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

[tahoward9]

Hello Everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster…

Seriously, I just got into the hobby a couple months ago. I built a new house and plumbed the display cabinet to the basement. I now have 120 gallon DT with 40G sump/fuge up and running with sand, live rock, and a couple critters (damsels).

So far, so good, except I can't seem to keep any snails alive for more than a day, and now I'm seeing a troubling brownish substance starting to coat everything in the tank. I will post separately with a couple specific questions in that regard.

For now, I just wanted to say hello. I'm happy to have such a great resource to draw on.

[justmike6969]

hey all, name is mike, am new both to saltwater tanks and the forum! i have a 90 gallon FOWLR .... and will prolly have lots of qustions lol

[Sorped]

Hello Reef Central!

I went to a local petshop the other day and really got my eyes opened wide for this fantastic hobby. I'm a long way from having a tank, but I know good preparation goes a long way, and so hope to do my homework with the help of you all here

[clbarrett00]

Hello! My name is Chris. I've been a aquarium hobbyist since about 14 or so
Imagine coming home from school and finding a 225 gallon in your dining room! My brother turned the room into a full on pet store. A 55 long and 45 tall also found its way in the room. A wild assortment of fish and criiters. Including a blue ring octopus and dragon eel. Needless to say I had a lot of fun in there and learned a lot! Since then I've had my own 45 reef tank and it was looking beatiful until a bad storm came through memphis and had out power out for a week. Cry! recently I was going through my attic and found my old amiracle wet dry. I have a 40g breeder I was using for a gecko, but since she passed away I have got the bug again. My questions are.. should I use the trickle wet dry? Should I convert it to include refugium? I know bio balls are kinda out dated and I have some base rock. Should I use that? Sand? I haven't a clue! I have a 16 month old and I think he would love growing up with a beautiful tank. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Tim48]

Hello all.... I'm just getting back into the hobby, I had a drilled 150 Fish only back in the mid 90's, and got out of it after about 7 years. I just recently set up a small fresh water for the Grand Kids and I saw all the Cool Saltwater stuff at the LFS and I had to get another one going! So I got a small 54~Gal. Corner and getting all my stuff together now! Never heard of a refugium back in the 90's, lol, but I'm putting one together now. Alot of people was telling me that I don't need a sump for such a small tank but what I have planned, a sump is a must! These New Power-Heads are different too and I don't know how I'm gonna set it up with this weird shape or I don't know what type of Power-Heads or Wave-Maker to use as I'm going to go with a Deep sand bed, Live-Rock with Corals & small Fish. I'm sure there's other's here with a corner tank and I would appreciate any and all replies with what you guys used with this weird shaped corner tank for good water flow....... Tim from Lou.Ky

[clay12340]

Hello all. I'm also coming back to the hobby after a few years away. I previously kept a 3 gallon and 12 gallon reef, and a bunch of fresh water critters. I also had a habit of buying tanks and equipment that seemed like a good deal without an actual use for them. I ran into a series of stupid mistakes and unfortunate happenings that kind of killed my join in the aquarium keeping hobby at the time.

Now I'm down to just two turtles in a 120 and 40 and a room full of empty tanks. I bumped a stack of tanks and broke a few, so decided it was either time to get back into the hobby or start selling some of this stuff off. Then new neighbors moved in with a nice looking reef tank in their living room window that I drive by every day. Jealousy won out over craigslist. So the plan for the new year is to drill one of the 75s and get a reef going in my office and plumb it into the fish room in the basement.

[Ratbrow]

Hello all! I am new to the hobby. Had a 35 gallon saltwater about 12 years ago with one clown (I see things have changed over the years). In the past two months I have found a new passion for the hobby and am fired-up to get started.
I will be looking for some great advice obviously as I get started. I will thank you all in advance now for all the great advice you will be sharing. I'm going to need it!!

[bonewfo]

Hey everyone, my name is Josh. I currently have two reef aquariums and one freshwater aquarium. I am new too saltwater and am learning as I go. Looking forward to talking and learning from everybody here.

[peterd33]

Hi Everyone. My name is Pete. I recently moved to Tel Aviv, Israel and will be living here for the next two years. I have had many reef tanks in the past and most recently I was working for an aquarium maintenance company in the Washington, D.C. area. I will never feel at home without a reef tank wherever I go. For the next 20 + years we will be moving every 2-3 years to a new part of the world and starting over again. So with that said I need to move fast and furious with getting my tanks set up every time I move and starting them so that I will have time to enjoy some awesome corals before we move on again. Looking forward to being part of the Reef Central community! Pete

[nycoral1]

Hey every one,

My name is Aj. Cause of work I used to live in the uk for 6 years and picked up reefing there. Since I am back in the states and living in NYC (Whitestone) moving the tank and equipment was a lot of money and time.

But a went well and the tank did not break with the transshipping from the uk to here.

I see a lot ppl have amazing tanks on this site, I have a Elos 80 with all tunze power heads (since they were good prices in the uk) and proflux doser.

Lighting is ati power mod with LEDs.

[nouveaux]

Hello all!

Just getting started. I went out looking for a tank and bought a whole fish store! Not the business but all the equipment. As a small business owner (Tabletop games, Magic the Gathering, etc), I saw a great business opportunity and hopefully it'll pan out.

I'm looking to build a 90 gallon tank, mostly for coral and inverts. Everyone's tanks continues to inspire me and I'm hoping to learn from all of you!

[acewalker7]

Hey guys,

Just started the saltwater hobby of my own, which is funny because i have worked in pet stores and fish stores. Currently have a 55 cichlid tank, a couple 20s of community fresh and have a 45 saltwater currently in the works and i am picking up a 24 gallon nano cube sometime within the next two weeks. I look forward to the reef tanks and posting on this forum and learning from all the knowledge on this forum!

[Zacktosterone]

Hey folks I'm Zack. I should of started off here but I didn't. I'm very excited to be a part of the reefing community.

a little about my tank,

90 gallon
FOWLR (for now)
2 kessil a360we's
1 crystal trigger sump 36
1 jbj auto top off
1 pls-100 pipeless protein skimer
1 ehiem 900gph return pump
1 two little fishes phosban reactor
2 300 watt finnex digital heaters
3 korallia 1500 gph power heads

fish
4 chromis
2 clowns
1 carpenter flasher wrasse
1 bicolor blenny

on the way
1 yellow eye kole tang
1 royal gramma
1 wrasse (haven't decided yet)
those will be the last of the fish in the tank and the next step will be coral

i also have some trocus snails, nassarius snails, and a cleaner shrimp

i can try to post pics of people would like to see some since all i have pictures of is my 60 gallon that i took down, on my profile.

Anyway, thanks for having me folks

[bradleybradley]

Hi All,

Brad here, returning from a long stint from a short-lived hobby. In 2001 my wife and I had a 38-something gallon setup that was doing pretty well, until our apartment was burglarized, our neighbor was murdered, and other bad stuff happened in our SF Bay Area neighborhood...

Anyhow, back then Mr. Fingerwrinkles was gracious enough to help with a bit of captive-raised livestock. We're hoping that when the time is right he'll be able to help again!

So I have a nice DSA 65 gallon setup and I have a pump, rocks, heater and a light on order so I hope to get this sucker going by the end of the holiday season.

-

[scubasteve319]

Hi, my name is Steve and I have had a 28g nano cube reef tank for close to three years now. I found this site while researching for my next tank. The new tank will be large (150g+). My setup now is very simple: live rock, lots of soft coral and a few LPS corals, and three fish (Regal Blue Tang, Bengai Cardinal, and a clownfish). No skimmer or additives. The rock structure has become saturated with calurpa(sp?) which was an unfortunate accident from feeding my tang. The beauty of it is that my water parameters are great with the exception of alkalinity of only 5%. Any helpful advice on how to narrow down my setup options for a larger tank? I really want to utilize a refugium. Can I have a skimmer and a refugium? Thanks for the help in advance!

[apeddie]

Hi all. We'll after much prodding from my 10 yr old, I finally decided to take the plunge and set up a aquarium. It actually didn't take to much prodding, I have always been fascinated by reef tanks. My friend and local DQ have one ( my excuse to run out and get an ice cream .. Yeh sure your going to look at the fish ).

I have been doing lots of research between reading books, asking questions and visiting various forums, especially reef central, over the past 6 months or so. Slow and steady wins the race so they say.

I am just waiting for my boss to finish my custom stand that will house my 180 gallon tank and 55 gallon sump. I finally got through the QT tank thread so have set up a 20 gallon QT as we'll.

Can't wait to get everything up and running and get my first fish. Hopefully after Christmas I can get the plumbing done and start the tank to cycle.

Have a good holidays.

[ROBERTOMONTER]

My name is Roberto Monter I live in Mexicali, Baja California right across the border from Calexico, California on the Mexican side. I am posting this massage, because I would like to develop a project of building custom made residential aquariums as well as commercial aquariums throughout the Baja region, and would like to get the most information there is, on how to get this going. My intentions are just to focus on clients in the Mexican side.
I see a potential market that is not been developed here and in other states of Mexico which is what I intend to do. If I go ahead and develop this project I really need the most information I can get a hold off because I consider myself new to this business and my knowledge of reef aquariums is non. But like I mention before I see an unexploded opportunity that I would like to take advantage off. I already have the ability to work with experience architects, electricians, and plumbing because I have worked on constructions sites with them. On the other hand, I will need a suppliers which I can get a hold off through this forums.
I understand that there is a long road ahead but I might as well start.

[gam3ovr]

Hi All,

New to the forum but not to the hobby. I've been out of saltwater tanks for 10 years but just got a JBJ 30G setup for my birthday. I plan on doing a small reef setup with this tank and going to something MUCH larger when I finally find the land to build my next home on.

Other than tanks I'm a big car guy and work in sales in the tech world.

Looking forward to learning LOTS here.

[Direwolf83]

Hello I'm a total noob. My name is Lyle Perry from corning, NY. I'm currently building a 40 gallon breeder with a 20 gallon long sump. Been doing a lot of research and reading. I'm new to the hobby but not new to keeping an aquarium. I'll be asking many of questions looking forward to obtaining as much info as I can.

[kaylee_gee]

Hello all! I am very new to this whole salt water adventure! You could say I am still wet behind the ears I am actually just starting out with brackish water, not full-blown salt water. Nice to be here, and I hope to learn a lot about my colorful sea-worthy friends!

-CG

[MSMD]

Hi,
My name is MonkeySeaMonkeyDoo (MSMD). I just joined but I've been on this site many times. I'm a longtime member of Jax reef and marine club in Jacksonville Florida.
I have had many tasks in the past years but have consolidated down to just one now.
I have a 110g mixed reef that I'm currently building. The tank was a rescue and had to b be completely resealed, resurfaced and revived. Hope to meet and chat With everyone here and gain knowledge from experienced sps reefers.

[markie14]

hi guys,.. im new to this hobby.. im still learning my 1 yr old reef tank 55 gallon,. i hope you can share your experience so that i can be a better reefkeeper someday..

[GoDawgs]

Hello all, names Ben.

Very new to saltwater reef tanks, had a fresh water setup for about a year before switching over to my new (Used) 65 gallon saltwater set up. Tank is still cycling so no fish or corals yet, just about 40 lbs of live rock. Planning to get 25 lbs more in the next few weeks.

Very much appreciate any tips or tricks to get started on the right foot!

[Krich1130]

Hi my Name is Kara and I am new to the salt water hobby. I raise and sold different types of fish when I was young along with horses..
In time i grew up and other things became more inportant so I stopped. I always wanted to do salt but anyone and everyone told me it was a total pain and I would hate it.. Well I'm on day 30 and not only am in love but my husband who HATES fish has his own now also..
I spent about a year reading everything I could but I am really a hands on person.. I'm looking forward to doing more as time goes on.
One thing I have found that is for sure.. IF ITS NOT BROKEN DO NOT FiX IT.. Duh!

[Krich1130]

New and learing myself. I just finnished my cycle and its been about a week with fish in tank..
My whole set up was PERFECT.. EVERYTHING.. Then I messed with it because i thought my salinity was just a little too high.. .25.. STUPID!
I almost had to start all over.. If there is any advice I could give is if you are in range dont mess with it.
Kara...
PS everyone has there own view point in this hobby. Its what works for you and its always what is in range that matters..