How I Got Into The Marine Reefing Hobby – Tommy Schofield | Aquaforest

How I Got Into The Marine Reefing Hobby - Tommy Schofield

I have been keeping fish for most my life from simple freshwater setups, tropical aquascapes, ponds, brackish and marine reefs.

I have kept a large range of fish over my time in the hobby, but my favourites freshwater fish I’ve kept has to been my fahaka pufferfish called Oggy. He was a water puppy, for sure, always waiting for his next meal.

I’ve been in the marine hobby for around 5 years. I know it’s not long when you talk to other reefers who have been in the hobby for 20+ years, but I am only 26. I was very lucky to have been sponsored a small 30 liter reef tank from a company with a small budget to get my tank started. I had never kept a marine before, so I was doing as much research as possible before even setting up my reef tank. I feel like I have learnt a lot over a short amount of time from people in the hobby, from my own research and mistakes along the way, and also working in the aquarium industry.

What I Have Kept Over The Years

Over the last 5 years I have kept a lot of different corals from soft corals, LPS corals and SPS corals. I have kept a fair few marine fish some I still have now some also went to new homes, my favourites corals have to be euphyllia hammer and frogspawn I love the movement from them and have had great results with them over the years, I do also love my trachyphyllia corals when I’m feeding them.

Currently I have three marine reef tanks up and running, I have a small 35l nano tank with my warty frogfish in called Larry in there are four bubble tipped anemone’s in there a mini maxi anemone and a few soft corals. The second tank is a 110l dropdown style I went with a natural macro algae tank with some simple soft corals and love the natural look of it. I have four clownfish, six line wrasse, neon dottyback and a small dwarf fuzzy lionfish in there till he’s bigger. I also have a mixed reef that is around 500l with lots of different corals and different fish in here so you’ll have to see them on my instagram @mini_reefin but my favourite fish are my lipstick tang for his elegance in the water and my peacock wrasse for the amazing colours from head to tail.

Mistakes And Achievements

It hasn’t all been plain sailing I’ve had a few miss haps like getting stung by my foxface  and having alot of corals not make it due to my water barrels in my garden leaking rain water into them and myself not realising till I did a Aquaforest ICP test when things went downhill.

Overall I have loved everything about keeping marine I have had great success with the help of many generous sponsors that I’m grateful for and being able to get my reefs the best possible chance to thrive.

In the future I hope to still be in the hobby as I’m only getting started and would love a larger system keeping some amazing corals and fish.

Thank you Mini_Reefin

To check out more material from Kenneth, please visit his Instragram! https://www.instagram.com/mini_reefin/