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

[dspirito]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15600154#post15600154 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
how about running a little contest and picking a few of the best welcome banners?

I felt creative and motivated and figured I should give back to this great community!
Reefers:

Thanks for all your advice so far and for future advice!!
Right click, save as gif..
I need to resize it though, I'll get to it asap.
I've been doing flash only for a little while and I also have to remove the box around the clown, thats a gif issue, it looks great in flash but we cant post that I don't think.

Enjoy!

 

[redseven]

new to saltwater

new to saltwater

hello, im new to the hobby. got a great deal on a 40g acrylic tank with a sump on back along with 2x95w pc light, and a skimmer. so i put a dsb and about 20 lbs of live rock. waiting for the tank to cycle atm. thanks for reading.

 

[dspirito]

redseven,

You're the lucky first to be welcomed by the animation I just made! Congrats and welcome! I'm new too, we can be friends!

 

[MatesonG]

Hey, I'm May from Canyon Tx. (Pretty much the same as Amarillo TX. also about 2 hrs from Lubbock) If you know anyone in my area send em' my way. I have a 55g Bowfront FO right now and i am almost done with the setup of my 75g Reef ready tank with a 30g sump. (Check out my build so far http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1693945&highlight=55g+75g ) I am open to all suggestions so what ever you can help with is great. I want to get into a reef club but i don't know of one in my area.

 

[WaterKeeper]

:lol:
Thanks dspirito but it is pretty large and an awful lot of white space.

Anyway-Hi Mat

 

[wishfish]

size of reef tank

size of reef tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15591612#post15591612 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Nope, I just prefer larger tanks to nano's. I'm kind of a fish type guy and you just can't have many, if any, fish in a nano.

:bum: From all my research, it seems to be what a lot of you people (wise multi-year successful reef keepers) have been saying a WHOLE BUNCH. Beware of too many fish to keep the bioload down, the ammonia, nitrates, nitrites down, hence the pH up, dissolved oxygen up, etc. I think I keep hearing that coral reefs in the wild are super nutrient poor in the wate itself so in a small aquarium we need to be extra nutrient poor unless we are talking about Calcium. I guess if I had a FOWLR only I might be able to handle more fish but if I want to transition to a reef down the road, I better keep the fish inches way down relative to my gallonage. I plan on setting up a FOWLR within the next 6 months or so. We were going to move to a house but that fell through with the economy. Thanks for your input. I saw a series of build photos of someone with a 125 gal reef and 55 gal. fuge. It was incredible from literally welding the stand together, coating it with special paint, making an African Mahogany countertop to go with it and polishing out all of the acrylic. The time, effort, money, and knowhow that goes into one of these things is amazing and anyone who keeps a real reef going and in good health more more than a year needs to be commended. Holy smokes! I am still impressed with this whole hobby and hope to be one of them some day.

Wishfish :smokin:

 

[wishfish]

deep sand bed?

deep sand bed?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15595075#post15595075 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by capn_hylinur
nor a really deep sand bed

I hear there are two schools of thought on live sand beds. One the deep thick one for lots and lots of amphi and other pods and the other one thin allowing for little or no anaerobic activity in the sand bed itself. What is your take? Also, what do you think about multiple (or two) layers of fine live sand and course aragonite or merely broken coral layers?

Thanks again, obviously my major newbiage is showing! :smokin:

 

[WaterKeeper]

I may be opening a debate but I agree Wishfish. There is one camp out there that seems to feel corals don't produce waste products. That is nonsense in my opinion. Any thing that lives produces waste from metabolic by-products. It is true that some things like ammonia type wastes are reduced by symbiont uptake in corals but there are wastes just the same.

With fish it is not only waste production but the need to give SW fish more swimming room than their FW counterparts. Having a tank crammed with African Lake Cichlids is very common. To me it looks unnatural but the thing is you can do it. Trying to do the same with SW fish, even small fish like damsels, usually spells disaster. You probably can squeeze more fish into a FO tank than a reef but the fact remains that the limit on how many fish a SW tank can hold is very limited unless you do what many large aquaria do and circulate fresh ocean water on a continuous basis.

I think the most common Newbie mistakes I see are-

• Moving too fast too soon
• Cutting corners on natural filtration
• Skimping on basic equipment
• Not doing proper water testing
• Forgoing water changes
• Overstocking

 

[wishfish]

deep sand bed

deep sand bed

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15603191#post15603191 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
I may be opening a debate but I agree Wishfish. There is one camp out there that seems to feel corals don't produce waste products. That is nonsense in my opinion. Any thing that lives produces waste from metabolic by-products. It is true that some things like ammonia type wastes are reduced by symbiont uptake in corals but there are wastes just the same.

I think the most common Newbie mistakes I see are-

• Moving too fast too soon
• Cutting corners on natural filtration
• Skimping on basic equipment
• Not doing proper water testing
• Forgoing water changes
• Overstocking

I think what you are saying is that, yes, there could be a lot of wastes that have to be dealt with by bacteria in a deep sand bed and more will come into it from both hard and soft corals, other inverts, fish, and leftover food. Therefore, a deep sand bed might harbor dangerous bacteria or debris/detritus that could cause an Ammonia or Nitrite spike at some unknown time. Is this what you are suggesting? Was it Hyliner who was in favor of the deep sand bed?
Thanks.:smokin:

 

[wishfish]

I'm sorry. Capn_hylinur! Didn't mean to chop your rank down!

 

[WaterKeeper]

Nope Scott, the Capn, picked up the DSB habit from me I'm afraid.

OH, the mystery of what lurks unseen in the sand.

A DSB is part of the waste processing system in any tank. Take a chuck of LR and sure it has nooks and crannies where waste will collect and be processed but those nooks, in time, fill with algae and bacteria and soon there is no flow into the crannies.

Not so with a DSB. It has many, many more times the surface area of even a tank piled with LR and although it also has a pore structure the critters in the bed tend to constantly clean them out, thus insuring circulation into the bed. Waste material that settles into the bed is further processed as it descends into the bed and, after some time, is pretty much reduced to inorganic or highly refractory organic residue. Sure it lurks in the bed but the chance for release is small. The inorganic waste residue is composed of insoluble matter, the soluble stuff remains in the water column and not in the bed. Refractory organics are the beds plastic bottles. They are there and tend to stay there unchanged for about ever. Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

 

[eyesinthedrk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15603523#post15603523 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

You know PaulB has been waiting for that comment, dont be suprised if it shows up as his signature tomorrow :lol:

 

[WaterKeeper]

:lol:

I was figuring he would be here by now.

 

[Aquarist007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15603523#post15603523 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Nope Scott, the Capn, picked up the DSB habit from me I'm afraid.

OH, the mystery of what lurks unseen in the sand.

A DSB is part of the waste processing system in any tank. Take a chuck of LR and sure it has nooks and crannies where waste will collect and be processed but those nooks, in time, fill with algae and bacteria and soon there is no flow into the crannies.

Not so with a DSB. It has many, many more times the surface area of even a tank piled with LR and although it also has a pore structure the critters in the bed tend to constantly clean them out, thus insuring circulation into the bed. Waste material that settles into the bed is further processed as it descends into the bed and, after some time, is pretty much reduced to inorganic or highly refractory organic residue. Sure it lurks in the bed but the chance for release is small. The inorganic waste residue is composed of insoluble matter, the soluble stuff remains in the water column and not in the bed. Refractory organics are the beds plastic bottles. They are there and tend to stay there unchanged for about ever. Eventually the material does fill and approach the beds surface but it take many years and the chances are the bed will be torn down for one reason or the other by the time it is full.

Yes, I think I have picked alot of good habits due to the WaterKeeper
Due to the problems that some reefers have with maintaining good sand beds especially the maintenance of the most important top layer I am totally in favour of a deep sand bed run remotely as in a refugium
I like to keep the sand bed in my display tanks to about one inch or so

 

[Creationreefer]

Okay, so you mention that eventually the bed will fill up with the "plastic bottles", what do you do at that point/what does it mean/look like?

 

[NeilFox]

Hello RC

I have been reading the posts and thought I would introduce myself. I live in Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam with my wife. I am returning to Reefing after a 5 year involuntary hiatus after my first wife passed away and working oversees prevented me from pursueing my hobby. I started keeping reefs in 1989 after reading an article about Aquarists in Germany. Of course you either had to be rich or be a DIY'er in those days. Needless to say, not being the former, it was a crash course in engineering, chemistry, biology and plastic fabrication.

Sorry if I inturrupted the momentum of the post. I look forward to posting some pics of my project as I progress.

Thanks and best regards

Neil

 

[WaterKeeper]

Hi Neil
[welcome]

Germany was the hotbed of reefing in the past. We owe much to the to German technology in both FW and SW equipment and husbandry. The Berlin Aquarium Society developed the "Berlin Method" which is the basis by which are current systems of reef filtration started.

The far east also contributed greatly to the Natural Methods and the work of Lee Chen Eng introduced living stone and sand to much of the world. No matter where you travel, there are pioneers in marine aquaria that helped our hobby develop.

Creation,

When I speak of refractory compounds I am referring to those that are so biodegraded they are no longer broken down by bacteria. They are essentially inert and stay in place, much like plastic bottles in a landfill. This does happen with a DSB, products eventually form that collect in the sand. Matter just doesn't disappear and unless it forms a gas or finds another source of export, it stays put in our tanks.

This doesn't offset the value of a DSB it just means that after many years it needs to be removed or the bed loses its ability to reduce nitrates. Even Paul take apart his RUGF every so often.

 

[wishfish]

deep sand bed stuff

deep sand bed stuff

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15607931#post15607931 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by WaterKeeper
Hi Neil
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Germany was the hotbed of reefing in the past. We owe much to the to German technology in both FW and SW equipment and husbandry. The Berlin Aquarium Society developed the "Berlin Method" which is the basis by which are current systems of reef filtration started.

The far east also contributed greatly to the Natural Methods and the work of Lee Chen Eng introduced living stone and sand to much of the world. No matter where you travel, there are pioneers in marine aquaria that helped our hobby develop.

Creation,

When I speak of refractory compounds I am referring to those that are so biodegraded they are no longer broken down by bacteria. They are essentially inert and stay in place, much like plastic bottles in a landfill. This does happen with a DSB, products eventually form that collect in the sand. Matter just doesn't disappear and unless it forms a gas or finds another source of export, it stays put in our tanks.

This doesn't offset the value of a DSB it just means that after many years it needs to be removed or the bed loses its ability to reduce nitrates. Even Paul take apart his RUGF every so often.

Waterkeeper: I thought refractory meant a compound/element that could withstand really high temps like the refractory metals like Niobium, Tungsten, and Vanadium? Anyway, I want to know the difference in having the DSB in the display tank and having it in the refugium? You are using the same water, aren't you? Or, is it simply that if you get ugly black stuff in the sand you cannot see it in the fuge?
Thanks for your help.
:smokin:
---Wishfish

 

[NeilFox]

Thank you very much for the warm welcome!

I am literally halfway around the world from most members but I don't sleep much (occupational hazard).

 

[NeilFox]

Hello Again

Can any memers, please tell me how to post my own Avatar.

Thanks

Neil