emilybear91
New member
Hi Everyone. I'm Bear, 27, living in Pilsen. Before my girlfriend Emily bought a [kind of] complete 30 gallon setup off Craigslist one day about a year ago, I had never owned any kind of aquarium. The idea was that we would learn about our new hobby together and share in the responsibility, stocking, and upkeep. Shortly after setting our new tank up in the living room, Emily was promoted at work and has been gone most every day since. It's a good thing I became quickly fascinated by this little slice of ocean life sitting next to my couch, because all of the work (and fun!) has fallen to me. Over the last year I've read volumes about reef keeping, ocean life, bacteria, saltwater chemistry, plankton blooms, etc. I've stayed up nights looking at pictures of others' reef tanks, reading forums (mostly this one since my Emily found it for me a few months ago), and staring into my tank and daydreaming.
My skill level is gradually increasing and the health of my tank is starting to reflect it. I had my share of problems in the beginning, and though I half-crashed my tank a couple times I am fortunate to have never killed a fish, only a couple frags of SPS that I shouldn't have been messing with as the complete novice I was. My tank's come a ways too, in fact I guess I'll do a thread on it here before long. Here's a picture from earlier today:
View attachment 18328
30 gal glass tank, hanging flourecent light that I custom made with parts from an old nano-cube hood, Sea-Clone skimmer (surprisingly effective), HOB filter w/ very coarse floss, little AquaClear filter modified for media, Hydor circulation pump, 1 1/2" sand bed teeming with copepod crustacean and arthropod life, live rock, pair of oscellaris clowns, yellow watchman goby with pistol shrimp, 3 pajama cardinals, 3 chromis, skunk cleaner shrimp, snails, a few hermits and emerald crabs, a few really neat dime-sized colorful mini-anemones, and some assorted corals of all types. My focus for the future is coral, and more tanks to put it all in! This 30 gallon is a learning experience; I want my next one to be a masterpiece.
Now that I've hung out in the shadows for a couple months and learned all kinds of interesting things from reading all through the forum, I figure its time to join the conversation. (I've put off posting entirely until I introduced myself properly) It seems like there's a lot of wisdom here and some very friendly people. I'm excited to join in the exchange of knowledge, and maybe make some friends.
My skill level is gradually increasing and the health of my tank is starting to reflect it. I had my share of problems in the beginning, and though I half-crashed my tank a couple times I am fortunate to have never killed a fish, only a couple frags of SPS that I shouldn't have been messing with as the complete novice I was. My tank's come a ways too, in fact I guess I'll do a thread on it here before long. Here's a picture from earlier today:
View attachment 18328
30 gal glass tank, hanging flourecent light that I custom made with parts from an old nano-cube hood, Sea-Clone skimmer (surprisingly effective), HOB filter w/ very coarse floss, little AquaClear filter modified for media, Hydor circulation pump, 1 1/2" sand bed teeming with copepod crustacean and arthropod life, live rock, pair of oscellaris clowns, yellow watchman goby with pistol shrimp, 3 pajama cardinals, 3 chromis, skunk cleaner shrimp, snails, a few hermits and emerald crabs, a few really neat dime-sized colorful mini-anemones, and some assorted corals of all types. My focus for the future is coral, and more tanks to put it all in! This 30 gallon is a learning experience; I want my next one to be a masterpiece.
Now that I've hung out in the shadows for a couple months and learned all kinds of interesting things from reading all through the forum, I figure its time to join the conversation. (I've put off posting entirely until I introduced myself properly) It seems like there's a lot of wisdom here and some very friendly people. I'm excited to join in the exchange of knowledge, and maybe make some friends.
