that they'd be sucked into most filters. I tried to do water changes every few days, but that was also difficult given the size of the artemia, and probably led to deaths of many, many babies. I decided a larger tank that I could cycle and filter with the help of live sand/rock would probably be a better place to raise the brine shrimp, and also provide room for a tiny reef. Now I'm not sure that is going to work without either a divider of some kind in the tank to keep the brine shrimp out of the filter, or an out-of-tank fuge, or something. It keeps getting more complicated - but that is the topic for a future thread where I will be asking all of you lots of questions.

Someday I'll get ambitious and post pictures, but not tonight. I'll also post a DIY thread on the multiple tank stand I've designed. I have everything I need to build it, but haven't actually started building yet. No time! I'm always cleaning tanks instead. This may turn out to be a good thing, as I may need to alter my design if I decide to add an out-of-tank sump/fuge for my mini reef. Anyway, posting about it may help me get it done, because I assume that people will be wanting/expecting updates.

Sorry for the long post. Once I get started it's hard to stop.

Edit: Will somebody please tell me what "Skin: Mint" means?

 

Hi and welcome to 3reef!! Pictures of your tanks would be great!!8)
Skin:Mint-Means your skin is beautiful and free of parasites.lol;D

 

Welcome to 3Reef!

 

wow and welcome! long winded one lol

 

welcome to 3reef!

 

Yep, I'm longwinded. Sorry!

 

not a problem here! now, where are those pics?

 

In my phone. ;D I guess that doesn't help much, huh?

 

ahhh, no

 

wow, 9 Tanks. I had 5 up at one point. But now have 3 tanks running. Total tanks in the house is 8 right now. 1 is getting turned into a sump. But dude! sounds amazing. Do you have any photos! welcome 2 3reef.