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

[hessfish]

hi people my name is stephen and i live in new york
currently i have a fowlr with 2 ocellarius clowns
i want to upgrade to a anemone tank, but i need to seed my rock with coroline and such.
any ideas on cheaper seeding?

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by hessfish

hi people my name is stephen and i live in new york
currently i have a fowlr with 2 ocellarius clowns
i want to upgrade to a anemone tank, but i need to seed my rock with coroline and such.
any ideas on cheaper seeding?

To Reef Central

You don't need coralline to have anemones. However if you want coralline in your tank make sure you get your alkalinity, calcium and magnesium to the proper levels and get some coralline flakes from another tank and toss them in and in a few months you should get some good coralline growth.

[hessfish]

so the fact that the rock was never seeded (bought dry) wont hurt if i buy an anemone?
i have live sand that was bought seeded

[bigdoug]

Originally Posted by Sisterlimonpot

To Reef Central
Bigdoug,
Now you should convert that wet/dry into a sump/refugium. wet/dry systems have no place in salt water systems. The only exception to that rule is if you're planning on just a fish only tank and not going to have a reef tank.

Let me explain: those bioballs trap detritus and eventually break down to become nitrates, with a reef tank your goal is to keep the nitrates down as low as you can, so instead of using bioballs for the biological filtration we use live rock in its place.

Fish don't care about the nitrate level and that's why I say if it's just a fish only tank; by all means use a wet/dry.

And once you get your tank up and running be sure to start a thread with your set-up. It sounds a lot like mine.

good luck.

This is exactly the kind of information i am looking for, thank you!!

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by hessfish

so the fact that the rock was never seeded (bought dry) wont hurt if i buy an anemone?
i have live sand that was bought seeded

What's you're asking is to cycle the rock so that it has the beneficial bacteria needed to sustain life in the tank. The answer to that is a definite Yes.

Let's make a distinction between cycle or live rock and rock full of coralline algae and microfauna.

you have to cycle your tank before you can have livestock survive past 2 weeks in the tank, and by that I mean you have to create a source of ammonia and allow it to build up so that bacteria can cultivate to convert that ammonia to nitrite and when the nitrite levels start to get high you promote the growth of the other bacteria that converts nitrites to nitrates. this is called cycling the tank or turning your dead rock into live rock, that bacteria lives on the surfaces of the tank like the rock, sand and any other hard surface in the tank.

When you say, "but i need to seed my rock with coralline and such" you're talking about something totally different. When I read seeding the tank I assume you mean adding microfauna like copepods, amphipods, mini stars, worms etc. Which is also something you would probably want in your tank to have a successful reef, but not necessary for anemones.

Hope that clears things up.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by bigdoug

This is exactly the kind of information i am looking for, thank you!!

I wish I found this site when I started in on the hobby... I would have saved sooo much water!!!

[dryad001]

Hello all

Made a thread here

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by dryad001

Hello all

Made a thread here

To Reef Central
I'm going to check it out right now.

[zoahead]

hi guys ive been inthe hobby for 4yrs i have a 55g reef with 1mp20 vortech 1seio 620,phosban reactor ,euro reef rs100,100pds live rock,750gph main pump and 2 150w sunpod, im happy to be here with the family.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by zoahead

hi guys ive been inthe hobby for 4yrs i have a 55g reef with 1mp20 vortech 1seio 620,phosban reactor ,euro reef rs100,100pds live rock,750gph main pump and 2 150w sunpod, im happy to be here with the family.

To Reef Central
Thanks for sharing, be sure to start a new thread documenting your tank.

[dvenson]

Hi my name is Daniel. I have been keeping a saltwater tank for the past few years. I live in Denver and I am a member of MASC. I decided to join this site several months ago to get connected with local hobbyist. I found MASC and stuck with them. Today I was talking with a local hobbyist and reef central came up in our discussion. So here I am. My current setup consists of a 40 gallon breeder with a 20L sump. My lighting consist of 4 39 w T-5`s and 1 250 W MH 10k bulb. I have several acros a ton of zoas a mated pair of clown fish. I also have several acans and many more corals.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by dvenson

Hi my name is Daniel. I have been keeping a saltwater tank for the past few years. I live in Denver and I am a member of MASC. I decided to join this site several months ago to get connected with local hobbyist. I found MASC and stuck with them. Today I was talking with a local hobbyist and reef central came up in our discussion. So here I am. My current setup consists of a 40 gallon breeder with a 20L sump. My lighting consist of 4 39 w T-5`s and 1 250 W MH 10k bulb. I have several acros a ton of zoas a mated pair of clown fish. I also have several acans and many more corals.

To Reef Central
I am a member of masc, just moved from Cheyenne to here. A lot of great reefers in your area. Masc also has a club site on RC as well. Check it out

[chefb_5]

Hi I'm Brandon From MN and I have been doing salt water for 6 yrs and a reefing for 6 months. I have a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump and in that sump I have a Reef Octopus NW 200. For lights I have 4 T-5 retros and 1 1050 korilia and a 1400 the newist ones and a old # 3 korolia. Fish I have a koran angel, purple tang and 2 clown fish. Coral I have some Acans, montiporas, wave hands, cactus, yuma, palys, mushrooms and chaliaces.

[Amunet]

Hi, I'm completely new to SW tanks and have been studying last few weeks and am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. Haven't bought a tank or anything yet because I want to know exactly what I'm getting and where I'm going to put it, etc. Does anyone recommend a good starting tank size? I want a strictly coral/anemone tank with possibly a few fish in it in the future and living area isn't an issue but I also don't want a monster. Column tanks look cool and building a reef up the middle sounds like something I wanna do, although I imagine cleaning is difficult... Well, any ideas/advice/etc I'm all ears!

[wolfish_one]

Hi, I'm Jason from Jefferson, Ohio. I'm new to the salt aquarium experience. My friends gave me a 55 gallon tank and set up. I'm still in the starter stage, no fish yet, but the huge piece of coral is starting to sprout new life. I check it a couple times a day, okay I might be a little over excited lol, but I can't wait to get it up and running.

[laoyuebing]

Hello everybody, I'm from China, Shijiazhuang, I just came into contact with salt water reef, my English is not good, I use Google's translation, I hope here to meet friends and learn. My tank is 1m,.

[Alunai]

Hello everyone.

My name is Ashley, you can call me Alunai. I'm a 20 year old hairstylist from Minnesota who has fallen madly in love with saltwater fish. I started in this hobby last April. Currently I am running two tanks, a 29 Gallon FOWLR with two ocellaris, and a 15 Gallon nano reef with one ocellaris. I'm a very open minded person, I won't bite anyone's head off or start drama. I'm a big dreamer, and optimistic to a fault sometimes. Occasionally I will need to be brought back down to earth. But please, do it gently?

I have started a post Here

[Uncle Gilbert]

Hello my name is Jim
I was a member here a while ago and its nice to be back.The site has changed a bit.
I have been Saltwatering for 35 years.
For the last 5 years i let my 13 year old 200 gal FOLR go natural as i had a fire in and on the tank and the fireman hosed the tank and sumps with dry chemical fire extinguishers.My wave maker (wont mention make) shorted internally igniting the pump wires burning into the tank , it was ugly.ALL of my fish survived they were senior citizens of the tank ,i moved them to a friends tank and never took them back.Clean up was a night mare everything incrusted in Dry Chemical.
Now im starting again after letting the tank run like a swamp for 5 years with only inverts.
I actually have a 13 year old banded coral shrimp and 2 serpentine star fish.
Everyday is a new learning experience in this hobby.
Its fun and expensive to be back.

Regards to all.
Jim

[soreefobssesed]

Hello all, I am very new to reef tanks, just 6 mths. I currently have a 125 gallon African Cichlid tank which I had for 2 years but have been doing fish for about 12 years. My husband and I decided I needed a hobby and the reef tank has proven to be the one. I have a 72 gallon bow front with 100 pds of live rock, about 2 inches of live sand, 1 hairy mushroom, 1 leather toadstool, 1 kenya tree, 1 frogspawn, some zoas, some button polyps, 1 yellow eyed tang, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 pygmy angel, 1 flame hawk, 1 watchman goby with a mate, 2 conchs, 1 peppermint shrimp, blue legged and red legged hermit crabs and a few snails and a bunch of baby snails. I have a sump with a marineland 100 skimmer, a wavemaker and two koralla evolution powerheads (is that what they are called) and metal halid lights with moon beams and the actinic lights. This hobby takes a whole lot of time and I still am scratching my head wondering why why did I do this. But I love it and I would love LOTS of advise about ANYTHING

[coyex_2003]

My name is coyex, less than a year in the hobby. my setup is 80 gal Display
tank. i'm using Bubble magus nac7 skimmer. I have 12 gal refugium. I put my corals 2 months ago and the LFS told me that in three weeks i can see growth in my coral, but it is not happening, do you know how long it will take for the corals to grow (the easy coral)

[The_Chad]

Hello I'm Chad,
Obviously I am new to the hobby/addiction. About 7 months ago i tried to just read a few books and buy a 75g tank w/ 35g sump and all this expensive top of the line equipment. Little to my surprise it was a failure, first ich then phyto bloom then cyano bloom. 150 dollars in fish and now just a 20g and a porcupine pufferfish, I am still trucking but I have learned the greatest resource of all, the common hobbyist/addict. So here i am saying "Hello" and HELP ME!"

Thanks for anything and everything you have or will do to help me enjoy this wonderful hobby/addiction.

Chad

[jok3rqnk]

hey guys i can say that this site is the best i ever know.
y recently started up a 55g reef tank
i curently have
a pair of true percula clonws
a baby hipo tang
a yellow tang
a naso tang

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by chefb_5

Hi I'm Brandon From MN and I have been doing salt water for 6 yrs and a reefing for 6 months. I have a 90 gallon with a 30 gallon sump and in that sump I have a Reef Octopus NW 200. For lights I have 4 T-5 retros and 1 1050 korilia and a 1400 the newist ones and a old # 3 korolia. Fish I have a koran angel, purple tang and 2 clown fish. Coral I have some Acans, montiporas, wave hands, cactus, yuma, palys, mushrooms and chaliaces.

To Reef Central

Seems like you already have a grasp on the hobby. Be sure to start a new thread with pics of your tank.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by Amunet

Hi, I'm completely new to SW tanks and have been studying last few weeks and am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. Haven't bought a tank or anything yet because I want to know exactly what I'm getting and where I'm going to put it, etc. Does anyone recommend a good starting tank size? I want a strictly coral/anemone tank with possibly a few fish in it in the future and living area isn't an issue but I also don't want a monster. Column tanks look cool and building a reef up the middle sounds like something I wanna do, although I imagine cleaning is difficult... Well, any ideas/advice/etc I'm all ears!

To Reef Central

I would suggest a 75 gallon with a 20 gallon sump,refugium. That size will give you a well rounded reef, not too big that it is going to be a pain to maintain but not too small that when something goes out of whack it isn't going to pollute your tank and kill everything (it'll give you enough time to react).

If you're going to go the route of corals I wouldn't recommend a very tall column tank, corals need light to survive and to get enough PAR down to the bottom of the tank is going to be a challenge not to mention (like you said) the cleaning aspect.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by wolfish_one

Hi, I'm Jason from Jefferson, Ohio. I'm new to the salt aquarium experience. My friends gave me a 55 gallon tank and set up. I'm still in the starter stage, no fish yet, but the huge piece of coral is starting to sprout new life. I check it a couple times a day, okay I might be a little over excited lol, but I can't wait to get it up and running.

To Reef Central

Be sure to start a new thread documenting your experience.