Very nice. I just have some small freshwater aquariums, but I'd love to have something larger in the future.

Good luck with your aquarium! I've found mine very rewarding.

gomanute suggests a Macquarium.

Looks incredible. I have been wanting to do it for the past 10 years but I keep chickening out.

that's impressive. I haven't had fish in a long time, think they were freshwater though. And not nearly that impressive.

Hope they like their new home!

It's very difficult. I'm sure that by getting an already set up tank, you have all the necessary parts to keep them alive, but starting from scratch is a pain. The water levels can fluctuate so quickly and the fish can die off so mysteriously that you can start to lose interest in purchasing new ones. It can be an expensive hobby as a result, but well worth it if your disposable income allows it.

Read up on hospitalizing new fish. It's probably important that you do it from the beginning. Introducing ick into the tank can be a nightmare. Hospitalizing new fish will keep that from happening. It will require another smaller tank, though. Once ick is in the tank, it takes 4 weeks of no fish for the tank to cure itself. Medicine will kill all the invertebrates.

I've only learned about reef tanks as a bystander, helping a friend's parents work on theirs. But I've watched all the time and money they've put into it, and after losing another fish a week ago, they are losing hope. So be persistent and read as much as you can so you know what to do when things go bad.

Oh, and get an Arrow Crab. He's really cool. Good luck!

No saltwater... just Oscars.

Oooooh, not this Marine Aquarium... gotcha.

I had those 10 years ago, awesome and smart fish, really messy though.

Time to goto reefcentral.com. There you wil lfind so much information on your new hobby it's unbelieveable. I have a custom 29 gallon Oceanic reef system. I had it for a few years, but currently it's empty. You very lucky to get one setup and that has already gone though it's cycle process. I wish I could of had done it that way. Anyway have fun and it's a real money pit too if your not careful, but the beauty is truly awesome, especially some of the night time critters...

And for a slightly different challenge:
http://www.nano-reef.com/

I did my first open water scuba dive today and I've never wanted a marine tank so badly. I've been thinking about it for a long time, but I really can't afford it at the moment

Reading is the most important thing you could be doing right now. Go to the library and read every book they have on the subject, then go and buy the one you like most for future reference.

You'll also need to check the water a lot to begin with, but I'm sure you'll get a feel for it pretty quickly.

What kind of setup is it? Does it have a sump or a plenum (or other)? You'll need to be careful not to disturb it too much during transportation if the tank has a plenum.

Enjoy the tank. I'm extremely jealous

You must be willing to throw a lot of money into these systems to have them. Heat is a real problem. Besides the fact that the summer heat alone is enough to kill my fishys the lights and filter heat the tank up an extra 10 degrees on top of that. I will be buying an air conditioner just for my fish. An in tank chiller costs 600 dollars. So I think I'll just get a conditioner for the house...which will probably cost me 700 in electricty or something over the years but oh well. Not to mention the lights have to be replaced every 6 months...and at 300 watts they'er a real drain on electricity too.

But I love it

I've been working with one of the students in the bio department who has a tank set up on the third floor of Nobel. He's the one that really got me interested. Another student who just graduated has loaned me his library, so I'm learning quickly and not going in with my eyes shut. I'm up for the challenge, though. I'm thinking of setting up a hospital tank (when I need it) in my office. But I don't expect to be adding anything soon.

Oh, and the tank has a banded coral shrimp, so the arrow crab would get eaten pretty quickly.

I should also add that we have RO water in the lab, so that will make water changes easier and less costly.

Yeah, well...some people like to have the fireplace screen saver to set the mood too. I've always thought that was cheesy...

No sump or plenum....yet. It's got two protein skimmers and a biowheel filter. It also has about 90# of live rock and about a 3 inch bed of sand/aragonite. The sand bed isn't deep enough, but the system has been up for about three years. so it's pretty stable.

The tank isn't drilled, so I'll have to put overflow boxes on it to instal a sump. I'm thinking about putting two overflows (so that if one clogs, I don't flood the house) and a sump big enough to house a live sand bed with a plenum. Since the bacteria don't need light, it should be fine under the tank. But I'm going to wait and see what the tank does and how it's ecosystem works before I start tinkering. Maybe next year when the cash reserves are a little higher I'll put in the sump.

No metal halide bulbs (yet), so the temp from the bulbs doesn't seem too bad. He claims that the tank has never needed a chiller in the three years he's had it. And he's had it set where it can get direct sunlight (which raises the tank temp). We have no place in our home that gets direct sunlight. We live in MN, so for at least 9 months of the year it will be fine. In the summer, however, we'll have to see. We have central air, but we don't use it much. We like having windows and doors open. I'll be watching the temperature like a hawk in July and August, though.

Used to have two apple snails about 1" in diameter. Couple weeks ago my stupid oscars decided it was time for escargot.

Now I have one scared apple snail...

anyone care if I post pics of my SW tank?? don't want to intrude on someone else's thread!!

I love my tank!!!!

Go ahead, man. The more the merrier. I'm still working through a few of the books, so anyone that has practical advice and/or setups of their own is welcome to post pics. Who knows? Maybe I'll borrow a couple of ideas here and there.

Not directed at powerbook867:
In terms of reading, I've gone through a number of things. I will say that "The Reef Aquarium" (Delbeek and Sprung) has been both a treasure trove and a disappointing book. It's touted as the "Reef Bible" by a lot of people, and it is very well written with lots of really detailed facts. But I'm frustrated with the amount of supposition. If you don't know, that's fine...but half the recommendations they give are based on guesswork. They cite one or two observations and then make really detailed hypotheses about the complex biochemistry. I think we could do without that kind of supposition. If it you have an idea, do some research (or talk to someone about doing the research). Then publish. Supposition is fine in the lab...it leads to new experiments...but they don't belong in the literature. Overall, however, the factual info is well worth the investment (I'm only done with Volume 1)

"Natural Reef Aquariums" (Tullock) Is also really good as an intro book. I would have been kind of lost reading the Delbeek and Sprung book had I not cut my teeth on this one. He does seem to have a rather self-important tone in his writing, but it was excellent none-the-less.

cool!!

I once had a couple of FW tanks, real small ones with guppies and cory cats in them. Right now our house is so small a basic 5 gallon tank for baby guppies would be too large. I hope one day we can get a large FW tank and possibly a SW tank. Thanks for bringing back my happy memories of raising guppies!

How quickly do guppies propogate? The lionfish has been fed guppies because they can acclimate to salt water (for a while at least) so feeder fish are not a bank-breaking venture. I've been toying with the idea of setting up a guppy breeding tank, but don't know if they would keep pace....

Having the lionfish, while undeniably cool, is going to be a major hassle. Mostly because they are incompatible with a few of the fish had originally wanted (back when I was thinking about setting up from scratch).

Don't you just luuuuuve Oscars? They eat all your other fish then look at you with those big innocent eyes

I've been dying to get a saltwater tank, but I want one that 75 gallons or so. I also am concerned with the floor, that'll be roughly 1000lbs. or so once the tank, rock, sand, filters, water, blah, blah are sitting there.

You will only need a male to about 5 females. The more you have, the faster and more they will propogate. I believe the gestation was about 25 days but then you have to let them grow up. Unless you have a 29+ gallon tank with lots of guppies AND are able to pull out the babies. They are very tiny when they are born. When I was in college, I has to leave my tank in the hands of my little brother. I gave him exact instructions on the care of the tank. He would never add water nor change it and rarely feed the fish. Luckily so much algae would grow that the fish had enough to live off of. It was always a mess when I would come back... That is why I stopped keeping a tank. Well that and my Siamese Fighting Fish who could do tricks died after transporting him over a dozen times over 300+ miles. My guppies would repopulate themselves over the 5 years I was in school. I bought 2 females and 1 male and at one time had 20+ fish in the tank. A little inbred, but oh well. I hope this helps some.

Keep it on a foundation floor and you will be fine. Make sure you get a good stand as well. Lots of floor contact is good!

Congratulations boots on your new acquisition. Looks like a great hobby. Will look forward to seeing more pictures.

Beautiful pictures powerbook867.

Really nice pix. I have neither the time nor space for an aquarium, but it sounds fascinating. What's the toxin in lionfish, boots, and how dangerous is it to humans? Does it act on one of the ion channels?

Call your local aquarium store and find out if they're willing to trade/buy the lionfish if you don't want it. My mother used to keep large aquariums (75gal and 150gal), and I believe she used lionfish to establish the tanks (I guess they're well suited for that?), and then after a few months she would exchange them at the aquarium store for something else. I got the impression that was pretty common.