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

[Aquarist007]

Well here goes. As with most people in this thread, I'm new here. Had freshwater for years and finally decided to go salty. Currently running a 55gal FOWLR tank, well LR tank I guess for now. Hopefully going to grow into a full on reef setup and then to bigger and badder tanks. I have to LFS that seem to know their stuff and I happened to find a third about 30 miles away that really carries alot. Reading through some of the threads here have definately helped me out so far. Thanks to all!

IMO--keep your fowlr about six months before upgrading it to a reef. It gives you a chance to learn the chemistry ect that is necessary for a full reef but enjoy the fish aspect of the hobby.

[welcome]

 

[Aquarist007]

now that's some timing!!

especially when you are three hours behind Ontario:lmao:

 

[OUFanatic]

Hello all! Ive had a freshwater setup for about 6 months now, but ive decided to go saltwater as well. My freshwater is a 55 gal setup and i will be starting on my 75 gal saltwater. Im in the process of trying to buy a RO filter, a good protein skimmer, and a return pump.Thanks for having me.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Hello all! Ive had a freshwater setup for about 6 months now, but ive decided to go saltwater as well. My freshwater is a 55 gal setup and i will be starting on my 75 gal saltwater. Im in the process of trying to buy a RO filter, a good protein skimmer, and a return pump.Thanks for having me.

[welcome]
Sounds like you're off to a good start and planning this prior to getting started. Read as much as you can and try to learn from others mistakes. I wish there was a site like this when I got started in the hobby.

 

[JacobO]

Hello all! First off, I want to thank everyone for posting such great information on a wide variety of topics and always being so helpful! I've learned so much in my first 4 months of caring for a saltwater tank and love learning more each day. My current setup is a 10 gal nano with a Bio3 Whisper HOB filter. Lite by 2x15w T5s. One 50/50 bulb and one 6000k daylight. For flow I use the HOB filter and a Hydor Koralia Nano powerhead. I plan on upgrading the tank and using my 10 gal as a sump when I can get more room to do so.

Water Parameters;
Salinity: 1.025
Temp: 77
pH: 7.8 (having pH issues - dosed Seachem Marine buffer and it brought my pH up to 8.3 for a couple days and it has dropped again, not sure what's going on but I don't like it)
dKh: 13
Calc: 21(420)
Phosphate: undetectable
Ammonia: undetectable
Nitrite: undetectable
Nitrate: 5 - 10

I do weekly 2 gallon water changes and clean as much of the tank as I can during this.

Current live stock;
1 Emerald Crab
3 Blue-legged Hermits
I've found plenty of hitch hikers such as brittle stars, a baby emerald crab, asterina stars, snails, feather dusters, and plenty more I'm sure.
1 colony of Red Zoas
1 mixed colony of Dragon's Eye and Whammin' Watermelon Zoas
Misc mushrooms
4 polyps of Bali Torch Coral
1 colony of Australian Maroon Frogspawn - my favorite!

Here's some pictures of it last week. I've changed the layout a little and the frogspawn and torch coral love the flow much more.

 

[Aquarist007]

JacobO--most of the time pH issues are a factor of carbon dioxide in and around your tank. Sometimes opening a window in the tank room for a few hours will bring up the pH level. Make sure the top of your tank is not covered and keep the surface really churning as this is a major spot of gas exchange.
Using buffers is not a good idea as you have noticed and it also raises your alkalinity level.

[welcome]

 

[Sliceoftheocean]

Planning 54 gal Corner build

Planning 54 gal Corner build

I was hoping it was the right way to start. I have read a number of times go slow let it grow. I was planning a 54 gallon reef ready corner tank. Mixed reef.

 

[Scooter902]

Hey all,

New to RC but not new to reefing looking forward to surfing the site.

 

[Aquarist007]

Hey all,

New to RC but not new to reefing looking forward to surfing the site.

[welcome]

What kind of system do you currently have?

 

[Aquarist007]

I was hoping it was the right way to start. I have read a number of times go slow let it grow. I was planning a 54 gallon reef ready corner tank. Mixed reef.

I suggest you start your own build thread --that way you can add pics to your progress, keep all your information on one thread, and make your thread more visible to other reefers

 

[Jakal]

Hello all, Im new to the forum and kinda new to the hobby. I have had freshwater tanks since i was a kid so about 30yrs. But I set up a 30gal Saltwater about 4 years ago. It was set up with no real problems for about a year. I decided to move up to a 75 gal and this were great till I lost power for about 3 weeks and lost a bunch of money in inverts and coral. Everything died was very discouraged I shut it down and its been empty for 2 years. I got tired of looking at an empty tank so Its been up and moving again doing great so far. Everything is doing great again and Im having fun with it.

 

[Nirnex]

Hi all, I'm new to the reefing hobby, though I've run freshwater for a good while and am converting my 120g tank to a reef tank. Looking forward to the experience.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Hello all, Im new to the forum and kinda new to the hobby. I have had freshwater tanks since i was a kid so about 30yrs. But I set up a 30gal Saltwater about 4 years ago. It was set up with no real problems for about a year. I decided to move up to a 75 gal and this were great till I lost power for about 3 weeks and lost a bunch of money in inverts and coral. Everything died was very discouraged I shut it down and its been empty for 2 years. I got tired of looking at an empty tank so Its been up and moving again doing great so far. Everything is doing great again and Im having fun with it.

[welcome]
Glad that you took a second chance. This website is full of knowledgeable people. Hopefully you won't ever have to relive your past experience.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Hi all, I'm new to the reefing hobby, though I've run freshwater for a good while and am converting my 120g tank to a reef tank. Looking forward to the experience.

[welcome]

If you enjoyed freshwater than you are going to love saltwater!!

 

[Rachelle]

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.

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Thanks for all the great info! I didn't realize I could have my lights on only for 3-4 hours a day....i've been running them 10-8 for MH and 9:30-8:30 for the T5s and then the moon lights in between then!

 

[Aquarist007]

Thanks for all the great info! I didn't realize I could have my lights on only for 3-4 hours a day....i've been running them 10-8 for MH and 9:30-8:30 for the T5s and then the moon lights in between then!

You are very welcome
You basically want to keep just enough light on to help purple up the rocks(corraline algae) but not encourage algae blooms which will probably occur anyway depending on the cured state of your live rock(how much dead stuff has been cleaned off before you put it in the display tank)

 

[JARJOZ]

Hi I’m new here. Was lurking around different reef forums for a while,
but I think this is the best one. I’m learning and reading a lot from here
because my attempt is to build my own 60 gal. rimless cube.

 

[Aquarist007]

Hi I'm new here. Was lurking around different reef forums for a while,
but I think this is the best one. I'm learning and reading a lot from here
because my attempt is to build my own 60 gal. rimless cube.

This is the best one:thumbsup:

[welcome]

 

[JacobO]

Thank you!

Thank you!

JacobO--most of the time pH issues are a factor of carbon dioxide in and around your tank. Sometimes opening a window in the tank room for a few hours will bring up the pH level. Make sure the top of your tank is not covered and keep the surface really churning as this is a major spot of gas exchange.
Using buffers is not a good idea as you have noticed and it also raises your alkalinity level.

Thank you for this info, I opened my window for a day or so and my pH is back to normal. Reading 8.2 today

 

[joeshmo]

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

Hello!

I am new to this forum and have enjoyed reading various build threads and others the past few months and decided to join.

I've always loved fishkeeping but never had the space for more than a few small freshwater tanks (29g to 55gal) at any one time. After purchasing my first home 5 months ago I decided I finally have the room to do whatever I like (I moved from a 1 bedroom apartment into a 3 bedroom house by myself) and that's have some beautiful large fishtanks.

Three months ago I purchased a 5 year old 180 gallon tank (Basically maybe 200 pounds of live rock and two hundred mushrooms, a pearl bubble coral, frogspawn, a devil's hand, a toadstool, and 1 very old cranky blue damsel). He stopped doing water changes 3 years ago on that tank for some reason. I am sure I paid too much for it now, but I still love the tank.

I placed all of the inhabitants into a 125gallon tank until I could set up the 180gallon in my living room.

I am finding the startup costs even with the head start I have to be a little daunting and am forcing myself to slow down after seeing my credit card and bank statement :lmao:

Looking forward to learning more from you all!