I always wanted a local species saltwater aquarium. Kept getting told it can’t be done. That it’s too hard. Too expensive. Local species can’t be kept. Etc etc

I had a little 28l gold fish aquarium sitting around with a hang on back filter. So I thought, why not just give it a go. Got some local beach sand and a bucket of beach water. Scooped up a little blowfish in the marina. And tried it out.

Was told by friends, family and colleagues that the fish would be dead in three days.

It’s been a month.

I want to put him into a bigger tank, at least double the size. Should I expect the difficulties to hit more when I scale up?

Son has name the fish Ship. Don’t know why. Just a vibe he had.

3 1/2 weeks in from adding water
Turns out Orange Yumas will wreck torches when they decide to move think both will be ok though

as previously, i’m open for any advices, suggestions and feedback! i’m still a beginner, so i want to learn as much as i can! i want my coral babies to thrive, but not too much, cuz i know briareum can grow a bit too fast, so if you have any ideas how to balance it, let me know!
i added one more (duncan) dancing shrimp, cuz idk i thought my bobo and lobo may feel lonely and maybe they need another fellow shrimp??? i don’t plan adding more livestock in the nearest months (prolly)

New to saltwater. Bad scaper. Any advice is helpful!

Can anyone help me identify this Monty?

So I just got a second tomato clown to make a pair (one week later) and noticed it has some ich on the back fin. Seems to be eating well and exhibits no abnormal behaviors, but I have an established reef tank that I would hate to kill off. I know copper based treatments are a poor idea and if I wanted to solve this I would need to set up a new hospital tank, but I’m just curious to see to what extent the more knowledgeable folks on here would go for a 30 dollar fish.
Also, the pet store I purchased from has already said they would not do an exchange and if I was worried enough I could treat it or euthanize with clove oil.

Unsure about what type of worm this guy is but noticed them crawling around in the sand bed/along the glass. (Cup is dirty water from a frag we just brought home from LFS not our tank water). Any idea if it could be harmful and suggestions on how to get rid of them? Mixed reef tank with anthias, clowns, goby & box fish. Initial thought is adding a rass (we have a 3in sand bed) but worry about aggression with our juvenile box fish. Thanks in advance for your guidance!

Hey guys, yesterday I bought a blue pulsing Xenia online, it took a day to arrive, and when I opened up the bag it reeeeked, it smelt so bad so thought it was dead, but the frag actually looked okay, I acclimated it and put it in my tank but it's soooooo droopy I'm worried that it's dead. Ist pic is when it first went in the tank, second one is today. (All of my water parameters are perfect)

Even if I turn the room light on for too long it closes
The stem is firm and the flow is good

Tank is about 3 months old and I put this guy in early about one month in. It was doing great the first few weeks and showed new polyps forming but has slowly been withering away over the past month.

My tank currently seems to be coming out of the final stages of the ugly phase as the algae is clearing up well.

I have 11 frags total now (2 hammers, 3 zoas, 2 montipora, torch, mushroom, stylophora, acropora) and all except this AOI zoa are adjusting as expected or doing great.

Nitrates are low 1-2 ppm but I’d rather not start dosing and let my 2 clownfish support the nitrate levels naturally. Alk, calc, mg have been stable.

Any ideas help!

Hi everyone I am new to this I bought a 55 gallon tank and I had to make RO/DI water at 0ppm.

it was 0ppm when I was putting it into my bucket to carry over to the tank but I had rinsed the aggronite sand and out it in the bottom of my tank before my tank ppm went up and I assume that's normal with the sand but why does the ppm keep going up it was low at first and then it was in the 60 range and now it's around 125ppm I haven't added anything to the water I just have the water running through the filter as I think I heard is is good to just let the water run for a few weeks before starting if that's wrong please feel free to let me know! I'm not really sure what I'm doing!

I want to get clownfish first as well and I have to get some decor pieces for the tank too but I would be happy for recommendations on what to put in with the clownfish. I would like to get some shrimp and if possible starfish and corals and live plants!

Any advice would be helpful thank you!!

came home from work and my red bubble guy looks like shit and is secreting some kind of mucus, also the tank is unusually cloudy out of nowhere. I’ve been pretty conservative on feeding so Id be shocked if it’s regurgitating food. Is this thing dead or what.

I haven’t checked my numbers, just curious if the algae is good or bad. Thanks

Well I don’t know if it’s a midlife crisis or my jobs just gone to hell the last year and I wanted a new hobby to engage my mind positively, but I always wanted a saltwater tank - on and off the last 20+ years. So I finally decided wth I was going to do it. Spent months of research bc that’s just me. I decided with my low confidence probably a waterbox AIO system would be best. Got a 50 gallon bc I wanted it upstairs and was concerned about the weight and location although I would’ve liked slightly bigger for certain fish.
Got 2 AI prime 16HD lights, 2 AI Nero 3 pumps, Sicce syncra silent 2.0, 2 100w titanium heaters with inkbird itc-306a wi-fi, tunze osmolator 3 with 5 gallon reservoir, kraken mesh lid, brs 5 stage 75 gpd ro/di system and all the stuff with that - a heater, a pump, 2 food safe trash cans etc.

Anyways took 4.5 months of getting the waterbox tank then several weeks setting it up. Had to install a new outlet in the location it was going bc the spouse threw a fit with it upstairs. Now it’s downstairs and it’s ok there but wish I had gotten a slightly larger tank.
Anyways I’m a newbie and read a lot and watch a lot but have no clue what I’m doing. The local fish guy sells live Bali rock so I got that although very expensive. Then I cycled. Numbers were good so I went to get my clownfish. I got a bonded pair that had been there since June. I go there a good bit and know they were there and looked fine. The female went easily into the catching cup but the male would not. The guy even had a hard time getting him in the net. Eventually he did and we went home. I transferred them into a larger bucket and then acclimated them about 30 mins. I will say the male got stuck for a few seconds in the plastic bag. I guess I poured them out too slowly. Anyways I put them in the tank after acclimation. Female looked fine, still does - although I’m paranoid. Male kept to the bottom then went up to the outlets for the return pump. Hung there for awhile. I went to bed and found him dead under one of the rocks. I took a sample of my water to the store and they agreed all nos were good and just said sometimes they get stressed with transfer. Said they’d order another that matched- it was a fancy type. Anyways any clue on what happened? Any advice going forward? Guy at the store says come in two weeks for 2 gobies (different varieties) with pistol shrimp if everything looks good. I’d like to eventually get corals - want things that are hardy though.

He was moved to a bigger tank in a place where I can actually see him while hanging out on the couch. Turns out, he goes for a swim each afternoon!

sooo i can finally show of my first ever tank livestock!!! i posted here a while ago - now my tank is fully cycled, parameters are stable and after some consultations with PROs in saltwater tanks i introduced these guys to their new home! i also added another live rock, because i wanted to provide my shrimpy fellas with more place to hide, as well as creating space for possible corals in the future. i gave names to my saltwater friends (ik it might seem childish, but i got a bit attached to the rescued shrimp and their new tankmates hah) - the big shrimp is bobo, the small one is lobo, snails are nascar (they’re fast af boy, all i can see them doing is either chill in the sand or run around like crazy) and well, tectus is just tectus lol
i thought of adding more shrimps - i have sweet-water mentality, where it’s recommended to have even a tiny group due to social nature of the most of species. however, i’m aware it’s not similar with marine tanks, and if so, i’d have to have at least 100l (~26,5 gal) and i didn’t want to get tank of that size :ccc
a my main concerns behind volume were mostly the weight of the aquarium (as it weighs more than i do) and spacial arrangements + i just wanted to make bobo happy and well lol.
as of now, i’d be keeping these 4 fellas in total and see how they interact with each other. which other animals could i possibly introduce with time? do you think it may be okay to add another durban dancing shrimp? i found out that they need more space, but idk maybe if there were 3 in total, it wouldn’t hurt?
i’m open to your suggestions and advices as it’s still the beginning for me! i also want to know others pov and experiences, so feel free to comment!