lfs seen me coming

nib420247 · 11/24/2006, 03:01 PM

well its my fault I should have looked here and seen what the experts had to say...well the kid at the pet store set me up with the perfect no maintence reef tank....ha...with all the esentials, 4 65 watt jebo light, led lunar light strip (30 led way to bright?), cracked jebo skimmer, couldent return it cause of course "it wasent cracked when you bought it" an eihm canister filter 2228, 25 watt uv, 80 lb live sand, 70lb live rock, cpr90 overflow, 10 gal sump, cpr hang on refugium 19" instant ocean salt and reef master test kit, 2 marineland 550 powerheads, hygrometer....food, 12 hermits, 2 snails, brittle star, cucumber (pore little guy died during the amonia spike) 2 yellow tail damsels, some purple coral that met his fate during the cycle...looked like a mushroom, well now I know better, glad only the coral had a slow death, cucumber died in a minite or less....everything else is doing fine now...all lived through 2 weeks of .8 amonia and a month of slowly declineing rates till a few days ago I hit zero, all the while they kept selling me bottles of amclear and cycle.....the money wasted dosent bother me the time and life wasted is a shame, and I am ashamed of my ignorence.... now the question is what should I do... it is a 55 gal witch is to small in my opinion, after four inches of sand and 70lb of rock there is little room for my nemo and anemone, witch is what I wanted originally, now after reading alot on this and other forums I dont want either. dont want the damsels either, but for filteration, I was thinking use the 10 gal sump (tank) for quarintine getting a 15 high putting same baffles in it and putting 6" sand bed, skimmer, heater, and getting a return pump around 500gph and a scwd, ill take the eihm and put it on my gar tank (freshwater)(can you say freshwater on this forum?

it might be banned) ill use the uv for my quarintine tank, and I should be good right?live rock and skimmer can do the filteration and refugium and maybe a few clams could help export nutrients. am I missing something beside lots of money?

aquarius77 · 11/24/2006, 03:43 PM

Welcome to Reef Central.

My advice is to read read read. Yes you should be ok with the rock and skimmer and fuge.... cant belive they sold you that canister filter?

Keep askin questions, its a great way to learn and get different input on different methods of reef keeping.

CompNrdCR · 11/24/2006, 04:01 PM

Welcome!

I second aquarius... Rock, Sand, Skimmer and fuge should be fine. I found this website one of the best.

UrbanSage · 11/24/2006, 04:26 PM

Well, "What should I do" is a difficult question to answer

I would suggest you get some fish you can care a great deal about. Maybe some softies which will live under the lights you have.
Aqua scape to your liking.
Then be happy with your tank for a while.
During this time you should read, and get a strategy together on where you would like to be with a saltwater tank.

You can recreate your tank in six months when you have a better idea about the possibilities and a much greater understanding of what the heck this is all about.

For now, grow some coraline algae

Make your fish fat and healthy, enjoy the critters in the live rock. And learn

Plan your next setup!

gary faulkner · 11/24/2006, 05:23 PM

To Reef Central

nib420247

You can always use the canister for running carbon.

ACBlinky · 11/24/2006, 05:34 PM

That's a lousy thing for a LFS to do. Sure, they made a quick buck, but I doubt you (or anyone you mention your experience to) will be a long-term customer there. I used to send SW newbies home with a book or Reef Central's URL and tell them that the best thing they could do is keep their money in their pocket and spend a few weeks reading. Once they knew what animals they wanted to keep, I'd help them build a system around the needs of the critters and the customer's budget.

I agree with UrbanSage, see if you can enjoy your current tank for now while you plan something that will really make you happy in the long run. There's enough information here to keep you reading for a long time, and lots of people, myself included, who've been right where you are and can help you out along the way

UrbanSage · 11/24/2006, 09:23 PM

I started out with a LFS similar to yours.
Full of watts per gallon concepts, musthave additives and an undrilled tank because as I was told, buying a drilled tank limits flexibility.

Now, about a year and over a half my tank is growing outa control with "bad" corals like green star polyps and all those darn zoa's and mushrooms crowding my priced sps. What a luxury problem to have.

I do not like my aqua scape much, but my parameters are perfect, and I know what my tank is doing. And all this time I am thinking about the tank I will build into a wall in the house we will build this spring/summer. THE tank

With a plan in mind unlike last time. With experience about live rock, water quality, feedings, substrate, lighting, flow and the list goes on and on. I keep my website somewhat regularly updated, I write small articles about what I believe to be true, I take pictures and post them, for others as well as myself so I can track tank "performance"

So enjoy

teach other newbs about the pitfalls of the local fish stores, nudge them in the right direction towards those high quality stores, local or online.

Its all about learning and enjoying yourself doing so.

11/24/2006, 03:01 PM	#1
nib420247 Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 32	lfs seen me coming well its my fault I should have looked here and seen what the experts had to say...well the kid at the pet store set me up with the perfect no maintence reef tank....ha...with all the esentials, 4 65 watt jebo light, led lunar light strip (30 led way to bright?), cracked jebo skimmer, couldent return it cause of course "it wasent cracked when you bought it" an eihm canister filter 2228, 25 watt uv, 80 lb live sand, 70lb live rock, cpr90 overflow, 10 gal sump, cpr hang on refugium 19" instant ocean salt and reef master test kit, 2 marineland 550 powerheads, hygrometer....food, 12 hermits, 2 snails, brittle star, cucumber (pore little guy died during the amonia spike) 2 yellow tail damsels, some purple coral that met his fate during the cycle...looked like a mushroom, well now I know better, glad only the coral had a slow death, cucumber died in a minite or less....everything else is doing fine now...all lived through 2 weeks of .8 amonia and a month of slowly declineing rates till a few days ago I hit zero, all the while they kept selling me bottles of amclear and cycle.....the money wasted dosent bother me the time and life wasted is a shame, and I am ashamed of my ignorence.... now the question is what should I do... it is a 55 gal witch is to small in my opinion, after four inches of sand and 70lb of rock there is little room for my nemo and anemone, witch is what I wanted originally, now after reading alot on this and other forums I dont want either. dont want the damsels either, but for filteration, I was thinking use the 10 gal sump (tank) for quarintine getting a 15 high putting same baffles in it and putting 6" sand bed, skimmer, heater, and getting a return pump around 500gph and a scwd, ill take the eihm and put it on my gar tank (freshwater)(can you say freshwater on this forum? it might be banned) ill use the uv for my quarintine tank, and I should be good right?live rock and skimmer can do the filteration and refugium and maybe a few clams could help export nutrients. am I missing something beside lots of money?

11/24/2006, 04:01 PM	#3
CompNrdCR Premium Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: SF Bay Area Posts: 193	Welcome! I second aquarius... Rock, Sand, Skimmer and fuge should be fine. I found this website one of the best. __________________ 8 years salt so far... 65 Gal Reef Tank Feels So Small But The GF Won't Let Me Go Bigger! Current Tank Info: 65 Gal Reef Tank

11/24/2006, 04:26 PM	#4
UrbanSage Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Tea, SD Posts: 1,657	Well, "What should I do" is a difficult question to answer I would suggest you get some fish you can care a great deal about. Maybe some softies which will live under the lights you have. Aqua scape to your liking. Then be happy with your tank for a while. During this time you should read, and get a strategy together on where you would like to be with a saltwater tank. You can recreate your tank in six months when you have a better idea about the possibilities and a much greater understanding of what the heck this is all about. For now, grow some coraline algae Make your fish fat and healthy, enjoy the critters in the live rock. And learn Plan your next setup! __________________ You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. Current Tank Info: 270 gallon reef.

11/24/2006, 05:23 PM	#5
gary faulkner Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: North Carolina Posts: 1,468	*To Reef Central* nib420247 You can always use the canister for running carbon. __________________ Gary Current Tank Info: 300G SPS

11/24/2006, 05:34 PM	#6
ACBlinky Premium Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Peterborough, ON, Canada Posts: 4,954 Blog Entries: 20	That's a lousy thing for a LFS to do. Sure, they made a quick buck, but I doubt you (or anyone you mention your experience to) will be a long-term customer there. I used to send SW newbies home with a book or Reef Central's URL and tell them that the best thing they could do is keep their money in their pocket and spend a few weeks reading. Once they knew what animals they wanted to keep, I'd help them build a system around the needs of the critters and the customer's budget. I agree with UrbanSage, see if you can enjoy your current tank for now while you plan something that will really make you happy in the long run. There's enough information here to keep you reading for a long time, and lots of people, myself included, who've been right where you are and can help you out along the way __________________ "The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea." - Isak Dinesen Current Tank Info: 150g mixed reef, 30g sump/refugium, LED lighting, 100lbs LR, coral beauty, flame angel, blue & yellow tangs, gobies, damsels, 6-line wrasse, lawnmower blenny, dottyback, clown pair, rabbitfish, shrimp, crabs, CUC.

11/24/2006, 03:43 PM	#2
aquarius77 Moved On Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Highland, Il Posts: 2,198	Welcome to Reef Central. My advice is to read read read. Yes you should be ok with the rock and skimmer and fuge.... cant belive they sold you that canister filter? Keep askin questions, its a great way to learn and get different input on different methods of reef keeping.

11/24/2006, 09:23 PM	#7
UrbanSage Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Tea, SD Posts: 1,657	I started out with a LFS similar to yours. Full of watts per gallon concepts, musthave additives and an undrilled tank because as I was told, buying a drilled tank limits flexibility. Now, about a year and over a half my tank is growing outa control with "bad" corals like green star polyps and all those darn zoa's and mushrooms crowding my priced sps. What a luxury problem to have. I do not like my aqua scape much, but my parameters are perfect, and I know what my tank is doing. And all this time I am thinking about the tank I will build into a wall in the house we will build this spring/summer. THE tank With a plan in mind unlike last time. With experience about live rock, water quality, feedings, substrate, lighting, flow and the list goes on and on. I keep my website somewhat regularly updated, I write small articles about what I believe to be true, I take pictures and post them, for others as well as myself so I can track tank "performance" So enjoy teach other newbs about the pitfalls of the local fish stores, nudge them in the right direction towards those high quality stores, local or online. Its all about learning and enjoying yourself doing so. __________________ You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sails. Current Tank Info: 270 gallon reef.