groucheux
Member
I've been waiting to post this for a while now. I think that there are many people like me who have been scared away from this wonderful hobby by all the talk about fancy lights and water chemicals and super expensive corals. I just want to let any prospective reefers out there know that this isn't that tough! I have a 55 gallon tank that has been going for @ 1 1/2 years now. The most expensive thing in it is the live rock (I bought mid-priced from an online store). I have a $35 protein skimmer, 2 48" flouresent lights (10,000K and a blue)and 1 18" flouresent (Home Depot "Sunlight" bulb), and a heater. I started with HD play sand ($3 for 40 pounds) and after 6 months I bought $15 worth of crushed coral to spread on top. As far as livestock goes...you don't have to break the bank! I have a couple of blue damsels, a cinnamon clown, and a coral beauty (which I bought about 4 months ago to replace a tang). I started w/ a peppermint shrimp, a bristle star, about 10 reef hermits, a bunch of snails, and a coral banded shrimp. The Coral Beauty is the most expensive thing I've bought at $25. (well worth it!) The coral beauty brought ick with it, so I bought 2 cleaner shrimps and haven't seen a dot of ick since. As for corals...star polyps, button polyps, and mushroom corals aren't fancy, but look beautiful. I haven't paid more than $12 for any coral, and they have all grown and spread throughout the tank. (I now have 14 red mushroom corals!) Other than pH buffer during the first month, I haven't added a single chemical to the tank! I've never done a water change, I just cap the tank off w/ r/o water about once a month or so.
sorry for going on so long...I just want readers to know that you can have a wonderful tank w/o spending a fortune on lights and chemicals. This is a great hobby and I'd hate anyone else to miss out like I did.
sorry for going on so long...I just want readers to know that you can have a wonderful tank w/o spending a fortune on lights and chemicals. This is a great hobby and I'd hate anyone else to miss out like I did.