Reef-keeping is not the most common hobby in Switzerland. When you live in a Northern Hemisphere land-locked country that doesn't share a free-trade zone with anyone, every piece of equipment and livestock requires long research and lots of lead time. It was such a pleasure to find first the Podcasts, then an active online community on TalkingReef.com. I've been reading lots of books, but the online stuff really adds a living dimension. My new tank has now cycled and I'm about to put fish in it; I wanted to keep a journal anyway, so I thought this would be a great place.
A bit about me: I'm Canadian (Toronto area), lived and worked in the US (Virginia) from 1994-2001, and have lived and worked here since then. I've always loved aquariums, I think it's amazing to have an entire ecosystem in your house. But we've never been settled enough to have marine until we moved here. We do think it's ironic that when we're finally ready for it, we're in the country that is probably most difficult
, but hey at least we have the Alps
and I finally found a great
LFS. And if Switzerland can win the world's most important ocean yachting race twice in a row, surely we can manage reef tanks too. (I have some reflections on how different the hobby is in Switzerland compared with what I see in the US and Canada, will share those sometime soon).
Now a bit about the tank journey. My husband and daughters gave me a 450 litre (about 120 US gallons) tank for Mother's Day just over 3 years ago. Great fun!
It took about a year to get it established, and for the last two years it was extremely stable with a mix of fish, a few corals, and interesting invertebrates. When we moved house, we decided we were ready to go bigger. Stable was nice, but not enough! We bought a big old farmhouse, with a room that's perfect for the new tank. And this time we took all the learning and research from the old one to create the new system (I'll share my top lessons soon, too).
The new system has a main display tank, a
refugium, and a
sump. The main tank is just under 2000 litres (just over 500 US gallons). It's 3 m (about 10 feet) long, a metre (just over a yard) wide, and about 65 cm (2.5 ft) tall. The
refugium is another 650 litres (approx 170 US gallons, 1m long and 1m wide). And the
sump is proportional. We (my husband, actually) knocked down a wall between two rooms: the aquarium is in the room behind, which is a cold storage room, and it will be viewed from the front in a different room. Here's a picture of the gang moving it in, and the system right now, about 7 weeks after adding water (pictures from the front and the back, the
refugium is to the right from the front but the lights aren't on yet).
I am much more patient with this system than with the last one. I know that I want fish and corals and invertebrates so it's been designed as a full reef system with room for further adaptations, and the
refugium will double as a quiet-zone for something like seahorses. I haven't thought about specific livestock beyond that. I'll try to give an equipment list next time.
Two things I'm trying to think through right now: Can I put my fish back while there is still this much algae in the tank, or do I need to clean it out more first? And likewise, should we finish all the construction first, or just the really messy stuff, before we add the fish? I miss my fish! I have lots of other questions but they will wait!
Hoping you can help me on the journey,
Martha
