I had problems with my wiring and I called Than up and he took his time to help me. A genuine good man, also very intelligent. Blessed to have him in the hobby. Thank you 🙏
The acro/chromis tank sounds like it would be really interesting. Though I think that the order of introduction should be fairly clear. You need the acro to be big enough to provide shelter and territorial space first. Then add all the chromis at once. Once they are established, add a young predatory fish. But the idea of a massive acro colony in the middle of a sand bed with a school of chromis hovering around it and in it sounds great.
Great discussion! Especially for beginners. As beginners, we start adding everything that catches our eye and then struggle to keep everything happy while also maturing the tank. If a beginner would narrow their focus to a certain type of tank, they would likely have more success.
55:36 - @tidalgardens - Than I grew up in South Florida in the 70s-90s and back then I snorkeled and caught all my own fish. We used to have this thing called a "slurp gun" it was a long tube with a plunger inside and a handle at the end. You swim down to the reef and put the end of the gun over a fish in a hole or even free swimming and gently pull the plunger back. The fish gets sucked in super gently. I would then put my hand over the end and swim up to my bucket on the surface. Its how I first got into reefing in the 80s. Very manual process but was super fun.
I've thought about this and I am literally in the process of printing off decor for my freshwater cliff/ruins tank. You guys should do an episode about the things that you can 3d print for reef tanks
this is something from day one ive thought would be the best thing in reefing. only in for a couple years but that's right on par with what I find is appropriate
Also on the anemone thing. I had greens and reds together for 4 years and they did fantastic… then I added a green one with orange tips and everyone started shrinking up. I have a feeling there is something we call a “bubble tip anemone” that isn’t actually closely related.
I really enjoyed this conversation. I'm in the process of completing revamping my fish room which includes combining my 2 pico aquariums, and 10 gallon nano into one larger reef. I hadn't decided what I wanted to do but this has given me so many ideas! Ive been going back and forth with doing an NPS only tank, mixed reef, or something else entirely. It's really got me thinking now maybe I can find a way to do three separate tanks instead of combining mine and just upping the sizes! Might do an NPS only tank, macro algae only tank, and a goniapora only tank. So many possibilities for themed tanks.
Ryan BRS you should do a fish room with a bunch of small tanks but all dedicated to a species or a specific marine environment like fresh water guys do.
The chromis and grouper tank would be so awesome to own! I think an extremely cool setup would be to incorporate high and low tides. Have some rock that gets exposed to air a couple hours a day and build a surge bucket to crash over the top of your reef.
I have a Nexus Burst Bubble Tip Anemone, a Black Widow, and a Rock Nem in the same tank. No issues whatsoever. Now I am tempted to put a green one in there to see if it's really that difficult.
I want to see a long, shallow tank with a couple massive porites colonies and a vast, open sandbed full of walking dendros. Day-lighting. Tons of Nassarius snails to turn over the sand. Heck, maybe some mangroves on one end.
I was in the business in the 90s and we called gonis "rentacoral" because they just died no matter what. I was in absolute shock the first time I saw a successful goniopora tank. I thought the guy was a wizard.
I am very sympathetic to the idea of themed tanks or targeting a specific species or biome. I'm likely biased from my time spent chasing heavily panted aquariums before venturing into saltwater. But, the hardest thing to wrap my brain around in that transition to salt, was the idea: all these different species could all thrive under the exact same conditions. And sure enough, after keeping a mixed reef for multiple years now: Ideally, they can't. Not if you're trying to optimize and really make each truly thrive. It's certainly possible to have a healthy mixed Reef, but it's a compromised solution. Personally, I can just barley keep my Acro's happy in the same 75 gallon as my Scoly, Goni, and Elegance. All of them are healthy, but they arn't vibrantly thriving. If I make it ideal for Acro's, the LPS get trashed. And if I calm the tank down, the SPS suffer. Ideally, I would have at least two tanks. For me that would be one dedicated to reef crest, high light conditions suitable to Acropora. And a second with moderate light and flow for LPS (which is where I'm headed next). But that argument can easily be extended to an Anemone tank, a macro algae tank, predator tank, mangrove tank, sea horse tank... I think it's healthy to see divergence and specialization start to take hold. And it's likely to build on our knowledge, as there can be more focus areas for different hobbyists.
I have a dream to create a freshwater planted tank looking scape and keep reef corals in it. And vice versa. Yellow sand and texas holey rocks, for a freshwater planted tank lol
It's critical to know what type of coral you have. By knowing it's name, you know if it can touch another coral. Hammers and frog spawn can touch each other. Some torches can get along with some Hammers and frog spawn. They used to be in the same family, but now Hammers and frog are in Fimbraphillia instead of euphillia
Ok……. Now that you have said it, what’s the process for taking fish home from Hawaii? This sounds like an amazing trip and amazing souvenirs that will last for a long time in your tank.
Most folks have one aquarium? Come on Than, you know no real reefer can stop at one. I'm finally back down to four, I'd like to get down to three, but my history says I'll probably start another build before that ever happens. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
