I am a reefer. This means that I am passionate about salt water tanks. I have a 75 gallon tank with a few fish and a several corals. The pic above is from the middle of the tank. I can spend hours looking at the life in the tank. It is a hard hobby to get into since keeping a reef can be time consuming. I have been in the hobby for almost 20 years.
3 comments:
What a wondeful hobby. I enjoy the water, especially the ocean, so your "little ocean" must really be something to behold right in your home. I don't know anything about being a "reefer", but I have seen these tanks in offices and such and they almost mesmerize me. How often do you have to clean them? Michael Schultz
Cleaning the tanks is actually not too bad. I clean the glass almost every day since algae tends to accumulate. Having the glass spotless is of one thing that helps you have a great looking tank. Also, if you don’t keep the glass clean, the algae can get hard and cleaning is a challenge. Glass cleaning takes about a minute. I use a powerful magnet cleaner. One piece is inside the tank and the other outside. This also helps me keep my hands off the tank. Water quality is critical for the corals so you want to get your hands in as little as possible. One thing to keep in mind is that water circulation and proper lightning reduces algae accumulation.
The other cleaning duty I perform is that once a week I remove all the filtering media (filter tray, water pump filter and the protein skimmer cup) and I wash or replace. This extra effort has really paid off for the water quality in the tank. Simultaneously, I change 5 gallons of saltwater (I buy it mixed at the fish store). I siphon out 5 gallons from the tank (I can do this without shutting down the system). I use a hose to get the water out and use the opportunity to siphon out any algae on the rocks, dirty sand, etc. I then pour in the new water. I can do this entire process in 30 minutes.
Once you have your tank (ecosystem) well established, the maintenance is minimum. In my case I am down to couple of minutes a day and half an hour in the weekends. I also keep a “cleaning crew” in the tank (snails, hermits, shrimp & crabs) that are scavengers and continuously clean the hard to reach areas.
Thanks for the question!
Really cool hobby. I enjoyed reading your blog about reefing because I don't know much about it. I love being anywhere near water though!
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