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

New to saltwater,Have been keeping freshwater about all my life and looking to make the move to salt but lots of research,been lurking here for a bit finally decided to post.
 
Hello, My name is Raymond. I had a 90 gal saltwater tank about 2 year ago. The tank had a leak in the middle of the day. It caused some problem to my living room. It was a used tank and it was not a reef ready tank. I did not miss it that much.

I am thinking about to setup a new Nano tank. I am doing a research now. I may buy the Cadlights 40g tank or new Solana tank in Fall.
 
Figure i would post in here.. I am new to saltwater, have done a lot of research and finally decided to make the plunge.. i have been hanging out in the IRC channel for a couple weeks now under the nick "nog" (sadly it was taken on the forums.. heh..)
 
another NUB

another NUB

Hello everyone! My name is Mike, I live in northern New Mexico. When I moved here I decided to give saltwater a try. I have had freshwater before with a HUGE red Oscar.

I was able to find a 100gal tank with the fixins. Wet\Dry, pump, powerhead, and lights. I thought I had it all. Well, I found out I was very wrong. I am in over $2000.00 with New HO T-5 light fixture and moon lights, new reef octopuss protein skimmer, Hang on the back refugium, wave maker fan w\ controler, new magnetic pump, new overflow box, and a new skill I did not know I had, plumbing. I have bought a lot things twice for not doing my research first.

My current tank stats are, ammonia 0ppm, nitrites .5ppm, nitrates 5ppm, calcuim 510ppm. Like I said before it is a 100 gal tank. 48x18x23. 110 lbs live rock with another 30 primo deco on the way. 30 gal wet]dry with 694 gph of flow. Oddysea 4 bulb T-5 high output blubs, 2 actenic, 2 10,000k. wave maker fans and controller. 24" high output light for the hang on the back refugium. Chita will be here friday.

Fish wise we have. 2 true perculla clowns, 3 fire fish, 1 bi-color angel, 1 potters angel, 1 coral beauty, 1 dwarf fuzzy lion fish, 1 eyelash blenney, 1 red tooth trigger, 1 mandarin dragonette, black and white butterfly fish. I used to have 50 peppermint shrimp until we got the lion fish. 6 condi anemone, 1 bubble tip anemone.

Corals - kenyan tree, mushroom, lemonia(sp) candy coral, pineapple brain, green star, bubble coral. I went for fish and my wife wound up buying $700.00 in corals. So much for my FOWLR tank.

If anyone sees anything I need to do different please let me know, but be nice. No one like to be berated by folks that have many more years of experiance,

Thanks!
 
Hello, I have been lurking for awhile and have gotten some very good information for my setup. I currently have a 300g display(total 600g) reef and a 110g(150g total). I am from southwestern Ontario Canada. My wife and I are farmers. Currently,our three kids are in university. Thanks.
 
Scott here...Just built a 36 gallon bow front....with a 15 gallon sump. It's in its first week of cycling with 38 lbs of live rock. :dance:
 
Hello folks. I'm new to Reef Central, although I've been working on my small 37 gallon salt tank for a while now. While not exactly a reef yet, I'm looking to get the lights I need for Corals soon, so right now the tank is home to a pair of Oc. Clowns and a Firefish. For those who'd ask, yes it's cycled and was so before I added fish. (Heh. I'm on other forums)

Now I go forth to read forums! (I signed up a while ago, but then never got around to reading because of other things...weird, but true.)
 
Hello my name is Raj and am a full time college student but i live at home so keeping a tank was possible. I have always been intrigued by fish and especially SW. I actually tried to have my 5th grade science fair project involving FW fish but failed approval with my teacher lol. anyway I got my childhood dream tank which is a 55 gallon (i thought was the biggest until i was reading this forum) as a kit from walmart as a gift from a family member. I have had it for about 1 year now and cant keep my eyes off of it...my girlfriend is distracted by it as am i and my mom doesnt like it in my room haha :D. anyway I love reading this forum (spend hours reading it till 2 or 3 AM) and decided to become registered. I hope to stay in this hobby for the rest of my life as I love marine life.
 
Hi! I'm a long-time-lurker-first-time-poster. I've had a 55gal SW tank for a little over four years now (same fish, rocks, corals...). It started out as a FOWLR and has morphed into a reef (soft corals only).

I recently moved, relocating the tank with me, and am experiencing problems with water quality from the (only available) LFS (no losses or disease, just below-par parameters). :/ I'm in the process of obtaining my own RO/DI system, upgrading lighting, and adding a 20gal refugium. I hope I can get my water chemistry up to par ASAP and eventually start keeping hard corals.

I'd love to buy/trade frags with other people in my area (I think they exist!) once I get my system running beautifully again. I also love the advice/wisdom/suggestions of other reefers.
 
Hi I am Alex and im an alcoholic.....no wait, I had a 8' reef tank in england over 8 years ago (among 4 other tanks) but moved stateside and 6-8 weeks ago started up my first saltwater tank out here. I live in York Pa and get the benifit of a great local petplace ;-)

65 gallon tank and stand 36"x18"x24". Includes overflow kit and sump(30x12x12). Sump has 3 compartments w/ baffles, one for a skimmer, refugium and return (eco 633). Sump has about 10-15Ibs of live rock and 15Ibs of live sand, Main tank has 70Ibs of live rock with 45Ibs of live sand. Live rock is mainly Tukani/Totoka Live Rock with some Premium Fiji..

36" Nova Extreme Pro, 6 bulb T5s for the lighting

ASM G1 Skimmer and pump.



Currently have 2 Heaters one in sump as back up (turned 1-2 degrees lower always did this on all my tanks) and one Rena smartheater in the main tank so it cant break for any reason. Purchased a digital thermostat that sits in my overflow compartment so its hidden but easy to view.


The tank was filled with MPDI MaxPure RO and DI System - 90 gpd that I purchased. And water circulation in the tank is provided by 2x 1050gph Koralia Evolution Pumps and 2x 750 Koralia on a red sea wavemaker pro. I have a Coralife calcium reactor (250g) Have the Milawakee sms122 PH meter attatched. Added some Chaeto to the sump. Also picked up the Aqualight digital power center to control the lights for me.
 
Hi!

I like many here I've lurked around a bit but have now decided to post.

I have no SW experience whatsoever other than what I have read recently (read: within the last 2 months) and asked at the LFS. I have way too many questions that I need answered. I'd love the help of someone in physical form, but hate running to the LFS with every nit picking thing.

I just picked up a used 75 gallon tank with canopy and stand and a 30 gallon that I plan to use a sump. I plan on keeping all sorts of SPS and LPS corals and an assortment of fish once I get everything established.

I am in the Rockville, MD so if there are any fellow reefers that are nearby and willing to meet in person to help a newbie out, please let me know.

Here is to my new hobby and hopefully a lasting and rewarding one.
 
Hello everyone!
My name is Luis and I, too, am new to the hobby. I had kept freshwater tank before but nothing too advanced. I had a 10g Eclipse system and i rarely did anything drastic to it. I had been wanting to get into salt water for a while but the funds were never available so i strayed away from the hobby for a bit. Then one day i was at the right place at the right time with the right amount of funds and BOOM! got sucked in. Ive had the tank up and running now since last Novemeber and have experienced a lot, but still have little to no idea on what im doing lol I bought a JBJ 28g CF-Quad Nano put some live rock and sand in the tank. Ive added two Hydor Koralia powerheads and changed my stock filter media to Filter Floss, Chemi Pure Elite, and Purigen. I have had 2 Green Chromis, a Powder Blue Tang (my fav. fish so far) and a Maroon Clown Fish. I ran into a problem and i had to fight off an Ich infection so I lost my powder blue tang, maroon clown fish, and one of the chromis. I was a bit disappointed at first but its all a learning process so i moved on. Now the Green Chromi survivor is doing good and i got a couple of friends for him. I added another Maroon Clownfish and also a Mandarin Goby. I also have a nice little Duncan that started off with three heads and now has polyps growing everywhere lol I also had a nice little frogspawn coral and some pink zoos that seem to be growing quit well. I have some hairy mushrooms that were doing good when i first bought them but now im struggling to get them to open up as big as before. I just recently bought a Montipora Undata from my LFS and am anxiously waiting for that one to grow big and beautiful. Although my lighting may not be strong i will add a retrofit kit one of these days (again when the funds come rolling around lol). Well i think ive blabbed on enough lol i hope to get some awesome info and also look at some beautiful tanks while staying here with you guys THANKS!
 
A warm welcome to you all, don't forget to read the stickies at the top of the forum under this thread.
 
Hows it going. I have been lurking around to get some great idea to set up my 165 gal tank. Right now I have a 75 gal reef tank and I am in the process of breaking it down due to be force to move (military move). But, I will start the 165 gal this time with LEDs and possible turn my 75 gal into a straight refugium on top of having a 40 gal sump. Thanks for having me here and look forward to reading some great threads.
 
Hi everyone,
My name is Tanya, and I'm from Moscow (Russia).
I'm here because we have a tank and we have problems.
We got ourselves a nice marine aqua about 6 weeks ago: The guys in the office where my hubby works were about to send the entire thing down the drain, and we just couldn't stand it thought we didn't plan to have a marine tank anytime soon.
We are ABSOLUTELY new to the hobby, and though we read a lot now, we still have everything mixed up in our heads.
This is the album http://photobucket.com/lynnka_tank where you can see a couple of pics taken yesterday.
Here are the basic parameters (sorry if I use the wrong words - I'm a newbie): a 55gal reef tank (Elos 70 with sump and NS500 (guess so) skimmer that doesn't seem to work properly), about 20 lbs - maybe more - of rock (including LR), DSB about 3 inches deep (I wish I knew what kind of sand we have), two Eheim 1250 pumps (for return and for skimmer), two Tunze flow pumps (6045 and 6055). I will take pics of the sump and the entire tank today to make things clearer.
Tank inhabitants include: one Royal Blue Tang, one Zebrasoma flavescenes, two Clowns, one Fringelip blenny, two Chrysipteras, 5 Lysmata wurdermanni (bought a couple of weeks ago to fight Aiptasia), two shrimps we got with original tank setup, one Cypraea, a couple of crabs, a couple of snails, huge Sinularia sp., one more soft coral, one Clavaularia viridis, one Parazoanthus axinellia, lots of Corallimorpharia varia. We also have a lot of stuff regularly coming out of the sand, like little sticks. Worms?
Water parameters: we used to use tap water for refill and water change but switched to RO a couple of weeks ago because of the horrible nitrate levels we are registering (can't even give you the number 'cause the test color is off the color scale). We do a 10 to 20% water change every week using Red Sea salt. Current levels are: p 7,85-8,12, PO4 practically undetectable, NO2 practically undetectable, NO3 - AWFUL (!!!!), Ca 400, kH 6, alkalinity 2,5, ammonia none, salinity 1.022 (adding 1.025).
The problem with the tank is that we have too many Aiptasia, a lot of grey stuff on our live rocks, brownish stains on the DSB (getting darker by the end of the day) and an extremely high level of nitrate. The inhabitants and the corals don't seem to suffer but it still bothers me a lot.
We use ELOS and Seachem tests (hard to find decent ones here). We have Chetamorpha in the sump + some anti-phos and a carbon bag.
Water T is 25 degrees C. Daylight is 8 hours (10 am - 6 pm) with MH lamp (Megachrome coral 150W/7500 Lumen/14500 K by Giesemann), plus two T-5 Actinic lamps (24W), two T-5 Blue plus lamps (24W).
This is for a start. Tell me if I should repost this somewhere else (sorry if it's in the wrong place).
I will be grateful for any advice.
One more thing: The tank will be 3 yo this October, but it's been neglected for some 5 weeks before we got it so we are trying hard now to get it up and running again. We had a guy from a marine aquaria service company to come and do the job for 6 weeks, but it didn't seem to get us far.
Thanks.
 
Lance Weir 65g

Lance Weir 65g

hi everybody, my name is lance weir. I started out with a 10 gallon saltwater for about 3 days. Lol download beta fish has a pimp aquarium. that night I went out and droppedb 1000 dollars on a 70 gallon cube with everything needed :-). happy to be here and hopefully get some good advice from everybody!
 
I started with a 29 fresh, went to 55 fresh water. Then my wife wanted a BIG tank to fill up a wall. We found a 220 and 125 gallon. I told her we could start smaller a work our way up. Bought the 125 about 8 months ago. Since then I completly upgraded my 55 to 75 gallon and im hooked. We go to FMAS meeting a frag swap and all. Im kinda hardcore learning, she like to watch! Great hobby. I like the DIY stuff as it teaches you why everything is the way it is. happy Reefing Mike
 
Hello Everyone!

My name is James. I would say I am new to the hobby, for the second time. I had 55 gallon aquarium, tried salt water and was hooked. This time around I got a 120 gallon tank from a friend for $350 with dried live rock, and a gen xpcx40 pump. I am currently stuck trying to find bulkhead fittings. No one has them!!!!! Anyway, I can't wait to get started!!!!
 
Hey all, been lurking around for a few months, but haven't posted until now!

Name is Jack, from MA. Growing up I had some freshwater tanks, that ended up taking a back seat to college and all that, a few years later I'm back into the hobby but trying my luck with saltwater. At the beginning of this year I bought a 55gallon tank and had that up and running for a while, and learned from some mistakes. About a month ago I downgraded to a jbj 28g nanocube hqi and am much happier with the smalled tank. Now I'm working on getting that exactly how I want it!
 
New Here!

New Here!

Hi all,

I am Shere. I am new here and wanted to introduce myself. I used to keep marine tanks years ago back when the thing to do was to use an under gravel filter, throw in a molly or 2 and wait. Yes I know... NOT the best way but at the time I had pretty good success--My coral did great and I rarely lost a fish--and this was back in the 70s so was ages ago!

I want to start into the hobby again and am looking for the best modern start, approach. I have a 55 gallon all glass that has never been set up. It has a bio wheel that came with the tank and fixtures for dual lights that I know I will probably want to add to. I am leaning toward an invertebrate tank with a few soft corals, feather dusters etc and perhaps clown fish and gobies. I have also been thinking about a take more geared for fish and am looking for suggestions for small, colorful fish suitable for a 55 gallon tank. I had Pearly Jawfish and Mandarin gobies before and loved them! Small and colorful is the thing for me since my tank is small.

At the moment I am reading and gathering supplies. I welcome all suggestions and info anyone is willing to share. What is recommended as far as protein skimmers, test kits etc?

Thanks in advance!

Shere
 
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