Intro & Our little (soon to be) reef

[macclellan]

Greetings, all. My wife and I live in Knoxville and we're new to reefs and this forum. I'm heavily into planted tanks and freshwater shrimp, and she mostly loves our Keyhole Cichlid pair (personality-level of an Oscar, but only 3"). We talked about setting up a reef and are now getting one started. We did a fair bit of research and are strong believers in the "Do it Right the First Time" mentality. We bought a 14g Rimless Glass All in One for a pretty good price ($165 = 50% off $330) at The Aquarium - it's funny how at 50%, some of their hardware starts to become reasonably priced. :rollface: We got the Refugium-only model, as we've decided against using a skimmer, instead relying on natural filtration. I made the cabinet and DIYed a 70w HQI from a $9.30 Walmart Work light, an Icecap MH ballast, and a Catalina Aquariums 15000k bulb - CA is lesser known, but the price is right and I've been very happy with their T-5 fixtures for my planted tanks. We got 12# of live rock from Craigslist. We put all together just a few days ago and now the waiting game begins.

I just got in contact with Randy of ETRC and will probably attend the Sept. 20th meeting to see what the club is all about. Hopefully the tank will be ready and stable by the end of October so we can start adding some corals. We plan to stock mostly Zoanthids and Riccordia. If anyone needs help with advice or setting up a planted tank, I'd be more than happy to help. My service charge is a few good brews. :beer: Just kidding, but not really.

Here are two quick pics (please pardon the state of the planted tanks, the 75g was recently setup and the 30L was just replanted):

We'll stack the rocks better and add aragonite and such once the cycle is done; we can spot any unwanted critters better this way for now.

Go Vols! Ruin the Bruins!

 

[Runner]

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

Welcome to RC and the ETRC.

Very nice planted setups. I am presently trying to get my planted tank back on track. I need to upgrade my lights eventually, but just trying to get it stable for now.

That a nice-looking small tank you have there, too. I am sure we can all accomadate you with zoathid frag trades when the time is right. Heh -- I'd even take some plant trades for zoanthids.

 

[fishdoc11]

Welcome

You have some very nice looking planted tanks. It looks like you are off to a great start on your reef.

Chris

 

[macclellan]

Thanks Runner. Wow, that's the flashiest welcome I've ever received.
Let me know if you have any questions on the planted side of things. It would be swell to get some Zoa frags down the road, especially via swapping for plants! I have lots of plant species from low to high light, including lots of rarer softwater plants from S.A. and Asia.

EDIT: Thanks to you too fishdoc, you ninja'd me was all.

 

[fishdoc11]

My kids would call that Panda style

 

[omreardon]

Welcome!

I too started with heavily planted fw tanks. I presently have a 46 gallon CO2 infused tank that desperately needs pruning but I am moving in 2 weeks so I figure I'll get it all done then. I could be interested in some plant trades. No frags from me...my 12 gallon NC is only 8 months old and nothing is ready for fragging yet. Well, maybe some red mushrooms.

Hey Runner,

Still interested in some plants in a couple of weeks? Maybe a zoa frag (or some softie) for me for trade?

Olivia

 

[macclellan]

Hi Olivia and thanks for the welcome. I'm pretty set on the planted side of things unless you have Eriocaulons, Toninas, or any rare stem plants that I don't have. Let me know if there's anything in particular that you're looking for; I may have it.

Yes, fishdoc, pandas are quite sneaky and agile - got right by me!

 

[Runner]

Thanks, macclellan. I'll be sure to ask. I have a good idea of which way I want to go, but I haven't had a chance to order plants yet. Perhaps in a month or two. I have just 128W of normal flourescents over my 75G tank for now, so I would only need low- to moderate-light plants. If you search through the threads over the last months in this forum, you'll see the starting picture of my tank. If you have a good recommendation for a decent freshwater/planted board, I'd appreciate it. Right now, I am just visiting Aquaden.com.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13268946#post13268946 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by omreardon
Hey Runner,

Still interested in some plants in a couple of weeks? Maybe a zoa frag (or some softie) for me for trade?

Hey, Olivia. Sure. Heh. I was just waiting for you to get around to breaking down your tank. I don't have much coral left these days, but plan to change that in the near future. Even so, my 10G and 24G nanos don't have much space for variety. I have Chris' pink palys growing and a larger group of plain brown palys that are doing well. My EvilMels are tiny, but recovering. All others were trashed because I either found hydroids mixed in with the frags I just got (I will kill anything to keep hydroids out of my tank) or my maroon clown hid them somewhere. I do have several loose mushrooms including the red and green-stripe and shiny green splotchy kind. In a few months I should have enough purple to trade as well. Just let me know what you are inerested in.

-Scott

 

[omreardon]

Hmmm...I would be interested in the green splotchy mushrooms and pink palys, but only if you have enough so that fragging them doesn't leave you hurting for corals. The current plan is to move all my stuff on the 13th. The tanks will probably move on the 14th. When I break it down I'll pull out the plants for you and keep them separate and we can figure out how to get it to you. All the plants are growing like crazy! The cryptos were supposed to be in the front right corner and now almost cover the whole right side! I can't wait to thin them out so it looks less like a jungle and more like it is purposefully aquascaped.

Olivia

 

[macclellan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13270302#post13270302 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Runner
Thanks, macclellan. I'll be sure to ask. I have a good idea of which way I want to go, but I haven't had a chance to order plants yet. Perhaps in a month or two. I have just 128W of normal flourescents over my 75G tank for now, so I would only need low- to moderate-light plants. If you search through the threads over the last months in this forum, you'll see the starting picture of my tank. If you have a good recommendation for a decent freshwater/planted board, I'd appreciate it. Right now, I am just visiting Aquaden.com.

Scott,

Normal fluorescents = T8? If so, yeah, that's towards the low end. I have 4x54w T5s w/individual reflectors on my 75g - plenty bright enough to grow anything.

I found the thread you mentioned - nice cabinetry work. You'll want to get some better substrate if you can. Even pool filter sand is better than gravel of that size (2 50# bags at Lowes, costs about $10 total). Throw in some broken up chunks of Lotus bulb pond root tabs from Petsmart and you're good to go for an easy low tech tank.

Honestly, I don't have much in the way of low light plants (I keep the planted-tank equivalent of SPS corals mostly, which means high light, high ferts, high co2, soft water plants), but I've got some: really rare dwarf needle leaf java fern for your mopani piece as well Windelov java fern, some Valisernia nana, and some random easy stem plants (mostly various Hygrophila sps.) that would do well in the conditions you have and that I could give you.

Best planted tank forum: www.plantedtank.net/forums
Best plant encyclopedia and best site generally: www.aquaticplantcentral.com (and http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/ for plant finder)
Just an FYI: You can usually get more quantity and higher quality plants from fellow hobbyists than ordering online from a company (same is true for corals, I'm sure). Check out the Swap and Shop @ Plantedtank.net if/when you join there. I have the same username on both those boards.

cheers,
Joel MacClellan

 

[omreardon]

Hey Joel,

What kind of fw shrimp do you keep?

Olivia

 

[macclellan]

I keep Cherries, Minamis (wild type cherry), Snowballs, and Tigers. There is a lot of variation in the Tigers I have. Here is my favorite one, clad in orange:

 

[omreardon]

Do you ever sell or trade them? I've always wanted some bright shrimp but could never find a local person/store to get them from.

Olivia

 

[macclellan]

Yep. I was fortunate enough to fund this reef tank from shrimp/plant sales from the past few months.

 

[omreardon]

Very cool. I'm going to have to get with you to get some once I get moved and the tanks settled back down.

Very pretty tiger!

Olivia

 

[macclellan]

Sounds good. It's best to start with cherries. They are cheap, very hardy, and still quite beautiful.

Good luck with the move. I know bad that sucks, especially having to move tanks.

 

[Runner]

Thanks for the links, Joel.

Right now, my planted tank level is low-light and Flourish Excel rather than the high-lights and CO2 tank. That may change in the distant future after I pay for a $1500 bill for other activities. I might be able to work out a trade for something when you are ready for corals. Or perhaps buy a few things from you. You are right about the online ordering selection. Around here, the best corals at a good price can be had from people in the club. Is figures that it would be like that for people who are into plants.

I wish I could keep freshwater shrimp, but my botias would likely munch them. I used to stock the tank with ghost shirmp when I'll be away for a week -- they never lasted long before being all hunted down.

As for my substrate, it is fine sand on the bottom layer (only about 15 pounds) with laterite in key places I planned to put root-feeders in the future -- then 2 bags of Seachem flourite. The gravel you see is just on the surface only. It's a little large for several plants, but it should work well enough for now. I am not going to mess with the substrate again for a while, but I might cover one side or the front with sand. I also have some root tabs to place under future root-feeders.

 

[macclellan]

Shrimp and loaches are a very big no-no.
It sounds like you've got your substrate worked out - appearances can be deceiving.

 

[ct_vol]

Glad you found your way over here Joel... Looks like you've settled in fast... lol GO VOLS!!!!!!!

 

[Runner]

Who are these Vols everybody keeps talking about?