EIRE-EISC
06-14-2007, 05:24 PM
Hi there,
I am re-entering the hobby after a sabbatical of almost 16 years. I originally hail from the land of the little people, across the big pond where I kept salties and inverts. A lot has changed within the hobby from when I last immersed myself.
Back in the old country we had no such thing as a protein skimmer, but we made do- we had to invert a Guiness bottle (empty of course) drill a hole in the bottom of it, insert a funnell and slowly add Pop Rocks to achieve any kind of foam at all!
It is also worth noting that back then our tanks where in black and white, and we had a great deal of difficulty distinguishing Percula Clowns from Domino damsels!
Of course we had no Salt mixes either, so we had to make do by heading to the local beach and filling containers with water and dragging them back by donkey and cart, to our homes where we could add them to our tanks. It was an arduous task , it's well I can remember a story of how after many visits to the same beach and gathering the curiosity of the neighbors, that one time an inquisitive onlooker decided to accompany me to the source of this wonderful life giving elixir. Having reached the beach, on that very day, it happened that the tide was way out, so we had to walk a considerable distance to fill our 5 gallon drums. Our inquisitive friend noted that this must be a very popular hobby as the water is almost all gone!
All kidding aside, I have recently set up a 30 Gallon tank with a Bak Pak skimmer, Emperor Filter-30lb's of live rock - Live sand and the lighting is provided by a sattelite dual actinic 420Nm and dual daylight tubes (10,00K). my question to the forum is one of many,however I shall start with, do I need to add anything else to get started with my reef tank?
Many thanks in advance Eire-Eisc :)
I am re-entering the hobby after a sabbatical of almost 16 years. I originally hail from the land of the little people, across the big pond where I kept salties and inverts. A lot has changed within the hobby from when I last immersed myself.
Back in the old country we had no such thing as a protein skimmer, but we made do- we had to invert a Guiness bottle (empty of course) drill a hole in the bottom of it, insert a funnell and slowly add Pop Rocks to achieve any kind of foam at all!
It is also worth noting that back then our tanks where in black and white, and we had a great deal of difficulty distinguishing Percula Clowns from Domino damsels!
Of course we had no Salt mixes either, so we had to make do by heading to the local beach and filling containers with water and dragging them back by donkey and cart, to our homes where we could add them to our tanks. It was an arduous task , it's well I can remember a story of how after many visits to the same beach and gathering the curiosity of the neighbors, that one time an inquisitive onlooker decided to accompany me to the source of this wonderful life giving elixir. Having reached the beach, on that very day, it happened that the tide was way out, so we had to walk a considerable distance to fill our 5 gallon drums. Our inquisitive friend noted that this must be a very popular hobby as the water is almost all gone!
All kidding aside, I have recently set up a 30 Gallon tank with a Bak Pak skimmer, Emperor Filter-30lb's of live rock - Live sand and the lighting is provided by a sattelite dual actinic 420Nm and dual daylight tubes (10,00K). my question to the forum is one of many,however I shall start with, do I need to add anything else to get started with my reef tank?
Many thanks in advance Eire-Eisc :)