My little saltwater reef

Some of you know I enjoy the saltwater coral reef hobby. My specialty is in pico or nano sized tanks, which can be difficult, but are most rewarding if things work out right.

My current aquarium is a 22 gallon cube with a 15 gallon sump underneath. This is the largest aquarium I've ever owned. I typically like things really small as there much easier to maintain and keep up. That said, there are many issues that come with trying to host a tiny saltwater aquarium and in particular they are very sensitive to lots of different environmental variables and can result in crashing the tank.

One of the key items in creating a coral reef tank is the frequent exchange of fresh saltwater. I have a special technique for it which I won't bore you about but suffice to say I can do a 33% water change in just a couple of minutes which is typically fairly difficult for most saltwater tanks.

I'm also very fortunate, as one of my best friends is the top saltwater reefer in all of Texas. He's a professional saltwater aquarium specialist and maintains many commercial saltwater tanks throughout Austin. He has tanks that are 25 years and older, which if you know anything about saltwater tanks, that is virtually unheard of. That is because tanks typically crash every five years or sooner so to keep one for this long means your husbandry technique is off the charts.

I really enjoy hanging with him and we typically get together each weekend and go over different things. I like to design and 3d build custom parts (of course in Blender!)  like brine shrimp breeders and phytoplankton factories which help to keep all the corals happy. I also have two Mandarin Gobi's (which are not pictured ) and are some of the most spectacular looking saltwater fish around. They are typically not advised to be in such a small tank as they need special kind of food in order to stay alive. Thankfully, I've been successful in keeping these two going, especially since both are males and they are not supposed to be able to cohabitate. I think the fact that they've been in this tank since they were very small fry has a lot to do with the fact they seem to get along even now.

This and other reef tanks are very relaxing to look at and as long as you control the ecosystem, they are fairly easy to keep up. I enjoy this tank a lot and I'm happy to post more if anyone is interested.