i've always wanted a marine aquarium since i saw one when i was a senior in college. but when i started researching on it i was discouraged by the complexity and expense.
now that i'm earning my own money and am able to save a little i decided to give it a try. the internet helped a lot in the researching part which led to me to build my setup. i didnt know about reefphilippines.com when i started so i had the misfortune of making so many errors: from using local saltmix, poorly designed tank&plumbing, inadequate lighting, and many more. needless to say, if i could do this over again, i'd do a lot of things differently. anyway, until i can afford to build another setup(a much better one)... this is my pet project.
being financially challenged i wanted to build a setup that's low maintenance(a poor man's tank. hehe!) which is why i chose a softies dominated tank. and i think i wont ever venture into SPS dominated tanks. beautiful as they may be... i cant afford the equipment and the supplements.
anyway, here are some photos of the evolution of my tank.
setup started cycling on february 2007. added fish about a month later before cycling was finished. i know... bad move.
this photo was taken july 2007 with the first batch of corals to survive. thanks to reefphilippines which i discovered april 2007.
august: added more corals
here are current photos. lots of coralline algae growth on the glass and rocks.
more photos.
i prefer small fish. it makes the tank look bigger than it is. plus... i'd like to be able to provide a lot of swimming room. i didn't want to buy a tang but i ended up buying a yellow mimic to control hair algae last june.
been very busy the past months which led to neglecting my tank a bit. haven't even done a waterchange in two months. all i am able to do lately is scrub the glass occasionally and do top-off manually. fortunately, my nitrate has remained zero and pH has been stable.
my next buy will probably be a dkH and phosphate test kit. i've read somewhere to never supplement anything unless you can test for it. which is why i dont use any supplement.
looking at the coralline growth and the halimeda "forest" at the back of the tank(it grew from a one inch piece) i think my calcium may be a bit depleted. hehe.
filtration consists of a skimmer, a small DSB area, and some caulerpa in the sump/fuge.
parang wind swept tree in high altitude.
