bluebayou
New member
If you read that in the Professor's voice than you are a true Futurama fan...
Anyways I want to introduce myself to the URS. I'm a new (as in don't even have any equipment) reefer who's loved salt water critters ever since I was young. I still have a dream of diving with a Great White and using an acrylic tube instead of a shark cage. More than anything I've wanted to reef dive and examine all the neat life everywhere but I still haven't been able to. So, instead why not bring a little piece of the reef to the house?
I've been lurking here in Reef Central for a few weeks learning what I can. I bought The Reef Aquarium Vol 3 and have read it cover to cover a few times. I have the New Marine Aquarium by Paletta as well as the Conscientious Marine Aquarist, and some other titles on the way (Bourneman's Corals ect). I've been to Caribbean Forest as well as The Reef Shoppe here in town. I plan on visiting the other places in the area.
I'm in no rush (not to mention short on funds :spin3
to get fish and corals in the house. I want to do it as well as I can the first time around, try to get what I want. What I did do was buy the 5-stage deluxe RO/DI unit and a refractometer at Bulk Reef. I figured that they were something that I would need no matter what.
The longer I looked at it, the more I realized that I wouldn't be happy with a small tank. I want a somewhat sparse look with open sand and "islands" of live rock. I think I would really enjoy a large thick acrylic tank but it's outside our reach right now. I am currently thinking about a 120gal because my wife and I are living in an apt and we don't have a lot of money to spend on utilities.
For this reason I am thinking T5s and after losing 10% of my vision trying to wade through the official T5 thread I think I'll try to save for an ATI fixture. I do want the shimmer lines as well as moonlights so I will be looking at LED strips.
I was caught up in the Algae Turf Scrubber idea, it made a lot of sense to me, especially the SantaMonica guy's vertical dual sided scrubber with T5's on both sides of the screen. But the Reef Aquarium Vol 3 made me change my mind and just put in a good refugium.
My idea for the sump/fuge is having either two drains or splitting the drain and having one go to the skimmer and passive activated carbon and the other go to the fuge. The fuge runoff would go directly back to the tank to hopefully provide zooplankton to the Mandarins that I want. I figure I would add the miracle mud to the fuge as it couldn't hurt.
I like the ideas of the Vortech's, especially the power saving part. So maybe I can start with a few cheap powerheads and save up for them later. I was thinking about a Reef Dynamics skimmer, I like the fact that they're made in the USA.
My idea for fish is to have a few great characters such as a Flame Hawk, Gobies, ect but what I really would like is a few schools of small beautiful fish (Apagons, Chromis, ???) swimming this way and that in the currents. For corals I want a mix of SPS, LPS, softies and shrooms but I want to focus on a few choice specimens and give them the space to really branch out. I need to learn a lot more to be able to see a 1" frag and envision what will happen in 2 years.
More than anything I am just looking for neat stuff, stuff that's enjoyable to watch. Gobies sifting, tentacles swaying, my kind of fun.
Anyways I want to introduce myself to the URS. I'm a new (as in don't even have any equipment) reefer who's loved salt water critters ever since I was young. I still have a dream of diving with a Great White and using an acrylic tube instead of a shark cage. More than anything I've wanted to reef dive and examine all the neat life everywhere but I still haven't been able to. So, instead why not bring a little piece of the reef to the house?
I've been lurking here in Reef Central for a few weeks learning what I can. I bought The Reef Aquarium Vol 3 and have read it cover to cover a few times. I have the New Marine Aquarium by Paletta as well as the Conscientious Marine Aquarist, and some other titles on the way (Bourneman's Corals ect). I've been to Caribbean Forest as well as The Reef Shoppe here in town. I plan on visiting the other places in the area.
I'm in no rush (not to mention short on funds :spin3
to get fish and corals in the house. I want to do it as well as I can the first time around, try to get what I want. What I did do was buy the 5-stage deluxe RO/DI unit and a refractometer at Bulk Reef. I figured that they were something that I would need no matter what.The longer I looked at it, the more I realized that I wouldn't be happy with a small tank. I want a somewhat sparse look with open sand and "islands" of live rock. I think I would really enjoy a large thick acrylic tank but it's outside our reach right now. I am currently thinking about a 120gal because my wife and I are living in an apt and we don't have a lot of money to spend on utilities.
For this reason I am thinking T5s and after losing 10% of my vision trying to wade through the official T5 thread I think I'll try to save for an ATI fixture. I do want the shimmer lines as well as moonlights so I will be looking at LED strips.
I was caught up in the Algae Turf Scrubber idea, it made a lot of sense to me, especially the SantaMonica guy's vertical dual sided scrubber with T5's on both sides of the screen. But the Reef Aquarium Vol 3 made me change my mind and just put in a good refugium.
My idea for the sump/fuge is having either two drains or splitting the drain and having one go to the skimmer and passive activated carbon and the other go to the fuge. The fuge runoff would go directly back to the tank to hopefully provide zooplankton to the Mandarins that I want. I figure I would add the miracle mud to the fuge as it couldn't hurt.
I like the ideas of the Vortech's, especially the power saving part. So maybe I can start with a few cheap powerheads and save up for them later. I was thinking about a Reef Dynamics skimmer, I like the fact that they're made in the USA.
My idea for fish is to have a few great characters such as a Flame Hawk, Gobies, ect but what I really would like is a few schools of small beautiful fish (Apagons, Chromis, ???) swimming this way and that in the currents. For corals I want a mix of SPS, LPS, softies and shrooms but I want to focus on a few choice specimens and give them the space to really branch out. I need to learn a lot more to be able to see a 1" frag and envision what will happen in 2 years.
More than anything I am just looking for neat stuff, stuff that's enjoyable to watch. Gobies sifting, tentacles swaying, my kind of fun.
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