just saying HI!

[fishworm]

howdy

Just wanted to stop in and introduce myself. name is Alex, and I live out in the backwoods east of Strafford. I have been keeping freshwater forever and I just decided to start my first reef tank.

I lost all my fish in the ice storm and my 75 gallon was sitting empty ever since. so I decided to toss in some salt and live rock and try my hand at a reef tank. The only saltwater experience I have is from working at Pet warehouse back in 96-99 at the south campbell store. we used to have that wannabe reef tank and a couple of saltwater setups. but now I drive an 18 wheeler and dont have too much home time to care for my fish. but I still love keeping them. I get most of my stuff from John Everett over at cichlids and salt. I have known him since 95. he helps fill my cichlid addiction



look forward to maybe meeting some of y'all if I am ever home and I hope y'all can help me with some of the boring questions I will have.

 

[hambandit]

there are a lot better places in town to purchase salt stuff from other than c&s, imo

 

[mthomas935]

I don't think he was looking for your opinion.I think he was just saying hi . Hi Alex Welcome:

 

[SoupySteve]

If you're gonna be away from your tank while on the road - maybe you should invest in an Auto-Top Off system of some sort to keep all your water levels from fluctuating too much...

That was my first thought after reading your post.

Welcome to the forums!

 

[fishworm]

an auto top off system would be a good idea. any suggestions? my bathroom is right next to the tank so I could easily connect one to the sink. gotta love that well water.

where else is there in Springfield or the surrounding area to buy good saltwater fish or corals? I havent been exploring lately.

 

[SoupySteve]

I mainly go to Cichlids & Salts for fish and certain dry goods - but I do from time to time find a diamond in the rough coral there.
The Pet Warehouses are an absolute joke, in my opinion.
Midwest Exotic Imports (everyone in here calls it "Fish's place") is a very small place out towards the airport on West Bypass north of chestnut. He doesn't have a HUGE selection, but I haven't seen anything in any of the tanks in there that didn't look EXTREMELY healthy and well-taken care of.
I've yet to go down to the place in Republic - as the last of my buddies living down that way has moved out of state. I really should try to check out that place while I'm on vacation this coming week...
Still, the best saltwater place I've been to has still got to be Exotic Tropicals in Rogers, Arkansas... but you should schedule an entire afternoon for the trip there, the visit, and the trip back. If you just call James at Exotic Tropicals and tell him how far you're driving, he will generally roll out the red carpet for you just to make the trip worth your while....

I am looking into a discreet/DIY/Cheap auto top-off myself. All I have been doing is running the output line from my RO/DI unti into my display once a day and keep my eye on the clock (my kit does about a gallon an hour)... I've only forgot to shut it off a handful of times in 2+ years set up the way it is... :bum:

You should post some pics of your FW tanks! Before I got into SW, I always wanted a nice 5-6' long planted discus tank....

 

[hambandit]

lfs's include:

midwest exotics on west bypass just north of chestnut

tropical wonders in republic off of elm and 60

cichlids and salt on central campbell

pw on south campbell and west kearney




whats your well water like? a lot of water around here has pretty high phosphates in it from what i understand. since your not able to monitor it very closely, you might think about filtering it. just because there arent any clorinating agents in it doesnt meant its good water.

 

[fishworm]

I've done tests on my well water and there are very small ammounts of phosphates. which isnt good. I really need to get a RO/DI unit as my next purchase.

i've got 2 sinks in my bathroom, and since I am single, one goes unused, so I could hook up a unit to the other sink and have constant fresh water for top off. I just need to figure out how to hook it all up. I am just starting off with this stuff. if all goes well in my 75, I think I will drill my 150 in the front room and set it up as a reef. or just buy a whole new tank that is reef ready. the 75 has been going for 3 weeks now with just the live rock in it. when I get back home I need to do a water test and hopefully it will be ready for some fish and corals. I am going to be sticking with the easy stuff to start off with. just some polyps and mushrooms and some other soft corals. and maybe an anemone for the clowns. the only fish I have decided on are some ocellaris clowns and some red firefish. not sure yet what else i am going to put in there. looks like i need to take a trip down to arkansas if the tank is running well and pick out some new inhabitants.

here are a couple of pics of my current FW tanks. the 150 is full of tropheus and petrochromis, the 125 has some synspilums and severums and pictus cats. I wish I would have taken some decent pictures of the discus when I had them. they were in the 75 that I am now using as my reef tank. I got one pair to spawn a couple of times, but the eggs were infertile.

 

[fishworm]

edit:

Just ordered a RO unit and some better test kits. lets see if this stuff works

 

[fishworm]

took a couple new pics of my algae infested reef.

these were taken a couple of weeks ago and it has gotten much better.

and here is my sump/fuge in the walk-in closet behind the tank.