About the fish room

My saltwater fish room has been an ever-evolving work in progress since around December 2020. This is when I moved into my new house. At the time I only had the 40-gallon cube that you see in the back corner and a 14-gallon Innovative Marine Peninsula-style tank. I was heavily into keeping Poison Dart Frogs, and this room actually was called “The Frog Room” at first. I knew I wanted to make this room The Saltwater Fish Room though, but I only had 2 more bedrooms in this house, one was my home office and the other is the master bedroom.

From frog room to fish room

As time went on and everything found its place, it began to turn more and more into “The Saltwater Fish Room”. I sold most of my frog collection with the exception of two. They are my breeder frogs and I do not think I could sell them at this point because I’ve had them for almost 5 years now. I plan to sell 3 of the vivariums and keep one for my breeder pair. I just need to find the time. I have a lowboy frag tank that will take the place of the vivarium racks. Again, I just need to find time to build the stand for that tank as well.

Phytoplankton and Copepod Culturing in the fish room

Some of the earlier additions to the saltwater fish Room were my Phytoplankton and Copepod culturing rack. I’ve been culturing Phytoplankton for a little over 6 years now and I feel it is a very important part of our aquarium’s ecosystem. What do copepods eat? Phytoplankton! Naturally, I started culturing a couple of species of copepods as well to boost the population in my aquariums. Today my Phytoplankton and Copepods serve as a small side business in addition to my normal day job. Ive been wanting to try one of the very nice all in one culturing system from Poseidon Reef Systems. Once I get a couple of their systems I can ditch the beverage containers.

 

I just recently started culturing L-type rotifers (Brachionus plicatilis) in the past month. I acquired another pair of proven breeder clownfish so I wanted to ensure that when the time comes, I would be ready to feed their fry. Rotifers are pretty simple to raise, but there is a small learning curve to them. So, if you find yourself needing rotifers make sure to do your research first. I am also currently culturing Tig (tigriopus californicus) and Tisbe (tisbe biminiensis) copepods that you can see in these 1-gallon glass containers

I prefer to start them off in small containers, so they can find each other faster to reproduce. After that, I like to upgrade their home to these 2.5-gallon beverage dispensers. I have several of these and they work great for culturing purposes. After the culture is too large for the 2.5-gallon beverage dispenser I will move them to their final mansion; a 10-gallon tank.

Peppermint Shrimp breeding in the fish room

An interesting project that just sort of happened by mistake is my Peppermint Shrimp breeding tanks. I originally purchased 5 peppermint shrimp to try a little aiptasia vs peppermint shrimp experiment, since my 40-gallon cube was loaded with aiptasia. One day I noticed one of the peppermint shrimp had something in what I thought was its stomach area.

Turns out, after a little research I found out these were actually eggs. Then, a few days after I noticed one had eggs, and another peppermint shrimp had eggs. So, I went out and bought a 2nd 10-gallon aquarium from Petco to isolate one of the pregnant shrimp to try to raise the larvae. This project is still ongoing.

40 Gallon Cube Reef Tank in the fish room

Next up in the fish room is my 40-gallon cube reef tank. It’s had its ups and downs throughout the years since 2019. Yes, this is a 3+ year-old tank. I’ve battled dinoflagellates three times now in this tank, which is why it looks the way it does currently. I didn’t clean up the tank to make it look pretty for this article. It is what it is. I also have been building my new 150-gallon Planet aquarium tank since February of this year so my 40-gallon cube has kind of been sitting on the back burner and being neglected for a while.

The last issue I had was high phosphates. The Hanna Phosphorous ULR checker reads 200, so I know my po4 was high. I treated it will 2 tablespoons of Rowaphos, but this brought my po4 levels down too quickly and I lost some of my SPS corals. It was a hard blow to myself because I tend to this tank like no other! I test weekly and even test no3 and po4 a few times weekly to make sure it stays on track.

I think my po4 levels reached 200 because I was also dosing po4 to avoid bottoming out and getting dinoflagellates again. I’ve since learned there is a fine line when it comes to dosing and testing. If you dose no3 or po4, be prepared to test every other day until things stable out.

Clownfish Broodstock Tank in the fish room

The last project I’m currently working on in my saltwater fish room is my Clownfish Breeding tank. I’ve been trying my hand at breeding clownfish for about 5 years now and only got 1 pair to layout of three pairs. I ended up selling those pairs to a friend. This time will be different though, because I do not care how long it takes, I’m in it for the long haul.

On this Broodstock tank I have two Bulk Reef Supply dosing pumps set up on each side. One adds new saltwater to the sump, and the other pulls out old tank water. It’s my budget-friendly version of an auto water change system. I already had everything so why not use it?

Auto Water Changes and Auto Feeding in the fish room

I also have implemented the use of auto feeders on this tank. My goal is to make this the easiest maintainable tank I have. I use two Eheim Turtle Feeders with TDO in them for the fish’s 6 times daily feeding. I feed LRS Fertility Frenzy and Reef Frenzy every now and then in addition to their main staple diet. I would like to feed them LRS instead of TDO but until someone or myself comes up with a frozen feeder then I will have to stay with TDO.

Nothing wrong with TDO, I just prefer LRS. The tank is powered by a National Geographic Deluxe Programmable LED Aquarium Light which I picked up from PetSmart about 5 years ago. The lights stay on for 18 hours a day.

Final thoughts on the fish room

That’s about it for now. The fish room is ever changing so I may be doing another update soon. I already have chnaged my 40 gallon tank for a 50 gallon lowboy frag tank. It houses a 50 gallon acrylic sump. I also recently purchased the new Neptune A3 Apex and the Trident Auto Water tester. So things are changing quick for the better!