My reef tank

[Matt_95]

Thought I would share one of my passions with you guys. I've been in the ocean all my life and I love anything to do with the ocean. I set up this tank December last year. It's 4 gallons. I collect a lot of the coral myself from areas that it's allowed.

 

[Terry57]

Wow, that is beautiful!

 

[NiRD]

How cool! I like it.

 

[thekarens]

Very nice nano! It's a heck of a lot harder to keep a little one stable than a big one. Good job.

 

[Allee]

That's really beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

 

[MikeyTN]

I got rid of my reef tanks as it was just way too much work and time consuming.....I wanted more time to spend with my birds instead of working on the tanks for hours. Have you been feeding your corals with mysis shrimp or chopped up seafood??? I used to feed mine with eye dropper head by head and all my corals grew gigantic.....

 

[RavensGryf]

Ooh! Brings back memories of my aquarium hobby days.
I used to run nanos and like Karen said, was hard to balance chemistry. My first aquarium ever (on my own, not as a child) was a salt water fish only, then soon got into reefs. How's that for a lot to learn! You could imagine the $$$ down the drain as I learned :52:... I saved the freshwater tropical non-planted (much easier) for later on in the hobby lol

....one day I went to the pet store after some fish food... there I saw the most beautiful bird I'd ever seen (Gouldian finch). I simply HAD TO have him :52:! I walked out with him, a fancy cage, and I'm not even sure I remembered the fish food at that point... and there it happened. My obsession with birds

 

[Peepers]

Wow that's beautiful, fish are also my passion.

 

[Matt_95]

Thank you very much guys . I actually find that this tank is very simple and easy for me. I don't even own a test kit. I live on the water front so I am able to do a 100% water change weekly and I top up with tap water since I'm changing all the water at the end of the week anyway. I don't feed mysis shrimp, but I do catch my own shrimp from the ocean to feed and I also feed scallops to the anemones. I find it a lot easier to manage than a larger tank since I can do a complete water change using a single bucket and I have no equipment to mess around with.

I did used to have a rather large planted aquarium, a rift lake tank and I have also had many bettas that I had imported from Thailand along with dwarf cichlids, small live bearers ect. I rehomed all of those so that I am able to get a bird. I am going to set up a small planted tank in my room though as well. I've also got a salamander in my room living in a little bar fridge.

My LFS that I usually use also has an amazing selection of birds, they had a yellow fronted amazon a few months ago that was very friendly, they're quite rare in Australia. At the moment they have a black capped lorrie and a blue and gold macaw. They seem to be well looked after.

 

[RavensGryf]

Wow, that's really something! Being able to collect water right out your front door. I have no doubt your water is cleaner than it is where I live lol. I also thought it was interesting you said there are some areas where it's legal to collect your own corals. You dive?

 

[Matt_95]

The water here is pretty nice, it can get a bit muddy at times but it's still good quality. Unfortunately all of the reefs that are on the islands relatively close to the shore are all dead now. The 2011 Brisbane floods killed them all off. But now the water is good quality again.
Yep, you can collect corals outside of marine parks and no take zones in my state as long as you don't use hand tools. I've been diving my entire life, we used to go to the Great Barrier Reef a lot but I haven't been there in 18 months now. We go to the reefs around Moreton bay a lot though. There's nice diving spots within an hour or so in our boat.

 

[RavensGryf]

Wow, going to see the Great Barrier Reef would be a dream come true to many of us in the world. Problem is, I don't dive! Thinking about it has always given me the feeling of claustrophobia lol. I may just have to rely on pictures.

 

[Terry57]

Wow, diving at the Great Barrier Reef is on my bucket list! I don't dive either, but would learn so I could do that

 

[Matt_95]

The Great Barrier Reef truly is a very beautiful place. There's no where else that I have dived that has as much coral cover and diversity,
Would free diving make you claustrophobic as well? I only free dive, that's the way I've been doing it my whole life and scuba gear is a lot more expensive that free diving gear.

Terry, you don't really even need to dive to see the Great Barrier Reef, some if the tourists we have seen can't swim and they are given pool noodles! However you would really get the best experience if you could dive and also if you did not go with a tourist group, the places they take you to are always very damaged and often in pretty poor condition due to a lot of the tourists disrespecting the reef. You will see much more beautiful things camping On an island with your own boat or perhaps a kayak.

 

[RavensGryf]

Matt, free diving sounds worse for me :52:... I can't hold my breath very long! I'm in pretty good shape, but just can't do it for some reason LOL!

 

[Matt_95]

I haven't been to flash at holding my breath at the moment either, I've had a cold and it's really stuffed me up.

 

[RavensGryf]

I assume it's something one has to specifically train for...

I hope your cold gets better soon!