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

[baconfingers]

Hello, I am trying to get back into Saltwater after about 23 years away. Things sure are getting fancy. I have a spot I have picked out to put a tank that is about 4ft wide. Now I am trying to decide what is the best way to do this. I can't spend oodles of money at one time but I know for sure I need a tank, stand, light, skimmer and something to put in it. So should I go small (nano?) or go big? I don't want to get in over my head though. I will keep reading and see what happens.

i think if you can afford all the items you listed up front, go as big of a tank as you can afford and still get all that stuff (+rock & sand... maybe a heater too since it's winter) to start. you can upgrade the rest later (i.e get a sump).

if budget is a concern i think you can buy dry rock which is way cheaper. you can seed it with some raw shrimp or a few pieces of live rock (less LR = more time to cycle).

and of course the cost of your fish

 

[ckemph]

Helooooo!

Helooooo!

Total newbie here!.. I decided to jump into the hobby... carefully....

So far I purchased:

-24 Gallon Nano Cube (not the newest model, but I will hopefully upgrade the lights to LED in a year or so)

-CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade 20 lb. of sand

-Tropic Marin Sea Salts Pro-Reef 32 gallons

-EHEIM Jager Aquarium Thermostat Heater 100W

-Living Sea Hydrometer, Celsius & Fahrenheit, Small, 8 Inches

-Marineland ML90510 Maxi-Jet 600 Multi-Use Water Pump and Circulation Pump, 160/750 GPH (for water changes, etc)


I haven't received any of it yet but when I do I am planning on getting some live rock locally and putting it in the tank as well. I will wait a couple months and then start adding fish, coral and anemones! (hopefully if all goes well)


Hopefully I am on the right path here. I have been reading a lot of the forum posts and you all seem like very knowledgeable great people! I am looking forward to becoming part of the group.. :bounce2:

 

[likeseriously]

Hello all.

Brand new to the reef hobby, but really excited about getting into it. I'll be kicking things off with a 112 gallon tank in our office, and plan on documenting the journey from start until... Is a tank ever actually finished?

My experience thus far are some goldfish when I was about 12, and a single Betta I picked up a month ago. I'd say I'm about ready for a reef, wouldn't you?

Rest assured, I'm doing my research and talking to some seasoned veterans before making any moves.

Looking forward to learning and sharing the experience with everyone.

 

[Chroma50]

Hello everyone I'm new to RC but not reef keeping. I started with a 36 bow front and have moved up to a 90 mixed reef with a 30 gal sump Radion gen 2 lights ,mp40 pumps, 1/4 hp chiller closed loop system and various other components.i am fairly new to keep SPS and look forward to advice of experienced SPS keepers.

 

[Tin Man]

Hi RC,

I guess I should stop lurking. I am a former FO retard, having gone without LR ... and was mildly successful. I quit 7 years ago when I killed off 3 tangs and some other fish, some I had for 6-7 years, when I introduced a French Angel from a questionable LFS, who is out of business now, without quarantining. Ouch!

Anyway, I am leaning heavily toward starting things up again with my 125 and 60+ gallon sump (one of those clarity plus systems with the sump being the stand). This time it will be live rock! I have been reading the beginner threads and am quite impressed with the level of expertise and experience here. In the past, I tended to throw money at my projects. This time I plan to constrain the costs and use time and patience to my favor. By this I mean, I am going to buy good hardware to replace what needs upgrading and resurrect the things that will work for a FOWLR setup even if it is not ideal. This means new pumps, new LED light fixture suitable for fish, but not reef, old skimmer (ETSS), toss the bio balls, new heater - heck, every thing was tired or failed when I crashed the tank. Sigh. I am also going to start a QT (I had one before, but with mixed results) which will take some more reading/thinking as there are several schools of thought here on RC. Then I will probably start the DT with dry rock and let time (and a dead shrimp) turn it into live rock.

I don't know if anyone cares or reads this, but it helps me to type my thoughts out.

 

[Mostlydave]

you can't sell things until you have been a member for 90 days and made 50 posts. At least that is what I have heard.

Is this true? I've been a member for about a year and would love to be able to check out used equipment here without posting 50 pointless comments just to reach a limit. I read the forum all the time but this is my first post...

 

[johnike]

Yes, you need 90 days membership, and 50 meaningful posts to view the classifieds.
So get out there and ask or answer a question or two.
Welcome, and enjoy your stay.

 

[IanWR]

Hi all,

I've decided to join the sometimes rough and tumble conversation here at RC.

Our tank is about 3 months old now and so far it's going ok. We went with a semi-cube tank, 30"x24"x24" (LWH) with an external herbie overflow. For lighting we chose an AI Vega. Filtration is 2 4" filter socks, a bubble magus curve 7, 2 phosban 150 reactors one with GFO and one with GAC, and about 50lbs of rock.

Our livestock so far is a one spot foxface, 2 clowns, 2 bangaii cardinals, a firefish, and a yellow clown goby. We also have an assortment of snails, a couple of hermit crabs, and an emerald crab. Corals are all lps or softies, plus we have 2 rbta.

I look forward to chiming in on the spirited discussions here.

- Ian

 

[tahoward9]

Like a Virgin...

Like a Virgin...

Hello Everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster"¦

Seriously, I just got into the hobby a couple months ago. I built a new house and plumbed the display cabinet to the basement. I now have 120 gallon DT with 40G sump/fuge up and running with sand, live rock, and a couple critters (damsels).

So far, so good, except I can't seem to keep any snails alive for more than a day, and now I'm seeing a troubling brownish substance starting to coat everything in the tank. I will post separately with a couple specific questions in that regard.

For now, I just wanted to say hello. I'm happy to have such a great resource to draw on.

 

[justmike6969]

hey all, name is mike, am new both to saltwater tanks and the forum! i have a 90 gallon FOWLR .... and will prolly have lots of qustions lol

 

[Sorped]

Hello Reef Central!

I went to a local petshop the other day and really got my eyes opened wide for this fantastic hobby. I'm a long way from having a tank, but I know good preparation goes a long way, and so hope to do my homework with the help of you all here

 

[clbarrett00]

Hello! My name is Chris. I've been a aquarium hobbyist since about 14 or so
Imagine coming home from school and finding a 225 gallon in your dining room! My brother turned the room into a full on pet store. A 55 long and 45 tall also found its way in the room. A wild assortment of fish and criiters. Including a blue ring octopus and dragon eel. Needless to say I had a lot of fun in there and learned a lot! Since then I've had my own 45 reef tank and it was looking beatiful until a bad storm came through memphis and had out power out for a week. Cry! recently I was going through my attic and found my old amiracle wet dry. I have a 40g breeder I was using for a gecko, but since she passed away I have got the bug again. My questions are.. should I use the trickle wet dry? Should I convert it to include refugium? I know bio balls are kinda out dated and I have some base rock. Should I use that? Sand? I haven't a clue! I have a 16 month old and I think he would love growing up with a beautiful tank. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Tim48]

Hello all.... I'm just getting back into the hobby, I had a drilled 150 Fish only back in the mid 90's, and got out of it after about 7 years. I just recently set up a small fresh water for the Grand Kids and I saw all the Cool Saltwater stuff at the LFS and I had to get another one going! So I got a small 54~Gal. Corner and getting all my stuff together now! Never heard of a refugium back in the 90's, lol, but I'm putting one together now. Alot of people was telling me that I don't need a sump for such a small tank but what I have planned, a sump is a must! These New Power-Heads are different too and I don't know how I'm gonna set it up with this weird shape or I don't know what type of Power-Heads or Wave-Maker to use as I'm going to go with a Deep sand bed, Live-Rock with Corals & small Fish. I'm sure there's other's here with a corner tank and I would appreciate any and all replies with what you guys used with this weird shaped corner tank for good water flow....... Tim from Lou.Ky :spin3:

 

[clay12340]

Hello all. I'm also coming back to the hobby after a few years away. I previously kept a 3 gallon and 12 gallon reef, and a bunch of fresh water critters. I also had a habit of buying tanks and equipment that seemed like a good deal without an actual use for them. I ran into a series of stupid mistakes and unfortunate happenings that kind of killed my join in the aquarium keeping hobby at the time.

Now I'm down to just two turtles in a 120 and 40 and a room full of empty tanks. I bumped a stack of tanks and broke a few, so decided it was either time to get back into the hobby or start selling some of this stuff off. Then new neighbors moved in with a nice looking reef tank in their living room window that I drive by every day. Jealousy won out over craigslist. So the plan for the new year is to drill one of the 75s and get a reef going in my office and plumb it into the fish room in the basement.

 

[Ratbrow]

Fired-up!!!

Fired-up!!!

Hello all! I am new to the hobby. Had a 35 gallon saltwater about 12 years ago with one clown (I see things have changed over the years). In the past two months I have found a new passion for the hobby and am fired-up to get started.
I will be looking for some great advice obviously as I get started. I will thank you all in advance now for all the great advice you will be sharing. I'm going to need it!!

 

[bonewfo]

Hey everyone, my name is Josh. I currently have two reef aquariums and one freshwater aquarium. I am new too saltwater and am learning as I go. Looking forward to talking and learning from everybody here.

 

[peterd33]

Hi Everyone. My name is Pete. I recently moved to Tel Aviv, Israel and will be living here for the next two years. I have had many reef tanks in the past and most recently I was working for an aquarium maintenance company in the Washington, D.C. area. I will never feel at home without a reef tank wherever I go. For the next 20 + years we will be moving every 2-3 years to a new part of the world and starting over again. So with that said I need to move fast and furious with getting my tanks set up every time I move and starting them so that I will have time to enjoy some awesome corals before we move on again. Looking forward to being part of the Reef Central community! Pete

 

[nycoral1]

Hey every one,

My name is Aj. Cause of work I used to live in the uk for 6 years and picked up reefing there. Since I am back in the states and living in NYC (Whitestone) moving the tank and equipment was a lot of money and time.

But a went well and the tank did not break with the transshipping from the uk to here.

I see a lot ppl have amazing tanks on this site, I have a Elos 80 with all tunze power heads (since they were good prices in the uk) and proflux doser.

Lighting is ati power mod with LEDs.

 

[nouveaux]

Hello all!

Just getting started. I went out looking for a tank and bought a whole fish store! Not the business but all the equipment. As a small business owner (Tabletop games, Magic the Gathering, etc), I saw a great business opportunity and hopefully it'll pan out.

I'm looking to build a 90 gallon tank, mostly for coral and inverts. Everyone's tanks continues to inspire me and I'm hoping to learn from all of you!

 

[acewalker7]

Hey guys,

Just started the saltwater hobby of my own, which is funny because i have worked in pet stores and fish stores. Currently have a 55 cichlid tank, a couple 20s of community fresh and have a 45 saltwater currently in the works and i am picking up a 24 gallon nano cube sometime within the next two weeks. I look forward to the reef tanks and posting on this forum and learning from all the knowledge on this forum!