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

[Rostine55]

Hello All
I have been surfing this site for couple years now to get AWESOME info and ideas about our tank and livestock. I have learned a ton form this place and all the great people with their knowledge and experiences, so I decided to join up. We had a 55 Gallon running with no sump but have a canister filter, air pump skimmer, and wave maker. the tank had a 2-3 in sand/crushed coral bed in it. we always used ro/di water from the store for water changes. we always battled with high nitrates every thing else was good water wise, and all live stock seemed happy and good. never really got into SPS's or LPS's yet due to the water not being right. currently I just built a double decker stadium stand and purchased another 55 Gallon and a tank I made into a sump, so I will have both 55 gallons running in series together with gravity overflow draining from top tank into bottom tank and from there into sump, which will pump back up to top tank. we trasfered everything so far into one tank and will be setting the second 55 gallon up today! so far so good!!! my wife is very very excited.

Again, I am glad I finally signed up here!!!

[Saltyguys]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forums here. I have had reef aquariums on and off for the last 15 years, but it has been a few years since my last attempt. A couple months ago I started an Innovative Marine Nuvo 20g reef. I am glad to be back into the hobby.

[Violator]

I have a 45 gallon tank that I've had cycling for about 2 and half weeks, the Nitrite level has jumped to .50ppm and the Ammonia is at .50ppm Nitrate is at 5.0ppm. My question was is this part of the normal process, and am I on the right track?

[nerose]

Hello yall! I am getting back into the hobby after being away for 9 years. I had a 90 gallon years and years ago but had to do 6 weeks in the hospital due to preterm labor and my sweet husband attempted a water change and to take care of the tank. Needless to say my son was healthy and my tank was not. I couldn't recover from whatever he did. I broke the tank down and put it away till diaper duty was over. Now here I am with 4 school age children and I have the time to devote to a tank again. Looking forward to getting involved and brushing up on my knowledge. Things have changed bunches since I was in the hobby 9 years ago. Anyway, Hello.

[BtotheRad]

Hey all. Just acquired a 72 gallon bow front with a Tang and lunar wrasse. After the move my flame angel died. Working on getting everyone acclimated to the new set up and learning a ton on this forum. Thanks to all that have helped without knowing yet!

[Reefnado]

What's up guys, I am a husband, soon to be father, airline pilot, business owner and addicted to my little fish tank. I have a 25 gallon reef nano about 2 years old. Looking forward to learning more about the hobby on Reef Central!

[goldens]

Hi everyone, joined this site a couple of months ago but haven't posted anything until now. I have found that this site is a very friendly place to be a part of. I currently have 2 tanks, a 125 gal fowler and a 75 gal mixed reef tank. I have had a tank now for about 4 yrs, did everything wrong and surprised that it stayed alive. My favourite fish are tangs, at the present time I have 2 in the big tank and hoping to add another one and to add 2 tangs to the other tank. I do have a tendency to over stock and over feed. I used to breed and show golden and Labrador retrievers but have since retired from the show ring. Looking forward to hearing from other members..

[1stNoobie]

Hi,

My name is Randy, I am new to the forum and to the world of keeping Marine Fish. I have had freshwater tanks for about 11 years now, but have always wanted a marine tank. Being new I have been searching the forums for information and slowly building my courage to finally make the switch. About a month ago I decided that if I never started I would never get there. So far this is the setup I have.

• 48"L X 12"W X 24"H tank
• 50 BRS Bulk Fiji Dry Live Rock
• 40 lbs of CaribSea Aragonite live sand
• Two Hydor Koralia 600 gph pumps
• Marineland Emperor 400

My rock and water have been cycling since 7/10 and I just added my sand 8/6. At first I was going to go with a bear bottom tank, but after lots of time on the forums I decided that I should add the sand now.

As far as fish go I am planning on starting with a pair of Clowns. Later I will add a Yellow Tang and Blue Hippo Tang.

Thanks for all those who have contributed to this site it is a wealth of information. And any constructive criticism you may have is appreciated.

Thanks,
Randy

[sandipan.ece]

Hi Everyone,

I am Sandi. Not exactly new to reefcentral. I have been reading silently for a while now. Now that I have setup my fist reef tank, I thought I will be more active here. I have a lot to learn.

Thanks.

[Lfunnyfarm]

Hello, I’m new to RC and relatively new to marine fish keeping.

I’ve kept FW fish, mainly African cichlids, for many years (30+) and currently have a 350g and a grow-out tank. I’ve always steered clear of marine tanks because of the perceived difficulty, time, and expense in keeping them. So nine months ago, when my son talked my husband into setting our other 350g in the newly renovated basement, I was a little worried. My husband, who is an engineer and is not an aquarist of any sort, did NOT understand what it takes to keep a marine tank. It turned out to be much more involved and much less of a precise science than he expected. So, after several misadventures and a good deal of money down the tubes (or the toilet as the case may be) while adding fish, I have inherited the tank. I’m going to try to keep the type of livestock my husband seems to like and indulge my tastes when I convert the other tank sometime in the future.

I’m trying to learn as much as I can about this hobby. I realize that little of the experience I have from FW will transfer to SW. I don’t have unlimited funds to throw at this endeavor, especially since I still have kids in college. I would like to find the happy medium between the two extremes of fish keeping which to me are 1. The “just throw some fish in there and keep buying them until something lives” approach and 2. The “obsess over every little detail, spend massive amounts of money, and make it your full time job” approach. Hopefully, those of you in category 2 won’t give me too much grief.

There seem to be many people with an amazing depth of knowledge about SW aquariums! It is wonderful to have this library of knowledge from which to draw information. But don’t be surprised if I question suggestions. Most of the time, my questions are asked so I can understand the reasoning behind the suggestions. I know scientific methods and I have a degree in biological sciences. So, I‘m not being dismissive of your knowledge, I’m attempting to reconcile advice from this forum with the knowledge and preconceptions I have.

Happy Fish Keeping and thanks in advance for your help!
Patti

[auustinnn]

Hey guys!

I'm Austin. I'm 22 and had a tank when I was a teenager, started to set one up when i was about 18 and got discouraged because of the money aspect. I am currently setting up a 20L reef tank. I am working on aquascaping my live rock now and letting the sand settle and my cycle will be beginning.

Very excited to get back into the hobby now that I can afford it.

[Mike In Perth]

Hi there fellow marine enthusiasts,

My name is Mike and I have returned to the marine hobby after a work related hiatus of 5 years. Having lurked around the site for since the end of 2014, finally joining up this week.
I have jumped back into things with a Red Sea Max S500, my system has been up and running since March '15.

I look forward to sharing my journey with you all.

Kind Regards

Mike

[AquariumJunkie]

Hello all,

My name is Jonathan and I'm a second generation reefer from NJ. I graduated college earlier this summer and I'm excited to start a nano reef I've been thinking about. I will be using my IM Fusion 10, I'm looking forward to developing this tank.

Glad to be a part of Reef Central. Good luck with your aquariums!

[Grymmy95]

Hi there,

I'm Jordan, my wife and I just started with a very small tank this past January (tank was an Xmas gift), and we have been really enjoying it. We recently upsized to a 20g, and it has been great. Although we have had a couple issues over the last eight months, it's still great to look at.

[blacksheeptina]

Hi there. I just started a 30 gal with 30 lbs of live rock and live sand (although I've read that was a big waste of my money) its been running for one month. My water parameters are excellent and i have hermits that are too big (my kids picked them out) and they ate my turbo snails. I have a crap ton of copepods that are skeeving me out and one cute white variegated urchin. i am sooo ready for fish. i am going to get Chromis. how many do you recommend? i am thinking 5 cause i plan on a casualty or two. I have done freshwater tanks for 20 yrs now, so i am not a complete n00b. I am intelligent, so any advice you give, you dont need to dumb it down for me. This is also the first forum I have ever joined. i feel kinda cool.

[Miohippus]

Hi
New to the saltwater hobby I have a 55 gal tank that we have been slowly trying to get set up it has been running for about 3 months now I think so far we just have some snails small hermits and some hitchhikers from the live rock still need some more live rock we live out in the boonies and don't go into the city much so that's part of why it's take us so long to get up and running

[Sipiku]

Hello Everyone!

I am new to reef keeping and saltwater aquariums in general. I have been keeping/breeding different types of Freshwater cichlids for the past 8 years and decided it was time to give reef keeping a try.

First off...Thank you everyone who maintains this site and helps us newbies learn about reef keeping.

I currently have a JBJ 29 Gallon AIO Aquarium which has been set up for a month and a half now. I will be starting my own thread to track the tnaks progress. Hope you all can check it out and contribute your two cents!

Thanks again!

[Divedoc70]

Hello all,
Like many out there I have been using this site for a couple of yeas as a great resource, but for some reason never joined. I have all kinds of tanks over the last 30 years and now have 125 reef and 100g FO tanks. Reef tanks are realistic enough new to me and I am working on learning all that's required.

Thanks in advance for all the help,
Cheers,
Aaron

[ashe]

hello new to reef central how i everyone

[Dj_Biocube29]

Hey all reef guys and gals I use to have a fish only tank a little 55 gal a few year back. Long story short my plugs caught fire And wife said tank got to go. Just as I was trying to turn it into a reef tank. So my heart was broken.few years later talk wifey in a bio cube setup. It up and running now for 6 months but I can not get this to look Beautiful I'm battling cyanobacteria and algae I've i'm running Chemi pour elite and I have a gfo and carbon reator protein skimmer and a chiller. Need help and the right direction

[Crazypete00]

Hi, new here. Been a member on other forums for a while but somehow missed this one. I've been keeping marine life for 10+ years, recently got a new 48x24x20 tank

There's not much in it yet, taking this one slow.

[m3ch]

Hey everyone!

I have been lurking around for awhile in preparation for my first tank. My interest in a reef setup goes back as far as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are actually of watching the fish in my dad's 75 gallon freshwater tank for hours and hours and after over a quarter of a century of being told how "impossible" and "crazy" it is to get into not only saltwater but having a reef tank I am finally ready to ignore the noise and give it a shot! Thanks to communities like this I finally feel like I have a place to connect with like minded people.

I have only ever personally had freshwater tanks and after years of being out of the hobby I'm ready to jump back into the deep (and salty) end!

[IronMonkey]

Hi All,

I just found this forum and love all that I have read on here. Seems like a great bunch and is the forum I chose to join y'all on because of that :-)

I have had previous experience with a reef tank (75g) a number of years ago and was able to successfully maintain it for a number of years... until it crashed hard and I had no idea why. I pretty much gave up because of two things. 1- I was pretty sure that the "cheapo" way I approached the tank was a direct influencer to the ultimate crash and burn 2- I wanted to do a bigger tank, but not until I could get my knowledge up and also address #1.

As circumstances have it, I have #1 covered now (from the expense perspective and being able to put a decent system together without skimping on what is needed to be successful like lighting, skimming, monitoring and automating). Now I'm putting a lot in the knowledge part of #2.

Currently I'm building out a 220g tank setup. I started by building my own stand and canopy for it that addressed a couple things. First, I wanted a taller stand, I hate having to bend over to admire the tank :-) and second, I wanted to have no center dividers in the equipment bay underneath, so I engineered to not need them. I'll post pics a bit later. I watched and read all the information from Mark Callahan that I could get my hands on as well as started lurking on reef forums to gather as much intel as possible, and then started buying stuff :-)

So far I have collected the following:
1- Vertex alpha 200 skimmer
2- Ecotech Radion xr30 pro light fixtures (x3)
3- 45g custom sump
4- Reef flow 4500 GPH external return pump (dart gold)
5- Neptune systems Apex gold with the leak detection module and 2 dosing modules
6- 220g corner flow marine life tank
7- 215lbs of dead rock
8- 185lbs of dead sand
9- Bottle of Dr. Tim's nitrifying bacteria
10- BRS 6 stage RODI unit
11- 275g IBC foodsafe water storage container for RODI freshwater storage

I've started building out the system and have completed the stand, tank and plumbing. Now I'm working on the electrical (lights and monitoring systems), and hope to put sand and rock in sometime next week. Maybe even start filling the tank at the end of next week... who knows :-)

Anyway, just thought I would introduce myself and give you a little background. If you see me posting total noob questions, be patient with me, I'll learn!

Thanks all, looking forward to a lot of great sharing here,
-Adam

[burtner]

Hi all,

I'm such a noob I don't even have my tank set up yet!

Early to mid-September, I'll be setting up my tank.

Some of the specs are as follows:

Nuvo Fusion Nano 20 tank
EcoTech MP10 wireless powerhead
Apex Neptune controller
AI Hydra 26 light
2 custom caddies (they go in the back [similar to a sump] of my tank.
-One will have additional area for bacteria to grow (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/marine...dia-plate.html)
-The other will act as a refugium, hopefully with chaeto and copepods
A small reactor that will fit in the 'sump', for GFO and carbon
A skimmer that will fit in the 'sump'.
A refugium light (controlled by Apex to be lit opposite the DT light)
20 lbs. of live rock (been curing for over a month now)
Tunze 3155 auto top-off system (again, controlled by Apex)

If you have any comments, advice, and/or questions, please let me know.

I look forward to learning from, and contributing to, this great forum!

[burtner]

Nice tank!

I'm curious, though; many opinions I've heard recommend starting with fish first, then clean-up crew, then corals. So, I'm wondering why you started with clean-up crew first.