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

[Lochi02]

New to the Forums

New to the Forums

Well like the title says I'm new to this forum but have had a saltwater/reef tank for almost 10yrs. As my wife and I recently moved I got to breakdown and re-setup a tank that had been setup almost 9 years. I got to call a "redo" and rationalize upgrading most of the components of the tank. As such I'm really still figuring out my setup.

The goal of the new tank is mixed reef with zoas, softies, LPS, and some SPS. I picked up some acan frags and green monitpora cap which seem to be acclimating well but these are entirely new to me so questions will abound.

Time to go back to staring at the tank willing things to grow.

 

[Dante12345]

Brain coral question

Brain coral question

Hi all! Been i saltwater hobby for about 3 years now and glad to be part of the group. I have one of the updated versions of the coral life 29 gallon bio cube. I have a question I could use some help with: I have an open brain coral which recently noticed some visible skeleton on just one side and I'm curious if this is a too much flow problem or something else. There are a few brown spot on that side and not sure if that is something either, another thought was I just had a galaxea coral "melt" (die) and if some of the decay got in contact with the brain. Appreciate the help.

 

[drkcurrent]

Hello All
I have a 14gal nano reef going.
I am planning on upgrading to a 110gal soon!

 

[rdjromy]

Hello All
I have a 75 gallon DT and 35 gal sump refugium. I started my deep sand bed 4" depth a month ago all sand and live rock came from our reef here in Guam 6 minute drive from the beach. I notice that there are no nitrogen gas build up on the sand or worm activities like i normally see in youtube or other website . What is the reason why my deep sand bed is not going on this phase of cycle?

 

[RichieWrasee]

Hi all from the UK. I've been keeping a marine tank now for about 3 years and unforntunetly having to rebuild it this weekend after a bit of crash and aip outbreak
The DT is 100 gal

 

[Surgical]

Hi im iain. I started in this hobby nov 2012. Just been lurking here for a while, but i wanted to start posting! I have a 40 g 20g sump, just some clowns for bow for fish. Acans, zoas, some birdsnest, monti, clam. Looking to upgrade when i can get a bigger place, so nothin fancy

 

[Lord bigZ]

Hello everyone! My name is Anthony, I am eighteen, and I live in Madrid (Spain) For me, it's an honor to share my passion for reef aquariums with you all.

 

[javdog2001]

Newbie questions.

Newbie questions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello this is my fist post.

I have a 75gallon bowfront tank with about 75lbs of live rock, 2 1/2 to 3 inches of live sand. Lighting is a 48 inch coralife with 10000 watt light and also a 'purple light'...I run the white lights about 8 hours a day and the purple 2 hours a day. My water levels are pretty stable. Water changes I am doing 15 gallons/10 days as my nitrates were around 40 or so. I have also recently figured out that i needed to raise my skimmer in order to be able to tune it better. This has greatly increased my effectiveness of my skimmer and should help out with the nitrates.

I am confused about what i refer to as my 'sump' or refuge. It is 40 gallons, 3 chambers. The water comes from the main tank into 1st compartment which holds the protein skimmer and heater, the 2nd compartment has some live rock and also I have some carbon in here, 3rd compartment has the pump returning water to the main tank. Is this considered a sump, or refuge?

Currently in the tank I have:

1 Ocellaris clownfish
1 Bar gobi
1 blue/green chromis
2 firefish (these are new additions, so far seem to be doing well)
1 cleaner shrimp - I think its coral banded shrimp...
I also have what I believe is a bubble tip anenome, its pinkish in color and recently it split into two, so now I have two of these. They rarely move and are kind of positioned now behind a rock near the bottom so difficult to see. The clownfish hangs with the original anenome where its at, so frequently he is out of sight...
I have a couple of rocks with mushroom corals on them.

Any thoughts on what i have going are appreciated. Also am looking for suggestions on another nice fish to feature in the tank. Possible a tang, something really nice looking that will draw some attention. I have had two yellow eyed tangs (not at the same time) when I first got my tank going about a year ago. Both died very quickly. However that has been at least 6 months since I last tried that and I think that my tank is doing a lot better now...

Thanks in advance for any thoughts/advice...

 

[DwayneH]

Greets from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Greets from Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Hi, I'm Dwayne.

Been reading up on saltwater tanks for a couple of months.

I'm definitely interested; BUT, i just am not sure how to begin. i keep reading and reading and finding guides and instructions all over...

i guess it just seems overwhelming... and i don't want to get an aquarium, only to realize that for some reason, it won't work out for me.


anyways....... just saying hi~!!

 

[Maliaga]

Greetings ReefCentral-istas!

Greetings ReefCentral-istas!

Hello Folks,

I'm Martin from Potomac, MD...suburb of Washington DC. I'm a newbie and about to start my first saltwater tank. I'm starting out with a 29 gallon tank I have sitting around.

So far my setup is:
29 gallon tank
2 - Hydor Evolution 750 powerheads
Reef Octopus HOB BH1000 Skimmer
HOB filter
35 pounds of Dry Reef Rock
150w heater
Standard light that came with my freshwater setup (I'll splurge on decent lighting down the road)

I've always wanted to have a reef tank. This 29 gallon will be my first venture into the hobby. If I can stick with it and have some success I'd like to upgrade to a 90 gallon tank someday.

Baby steps. I want to see how it goes and hopefully benefit from RC's input.

I need to decide on what type of sand I'll use or bare bottom it. After that point I'll be ready for the cycling process.

I'll be pestering the community soon enough.

-Martin

 

[Fishmommy]

Hi all!
I am a longtime freshwater hobbyist. I am planning a reef tank for next year and have a lot of learning to do in the meantime!
I live in NH USA and am a mechanical engineer.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[electronaught]

Hi,

I'm also relatively new to the idea of a reef setup. I grew up with various freshwater tanks and fish, but never marine.

I purchased a 55g marine tank with livestock, filters, etc. on craigslist over the summer and soon decided to convert it to a reef, mostly because the kids and I thought it would be really cool to have an anemone for the ocellaris.

With live rock, aragonite and a cleanup crew added, I started reading about anemones, corals, and all the other wonderful creatures we could add to our reef once it was all ready and stabilized.
Of course learning about all the cool stuff we could add prompted me to keep an eye out for a larger tank.
I was also getting tired of the industrial wasteland look that two filters (one HOT, one canister), a protein skimmer and a couple powerheads, created in the tank. Those things take up a bunch of space too.

Even more reading got me thinking about setting up a sump and refugium to boot!

So now (thanks to craiglist) I find myself with a 125.
It's drilled but will need a few more holes to accommodate the flow I want. I'm creating a list for all the pieces I'll need to get the display and sump/refugium going, the stand refurbished and the aquascape nicely planned to account for the different types of critters we plan to add.

The hardest part about all of this is being patient, but I'm sure it will pay off. (That's what I have to keep telling myself.)

I've learned a ton here already and look forward to sponging up more information.

Livestock in the 55g:
4 blue/green chromis
1 engineer (convict) goby (about 10" long)
1 ocellaris clown
1 powder brown tang (currently in quarantine because it contracted marine ich/ Cryptocaryon irritans)
1 lamarck's angel
1 matted filefish (he was supposed to eat the two aiptasia I found in the live rock, but doesn't seem at all interested)

 

[Roman120G]

Hello Reefers

Hello Reefers

Hi everyone

My name is Roman,
I am in Montreal, Canada,

All my life had fresh water tanks with gold fishes.
did not know much about marine tanks till about mid January 2013.
Since then a lot of time was spent on web surfing and talking to LFS owners to gather info.
Have been purchasing equipment starting from end of January.
Got 120g display, 55g tank for custom sump and 57g tank for saltwater storage ( did not want to use garbage/food grade bins) from local store with some equipment, and rest purchased online from Bulkreefsupply. Those guy are great, fast shipping to Canada and great communication.

built my sump - drain with filter socks and skimmer in first compartment, fuge in second, return in 3rd and ato in 4th ( did not want to have containers around the area).
RO/DI unit with auto shut off swith connected to splitter that feeds water to ato and saltwater tank. I choose which way it flows.

reefkeeper elite controls everything.

coralife super plus 220g skimmer,
mag 1200 return pump

cpr overflow box 102 with 2 1" drains ( did some modifications to make it quiet and removed sponge filters - since I have filter socks in sump, do not want to clean overflow box sponge every week or so)

2 ecotech mp40es pumps
and planning to get 2 ecotech radions pro in about a month after cycling finishes.

put carbon in sock in between baffles in sump. Water became clearer next day.

all of the above equipment is running now and waiting for the curred live rock to arrive next week.

got 140lb of Fiji pink live sand, some will go to the fuge's deep sand bed.
Display will have about 1.5-2inches.

once cycling finishes, will install GFO reactor from BRS and start getting livestock.

there will be some questions.

It is nice to be a part of comminity and hope to get a lot of usefull information and feedback.

 

[bellowme]

My name is Mike and I live in Okinawa Japan. I am new to the hobby and I am in the process of setting up my 75 gallon tank. Browsing this forum has already been very helpful, and I look forward to getting more involved as I learn this hobby.

 

[devimik]

Hi from Olathe, KS

Hi from Olathe, KS

Hi reefers, my name is Mike DeVincent. I've had freshwater tanks all my life, but just getting into saltwater. I did tons of research here and ended up with a 90g reef ready tank. Here's the current setup:

90g reef ready tank with corner overflow
Reef Octopus 150 skimmer
Mag 9.5 return pump
29 long sump
Tunze Osmolator ATO
120 lbs Caribsea Aragamax sugar sand
115 lbs rock
2 Hydor Koralias (1500 and 550)
2 120w 20.5" 10K Maxspect Razor 420 LED lights
2 150w Aquasource heaters

Currently, in cycling mode - just finished aquascaping the rock. Half of the rock I got live, the other was dry. I've already seen copepods and amphipods, so that's a good sign. Looking forward to getting a few fish. Gotta say I love this site and have learned so much reading over the months since purchasing the tank before Christmas, waiting for the staining of the stand and canopy, then doing the plumbing and other tank setup. Definitely not rushing anything here as I've learned to be patient with this process. Hopefully, all will go well. Here's a pic of the tank with the moonlights on - still a bit cloudy since I was moving some rock around.

 

[Chevy84]

hello everyone my name is luke i live i north east ohio new to salt water and looking for any clubs in norteast ohio thanks

 

[Alohadood]

Heyo!

I'm Zach (aka Alohadood) new to the forums, referred here by reefingmadness, from another site :hammer:

Currently residing in Iowa (near a couple nice little LFS)

background is 15 years in planted FW tanks, and only a sad little year in FOWLR, But am making the jump to reefing!

Will be lurking around the boards looking for info and help along the way. But I'll say thanks for your time and expertise in advance!

 

[DrJohn]

Hello everyone, built my first tank in 1988, started with a 26g flatback hex, ran it for 9 years. Managed to keep a clam alive for 2 years with only a single 24" actinic and a 3 foot flourescent (I think I got it at Home Depot). Have built a few more tanks since then, most recently a 75g with 15g sump in 2000. Ran that tank until 2003 when I had to take a break from "reefing" due to transfer overseas to Japan. The Navy has been bouncing me around every 3 years since, so I havn't been able to start a new tank. I should be able to stay put for a while now, and I am looking forward to jumping back in.

I'm very interested in some of these new LED lighting setups, as the tank is going into a room that will double as a home theater, so light control is a big issue. I don't want an open top, and I've had heat buildup issues with power compacts in the past. I hope folks out there have some good advice.

 

[Wiselex]

Hi I'm new

Hi I'm new

I just notice the wen i put the live rock on new tank i saw this what the hell is this is this a pest ?? So I can take it out!!

 

[Wiselex]

This is the second pic