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

[WaterKeeper]

Nope, I just prefer larger tanks to nano's. I'm kind of a fish type guy and you just can't have many, if any, fish in a nano.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Nope, I just prefer larger tanks to nano's. I'm kind of a fish type guy and you just can't have many, if any, fish in a nano.

nor a really deep sand bed

[hul kogan]

Hey everyone, I'm new here and new to SW, but not fishkeeping.

Feel free to read more about my setup in this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1695018

If you have a minute to lend advice or opinions, they would be greatly appreciated!

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by hul kogan
Hey everyone, I'm new here and new to SW, but not fishkeeping.

Feel free to read more about my setup in this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1695018

If you have a minute to lend advice or opinions, they would be greatly appreciated!

To Reef Central
I am heading over to your thread right now

[hul kogan]

Thanks for the welcome and also for your input in my thread! Much appreciated.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by hul kogan
Thanks for the welcome and also for your input in my thread! Much appreciated.

not a problem--this is what we try to encourage all new members to do. That way your questions and progress doesn't get lost on a really huge thread like this one

[WaterKeeper]

Yes and with the same darn graphic over and over and over


To Reef Central

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Yes and with the same darn graphic over and over and over


To Reef Central

You have the power to change that graphic old great mentor of all things marine

[WaterKeeper]

Graphic art is not ye ole Waterkeeper's balliwich.

You should see him trying to draw a picture of a species of flatworm where he doesn't have a photo.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Graphic art is not ye ole Waterkeeper's balliwich.

You should see him trying to draw a picture of a species of flatworm where he doesn't have a photo.

how about running a little contest and picking a few of the best welcome banners?

[dspirito]

Originally posted by capn_hylinur
how about running a little contest and picking a few of the best welcome banners?

I felt creative and motivated and figured I should give back to this great community!
Reefers:



Thanks for all your advice so far and for future advice!!
Right click, save as gif..
I need to resize it though, I'll get to it asap.
I've been doing flash only for a little while and I also have to remove the box around the clown, thats a gif issue, it looks great in flash but we cant post that I don't think.

Enjoy!

[redseven]

hello, im new to the hobby. got a great deal on a 40g acrylic tank with a sump on back along with 2x95w pc light, and a skimmer. so i put a dsb and about 20 lbs of live rock. waiting for the tank to cycle atm. thanks for reading.

[dspirito]

redseven,

You're the lucky first to be welcomed by the animation I just made! Congrats and welcome! I'm new too, we can be friends!

[MatesonG]

Hey, I'm May from Canyon Tx. (Pretty much the same as Amarillo TX. also about 2 hrs from Lubbock) If you know anyone in my area send em' my way. I have a 55g Bowfront FO right now and i am almost done with the setup of my 75g Reef ready tank with a 30g sump. (Check out my build so far http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hlight=55g+75g ) I am open to all suggestions so what ever you can help with is great. I want to get into a reef club but i don't know of one in my area.

[WaterKeeper]

Thanks dspirito but it is pretty large and an awful lot of white space.

Anyway-Hi Mat

[wishfish]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Nope, I just prefer larger tanks to nano's. I'm kind of a fish type guy and you just can't have many, if any, fish in a nano.

From all my research, it seems to be what a lot of you people (wise multi-year successful reef keepers) have been saying a WHOLE BUNCH. Beware of too many fish to keep the bioload down, the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites down, hence the pH up, dissolved oxygen up, etc. I think I keep hearing that coral reefs in the wild are super nutrient poor in the wate itself so in a small aquarium we need to be extra nutrient poor unless we are talking about Calcium. I guess if I had a FOWLR only I might be able to handle more fish but if I want to transition to a reef down the road, I better keep the fish inches way down relative to my gallonage. I plan on setting up a FOWLR within the next 6 months or so. We were going to move to a house but that fell through with the economy. Thanks for your input. I saw a series of build photos of someone with a 125 gal reef and 55 gal. fuge. It was incredible from literally welding the stand together, coating it with special paint, making an African Mahogany countertop to go with it and polishing out all of the acrylic. The time, effort, money, and knowhow that goes into one of these things is amazing and anyone who keeps a real reef going and in good health more more than a year needs to be commended. Holy smokes! I am still impressed with this whole hobby and hope to be one of them some day.

Wishfish

[wishfish]

Originally posted by capn_hylinur
nor a really deep sand bed

I hear there are two schools of thought on live sand beds. One the deep thick one for lots and lots of amphi and other pods and the other one thin allowing for little or no anaerobic activity in the sand bed itself. What is your take? Also, what do you think about multiple (or two) layers of fine live sand and course aragonite or merely broken coral layers?

Thanks again, obviously my major newbiage is showing!

[WaterKeeper]

I may be opening a debate but I agree Wishfish. There is one camp out there that seems to feel corals don't produce waste products. That is nonsense in my opinion. Any thing that lives produces waste from metabolic by-products. It is true that some things like ammonia type wastes are reduced by symbiont uptake in corals but there are wastes just the same.

With fish it is not only waste production but the need to give SW fish more swimming room than their FW counterparts. Having a tank crammed with African Lake Cichlids is very common. To me it looks unnatural but the thing is you can do it. Trying to do the same with SW fish, even small fish like damsels, usually spells disaster. You probably can squeeze more fish into a FO tank than a reef but the fact remains that the limit on how many fish a SW tank can hold is very limited unless you do what many large aquaria do and circulate fresh ocean water on a continuous basis.

I think the most common Newbie mistakes I see are-

• Moving too fast too soon
• Cutting corners on natural filtration
• Skimping on basic equipment
• Not doing proper water testing
• Forgoing water changes
• Overstocking

[wishfish]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
I may be opening a debate but I agree Wishfish. There is one camp out there that seems to feel corals don't produce waste products. That is nonsense in my opinion. Any thing that lives produces waste from metabolic by-products. It is true that some things like ammonia type wastes are reduced by symbiont uptake in corals but there are wastes just the same.

I think the most common Newbie mistakes I see are-

• Moving too fast too soon
• Cutting corners on natural filtration
• Skimping on basic equipment
• Not doing proper water testing
• Forgoing water changes
• Overstocking

I think what you are saying is that, yes, there could be a lot of wastes that have to be dealt with by bacteria in a deep sand bed and more will come into it from both hard and soft corals, other inverts, fish, and leftover food. Therefore, a deep sand bed might harbor dangerous bacteria or debris/detritus that could cause an Ammonia or Nitrite spike at some unknown time. Is this what you are suggesting? Was it Hyliner who was in favor of the deep sand bed?
Thanks.

[wishfish]

I'm sorry. Capn_hylinur! Didn't mean to chop your rank down!

[WaterKeeper]

Nope Scott, the Capn, picked up the DSB habit from me I'm afraid.

OH, the mystery of what lurks unseen in the sand.

A DSB is part of the waste processing system in any tank. Take a chuck of LR and sure it has nooks and crannies where waste will collect and be processed but those nooks, in time, fill with algae and bacteria and soon there is no flow into the crannies.

Not so with a DSB. It has many, many more times the surface area of even a tank piled with LR and although it also has a pore structure the critters in the bed tend to constantly clean them out, thus insuring circulation into the bed. Waste material that settles into the bed is further processed as it descends into the bed and, after some time, is pretty much reduced to inorganic or highly refractory organic residue. Sure it lurks in the bed but the chance for release is small. The inorganic waste residue is composed of insoluble matter, the soluble stuff remains in the water column and not in the bed. Refractory organics are the beds plastic bottles. They are there and tend to stay there unchanged for about ever. Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

[eyesinthedrk]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

You know PaulB has been waiting for that comment, dont be suprised if it shows up as his signature tomorrow

[WaterKeeper]

I was figuring he would be here by now.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by WaterKeeper
Nope Scott, the Capn, picked up the DSB habit from me I'm afraid.

OH, the mystery of what lurks unseen in the sand.

A DSB is part of the waste processing system in any tank. Take a chuck of LR and sure it has nooks and crannies where waste will collect and be processed but those nooks, in time, fill with algae and bacteria and soon there is no flow into the crannies.

Not so with a DSB. It has many, many more times the surface area of even a tank piled with LR and although it also has a pore structure the critters in the bed tend to constantly clean them out, thus insuring circulation into the bed. Waste material that settles into the bed is further processed as it descends into the bed and, after some time, is pretty much reduced to inorganic or highly refractory organic residue. Sure it lurks in the bed but the chance for release is small. The inorganic waste residue is composed of insoluble matter, the soluble stuff remains in the water column and not in the bed. Refractory organics are the beds plastic bottles. They are there and tend to stay there unchanged for about ever. Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

Yes, I think I have picked alot of good habits due to the WaterKeeper
Due to the problems that some reefers have with maintaining good sand beds especially the maintenance of the most important top layer I am totally in favour of a deep sand bed run remotely as in a refugium
I like to keep the sand bed in my display tanks to about one inch or so

[Creationreefer]

Okay, so you mention that eventually the bed will fill up with the "plastic bottles", what do you do at that point/what does it mean/look like?