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

[Rachelle]

35 gallon in the works...

35 gallon in the works...

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this site and to the world of saltwater tanks. I've owned many freshwater tanks over the past several years, but have always been fascinated with saltwater reef tanks.

My husband and I have recently purchased all of our equipment to start setting up our 35 gallon. I've read so many articles about maintaining a reef tank and the proper care of the fish/corals I want, but none that actually explain the initial set-up of the tank.

Off I go to read some more! I will have water, live rock and live sand in my tank in the next few weeks!

 

[Aquarist007]

Thanks captn!

All is on hold, I had an amonia/nitrite/nitrate spike from overfeeding:sad2:

I've done two partial water changes yesterday, and am doing another this morning.

So far I see no adverse effects, except for the torch coral. One of its branches fully retracted and a second is looking unhappy as well.

I hope it bounces back.

Put some Seachems Prime in there---its an ammonia and nitrate blocker

 

[Aquarist007]

Hi my name is Tom Just joined have been observer for a month or so. Been with an aquarium for about 3.5 years. Mainly a fowlr it is a 75 gal. Recently have built my own backwall and am in process of starting up a 25 gal sump. Would like to start doing a reef. :rollface:

[welcome]
Do you have any pics of your backwall?

 

[Aquarist007]

Hello everyone, My name is Larry and have just entered the world of saltwater reef keeping.

I have been in the aquarium hobby for about 8 years now but most of my experience is in freshwater (mainly african cichlids).

Right now my current set up is a All Glass 90g, 30 gal sump, Euro Reef 80 Protein Skimmer, 2 Koralia 3, 4 bulb Current USA Nova Extreme T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture Fixture

I also have a 20g QT and 4 freshwater tanks up and runing.

You sound in really great shape with the equipment you have.

[welcome]

 

[Aquarist007]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this site and to the world of saltwater tanks. I've owned many freshwater tanks over the past several years, but have always been fascinated with saltwater reef tanks.

My husband and I have recently purchased all of our equipment to start setting up our 35 gallon. I've read so many articles about maintaining a reef tank and the proper care of the fish/corals I want, but none that actually explain the initial set-up of the tank.

Off I go to read some more! I will have water, live rock and live sand in my tank in the next few weeks!

In water keepers articles in the the Read this first thread you should find start up articles

Briefly
Rinse off your substrate and add it to the tank
Build your reef with at least 35 lbs of live rock
Add salt water(use only ro or ro/di filtered water)
Set up your power heads
Let your tank run
Your lights need only be on for 3 or 4 hours a day.

Each day measure the ammonia and nitrates
You should see a rise in the ammonia levels followed by a decrease to zero
Similarily a rise in nitrates followed by a decrease to zero

At this point you can say your tank has cycled which means the bacteria on the live rock has increased its level to handle the bioload of your tank

Now you can begin to add a clean up crew--snails, hermit crabs etc etc
Followed by some hearty corals
Lastly around week six you can start to add one fish at a time.

[welcome]

 

[theDeedo]

who be the newbie

who be the newbie

Hello all,

Bautiful site. Well to start off my name is Dominic. I have grown up around saltwater tanks, because my mother and step father took up the hobbie years ago. They no longer indulge in it, but after leaving home I have started a couple myself. Never a reef tank but some nice saltwater predator fish none the less. Im older now (not old, just older) and just moved into a new home, and my first thought of what I wanted to do was start a reef tank. So much so that AS SOON AS I signed the papers i drove over to the pet store to drool at the tanks. I know this is not a hobbie for the impatient or the eager, so with that being said my research must begin long before I ever even get the tank. I would like to start out on the best foot i possibly can in the knowledge department, because it has been awhile since I have set up a tank. I know there are alot of books on this subject, but can you guys suggest to me some good books to get me going in the right direction? Im not scared of thick books either so dont be shy :fish1:

 

[kdog420000]

Hello,

I'm Kevin and am new to the saltwater hobby. I have a 29g Biocube up and running for a little over a month now. Ive cycled and have a CUC, 2 clowns and a firefish. I also have a few corals. i upgraded my tank hood to a 150w HQI and installed a inTank media and fuge. Well I joined this forum a while ago but have been just doing lots of reading and looking until now.

 

[wholelottawater]

Hello,

I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been looking around for awhile and researching and now I have converted my 75Gallon FOWLR into a reef. I am no newbie to keeping fish but I have found this site to be my greatest resource in learning how to keep a reef. I will introduce my setup later. Thanks to everyone.

 

[Aquarist007]

Hello,

I'm Kevin and am new to the saltwater hobby. I have a 29g Biocube up and running for a little over a month now. Ive cycled and have a CUC, 2 clowns and a firefish. I also have a few corals. i upgraded my tank hood to a 150w HQI and installed a inTank media and fuge. Well I joined this forum a while ago but have been just doing lots of reading and looking until now.

do you have any pics of the halide hood and the in tank fuge?

[welcome]

 

[Aquarist007]

Hello,

I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been looking around for awhile and researching and now I have converted my 75Gallon FOWLR into a reef. I am no newbie to keeping fish but I have found this site to be my greatest resource in learning how to keep a reef. I will introduce my setup later. Thanks to everyone.

Look forward to seeing your setup

[welcome]

 

[Aquarist007]

Hello all,

Bautiful site. Well to start off my name is Dominic. I have grown up around saltwater tanks, because my mother and step father took up the hobbie years ago. They no longer indulge in it, but after leaving home I have started a couple myself. Never a reef tank but some nice saltwater predator fish none the less. Im older now (not old, just older) and just moved into a new home, and my first thought of what I wanted to do was start a reef tank. So much so that AS SOON AS I signed the papers i drove over to the pet store to drool at the tanks. I know this is not a hobbie for the impatient or the eager, so with that being said my research must begin long before I ever even get the tank. I would like to start out on the best foot i possibly can in the knowledge department, because it has been awhile since I have set up a tank. I know there are alot of books on this subject, but can you guys suggest to me some good books to get me going in the right direction? Im not scared of thick books either so dont be shy :fish1:

everyone has there favorites

Aquarium Corals by Borneman
Reef Invertebrates by Calfo and Fenner
Marine Fishes by Scott Michael
Diseases in Marine Fish by Gerald Bassleer

[welcome]

 

[Learsi]

hello to every body i'm learsi and new to the hobby. i'm really excited because me and my wife and kids are getting our first fish tank. it should be in our house like in two weeks. i been reading a lot to be familiar with the hobby. we are getting a 65g salt water. and our goal is to have something similar to the tank of the month. hopefully one day. as a right now a have a question. the owner of the fish store where we are getting our stuff told us that we should start with some damsels he recommended the chromis because they are not territorial. can someone help me with this? is this true? thanks for the help>

 

[Aquarist007]

hello to every body i'm learsi and new to the hobby. i'm really excited because me and my wife and kids are getting our first fish tank. it should be in our house like in two weeks. i been reading a lot to be familiar with the hobby. we are getting a 65g salt water. and our goal is to have something similar to the tank of the month. hopefully one day. as a right now a have a question. the owner of the fish store where we are getting our stuff told us that we should start with some damsels he recommended the chromis because they are not territorial. can someone help me with this? is this true? thanks for the help>

I would not start with damsels. Damsels grow up to be bullies of the tank and really limit what you can put in with them. The longer they are in your tank the smarter they get and harder to catch.
IMO damsels should be in a tank of their own with other damsels.
If this is what the LFS is telling you I would not go back

[welcome]

 

[vaporlockv2]

New to the forum and hobby

New to the forum and hobby

Well I'm new here and new to the hobby. I have a 28gal jbj biocube with 5 fish and lots of softies and a few hard corals. I have upgraded the lighting to two 65w 50/50 bulbs with upgraded external ballast. I have also upgraded the return pump that puts out 230gal an hr. I also added a Seio 620 in the tank for added water flow.

My second tank is just a 10gal frag tank. I set it up about a week and a half ago. I have a 5gal sump/refugium underneath the tank and I am also using a nano HOB protein skimmer. There is nothing in the tank yet but will be adding a couple of fish to it here in about 3 weeks. So far there is 20lb of live sand 20lb of live rock. My lighting is two 28w pc 6500k bulbs supplemented with a 25 watt actinic bulb.

I have also set up a 5gal tank for my grandmother. It has been running for about 4 months now. It has two 10w coralife 50/50 bulbs. It is using a regular HOB filter along with a 3g tank set up underneath as a refugium. It has 11lb of live sand and has 8lb of live rock. There are various soft corals in it. Some rics, mushrooms, a few armor of god zoanthids, reverse gorilla nipples, orange spot polyps and some green star polyps. No fish is going to be in this tank as she is just a HUGE fan of coral. We are planning on upgrading the lighting with a clamp-on JBJ viper MH 70w light so she can start collecting some sps.

I am totally addicted to the hobby and I love how generous everyone is and that they take the time to answer a noobs questions.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

hello to every body i'm learsi and new to the hobby. i'm really excited because me and my wife and kids are getting our first fish tank. it should be in our house like in two weeks. i been reading a lot to be familiar with the hobby. we are getting a 65g salt water. and our goal is to have something similar to the tank of the month. hopefully one day. as a right now a have a question. the owner of the fish store where we are getting our stuff told us that we should start with some damsels he recommended the chromis because they are not territorial. can someone help me with this? is this true? thanks for the help>

[welcome]
It's good to have a goal like tank of the month. As far as cycling a tank with live fish, it is deemed cruel to subject fish (even damsels) to the toxic environment of ammonia, I would suggest using a dead uncooked shrimp from the super market and allowing it to decompose in the tank to start the cycling process. then once your ammonia spikes you can remove the shrimp and watch the cycle complete.

Now don't get me wrong the owner of the fish store was right that you can cycle a tank that way but there are better ways in doing it these days. there might be a motive behind his suggestion but that's not for me to say.

Good luck with your families new hobby. and when you win tank of the month be sure to thank the little people that help you along the way...

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Well I'm new here and new to the hobby. I have a 28gal jbj biocube with 5 fish and lots of softies and a few hard corals. I have upgraded the lighting to two 65w 50/50 bulbs with upgraded external ballast. I have also upgraded the return pump that puts out 230gal an hr. I also added a Seio 620 in the tank for added water flow.

My second tank is just a 10gal frag tank. I set it up about a week and a half ago. I have a 5gal sump/refugium underneath the tank and I am also using a nano HOB protein skimmer. There is nothing in the tank yet but will be adding a couple of fish to it here in about 3 weeks. So far there is 20lb of live sand 20lb of live rock. My lighting is two 28w pc 6500k bulbs supplemented with a 25 watt actinic bulb.

I have also set up a 5gal tank for my grandmother. It has been running for about 4 months now. It has two 10w coralife 50/50 bulbs. It is using a regular HOB filter along with a 3g tank set up underneath as a refugium. It has 11lb of live sand and has 8lb of live rock. There are various soft corals in it. Some rics, mushrooms, a few armor of god zoanthids, reverse gorilla nipples, orange spot polyps and some green star polyps. No fish is going to be in this tank as she is just a HUGE fan of coral. We are planning on upgrading the lighting with a clamp-on JBJ viper MH 70w light so she can start collecting some sps.

I am totally addicted to the hobby and I love how generous everyone is and that they take the time to answer a noobs questions.

[welcome]
seems like you went all out and are full steam ahead. That is so cool that your grandmother is enjoying the hobby as well.

 

[spankysreef]

Wassup!

Wassup!

Hey, just joined today!
I only have about 5yrs. of tru reef experience. About 8yrs. of SW experience. And tons of freshwater exp! After keeping and breeding difficult FW species i decided to move on to SW for the challenge..... Little did i know that it was a challenge indeed! Started with FOWLR.. Then i added a seperate aggressive FOWLR...Then a small softie reef....then another softie reef..then combined to one big softie reef...So on and so fourth. Now i have i nice mixed reef with some lps,shrooms,and a huge zoanthid collection. I also have a custom frag display with a DIY background to display the frags. I have really got into DIY lately. I recently made a Xenia propagation plate that is really coming together. I am finally propagating and selling frags, which is nice. Now its much easier to fund new purchases or even stuff for maintenance.
Anyways, just a tid-bit about me.
THANKS RC!!!!!!!

 

[itisallspirit]

Hello-

This is my first forum post although I have been perusing for some months. I am very new to the hobby. I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank with T5 lighting, a back pack protien skimmer, powerhead (some kind >.>)approximately 70 lbs of live rock and some sand. I used the forums to get me through the icky brown algae and the green algae. I have a small cleanup crew and this week I added a zoanthid frag and a xenia. Now I am looking at my rock and trying to decide if I really want that much rock. My goal is a nice reef with a few fishies for interest and movement. Anyways, I am having a difficult time searching for example pictures of how folks set up their rock.

All in all I am having a grand time with this whole new deal. It is just fascinating!

Thank you for being here

Laura

 

[miserkris]

Hi All,
I am new to Saltwater. Had freshwater when I was a teenager. Now I am 37.
I am starting a 55g FOWLR. I am interested in meeting local RC members and see their tanks. I am in Downingtown ,PA. Pls contact me if you are near me!!!
Thanks
Kris

 

[Aquarist007]

Hey, just joined today!
I only have about 5yrs. of tru reef experience. About 8yrs. of SW experience. And tons of freshwater exp! After keeping and breeding difficult FW species i decided to move on to SW for the challenge..... Little did i know that it was a challenge indeed! Started with FOWLR.. Then i added a seperate aggressive FOWLR...Then a small softie reef....then another softie reef..then combined to one big softie reef...So on and so fourth. Now i have i nice mixed reef with some lps,shrooms,and a huge zoanthid collection. I also have a custom frag display with a DIY background to display the frags. I have really got into DIY lately. I recently made a Xenia propagation plate that is really coming together. I am finally propagating and selling frags, which is nice. Now its much easier to fund new purchases or even stuff for maintenance.
Anyways, just a tid-bit about me.
THANKS RC!!!!!!!

glad you joined--I am sure your experiece will prove to be an asset for this site

[welcome]