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

[tedcb]

Howdy, hello, Gruss Gott, etc.

Howdy, hello, Gruss Gott, etc.

Just wanted to say hello. I actually found this site by accident, but it looks to be very informative. I'm not new to fish keeping, but have just started my first forray into reef keeping. I recently tore down one of my 75gal. FOWLR tanks, bought a 125, and set it up with the goal of keeping corals and some fish. I have a wet/dry system rated for 200g tank, 2 protein skimmers, a cannister filter loaded with phosphate and nitrate removers (removed bio balls), various koralia pumps for circulation, 160lbs. live rock (some very mature and some only 2-3 months old, and live sand (new and from previous tank), and a decent PC light fixture (saving up for either LED or MH). The owner of my LFS actually gave me some corals to get started....he knows I will be spending a lot more when I can squirrel it away from the wife. Any tips on improving my set-up would be welcomed. I'm on a budget now as this is the off season for my work, so I'm building my own in tank refugium to get me through.

 

[jillw28]

I am new!!

I am new!!

Hi-

I am new to the forums here. I have the two tanks listed in my profile. I have had freshwater for many years and saltwater for two days... I also have 2 cats, 2 dogs, and a three toed box turtle named Shelly...ha

I am feeling like I entered a whole new world by getting into the saltwater hobby...feeling really outta place and overwhelmed with info right now...So much info and not all of its consistent, so it gets confusing. I am hoping to get settled soon. Glad I got a tank already going...it was basically plug and play...ha


Thanks for your time in advance,

Jill-The saltwater noob! :fun4:

 

[marley24]

:fun4: My name is Vicky and I am located in South Louisiana. I have only 1.5 yrs experience in reefing. Before that, 20 years in freshwater.

I have 90g with 40g sump (mixed reef with fish) and a 28g Nano (sumpless) mixed reef. Running MH's and T5's on both systems, but want to upgrade to LED's soon.

I enjoy this hobby/obsession very much and constantly have an arm in the water..lol. Love all the reef clubs and soaking all the information I can. Still consider myself a newbie but have learned alot along.

 

[kstate]

I'm also new to RC. Just started at 56G tank about a month ago. Since I am taking it slow, it will be August before I decide that I want to add fish. Right now, I have only a handful of asterea and turbo snails, but I will soon start finalizing my fish, crab, coral, and anemone list.

If you are interested to see what the tank looks like, check out my albums and let me know your thoughts. The rock in the middle is about 1 1/2 ft tall and weighed 32lbs to put it in some perspective.

I have been fascinated by reef tanks for many years, but have finally been able to get into the hobby now that I have a steady paycheck and am out of college.

Let me know any thoughts or questions that you may have. I am always looking for more knowledge when it comes to reefing.

Thanks,
John

 

[kstate]

new to hobby

new to hobby

I'm also new to RC. Just started at 56G tank about a month ago. Since I am taking it slow, it will be August before I decide that I want to add fish. Right now, I have only a handful of asterea and turbo snails, but I will soon start finalizing my fish, crab, coral, and anemone list.

If you are interested to see what the tank looks like, check out my albums and let me know your thoughts. The rock in the middle is about 1 1/2 ft tall and weighed 32lbs to put it in some perspective.

I have been fascinated by reef tanks for many years, but have finally been able to get into the hobby now that I have a steady paycheck and am out of college.

Let me know any thoughts or questions that you may have. I am always looking for more knowledge when it comes to reefing.

Thanks,
John

 

[jflores]

Hi I just started salt water yesterday. I have had fresh water for years and now wanted to try salt because simply the fish are much more colorful. I know I will not always do things right, but I am anxious to learn. I am sure I will be asking tons of questions and I am glad for this forum as I have already gotten an answer to my first question. Thanks

 

[tomiooo]

hi,
i registered 2 years ago, but i wasn't post here, now it will change :thumbsup: and i will try to catch up.

Greetings
Tom

 

[R@mon]

Newb

Newb

Hello RC, My name is Ramon and I am located in Miami, FL. I registered a little bit ago but finally decided to introduce myself.

I know very little of the hobby but I am trying to learn little by little (most of the time, the hard way lol)

I currently have a 120 gallon tank that i just currently changed up completely.

Before all the new changes, the tank had been running for about 2 years before a horrible algae outbreak. Being new the to hobby I did a lot of things incorrectly. Starting off with just regular tap water/way too little flow/over feeding/etc.

My goal was never to house very hard to keep coral or fish, just mainly anemone and easier to keep fish.

The setup used to have power compacts for lighting and I now changed it up to an Aquaticlife 72" T5 fixture. I also constructed a new larger overflow box to help skim the surface better and also quiet things done a bit.

As for flow I added 2 powerheads to the tank .

I am still learning and I am sure there are many things that need changing.

Before the algae attack




After








Andro from OceanView Aquatics has been helping me out and cant say enough about the guy. Awesome prices and always willing to help out even when I screw everything up for him lol

 

[Query]

Hello everyone. I've been looking through the site for a while, and wanted to wait until I read all of the articles in the newbie section before posting, so now it's finally time to see if anyone still views this thread.

Current Setup:
75-Gallon Tank
200lbs Live Rock
50lbs Live Sand
Coralife 48" T5 Light with one 10,000k bulb and one Acitinic Blue bulb
2 Koralia 3's
5-Gallon Sump with Bio-Balls
Quiet One 4000 Return Pump (1017 gph)
Protein Skimmer is built into sump, uses Rio 1700 pump
Various Fishes, Critters (The least important things)

The only question I'll ask right away, even though I already know the answer, is:
Should I remove the Bio-Balls, if I currently have nothing to take their place?

 

[r6justin]

hey I'm justin

 

[Diva]

Hi I'm Ayanna, from Alabama . I'm somewhat new to reef keeping( I had a 12g Nano-Cube 5 years ago but at that time was far to unexperienced to keep it thriving.) after much more researching and learning I've been able to maintain my 28g Nano Cube for sometime now, and am ready to grade to a drilled 75 gallon AGA reef in a week or so! Still trying to work out my equipment list, but already comes with 4x T-5's, 2x Metal Halides, 4x moonlights, stand, canopy and of course the DT. Thinking of getting a 20 or 30 long for sump/fugue area. Taking suggestions! Thanks!

 

[bellis31]

Hi

Hi

Heya, I'm new to marine aquariums and really appreciate the info found on this forum!

My first marine tank is a 40gal Breeder FOWLR with a 20 gallon DIY SUMP... I'm installing a glass-holes.com overflow and return system (fun fun).. and Ehiem 1260 return pump, I have not yet decided on a skimmer make and model. Everything is still in the planning stages and should begin to progress towards a build this weekend..

I also have a Fluval Edge with Scarlet Badis... beautiful little tank, I changed out the Halogens for LED's and added a strip of blue LED's for night time...

That's it for now...

 

[ldreefer]

New to Reefing and the Site

New to Reefing and the Site

Hi,

I'm Logan. I just bought my first tank today after doing A LOT of research. I bought a 72G bow front with a stand/canopy and a 10G breeder tank for a sump. The tank is drilled in the center with a 1" 90 degree as an overflow, following that is 1" PVC all the way down to the sump. That is as far as I have gotten so far.

The sump is just a tank as of right now. I need some serious and in depth help understanding and creating my sump and system. What is the best way to go about doing this? What is the cheapest, but most effective sump that I can create from my 10G tank? Do I need a protein skimmer? I am new to this, so the whole sump thing scares and confuses me. I need help on this from everything to the return and the skimmer all the way to the pump that pushes water back into the tank along with the powerheads.

I am getting rock and sand from my dad who has an established tank already, and will be buying 45lbs. of salt tomorrow. I am going to buy a light on Friday as well. I think I'm going to go with the 48" Coralife Dual Light THO.

I know that I need to cycle the tank. For about how long should I do this before adding fish? Keep in mind it will have a very good amount of live rock in it to speed up the process.

What fish should I start out with? I am hoping to later put an anemone in and HOPEFULLY get a breeding pair of clowns to breed in my tank, but for now what fish should I start with?

And lastly, if I am later going to add an anemone and corals, what lights should I go with? I am going to get the Coralife THO, but exactly which light bulbs should I get for it?

Thanks in advance. I have been wanting a reef tank for a long time now and I'm so glad I finally got one. Now the fun part begins. I will be turning to you guys for help quite frequently I expect.

 

[astvinr]

So i'm Markus from Sweden(Yes the land of polarbears and meatballs) and i'm 27 years old.

I've been reading up on reef aqauariums for roughly a month now and I had no idea that there was soo much info out there(even for free!). As I love animals of all sorts and also am unemployed I have a lot of time to put into reading up on all info I can get my hands on.

So to all the people who spend time on writing the articles and answering the tons of question newbies like myself have a HUGE thank you!
Also a big thanks to the creator/adminstrators of the site and forums.
Without you there would be no place for hobbyist to talk and share information really, so you have my deepest respect.

My main focus at the start was getting to know the equipment part, wich I pretty much know what you need by now. Although without having done anything practical around reefaquariums I still feel like I have tons to learn. I have little knowledge about calciumreactors and the more "automated" part about the chemistry in reefkeeping.

Once I knew the basic of equipment I moved on to the things I actually found fun namely the living things!

Now for me(feel free to hate on this)what seperates the a reefaquarium from a regular one is the many lower organisms other than fish. So my interest lies mostly in culturing corals.

Now I don't have a plan right now to start my own business, but I am interested in working in some sort of aquarium store, be it marine or not. So if anyone got any connections here in Sweden(More precise Eskilstuna) please send me a pm.

Also to the staff/authors on the site. I'd be happy to help out if you need someone to translate articles into Swedish. (I'm not an A student, although B in this subject) But i'd be happy to help the hobby grow! And put them on Swedish forums (with the authors permission ofc)

 

[Bunnylicked]

Hello! My name is Mame, and I'm new here. I recently became interested in reef aquariums when I saw a corner reef tank in a podiatrist's office. I'm interested in starting an aquarium that's around 75 gallons in the near future. Until then, I'm trying to do as much research as I can. I'm glad I found RC!

 

[Clyde Frog]

Hi! I'm new to RC but not reef systems. I worked for a large aquarium maintaining life systems and livestock in tanks from 200 gallons to 200,000 gallons. This is my first attempt at keeping a home aquarium. It should prove interesting! I'm currently trying a 5 gallon nano tank but do not plan to add any live stock any time save for an invertebrate or two. I am also planning to start a 29 gallon tank shortly after my 5 gallon is established.

Currently, it is cycling with just live sand (live rock to be added tomorrow). I ran it for 24 hours with just water and filtration system. Today I added a power head and sand. Once the sand settles (tank is cloudy) I will aquascape with live rock and the REAL cycling will begin.

I look forward to both learning from and contributing to this forum!

 

[Clyde Frog]

Hi! I'm new to RC but not reef systems. I worked for a large aquarium maintaining life systems and livestock in tanks from 200 gallons to 200,000 gallons. This is my first attempt at keeping a home aquarium. It should prove interesting! I'm currently trying a 5 gallon nano tank but do not plan to add any live stock any time save for an invertebrate or two. I am also planning to start a 29 gallon tank shortly after my 5 gallon is established.

Currently, it is cycling with just live sand (live rock to be added tomorrow). I ran it for 24 hours with just water and filtration system. Today I added a power head and sand. Once the sand settles (tank is cloudy) I will aquascape with live rock and the REAL cycling will begin.

I look forward to both learning from and contributing to this forum!

 

[Skwilliams7]

Hey everyone!

Hey everyone!

Hi everyone, My names Sarah. Me and my boyfriend just got into the hobby about 9 months now (I'm new to the hobby entirely, my boyfriend has some past experience) We currently manage a 30 gallon nanoreef...I dont know all the attractive lingo that people use- very interested in the hobby though, love my tank a lot =) but don't know much about having a saltwater tank, only the basics. If anyone has any "NEED to know" info, I'd greatly appreciate it! =) Thanks and I think I will really enjoy RC!

 

[marco j]

Hello and greetings all,

My name is Anthony and I am from Chicago and have recently relocated near St. Louis for a job. I have been in the fresh water (cichlids) for many years and am now ready to make the move to the salt world. I sold off my fresh water tank and gear along with the house and inherited a 90gallon tank during my move. Nothing is set up yet and I am currently planning on doing so. The current plan is to run a DSB (5inches) in the 90 to a 40gallon long sump/fuge. I am currently running through my options for a sump (DIY) vs. purchased. My wish looks like this:

40gallon long sump/fuge
Skimmer rated 150gallons or more
RO/DI unit 100GPD
Tunze 6065 power head

If anyone would like to consult me through this life change it would be appreciated!

Once I am ready to begin setting up I will create a thread to share in the experience.

Oh and I've been lurking for years but am just now switching to salt water systems.

Ciao,
Anthony

 

[s4chico]

Hi everyone,

I am new here as well. I have a 110gal saltwater tank that's been running for a few years and probably has the best collection of aiptasia known to man!!! I am planning on putting together a new 185gal or 210gal and am overwhelmed with the amount of info on this site......glad to be here. :headwally:

Steve