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

[RedBeans]

I have a 4 week old 75g tank.

Lights: Deep Blue Solar xtreme SE, 42448 Lamp Type : T5, G14 54WModel SE, 42448

55lbs of premium live rock: half live sand/half regular

Tank was filled with cheater salt water.

Eshopps rs100 sump with $200 skimmer (not sure model)

2 clown fish: 1 neon pseudo: 5 hermit crabs: 1 Snail: Rock with 10 purple mushroom corals: frag of Green star polyps.

I am excited to be apart of this new hobby and wanted to introduce myself. I have a couple of pictures to share and a question.

To me this looks like algae in both pictures. For the most part, this is only occurring on two rocks. The rest of the tank seems to be thriving as best as a new-cumber can tell. All fish and other coral seem happy. Water temp stays between 78 and 81.

I just cant seem to find exact pictures of similar situations on the web...so here I am!

What type of Algae is this and should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[RedBeans]

Sorry couldn't get both pics in

[wood0691]

Hello All, I am the FNG! (stands for freaking new guy) I have a bio cube 14 ive had for about four years now. Love the Reef tank systems but still have problems with it. right now im fighting macro algea and trying to keep the coraline off the front of my tank. thought i had a few pics on photobucket i could load but cant find them. i'll have to get them for you all to see. I hope to learn more about the hobby and enjoy the reef life. Have a great day...

[dmmeyer4]

Hi!! im brand new to saltwater just set up the tank three days ago!! really excited but a little worried too... I've been doing freshwater for years but i was always intimidated by saltwater, but my good friend finally convinced me to take the plunge and i glad i found a good place to get advice because the learning curve is steep and im hoping to avoid disaster!!

[SixLegStarFish]

I'm Lori

I got into having a saltwater tank as a hobby six months ago. I have two small ones 10 and 5. I got the 5 gallon to put this guy in:



Could any of you please tell me what type of triggerfish this is? My brother caught it in a castnet.

[Sanveann]

Hello from Michigan! My husband and I set up our first marine tank just yesterday and are very excited ... can't wait to actually put something in it We have about 10 years of experience with freshwater (well, it's mostly been his baby), but this is all new to us. Excited to find such an active forum!

[Ferguson1977]

Started my Red Sex Max 250 2 1/2 months ago after being away from saltwater aquariums for 8 years. Tank is modded with a sump and overflow, Tradewinds chiller, 2 Vortech MP10's and I-Tech 200 skimmer. I have a full Apex with temp, pH and salinity probes and wireless for my Vortechs sitting on a table waiting to be installed

Current inhabitants are a semi-snowflake clown, yellow Eye Kole Tang, Swissguard basslet and Blue Spot Jawfish! I also have various acan and chalice frags along with 1 monti frag, 1millipora frag and 1 acro frag. Everything seems well and happy. Wish me luck!

[unfamous]

Hey ya'll! New here. Checking in from Northern Georgia. Setting up my first Saltwater tank. Have all of the non marine hardware (tank, stand, pumps, filters) and came here to find answers to my stupid questions. I'm doing a fish only tank for now. If all goes well, I should have my first fish in by late October. I know, I might seem to be taking the VERY slow road here, but I want this done right the first time!

Looking forward to learning, and enjoying these little fellas!

[fingas]

Hello RC, I am new to saltwater aquariums. I have wanted one for a long time and now that I have bought my first home i am setting one up. I set up a 72 gallon bowfront with a 29 gallon sump/refugium almost 6 weeks ago. I set up the tank with BRS reefsaver rock and one piece of live rock. I had an algae bloom about 1.5 weeks ago so threw in some snails and Chaeto in the fuge. I now have a lot of pods in the tank and have seen at least one brittle star and one bristle worm in the tank. Well here is a picture of the tank when i first filled it up.


and a picture of my sump stuffed in the bow front stand

[Doctor Reefer]

hello, my name is Raul Badillo. I am 31, live in Fargo ND and started reef keeping in Dec of 2010. I consider myself a DIY'er for most things and reef keeping is no exception lol. I started out very basic, 29g with penguin biowheel filtration, 1 koralia PH, and aquaticlife T5 4bulb lighting. Always learning and always reading up.

[inkjet21]

hello all,
I`v been away from salt water for 20 year. and have had fresh water pretty much all my life. 2 years ago i built a new house and got rid of all my tanks when i moved, well i think its time to set something up again. my brother has a 120 gallon tank hes not using and said i could set it up if i wanted to. so i will have 120 tank and i have 150 gal sump in the basement that i can grow frags in.
I cant wait to get this all set up. looking forward to meeting all the good ppl here.

time to go reading

[luxtralarge]

welcome doctor reefer and inkjet21

[NauticusVa]

Hello everyone. I'm just getting started in the saltwater side of things. I've had freshies for quite a few years. The wife and I converted our 46 gallon bowfront to salt about 2.5 months ago.

So the breakdown is as follows:
46 gallon bowfront, eshoppes overflow box draining into a 5 gallon refugium with 10lbs of miracle mud. That drains into a 10 gallon sump. Currently running 2 1/2 units of chemipure elite and an appropriate sized bag of purigen. There is a reef octopus 4 needlewheel skimmed and the Rio return pump. The tank has 40lbs of aroganite substrate and 60 lbs of live rock. A 500 and 750 powerheads from aqueon. As for lights, a marineland 36" reef capable light and the old freshie T8 with an actinic bulb.

As for critters.......red leg, blue leg hermits, couple different types of snails. A pepermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, and I think an emerald crab( I saw a claw feeding but couldn't see him). Swimmers....a pair of mated clowns( 3 year old pair. She's Orange oscelaris and he's black), a one spot foxface, a blue hippo, and a midas blenny.

Coral..... A few frags of this and that. Zoas, bi-colored frogspawn, pulsing xenia, acans, mushrooms and a pair of feather dusters.

And if you can't tell, I can be long winded....ill try.to keep things short but when I find something I like, I talk. I'm looking foward to talking to you all about this exciting hobby.

[Seakrait]

Hey everyone!

I decided last March that I was finally ready after 15 years or wanting and waiting to build a reef tank. I had sucessfully kept South American cichlids years ago, but never SW. I have been reading everything I can get my hands on the last 6 months, and am in the process of setting up a common sump, multiple tank system. The main tank is an AGA 120g w/ two 1" drains in the back wall. It took over 13 weeks to get the tank, as AGA lost my first order, then took 8 weeks to finally get it to my lfs. I wanted to do a mostly macro/mangrove/dsb for filtration, so the multiple tank set up began from this. There will be two 29g tanks on each side of the 120g, with mangroves growing out of the top. I purchased 100 mangrove propagules in July as stage 1 propagules (no root no leaves). I can write another thread about growing them, but at the moment I have 60 that have good root growth and are starting to grow leaves (the other 40 were given away to friends and family, sold to a lfs, or are dead due to attempting to get them to germinate in muddy soil as an experiment.) There will be a 55g reverse cycle macro fuge under the 120g, as well as a 40g sump. Under the right hand side 29, will be a 20g long. I have all of the tanks in my possesson due to the 1$ per gallon sale at Petco, and am currently working on the stand. The tanks will house a colony of yellow headed jawfish, mushrooms, lps, montipora, and a colony of barnacle blennies. All other additions are undecided. I made a structure of 1/2" pvc to hold all of my live rock off of the bottom of the tank, so the jawfish will have a full 2ftx4ft of 4-5"and to play in.

[Coralluver28]

Hi,
I am a brand new fish keeper,( about 2 months) and am looking into a reef or saltwater tank. I only have one freshwater but I have been poking around this site for awhile and would love to start a new one. Thanks in advance for any advice.

[milspec]

Hello

I have been out of the hobby for five years, but still have my Reef Tank up and running. I just haven't looked at it in a while and it's been about four years since I done a water change or added anything. I haven't even changed my metal halides in four years!!! Well I think it's time to do something. Lol. I have been out of the loop for a long time and seeing the new LED lighting has sparked my interest again. So here I am like the new guy. Well here is a crappy washed out cell phone pic of my tank as it is now.
Thank is a 120 high with a 1200 gph pump, a home made refugium and two metal halides, RO unit auto top off. Just rememberd I need to change the RO filters!!!!

[danielyana]

hola a toda la comunidad,estoy encantado de pertenecer a un foro como este,en estos momentos mantengo un reef de 300l y bueno para mi futuro proyecto espero tener mucha ayuda de personas tan especializadas como las que aqui hay un saludo.dejo unas fotos de mi acuario para presentarlo.

[ABBS]

Hi Guys

I have had my current tank for 7 years and have moved through the learning curve of softies, LPS and am now moving on to SPS. The tank is under a rescape at the moment to improve my SPS growth

Here is a picture off where I was before the rescape, new pictures soon.



The tank is 6 x 2 x 2.5 foot, connected to a 1100 lt system. 4 foot sump and 4 foot holding tank.

Looking forward to reading this forum and learning more about reefs.

Kind regards

Martin

[skindeepdc]

I'm less than a year into the hobby...older brother and friend and I all got very different tanks around the same time. I went with a biocube 29 and it's perfect for my townhouse. My brother was basically handed a 150 gal Oceanic system....damn-wish I had the room!

Anyways, I'm on my second, and so far successful, attempt of establishing a healthy aquarium. My LFS sold me sick fish the first time around and I think I contaminated my tank with a touch of their tank water, causing all other added fish to die of ich. So I emptied and cleaned it and started with new sand and rock, basically I started over completely. It was def frustrating, but I am ready for more, as I love the hobby so far!!!

My tank is intended as a reef Saltwater Oceanic Biocube 29 gallon tank.
I use RO/DI water from a nice system shared by myself, brother and friend.
15 pounds of fine, white Carib Live Sand
20-30 pounds of Live and Dead Rock
Upgraded lighting fan system (today)
2 Koralia 240 gph power heads on alternating cycles through
JBJ Ocean Pulse Duo Wavemaker (today)
CPR Aquatics SR3 Skimmer, been breaking in for 4 weeks and pulling green.

I have a pair of Black and White Ocellaris Clownfish. One of which were hospitalized and rescued from previous tank disaster, it's mate died.
One Six Line Wrasse
One Large Red Leg Reef Hermit Crab
A Handful of Blue Leg Hermit Crabs
One Large Turbo Snail
One Large Astraea Snail

I recently added my first cluster of Zooanthids.


Anyone with experience in nano and biocube tanks, plus everything bigger with advice to offer, please throw it all at me!!! I'm just taking it slow and learning as I go. Thanks, Danny

[DB9181]

Hey all,

New to the SW world, got over 150gals of FW.

Currently running a 29gal SW started up about a month ago, just put 2 juv. clowns (B/W & O/W) in my 10gal QT.

Definitely still have alot to learn and any tips down the road would be great

-Dan

[Amb]

May as well introduce myself now!

New to Saltwater, but I've done freshwater many years.

Right now I've only got a 10 gallon nano, but am currently in the process of setting up a 20L, and, hopefully, soon, much larger tanks. It's an addicting hobby!

The more I read, the more I learn. It's amazing how many common misconceptions I believed until I read how wrong they were on these forums.

Hope to learn much more!

[Tiggers tank]

Hey guyz. name is Nick.
I have a 150l marine tank that i started 2months ago and now have a trigger and a lionfish in. i have a few Qs but would like to learn to know you guyz first
so...
im from jhb but now in the freestate love bikes and love fish

[dehooch]

New guy from Texas here. Had freshwater tanks all my life and have been researching SW tanks here a lot lately. Lots of great threads to read through, especially the DIY section on LEDs.

[x101xARES]

Hi reef central, My name is Fred and I have 110 short that was givin to me from my father in law and it is just sitting in my spare room. I am currently researching everything to get me going. I have an ro/di unit that produces 50 gallons a day, two skimmers(red c-skim 1800, and another one can not remember the name but know it can handle the tank but not like the red sea.) The sump that came with it is a diy sump, I think it is a 30-40 gal plastic storage bin with a raised(6-8 in. from the bottem) netted platform with another smaller plastic storage binon top of the platform with rectangular holes in the sides and bottom filled with bio-balls and shotgun shell plastic wads. Not sure of the name of the light, but it has 2-250 watt halogens and 4-54 watt blue bulbs, and the light is hanging above the tank approximently 10 inches from the tank. I have one 300 watt heater. two wave makers(not sure what their actually called) one is bigger then the other. the bigger one is setup in the front left opposite of my incoming water flow into the tank and the smaller one is setup back right(same side of water flow into the tank). The back left corner has a black drain box filled with bio-balls about 1/4 the way up. The water is pumped from the sump through a pump to a 3/4 hose to 1/2 inch pvc through the drain box to the top of the tank, then the pvc 90s and runs along the back top side of the tank and the 90s again to run along the top right side of the tank, the pvc at the top right has holes drilled for the water flow. The tank is around 30 yrs old and has alot of surface scratches on the front and right side of the glass, the back and left side is painted. I did some research on how to get rid or minimize the scratches and order a cerium oxide scratch removal kit and awaiting its arrival and plan to go to work on the scratches when it arrives. I also plan on building a canopy for the tank and retro fitting the lights in it, but need some suggestions on keeping the lights and components from getting the salt creep( I think that is what its called lol) and maybe someone has some plans or ideas on how to put all the lighting and components in the canopy. And i was also thinking of going without a substrate, suggestion from father in law who said he was always having problems with having sand bed. But was wondering how would the live rock sit in a tank without a substrate to hold the weight? Ok I am gonna quit rambling on and sorry if this is alot at one time, I am just really excited about getting this thing up and running and have nice reef tank.

[x101xARES]

oh and also need some suggestions on some other equipment I may need i.e. a trusted tds meter, test kits, or do they make a meter that will test everything(tds,ph, alk, calc, salinity, etc.) and what is difference between a sump and refugium?