New member from Montana !!!!

[Laurasea]

Reef,
What sparked you to consider parrots now? Do you have a specific species you are interested in?
Oh and do share an aquarium pic! Love to see.
I kept seahorses for 6 years, with a few soft coral and seahorses safe critters and fish.

 

[hiriki]

For what it's worth, I have 6 birds and 4 (indoor only) cats. I keep them strictly separated when the birds are out, and supervise/monitor the cats when the birds are in their cages to prevent cage climbing and other spooky and potentially dangerous behaviors. I have to be Very Careful--but I couldn't live without birds, and I couldn't live without cats, so I know it's possible. Lol.

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Reef,
What sparked you to consider parrots now? Do you have a specific species you are interested in?
Oh and do share an aquarium pic! Love to see.
I kept seahorses for 6 years, with a few soft coral and seahorses safe critters and fish.

@Laurasea I’m moving into a new house where I can finally have parrots again. I’m thinking of lovebirds since I had them before and thought their “chubbiness”, for lack of a better word, was so cool! I don’t have any reef tanks set up now but I will post a pic(s) of my current tank I’m setting up in the build mode. Laura let me say I’m thrilled to find a Reefer on a parrot forum! Why did you get out of aquariums?

 

[Reef Aquarist]

For what it's worth, I have 6 birds and 4 (indoor only) cats. I keep them strictly separated when the birds are out, and supervise/monitor the cats when the birds are in their cages to prevent cage climbing and other spooky and potentially dangerous behaviors. I have to be Very Careful--but I couldn't live without birds, and I couldn't live without cats, so I know it's possible. Lol.

@hiriki that’s so good to know someone is keeping cats and parrots together. That’s brave but it’s working for you. I will attempt it slowly and with caution when the time comes but I won’t have either cat in my house if I can help it. I’m interested in what the cats will do if they sneak in or a niece/nephew lets in. Knowing Blackie’s and Bouncer’ behavior will prepare and hopefully prevent anything.

 

[Reef Aquarist]

@Laurasea here’s a partial shot as I say it’s not set up now. The system make is a Red Sea Reefer with the particular model number being a 250. 250 is also the volume in liters for this model which equates 65 gallons. It’s a kit system and comes with tank, stand, sump, and plumbing. It was shipped to me by truck cargo freight since it weighs hundreds of pounds all together and UPS or FedEx can’t handle weight like that. It literally came on a wooden pallet!

 

[Reef Aquarist]

@hiriki I see you're in Chicago. My son is near in a suburban town called Dekalb. He attends Northern Illinois University there. His mother's family is in a tiny town named Little York about 30 miles from Galesburg, Illinois.

 

[Laurasea]

Reef Aquarist! Amazing! Wow I can't wait to see it going, we have off topic thread and you can( i beg) share your aquarium journey there and update us !

To be honest I did all of mine low tech ( low cost!!) I read a crap ton , was told I couldn't do it, or keep seahorses , so of course I did it. I used a lot of macro algae , live rock , live sand, and several hang on back filters , for my 45 gallon I had two 70 g hob, abd one 50 hob,. And I had a big clean up crew of snails abd crabs
I kept 3 types of seahorses, tigertail, redi, and lined
I trained them to eat their shrimp out of a glass bowl to cut down on waste and help keep tank from getting gross. The 3rd pic is my tiger tail girls eating from the bowl the lighter striped one I raised from a fry no bigger than a fingernail in a 10 gallon before she was big enough to add with my other girls. Seahorses are actually social.
The first one is my girl Halfmoon she grew enormous!!! Over 8 inches, I confess I had her a wee fat in that pic, not the deep chest that's how they are but the little fat rolls between

 

[Laurasea]

I ended up keeping a 20 g , a 45 g, and later I did a cube with a sump ...but I have major health issues it got too difficult to do water changes ( I changed out half of each tank monthly, seahorses are filthy, big waste production) and I had trouble driving the hour to get supplies. So after 6 years I git the seahorses all to a breeder down south and sold everything. I do miss watching the amazing life and beauty. I miss those seahorses so much ( but nobody could manage them when I'm in the hospital )

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Wow Laurasea, you must be a skilled reefer, I've read seahorses are delicate and difficult to keep. I know where you're coming from when you say water changes can be a chore. I had difficulty keeping up with mine in my last tank and had to do it with buckets, pouring water in and out. Not anymore! I'll have semi-automated W/C's this time with a controller and peristaltic pumps dedicated to water changes. The clean sea water with get pumped from a mixing vessel in hoses to my sump at the same time dirty tank water is pumped out of the sump and through hoses leading directly to my kitchen sink. With the push of a button and no buckets!

You have much sea life diversity in those pics I must say. Seahorses, macroalgaes, palythoas (zoanthids), pistol shrimp, firefish, and is that a Yasha Goby I see? No need to beg I will share my saltwater tank journey with everyone off topic!

 

[Laurasea]

thank you @ i really got into it I did have a Yashi and pistol shrimp on a different tank , my memory has taken a dive I don't remembe thst goby type but actually 3 if them lived with the goby!! I think was a high fin goby? .

You can't keep seahorses in reef tank settings , but you can keep some seahorse safe reef stuff, in seahorses settings. Which i think are lower temperature lower salinity, medium flow

Yes seahorses are delicate. Requirements perfect water conditions, must do big water changes because of build up of ( can't rember name , but it can be natural flora but builds up to high) edit ( ciliates), they need enriched midas shrimp, I had several types of enrichment powders I soaked foods in, and a special fat I soaked foods in, and I bought live pods, and shrimps enriched and fed. So I needed those cool little fishes and shrimp to keep tank clean. I have a crap ton of pictures on my computer of all my little beautiful ones. I loved thst star grass or clover or both ??? It glowed in the dark and swayed, I had some gorgeous different mushrooms as well and some sponges grew

When you talk aquarium, I pitifully don't know all that fancy stuff!!! Its over my head!!! So sorry I can't nerd out with you , you are more advanced! But wowza! You are going to be able to have clean water go in and yucky water go out! Sooooo jealous!!! Sounds so amazing!!! Need an engineering degree to run that tank!!! Please show some if your creatures from your old set up!

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Yes reefing is a big kick in the pants !!! I have been keeping saltwater off and on beginning back to 1999 and freshwater tanks as far back as 1976 back in grade school. Sorry no pictures of past creatures or previous tank. They all got deleted somehow when I changed email addresses. (Dang Photobucket!) However I have a lot of pictures that I will share of setting up this current tank as it has been a long process. I purchased this system in 2016 and had it up and running for 4 months in 2017. I had several fish, a few corals and a few invertebrates. I saw in an online website a little yellow sea cucumber I just had to have. Needless to say it was a gutsy impulse buy unbeknownst to me. Well the little bugger didn't make it and I found out the hard way that most species of sea cucumber release holothorotoxin when they die. The tank was totally nuked except for a candy cane coral with 4 polyps. After that I decided not to set up my tank again until I move to a different house. In the mean time I have been hot rodding my tank with all kinds of gadgets, bells and whistles all the while without animals in the tank waiting to move. Well it's been 3 and a half years and I'm finally moving and ready to set up my tank.

Wow this thread is going from a welcoming thread to a reef tank thread. We better take the fish tank topic to the off topic forum.

 

[Laurasea]

I got excited going down memory lane abd finding a saltwater enthusiasts!

You will want to start new threads for questions on parrot spec, and set up. and what you need to know about keeping parrots

New members thread's usually don't get much action beyond the hello and welcome 😉 but apologies for cluttering it up @!

 

[Reef Aquarist]

@Laurasea no need for apologies hopefully members will see your awesome photographs, get interested in saltwater tanks, and visit my Off-Topic saltwater tank journey thread. Here's the link:

Reef's off topic Saltwater Tank journey.

Here I'll post news and updates of my 75 gallon reef tank. Feel free to comment or ask questions.

www.parrotforums.com

 

[Scott]

Reef Aquarist! Amazing! Wow I can't wait to see it going, we have off topic thread and you can( i beg) share your aquarium journey there and update us !

To be honest I did all of mine low tech ( low cost!!) I read a crap ton , was told I couldn't do it, or keep seahorses , so of course I did it. I used a lot of macro algae , live rock , live sand, and several hang on back filters , for my 45 gallon I had two 70 g hob, abd one 50 hob,. And I had a big clean up crew of snails abd crabs
I kept 3 types of seahorses, tigertail, redi, and lined
I trained them to eat their shrimp out of a glass bowl to cut down on waste and help keep tank from getting gross. The 3rd pic is my tiger tail girls eating from the bowl the lighter striped one I raised from a fry no bigger than a fingernail in a 10 gallon before she was big enough to add with my other girls. Seahorses are actually social.
The first one is my girl Halfmoon she grew enormous!!! Over 8 inches, I confess I had her a wee fat in that pic, not the deep chest that's how they are but the little fat rolls between
View attachment 33603View attachment 33604View attachment 33605View attachment 33606View attachment 33607View attachment 33608

Gorgeous pics and memories, Laura!!

 

[hiriki]

@hiriki I see you're in Chicago. My son is near in a suburban town called Dekalb. He attends Northern Illinois University there. His mother's family is in a tiny town named Little York about 30 miles from Galesburg, Illinois.

Chicago is my "approximate" location--I'm actually closer to DeKalb than I am Chicago! I'm very familiar with NIU, and I went to college at Knox in Galesburg, IL. Small world!

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Chicago is my "approximate" location--I'm actually closer to DeKalb than I am Chicago! I'm very familiar with NIU, and I went to college at Knox in Galesburg, IL. Small world!

@hiriki wow small world indeed! My ex-wife’s family is from the Galesburg area and I am familiar with Knox college, very expensive tuition, very affluent. When I my ex and I stayed with her family we went shopping with her mother every other day in Galesburg, Monmouth, or Burlington Iowa. And we flew in or out of the airport in Moline a lot too.

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Here is the house I’ll be moving into in 6 weeks.

— Mitch.

 

[Scott]

Here is the house I’ll be moving into in 6 weeks.

— Mitch.

View attachment 33747

Looks comfy, bet they don't build homes with flat roofs in your area!!

 

[Reef Aquarist]

Looks comfy, bet they don't build homes with flat roofs in your area!!

@Scott
We are 60 miles from Canada. This picture was taken after we shoveled the snow off the roof our health food store. We needed the ladder to get on the roof but after the snow berm was piled up we just jumped off. The ladder was buried until spring.

Looks comfy, bet they don't build homes with flat roofs in your area!!

We are 60 miles from Canada. This picture was taken after we shoveled the snow off the roof our health food store. We needed the ladder to get on the roof but after the snow berm was piled up we just jumped off. The ladder was buried until spring.

 

[Scott]

@Scott
We are 60 miles from Canada. This picture was taken after we shoveled the snow off the roof our health food store. We needed the ladder to get on the roof but after the snow berm was piled up we just jumped off. The ladder was buried until spring.

We are 60 miles from Canada. This picture was taken after we shoveled the snow off the roof our health food store. We needed the ladder to get on the roof but after the snow berm was piled up we just jumped off. The ladder was buried until spring.

Wow, just wow! I've lived in cold climates but never so intense!!