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

[reefer1990]

hello reef central my name is Ian and live in southern CT still looking to join a club nearby and i currently i have a 75 gallon RR and a 30 gallon custom frag tank. looking to meet some people that are in the hobby as well.

[Camelmanky]

Hello everyone, I'm Greg and I'm from Louisville, Ky. I just started a 38 gal cube. Live sand and live rock. Eshopps hob skimmer, 2 power heads and a led light.

Very cool site. I've learned a bunch already.

[smile and wave]

hey people! getting my first marine aquarium today! 145 gallon, and also bought up half the store it would seem! really did some damage to my wallet, not sure this was the best idea for a student! from South Africa, currently studying law.

[greenhead]

Been lurking here for a while now . So I thought I would at least say hello. On 5th tank now in 2 months. Really enjoying things so far. The tank I started today is a 120. Gonna start out with softies and hopefully move up to the hard stuff as my water gets some life back into it.

[Panta rhei]

Hi from Italy
Im'm Massimiliano, currently running a 40g nano, my first satlwater tank.
Thanks for this great forum!!! :-)

[Dctrojan]

Hello everyone , new to to the hobby of saltwater but experienced in freshwater planted aquariums. I am a college masters student at shsu. I plan on pursuing a career in veterinary medicine eventually .
Just started my first saltwater.
55 gallon with 30 gallon sump 15 gallon fuge.

Its been going for 12 days and everything seems to be going great. Going to add a few fish this weekend.

[fscmocsaj]

Hey, my name is AJ I'm a 21 years old. I got to Florida Southern college, Majoring in Human movement and performance (Physical Therapy). I live in Lakeland, Florida. I'm fairly new to the hobby. I just finished cycling my 35 Gallon Hex front tank. I'm excited to get fish and coral into my tank however I'm trying to learn as much as I can before I mess anything up. I have a metric ton of questions and this site has answered numerous amounts of them so I figured this might be the best community to be a part of.

Thanks for providing this site for fellow newbies like me.

[Jwitchy65]

Just sayin HELLO

[archangel91]

Hello everyone,
Like a bunch of others I've been combing through the site here learning all kinds of awesome stuff for a while now and finally getting around to actually posting...

My name is Justin and I'm currently stationed out in Washington about 2 hours north of Seattle and have had my 46 gal bowfront up and running for about 4 months now, and am already looking forward to my next tank (I don't think my wife will be as excited though, hah)

[ManGups]

Hello Everyone...

[daweedski]

Hey I might have some problems with black ich and diatoms can you guys check out my thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2335331

[ashleyco]

I've got the 75gal.

[RENOTA11]

Hello all, new to the forum as well as marine. Kept FW for a few years, mostly SA cichlids, some communities, inverts what have you. Got a small SW ALMOST set up while living in NS, then ultimately moved and had to sell it all. Recently purchased a 125G cleaned it up, resealed, re plumbed, scaped with seeded rock, and so far have added 10 little red legged crabs. Waiting for my numbers to zero out before I add the rest of my CUC.

[Nutnut]

Hi All,

Newb here. Kept freshwater for years and always wanted saltwater but finances/wifey would not allow. Now though, i'm a bit older, have some more cash in the bank and the wife has simply given up trying to stop me so hereth start my saltwater journey!

No tank as yet - just scouring the interweb looking for as much info as poss before taking the plunge and forking out for a full 120g setup.

Anon

Mark

[kiv9721]

Hi, Im new to RC. Im in this hobby for more than 1years. Now i have 15G tall mix reef and 55 gal FOWLR . I try to move 55 gal to 125gal FOWLR now.

[scott821]

So this will be my second go around with RC and the reef community.

This is my first post with a new username, as I can't figure out what happened to my old screen name.

Around 10-12 years ago(?) I had a 40 gal reef setup, primarily zoos and LPS. Ran a 175W MH, CPR, blah blah blah.
When the 12gal nano's first came out, had a cool little setup (retro'd PC's, an anemone and clown fish)...and then I got married (and had kids).

Now the kids are a bit older and I'm thinking it's about time to get a reef tank setup again. I went into a LFS a few weeks ago and saw all the advancements (primarily LED's) and convinced myself I want to do it...AGAIN.

[yrevanth]

Hi All,

I am fairly new to the hobby... Been a reefer for less than a year and I just started getting into sps corals!! Love the colors and beauty that these bring to the tank... need a lot of help in setting up and dosing chemicals and food sources etc for these guys...

Currently have a 50 breeder set up wih a 20 gal sump.

Have the taotronics al09 lights
A bubble magus skimmer rated for 140 gal tank
2 hydrokoralias 850gph each
A 200w heater and. A 100 w heater
And I use instant ocean mix for salt.

Parameters :
Sal 1.024
Alk 10 dkh
Ca 460ppm
Mg 1500ppm
Nitrates/ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 10 ppm

Current stocking:

1 yellow coris wrasse (love him)
2 blue/green chromis
2 baby false perculas
1 diamond goby
1 dispar anthias (tiny)

Corals:

Softies:
Bunch of zoas
Xenia
Kenya tree

Lps:
Frogspawn
Torch -teal

Sps:

1" ora purple stylopora
2" green slimer
Pink birdsnest
Green birds nest
Random millis

Rev

[Tyler.H1988]

Hey everyone, my name is Tyler and I am a distributor rep for Phillips Pet Food & Supply. We recently aquired an aquatic distributor, Royal Pet, and I have taken an interest in this new industry. We are the authorized distributor for the Deep Blue line. I just set up my 30g reef tank. 24x24x12. Any advice is appreciated. I know very little about aquatic and I figured if I now have to sell aquatic supplies, I might as well know what I am talking about!

[duperdave]

hello everyone my name is DavidI'm 39 years old live in Stafford Virginia I'm new to saltwater just wanted to introduce myself

[locogears]

Hey all, I've had tons of large and small fw tanks but I am looking to setup a real deal, properly done sw tank. FOWLR for now until I get better at all this. I don't want HOB filters, I want lots of live rock, live sand, powerheads, proper lighting and a well established tank before I introduce new fish. Any help is HUGELY appreciated. Thank you!!

-Ryan

[sammysreef]

I read a lot of forums, but rarely post, so here goes...

110 gallon DAS was given to us 5 years ago. Two days before we were to pick it up, the owner's roommate decided to spray for bugs and kindly wrapped the entire aquarium in several layers of comforters. The owner was not living there and returned to find that the VHO lighting had turned on and raised the temperature in the tank to kill everything. When we arrived, the water reeked of sewage and was cloudy.

The tank was moved to our home and cycled. Only one colony of zoas survived. We added new fish and corals over the next few months.

We then had to leave the country for 3 months and had a house sitter. I left a 6 month supply of food and advised him to feed little. He used up all of the food and then went to Walmart and bought a nice bottle of goldfish flakes. I returned home after 3 months to zero visibility due to the lovely bloom of algae.

I passed the next four years ignoring the tank for the most part. Much of the time was spent with little food for the 4 surviving fish and the lights were often broken and left off. I would have happily given the tank to anyone who'd come and get it out of my house.

This summer, we took notice that the tank seemed to be making a miraculous recovery and water parameters were great, in spite of only two 30gal water changes in 4 years. So my husband turns and says, "If we have to stare at this thing, it might as well look good."

...and here I am. We both knew that meant time and money...So the journey begins again.

We removed the evil internal sump of sorts and opted for a Fluval Fx5 because the tank is not drilled.

110 gallons
100lbs live rock +50 waiting to be added in.
Skimmer
2 koralias
Fluval Fx5
6x54w T5 lighting

Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 0
Salinity 1.022
Calcium 390ppm
9.5 DKH
Phosphate 0
Temp 78-80

2 mated Ocellaris clowns
Royal Gramma
Chromis
2 small black and white clowns
lawnmower blenny
Coral Beauty
Fridmani
Cleaner Shrimp
misc crabs and snails
3 colonies of zoas,
NSP
Xenia
Hammer Coral
Trumpet Coral
Ricordia

[datboyhieu]

Names Anthony from New Orleans,LA been in the fish game for over 5 years but been FRESHWATER 180g fresh and 200g fresh but I just hopped on the saltwater game with a small fluval spec v planning on doing coral for a bit in that small tank so far it's fun

[WildOliveBranch]

Hi, my name is Warren and this is my first post. I have a 92 gallon corner with plentiful live rock (can't remember how many pounds now, cost over $900), a 20 gallon sump, 400W MH light in a custom hood, and a Tunze wave controller with two pumps.

I've had things going for about two years now, but the water quality has never been right. I have anemones, clownfish and other fish doing very well, leather and duncan corals that are thriving, Green Star Polyps spreading about, but anything more difficult dies. Clams bite the dust in short order, as do any sensitive corals. Lately even the GSP has lost it's brilliant green, for the first time, and it's spreading seems to have slowed.

I've purchased both high end test kits from API; all the tested parameters are pushing ideal. Whatever the problem is, it's not detectible in normal water testing. I've checked for copper and iron in the source water as well, both are negative.

The source water is a well nearly 300 feet deep, from beneath a thick shelf of granite. The water has low PH and is very hard. I run it through a TMC V2Pure 50RO filter, then later added a dual-bed ionizer, which helped. Before the dual-bed ionizer nothing thrived, afterwards the tank began doing well for it's current residents. However, it would still kill a clam in no time. Filtered water runs under the floor through plastic icemaker tubing to a float-valve in the sump, to replace evaporative loss. There is a valve and a T in place for getting water-change water out of the system, which I make up 10 gallons at a time using Tropic-Marin Pro Reef salt mix. A new Saline Reflectometer is reading 1023, which is a little low. I'll be boosting it during the next couple of water changes.

There is a TDS meter on the input and output of my little filtration system. The input runs about 21 and the output 5. The output should be zero from what I understand. I have replaced all the filters a couple of times, and the TDS results are consistent. Whatever it is, it gets through an RO and a dual-bed ionizer.

I'm thinking of adding an activated charcoal stage to my source water that replaces evaporation, in front of the RO, and to begin purchasing the water-change water instead of producing it myself. I change 10 gallons every other weekend. Whole Foods has RO water for about $.32/gallon if you bring your own container.

If that would be wise could someone recommend a unit? Thank you all very much. I haven't figured out how to post tank pics yet, but will when I do. The tank has been very beautiful at times despite it's limitations. I now have a pair of Ocellaris Clowns bonded with a pair of Rose Anemone's that are just beautiful. The anemones are also grazing on my other fish now and then, my sister just saw one of them eat an Anthius of almost 4"!

Cheers,

Warren

[colettalisandro]

Hi, my name is Lisandro i´m from Argentina, first of all sorry my english isn´t good but i hope that in the future i can write better and better.
Thank´s to all of you for letting me be part of the forum.
A hug from Argentina

[snow80130]

Have had fish tanks on/off for last 25 yrs but without any education. Got a 60 cube reef 5 yrs ago but took down secondary to children (I don't know what costs more, fish or children!). Just put the 60 back up as a FOWLR and want to learn as much as possible and some DIY so one day I can go bigger.