If You Are New to Reef Central, Introduce Yourself Here!

[Waco Pilot]

Originally Posted by Rybren

You're killing me. Those are incredible planes - I'm GREEN with envy.

Trust me, we know how fortunate we are to have them and we love sharing them.... if you ever find yourself on a fish hunting expedition down here in Dayton... be sure to let us know - I'd recommend the summer time... open cockpit planes are not so much fun in the dead of winter -- and it's better to transport fish home!

[Rybren]

Hmm, it's funny, but I can't say that I've ever considered heading south to go fishing. I'm sure that there are plenty of great spots to fish, but I've never even thought of it.

Back in the late 70's when I was working as a bush pilot/fishing guide in Northern Ontario and the Northwest Territorries, 98% of our clients were guys from the Mid-West heading north to go fishing.

You can be sure that if I ever make to Dayton, I'll be knocking at your door - summer or winter. A little cold would be a small price to pay.

Back to our regularly scheduled thread....

1. Remember that only bad things happen quickly in your tank.
2. Go slowly and be patient.
3. If I read your first post correctly and your LFS knowingly sold you a scooter blenny to put in a 1-week old tank, find yourself another LFS, and fast.
4. Remember points 1 and 2
5. Consider returning the two fish
6. Remember points 1 and 2
7. If you ignore 5, consider getting some live pods to feed the blenny
8. Remember points 1 and 2
9. Good luck and be patient

[Waco Pilot]

Bush Pilot... wow... we're not worthy! You Rock!

Thanks for the tips...we really appreciate them...

We are trying to be very patient... and will be extraordinarily cautious based on what you have stated. There are live pods crawling all over the live rock in the tank and the refugium. We test the water probably twice a day -- keeping a eye on the chemistry -- we certainly don't want to jeopardize the fish in anyway -- our neighbor has an established tank and I know we could put the two of them there if need be or take them back to the store as you say.

The numbers we see this morning are:

SG/Salinity - 1.024
PH - 8.4
AM - 0.25 - (our first indication of any ammonia)
NO3 - 0
NO2 - 0
Temp is 78 - (I was reading the thread with differing opinions on temps and some feel this is low?)

Thanks so much!

[pigmagnet]

fresh meat here. trying to solve an aiptasia outbreak right now.

[illaddictreef]

Whats going on Reef Central!!! My name is Mike and I am very, very new to the game! I mean all i have is a 75 gal tank with pre-drilled holes and a 29 gal basic tank and that's pretty much it! LoL! So if there's any advice out there that yall may have will be helpful! I would like a good amount of SPS, LPS, Mushrooms, Zoanthids with some assorted fish.

[Alaskan]

Hello All,
My name is Justin and I'm new to Reef Central and all I can say is you guys are great. I'm going to be building a 180 gallon mixed reef starting next month after my tank and all the other parts and pieces get here. I have been reading a lot of threads about other peoples builds and I might get one started so you all can watch me attempt to flood my house, Hope not!
-J

[Island_Fish]

Guess I should have posted this here instead...

Originally Posted by Island_Fish

I'm new to the group and just wanted to say HI for now. I have kept fresh water tanks for years, but considering salt water and/or reef. I'm just researching for now as it seems I have a lot to learn and I don't want to rush into anything. I'm sure I'll have LOTS of questions as I go along, but for now I'll start with just one...

Our new house is less than a block from the beach. Can I use beach sand for my tank? It seems like it would be dirtier than buying sand but would have lots of beneficial critters as well. Would the benefits of the natural inhabitants outway the cleanliness or vice versa? I'm not in any hurry to add fish and other inhabitants so if the sand would just take extra time to set up, that's not a concern. I typically use pool filter sand in my fresh water tanks so I'll probably go that route if I don't use beach sand.

Thanks... and nice to meet you!

[gonzoclownzo]

I'm new here, I bought a house, found some aquariums in the basement and this website and login. What should I do now?

[Big H]

Hi Guys, Trying to find Selcon for sale, can't get any over here(UK). And anybody know if i'll pay import tax etc, sorry for the daft questions, this was my 1st port of call !!

H

[CAINE]

hello im new to the site been in the hobby for a few years but still concider my self a learner/newbee i curently have a 37g up with the things that suvived the fire under my 125g

[marty810]

Hello RC, I'm a rookie on salt water tanks although I have more than 10 years experience with fresh water. But this is a whole different animal. I got a gift tank from my friend who needed to move and get rid of his tank. It's a 125 gallon with a 55 gallon tank underneath as a filtration system or I guess the term here is overflow system. We moved it from his house with the sand, rocks, fish and 90 gallon of water. So the tank is fully operational with 7 fish and I have already added 3 and some coral. Now I'm going to depend on RC to learn as much as I can. Talk to me RC....

[marty810]

Btw, forgot to mention that my name is Marty. I figured since it's my username that it was obvious, so sorry about that.

[Scream311]

Hey Reef Central Crew ! Ok so I finally made the Leap and became a Memebr to this Amazing Site I hear so much about. A lil about me. My names James and I'm from San Antonio Tx. Currently a MAAST Member but have found myself browsing threads at every lil chance I get so I figured id browse an even bigger site and share opinions on forums and of course obtain more knowledge in this Addicting Hobby. I've been an active Aquarist for the last 13yrs. 10 as freshwater. And the last 3 salt. Started with a 55 killed a few fish and ended up with a 125 in wall. As of October 2010 I picked up a 210 and have turned that into an Aggressive Trigger Grouper Tang and Angel FOWLR. It has a 90 beside it that I plan to turn into an Octo. And the 125 in wall will become a REEF. Getting my feet wet with Coral in a 20Tall

[Original Fin]

Hello RC!

So here's my deal. I'm obsessed with this hobby. My wife says that I'm out of control, but she's happy I'm not into guns or motorcycles instead. My 20 MO daugther loves to "help" me with maintenance, and especially likes to watch the "bugs" in the refugium.
I've only been at the SW thing since May of this year, and I had no previous experience with FW, although I've got friends and family that do, so I wasn't completly ignorant, just mostly.

Anyway, I've been out here in the hot and sunny Central CA valley since 2006, but I was born and raised in Massachusetts...moved out here following a job promotion, and now we're kind of stuck here for a while. Eventually we want to move back east...it's very nice here, but it just doesn't feel like home. In the mean time, this turns out to be a great place to get my feet wet in the hobby. Our house, like all houses around here has central heating and air. It's modestly sized, and energy efficent, so we keep climate control running year round. No Higher than 79, no lower than 68, so the tank temp is easy to maintain without the need of chillers and large heaters. I'll probably jinx myself for saying so, but I can only recall one short power outage in the 5 years I've been here. It would be a whole different ball game in MA, and I'm sure a generator and dedicated cooling for the short but hot summers would be must haves.

So, I currently have an AGA 55 mixed reef. There's really not much in the tank yet...the centerpieces are a toadstool and Kenya tree coral if that helps to paint the picture. Other than that, have a couple zoo frags growing out, some red and green mushrooms, a small xenia colony, green star polyps and a green BTA. For fish, it's a Bi-color Angel, Pajama Cardinal, Green Mandarin, and a pair of tank raised Ocelaris clowns. CUC is 4 turbo snails, a couple nassarius, astrea, various hermits, a black long spine urchin, and a Coral Banded Shrimp. It's also noteworthy that I have a literal forrest of feather dusters.
Had a few losses along the way...a beautiful Percula clown that succumbed to Brook, a Six Line Wrasse with a mystery illness, and a Diamond Goby that decided to try his hand at terrestrial living. Most of my corals have done well, but I did lose a green brain that just never took, and my ricordia has slowly been withering away.

The tank's got about 60 lbs of LR (Fiji and Tongan) and a 2" arragonite sand bed. I started off running with just an Aqueon HOB cartrige filter, and a couple of wimpy T8's. Soon after the tank cycled, I ditched the Aqueon in favor of a CPR Aeroforce HOB skimmer, and also upgraded to a 4 bulb T5 lighting system. For flow, I've always had just one Evo 1050.
A couple months ago, I assembled my DIY sump/fuge system from (2) AGA 10's, both drilled and coupled to fit inside my narrow stand. I continue to use the HOB skimmer, but I've just moved it down below. I'm culturing pods and chaeto in one of my fuge chambers, and the other just has a DSB, albeit with a small footprint. I use a Mag 7 for return, and an overflow box/siphon in the DT. I also rigged a cheap but effective ATO from an $8 float valve, and a 6 gallon water jug.

Eventually, I'd really like to do a larger in wall reef, maybe in the 90-240 range, but I'm not interested in dropping the big bucks for premium equipment and rocks to do it. If I can' figure out a way to set up and maintain for a reasonable, sustainable cost, then I'll just stick to my 55. The cost of Rock will definately be a limiting factor, so I'll likely make most of it myself, whether it be arragocrete or perhaps even ceramics.

Another interest of mine in regards to a potential larger system are Algae Turf Scrubbers as supplemental filtration. I'd like to experiment with one on my 55, to see whether or not doing one on a larger tank could reduce my filtration equipment costs to the point of where it would be feasible for me.
Another pet project of mine is finding a way to reduce water changes as much as possible. The cost of salt on a large system is nothing to sneeze at. There's been some interesting research done on that subject by GARF, but there seems to be some disagreement within the community as to the potential longevity of mud bed systems.

I'll close for now with a couple pics of me, my family and my system. See ya around!

[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/2u4ow7p.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i56.*******.com/11hzz40.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/29g1oxt.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/2rw2lau.jpg[/IMG]

[TexasDude]

hey everybody! i'm new here but have been following some of the threads and have gained alot of knowledge from this forum. just wanted to drop in and say whatsup!

[jloschen]

hello to all

[Reef N Discus]

Well my name is Nate, 33 yrs old with a wife and three girsl ages 13, 10, nd 4yrs old. I have kept small fresh water trypical fish tanks ever since I can reeber with my father who had been keeping fish tanks before I was born in 77, he had a tank with perania and some other things from what he and my mother tell me. He naturally brought his hobby to my attention and go me interested at an earlya ge with keeping small tank of 30 gallons or so. Well after keeping lizards, berdead dragons, igunas and such I decide to start keeping my own trypical tanks fresh water. It was not long before I discoverd the most beautiful of all freshwater fish the king of the fresh water aquirum the discus of course! After spending the last couple of years with discus and lightly planted tanks I have always been keeping an eye out over in the salt water world and always wanted to start a coral reef tank. Well I am a definate newbie when it comes to saltwater and coral and inverts and everything else. For about the past 6 months or more I have been watching every episode of LA Fish guys on you tube every episode probably more than once and got to thinking I can do this. I am currently saving money to purchase all the needed equipment and for some of the not so needed as well. I know what I need and why I needed it so I am goos there and theres a couple of extra items I think I may purchase like a ph monitor and such. I am planning on a 90 gallon system I like the foot print of the 90 gallon tanks and that size should keep me happy for a good long while as my main discus display tank is only a 55 gallon as is so I know I will be very happy with a 90 gallon mixed reef setup with a few reef comaptible fish whatever those would be besides clowns I have no idea. The 90 gallon is probably the max i can afford eqiupment wise as the equipment I will ned to purchse will be cost prohibitve for anything much larger. I am planning on a nice in sunp skimmer of a 150 gallon capacity or i was looking at an external recurculating skimmer a well, 6 bulb T5 HO set up from Nova extreem individual reflectors sup plus refugiu an extrnel high pressure filter pump maybe an external pump for curculation or power heads on a wave maker timmer moon lights are a must there awsome and a spectra RO/DI unit if I left other things out I am sorry. oh yea an automatic shut off on the RO/DI for filling my resovor which rite now is an empty 30 gallon tank I use to store my freshwater from my discus tank. it will be nice not to have to change water every other day which is what I currently have been doing to 3 times a week at about 75% on the discus tank it will be a nice change of pace to only have to change the water once every two weeks or so. I was thinking of buying a UV sterilizer as well but not sure about that just yet. Well anyway thats e in a nut shell I like to spend time with my family I am a big home body dont do much out side of the house except for go to movies and such, my bar clubing days are pretty much over now I watch movies with my wife and kids most the time its disney movies like Toy Story 3 is the latest one my 4 year old makes me watch about 3 times a night every now and again I can watch a grown up movie with my wife and older girls. I love y XBOX 360 and Halo 3 have not been laying much lately. I have a 4 year degree in BS IT information technology and a 2 year degree in electronics I love science and technology. My plany with Xmas and the kids will probably take me most of the Winter to purchase all my needed equipment I have to save buy a expensive pice of equipment save buy an expensive pice of equipent and so on untill I am there. Funny thing is the 90 gallon with internal over flow is not all tht expensive when compared to the other equipment you need to run a sucseful reef tank, the stand and canopy can kill you depending on what you buy. Well anyway I am done for now I hope to learn off of you untill I am ready for set up. At least the time needed to buy all my equipent will afford me even more time to learn in the mean tie thats a good thing rather than have all the money now and jump into it half blind I can slow down and tke my time and each item I buy will be well thought out in advance. I am from York PA which is near Harrisburg the capitaol of PA about 45 minutes from Baltimore MD and about 2 and a half hours from Philadelphia PA just to let you all know where I am from and currently live. Thanks for hearning about who Iam and I look forward to the experince thanks again!! I am ready for the party!!

[Inthenameofweez]

Hey guys and girls.

My name is Clayton. I'm a newbie here in all underwater things. I had hermit crabs as a kid, but no tanks. I hope you don't think of me as crazy, but my roommate and I are diving in head first and we plan to purchase a 90 gallon AGA in the coming weeks.

We've got a pretty fair amount of knowledge as far as coral and fish interaction go. The nitrites and nitrates along with phosphates are a bit confusing, but hopefully RC can help with those questions!!

We can't wait to grow in knowledge of this amazing hobby!

[NomiGold]

Hello Reef Central!

I've been lurking around here for a while now while diving for information on marine and reef aquariums, and thought I may as well introduce myself before I start asking thousands upon millions of questions! Ok, perhaps not quite that many. But it may seem like it.

I started in the hobby about 10-12 years back as a kid when my parents inherited a 30G tropical tank. I soon became the aquarium caretaker and was the only one in my family to develop more than a passing interest in fishkeeping. However, due to a lack of space and my parents dislike of pets in the house, the 30 G was banished to my parents truck shop. The first few years we kept a simple tropical community of tetras, mollies and cory cats, until a power outage in winter took out all the fish (I'm from the Canada-land, you see). However, this caused me to discover my love of fancy goldfish, and we started afresh with three fantastic fantails five years ago, and a small backup in case of more power problems.

Luckily in the last few years I was allowed a ten gallon tank and a few bettas, and started learning to keep plants and started some simple aquascaping, also keeping a small breeding colony of crystal red shrimp! I was even allowed to upgrade the 30G goldfish tank to an 80G, and have been having some great success with developing a goldfish safe aquascape!

In two months, however, I will be moving across the country for some higher learning. I've already torn down my betta and planted shrimp tanks, giving away my fish and shrimps to friends, and teaching my parents how to take care of my beloved goldies. But as sad as all this is, this means I will finally have the control over what tanks I can have! well, depending on space. And money. And space. I hope to expand my fishkeeping experience, and start keeping some goldfish in a green water tub, some dwarf chiclids, FW puffers and even *gasp* a marine tank!

I've learnt the hard way over the years the great importance of research and patience in all things aquaria, and most likely will not be able to set up a reef or FOWLR for a long time yet, so I'll be taking advantage of all that time to learn me some knowledge. The mechanics and technicalities of SW seem quite different than FW, so I'll probably be spending most of my time figuring that out.

Sorry for writing so much! Cookies for all who read that! I hope to learn quite a lot on here!

[fra1]

Hey Guys my name is frank, and people at petsmart call me frank da tank, love this forum and cant wait to read up on all the DIY stuff, I have had a reef tank since I was 11 years old and no I have a 34gallon reef setup, a large cichlid tank and my beloved koi pond.

[fra1]

Originally Posted by Original Fin

Hello RC!

So here's my deal. I'm obsessed with this hobby. My wife says that I'm out of control, but she's happy I'm not into guns or motorcycles instead. My 20 MO daugther loves to "help" me with maintenance, and especially likes to watch the "bugs" in the refugium.
I've only been at the SW thing since May of this year, and I had no previous experience with FW, although I've got friends and family that do, so I wasn't completly ignorant, just mostly.

Anyway, I've been out here in the hot and sunny Central CA valley since 2006, but I was born and raised in Massachusetts...moved out here following a job promotion, and now we're kind of stuck here for a while. Eventually we want to move back east...it's very nice here, but it just doesn't feel like home. In the mean time, this turns out to be a great place to get my feet wet in the hobby. Our house, like all houses around here has central heating and air. It's modestly sized, and energy efficent, so we keep climate control running year round. No Higher than 79, no lower than 68, so the tank temp is easy to maintain without the need of chillers and large heaters. I'll probably jinx myself for saying so, but I can only recall one short power outage in the 5 years I've been here. It would be a whole different ball game in MA, and I'm sure a generator and dedicated cooling for the short but hot summers would be must haves.

So, I currently have an AGA 55 mixed reef. There's really not much in the tank yet...the centerpieces are a toadstool and Kenya tree coral if that helps to paint the picture. Other than that, have a couple zoo frags growing out, some red and green mushrooms, a small xenia colony, green star polyps and a green BTA. For fish, it's a Bi-color Angel, Pajama Cardinal, Green Mandarin, and a pair of tank raised Ocelaris clowns. CUC is 4 turbo snails, a couple nassarius, astrea, various hermits, a black long spine urchin, and a Coral Banded Shrimp. It's also noteworthy that I have a literal forrest of feather dusters.
Had a few losses along the way...a beautiful Percula clown that succumbed to Brook, a Six Line Wrasse with a mystery illness, and a Diamond Goby that decided to try his hand at terrestrial living. Most of my corals have done well, but I did lose a green brain that just never took, and my ricordia has slowly been withering away.

The tank's got about 60 lbs of LR (Fiji and Tongan) and a 2" arragonite sand bed. I started off running with just an Aqueon HOB cartrige filter, and a couple of wimpy T8's. Soon after the tank cycled, I ditched the Aqueon in favor of a CPR Aeroforce HOB skimmer, and also upgraded to a 4 bulb T5 lighting system. For flow, I've always had just one Evo 1050.
A couple months ago, I assembled my DIY sump/fuge system from (2) AGA 10's, both drilled and coupled to fit inside my narrow stand. I continue to use the HOB skimmer, but I've just moved it down below. I'm culturing pods and chaeto in one of my fuge chambers, and the other just has a DSB, albeit with a small footprint. I use a Mag 7 for return, and an overflow box/siphon in the DT. I also rigged a cheap but effective ATO from an $8 float valve, and a 6 gallon water jug.

Eventually, I'd really like to do a larger in wall reef, maybe in the 90-240 range, but I'm not interested in dropping the big bucks for premium equipment and rocks to do it. If I can' figure out a way to set up and maintain for a reasonable, sustainable cost, then I'll just stick to my 55. The cost of Rock will definately be a limiting factor, so I'll likely make most of it myself, whether it be arragocrete or perhaps even ceramics.

Another interest of mine in regards to a potential larger system are Algae Turf Scrubbers as supplemental filtration. I'd like to experiment with one on my 55, to see whether or not doing one on a larger tank could reduce my filtration equipment costs to the point of where it would be feasible for me.
Another pet project of mine is finding a way to reduce water changes as much as possible. The cost of salt on a large system is nothing to sneeze at. There's been some interesting research done on that subject by GARF, but there seems to be some disagreement within the community as to the potential longevity of mud bed systems.

I'll close for now with a couple pics of me, my family and my system. See ya around!

[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/2u4ow7p.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i56.*******.com/11hzz40.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/29g1oxt.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i54.*******.com/2rw2lau.jpg[/IMG]

Love that setup, and that sump tank is amazing!

[billsreef]

fra1


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[aLeXo]

Hello to all inhabitants of the REEF CENTRAL tank.
My name is Alex and I am new to RC. I have been involved with sw tanks for the last 6 years and before that fresh for 20 years. I currently have a 135g and a 120g that i am going to be plumbing together with a 55g viewable fuge. Not sure just yet what will be stocked in either tank just yet. Right now the 120 is up and running with about 200lbs of figi and tonga. There's about 30 mushrooms scattered throughout the tank. 4 damsels, 1 engineer goby, 1 snowflake eel, 1 grouper (cephalopholis argus). All still relatively young and small. All in same tank for now as I am remodeling my fish room. Looking forward to all the information that I can absorb from you all...................

[aLeXo]

double post...........

[HouseOfCorals]

My name is Jeff and wife's name is Karen. We have been into fresh and salt set ups for over 30 years and still have the fever of this hobby! We have 2 sytems. The 1st 850 gallon and the second 400 gallon both with a mixture of tanks ranging from 55 gallons to 215 gallons, our basement sump room is 16x26 and is full now. LOL I always say that and yet still find room for another tank! We have 7 prop tanks growing every thing from shrooms to acros, 6 T-5 six lamp fixtures and 250watt MH fixtures. 225 gallon Rodi water storage and 100 gallon salt mix storage. We will post some pictures soon! It's nice to be here.