I’ve had my 40 breeder tank set up for 11 years now, and it currently houses my clownfish pair. I’ve had other fish in the tank over the years (had a yellow watchman goby for 7 years. Firefish, royal gramma), but a year or two ago the clowns decided this is their house and they don’t want roommates. Ok. If they’re going to kill anything I put in the tank, then I can just let the two of them live out their lives and eventually get my other, more peaceful fish after these two pass. (I know I could look at something like a sixline wrasse, but to be honest, I had mbuna cichlids for years and it gets tiresome having to manage territorial aggression.)

My girl Bug, I’ve had her for 13 years, originally in a different tank. She’s of course the bigger one, but she’s also more mild mannered when it comes to hands in the tank. She’ll be curious sometimes, but her signature move against a hand is a half-hearted tail whip.

My boy went for a long time without a name, and then I eventually jokingly started calling him Pug. Rhymes with Bug, but is also short for pugnacious. His signature move is biting. If I have a hand in the tank for maintenance, the other hand often has to wave a tool around in there as a decoy for him. I’ve had him for about 9.5 years. The two of them paired up immediately when I added him. Inseparable, very sweet.

You can skip the italicized section if you want. It just gets into the broader picture of the tank.

The tank has been dealing with some on and off dinos for a long time. A couple years ago, my central a/c was broken for about a week and a half in July (ugh), and the inside temperature of the house got up to the low 90°sF. I lost a lot of coral. The fish seemed unscathed. But the dinos were totally wiped out, too (cool). Pristine looking sand.

Eventually, the dinos came back. I got a UV sterilizer and it wiped them out again. Great. Some months later, dinos came BACK, and that’s where I’m at now. UV isn’t touching them this time, so must be a different species. I’m working on monitoring and adjusting nitrate and phosphate levels, turned off my skimmer, as well as trying out growing a culture of pods (tig pods. I wanted tisbe, but tig is what the lfs had in stock and I worry about shipping in Florida at this extra hot time of year. If I have success growing out the tigs, I’d love to try out tisbe too).

I mention all the dino talk because I recently got a bottle of NeoPhos. Added a couple doses so far. Now… I have no idea if the NeoPhos is somehow to blame or if the timing is just totally coincidental. But the clowns were perfectly bonded for nine and a half years, and suddenly there are problems.

Earlier in August, I looked into the tank one day expecting everything to be normal. I looked at Bug and thought, ma’am are you starting to show your age? Looking just a hint like mocha instead of jet black. Later that day I looked again and realized she looked worse. She definitely seemed pale, her fins were starting to look ragged, and she had some unidentified spots/marks on her body. Her swimming seemed exhausted.

I frantically started googling brooklynella, ich, velvet, etc. I’ve been very fortunate to have healthy fish through the years, so I wasn’t immediately sure what I was looking at. To make matters worse, Pug wouldn’t leave her alone. I thought, Pug stop chasing her when she’s sick- … wait. Pug maybe you’re the problem. Maybe she isn’t sick at all. Fortunately from my cichlid days, I have a large fish net. I easily scooped her and positioned the net at the top of the tank to have her safely separated, while ordering a large mesh breeder box for next day delivery.

Bug spent about a week in her box with a PVC elbow. Her appetite has been excellent all along. Pug would still try to pester her on the other side of the mesh. After that first week, I wanted to swap them, to let her relax more in the rest of the tank. Swap successful. I kept him in the box for maybe a week or two. Then I wanted to see if that was enough to sort of reset boundaries. I wondered if they could coexist again. I let him back into the rest of the tank, keeping a close eye on them.

It didn’t take long for me to see Bug hiding way back in the corner behind the heater again. This wasn’t going to work. I managed to catch Pug again and banished him to the box. That’s where I’m at now. Both fish are safe… but this isn’t the best long term solution. At 13+ years old, I do wonder how much time Bug has left. It could be years still, but she is getting older. Excellent appetite every day, fins have been healing, body marks disappearing. Though she does seem to have a visible spine line. Feeding her extra lately.

Being a few years younger, I’m sure Pug has more years left in him. I feel mean saying it, but I don’t think I could call him a wonderful fish 😅 He’s beautiful and healthy and he deserves a comfortable home… but he’s kind of an asshole. It’s one thing to go after a hand in the tank. That’s just clowns being clowns. But to suddenly turn on his mate… With her being older, maybe he thinks it’s his chance to bump her off and become the girl himself.

I think I’m going to have to look at a rehoming situation for him. I don’t have the time, money, or energy to set up a whole second tank for him. I’ve got a couple local reef shop options, I could talk to some employees there and see if they take in spicy clowns. It’s tough though to think that I cared for him for so many years, and I don’t want him to just end up in the hands of anyone who will just accidentally kill him right away 😕

After months of prep, buying things ext

She's finally filled and started cycling , 125g main, 40g breeder

Hey reefers! I’ve had alot of interest in this project here on Reddit and quite a few people asking what it actually does, so I figured I’d share the longer video I made.
This is Node One actually running on the real hardware. Its still very much a work in progress, especially the UI, I’m actually reworking a bunch of that right now. But the underlying system is working and at this point I’m mostly building things out, adding integrations and cleaning stuff up.
I’m just one guy building this in my spare time so its been a little crazy getting this far, but honestly I’m pretty happy with where it is right now.
Anyway, figured some of you might want to see the actual thing running instead of me just talking about it.

Totally hoping to chat about it. Be kind 😘

This picture doesn’t have anything to do with the advice I need I am just using it as a handle. I need advice tho for stocking options for a beginner. I’m planning on setting up my first saltwater tank. I’m not a beginner to the aquarium hobby but I am going to be a beginner to saltwater soon. Just need to know the best stocking options for a 60 gallon maybe a 75 gallon that is cool but not too finicky or aggressive, I am will to take risks tho. More than likely a 75 gallon. Also advice on a clean up crew of sorts. I’m not completely clueless on saltwater I have and am currently doing a lot of research. Any advice is welcomed and appreciated!!. Let me know?!.

This water is my main tank display and I transferred it into my macroalgae which is about 6 gallon total volume. Any advice would be helpful.
And yes I’ve done multiple water changes to try to bring down the nitrates in my display and even put chaeto in the sump to drop it. My corals are happy and I can’t drop it so I just live with it.

Looking for ideas on how to make a bridge style bracket to mount my light too, also looking for ideas for this new 120 I purchased let’s see your rock scape ideas my tank is 4x2x2

I have a custom 3d printed rollermat filter that runs 4inch filter fleece (Clarisea sk3000 rolls), but I’m paying about $25 for a 25 meter roll. I just found a 4 inch coffee filter roll on Amazon, $25 for about 200 meters. That’s about 8 times more cost effective.
Anyone here have any experience trying this? Pros and cons?

Hi! Got a Tomini Tang 10 days ago from my local fish store. Yesterday noticed some semi-transparent dots on his fins and face. Today looks like there are more of them. I am afraid it’s ich, but not sure.
The tang was quarantined for a month at a fish store. It adapted fast, swimming around, constantly munching on algae and asking for food (I feed frozen food from Ocean Nutrition + FishV vitamins from Aquaforest twice a day, additionally some Ocean nutrition flakes 1-2 times a day).
I have Cupramin, copper tests and a plastic container ready just in case. But not sure if I should start treatment ASAP or wait a bit.
Tank info:
Tank size (volume) 250l (Nyos Opus 300)
Tank age 6 months
Lighting Radion XR15 G6 (one at the moment, on one side of the tank)
Filtration: Sump, Filter sock, Nyos Opus skimmer
pH 8,15
Temperature 25,5C
Nitrate 15-20
Phosphate 0,1
Calcium 415
Alkalinity 8,4

Don't worry, no fish going in here any time soon. Funny thing is the microfauna in the substrate seem to be doing good. Worms are out and about scavenging.

Just wanted to share my new little buddy. Heart urchins bury themselves in the sand and spend most of their lives underneath it, eating any little bits of food they can find :)

Weird looking thing on the top left corner is the root of a mangrove propagule I’m trying to grow, it’s attach to the side glass with a frag holder

Hey guys! I made this cabinet specifically for the Neptune Apex system. I know a lot of us love the hobby, but let’s be honest… nobody really understands all the equipment we have 😂. Personally, I bought my Apex partly because of how good it looked and because I wanted to show off my little science lab! 🤣
I’m planning to make these cabinets affordable for hobbyists, hopefully around the $400 range, including the lights, clear panels, etc.
The main question is: What Apex/Neptune equipment do most of you have and actually want displayed inside the cabinet?
Right now, I’m thinking:
• Apex brain
• Energy Bar
• 1 doser
• 1 FMM module
• Two additional clear mounting areas with wire pass-throughs so people can add whatever controllers/modules they want
• Everything else can be mounted on the back or hidden away
I probably wouldn’t include a dedicated spot for the Trident because I feel like it makes maintenance and servicing harder and I’ve been keeping my 2 tridents sitting on top. I’d rather keep it easily accessible.
I’m sure I’m missing something, though. 😂
What does your Apex setup actually include? What equipment would you want to see displayed in a cabinet like this?
Any suggestions are appreciated! I’m trying to design this around what reefers actually use rather than just adding stuff for the sake of it.
Thanks for the input! 🤙🪸

I have a newly set tank and I’m getting two cleaner shrimp later this week. I understand they are sensitive to nitrates so I want to get this right.

For a softie tank I was thinking of aiming for 20 nitrates. But I’m unsure if that means I should change water at 25-30 to bring it in range. Or should I change water at 20 to keep it 20 or below.

Thanks for your help.

Light and flow hungry

I have a newly set up tank three months and it’s going to me softies only. I heard I should aim for 20 nitrates but I’m confused about when I should do a water change. Do I do it when I gets to 20 to keep it 20 or less. Or do I do it at 25-30 to knock it back down to 20?

I have two cleaner shrimp coming later this week and I understand they are sensitive to nitrate. Does that affect when I do a water change and the nitrate level I should aim for?
Thanks for your help.

About to be 4 years in the hobby

Hi All,

I’m after some help please on the equipment for an Aquaone Reefsys 326

I’ve come up with this list, tried to base it on a lower budget but items that get good reviews. I’m based in the UK.

I should also point out that I’m transferring from a TMC First Wave 78, so I already have 8-9kg of rock in the current tank and around 3-4kg I didn’t use.

Thanks ☺️

In March, we bought a home that came with a 75 gallon FOWLR tank. All that was in the tank was a clown and a diamond goby. It was ugly. I spent countless hours on Reddit and YouTube trying to figure out how to actually be successful in this hobby. I would go to my local fish store (shout out Aquariums Unlimited in VB) and ask probably a million questions to Sarah, god bless her and her patience with a dedicated novice like me.
I learned and I learned. And I failed. A lot. Eventually I was successful. I learned patience and learned that a lot of issues actually just take care of themselves with time.
After 6 months and probably 3 different ugly phases, hundreds of dollars on live rock, another couple of hundred on fish, I finally bought a frag of GSP. Fool poof (hopefully). Turning this eyesore into something my childhood self would be proud of.

Genuine question, no troll:

I made the mistake of getting two similarly sized, young clownfish.

One of them started vibrating at the other, which freaked me out so I googled it and learned that was submissive behavior, I.e. the vibrator would stay male while the vibratee would become female.

Things went as expected for a while, they were getting along great.

Fast forward a few weeks and they’re now both just vibrating at each other all the time. What is going on? Do they both want to stay male? Anyone have experience with this? Thanks in advance