Anyone into salt water aquariums?

I figured a few people here have to be into aquariums, let's see those beautiful set ups. I just ordered a 240 gallon one for the office, will do a build thread when it's here. I have a few ideas on what fish I want, but always looking for ideas. 

Paging Matthewmcl...

My wife has a 230 gal. I will try to get some pictures posted here.

I used to be.  My favorite trick I like to tell on a new set up is go to Ace Hardware and get janitorial ammonia.  Ask for the MSDS and make sure it's pure 10% with nothing added.  Instead of cycling the tank with a dead shrimp or something use it.  I'd buy one live rock from a store for the bacteria.  Put in my sand and other rocks.  Get an ammonia test kit.  IIRC high was 2 ppm.  I'd add the janitorial ammonia until it hit 2 ppm.  Then let the live rock bacteria work on it.  When it hit 0 ppm I'd add more until 2 ppm again.  Once it could drop it in one day I was good to add live fish.  That was usually less than a week.

and so it begins :)

No experience with them but I always find them both fascinating and gorgeous! 

No!  I've dabbled in freshwater aquariums and in fact have kept fish for a major part of my adult life, but saltwater?  No way!  I have enough expensive hobbies, including photography, shooting, and children (who go on to college).

I nominate blue crabs 

I nominate Mr. Krabs.

Lights are on, plumbing is done underneath. Gotta run a line to the automatic top off, but getting closer day by day. 

I was in one briefly but security pulled me out

Figured a quick update, tank is healthy and has been running as expected for awhile.  Up to 10 fish and an eel so far with no issues.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

I love the layout you set up. Looks great. 
 

I'm another that got deep into fresh water tanks for several years, but never put enough money into salt tanks. 
thanks for posting this!

Beautiful. My 8 year old has two freshwater aquariums; one with goldfish the other with creek chubs we caught out of our own creek. She would freak to see your setup I'm afraid to even show her pictures. Having her own eel and coral would be like a fantasy for her. 

Stampie said:

I used to be.  My favorite trick I like to tell on a new set up is go to Ace Hardware and get janitorial ammonia.  Ask for the MSDS and make sure it's pure 10% with nothing added.  Instead of cycling the tank with a dead shrimp or something use it.  I'd buy one live rock from a store for the bacteria.  Put in my sand and other rocks.  Get an ammonia test kit.  IIRC high was 2 ppm.  I'd add the janitorial ammonia until it hit 2 ppm.  Then let the live rock bacteria work on it.  When it hit 0 ppm I'd add more until 2 ppm again.  Once it could drop it in one day I was good to add live fish.  That was usually less than a week.

I used to go to the beach, scoop up 10 gallons of sea water, stop by the bait shop buy 10 live mud minnows, toss all of that in the tank with regular water. In 4-5 days later the tank was good to go. 

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

I was in one briefly but security pulled me out

I was into one, but it overflowed badly and it wasn't big enough to fit my legs.  Man, was that party host piiiiisssed.

I'll see myself out now

dculberson said:

Beautiful. My 8 year old has two freshwater aquariums; one with goldfish the other with creek chubs we caught out of our own creek. She would freak to see your setup I'm afraid to even show her pictures. Having her own eel and coral would be like a fantasy for her. 

The eel is cool, stays in a cave mostly getting used to the tank, but when the feeder comes on, he flies up to the top to beat the others. Also in the 4th photo there's 3 fish, a dark blue one that blends in really well. If she wants colorful freshwater, see if you can find a pair of discus, they're pretty cool and would get along with the goldfish. 

That looks really nice!
 

Used to have a 550 gal fresh water one. Make sure the aerator lines have check valves AND that they are installed securely ... 550 gallons covers A LOT of surface area when the power goes off and the tank drains through a 1/8" line <facepalm>

Looks amazing! I'd love to have one. With a cat and 3 dogs, and running out of space. Can't figure out a place to make one work. 

Figured I'd add some more as it goes along. I wanted as close to hands off as I could get, so figured I'd share the hidden stuff. Evaporation is an issue, so that's solved by piping water into holding tanks below with auto fill valves, so the main tank is always at the same height. Those bottom tanks are good for growing coral into large enough areas so the fish don't damage/eat it. The controls on the right (2nd photo) are Wi-Fi connected so if any issues pop up, adjustments can be made remotely. I've added some more coral, cleaning shrimp, and a starfish this week. I'm pretty happy with the progress so far. 
 

Looks great! The starfish is especially cool. I've never seen one that looked like that.

Nice tank! I've thought about getting into aquariums, but I don't dabble in things - I'll go all out - and that worries me. I'll live vicariously through your tank build ... for now. :-D

J.A. Ackley said:

Nice tank! I've thought about getting into aquariums, but I don't dabble in things - I'll go all out - and that worries me. I'll live vicariously through your tank build ... for now. :-D

That's the issue, originally the budget was "I don't know $3500 to $4000". It's a bit more than that....

Red Starfish was Todays add. 

If you get an octopus, teach it to gamble and smoke cigarettes. 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

If you get an octopus, teach it to gamble and smoke cigarettes. 

I'd love to have one, but they're really tough to keep. They'll climb out and die because they're stupid.