new to the forum!

[heartben]

hello everyone. i am new to this forum.

i live in waterloo, iowa (reason i came to this section)

and i am finding it very hard to find corals and used stuff...

i am new to saltwater in general, i have had salt running for about..2 - 2.5 months or so, so i have NO connections here.


i was wondering if anyone has any colorful or interesting corals they could give to me or sell me for cheap?

id really love to get a couple types of xenia. - and zoos...rics...mushrooms.

ive only been to a few fish stores and i havent seen anything special. the only place in town is emporium and i think the only corals they get come in as trades.



please email me at - heartben@gmail.com
or talk to me on AIM - theheartben

thanks!
-ben

 

[jbrunken]

Welcome to GIRS!

You shouldn't have any problem at all finding nice frags in the Waterloo area. It defititely seems to be one of the hot spots for reef tanks in Iowa.

-JB

 

[xroads]

Man, did you come to the right place!

There is a big frag swap in the quad cities in a couple of weeks if you would like to go.

 

[heartben]

thats sounds like a possiblity. can you or someone possibly email me the spacifics? do i have to be a member of something? etc. i am totally new to this.

my girlfriend and i just made our first person to person purchase yesterday so thats how new it is.

EDIT : i wrote i think he is on this forum - yadda yadda.. his user name is js_bass

super super nice, very helpful. good stuff. (thank you man!)

 

[got2lb]

Check out the website

www.greateriowareefsociety.org

There's some info on there about the frag swap.

Essentially it's Sat. Oct. 27th from noon-4 at the "Rusty Nail" in Davenport

Check out the site for more details


Also welcome to the board. There are tons of really good people on this board that can help you out with pretty much anything you'd ever want to know or need!

Matt

 

[got2lb]

Well Ben why don't you tell us a little bit about your setup? Any pictures??

 

[heartben]

alright, ill give it a shot...

if something sounds terribly wrong id really appreciate it if you can tell me what it is and how to fix it...and not slam me... i hate forums that do that and i havent been on here long enough to find out how nice it is (so far, quite nice! thank you all)

well, right now i have a 55 gallon tank. im hoping to upgrade to something closer to 125-150 ish gallons as soon as i move out (waiting for a lot of things to fall into place)

alot of the stuff im using was randomly picked up... some before i knew about it and some after.

i know i dont have enough water movement but it seems to be OK - i have 2 aquaclear 3000 powerheads and a penguin 550

i have an aquaclear 70 HOB with a bag of amonia remover and a back of silicate remover... some bioballs...

also, a backback simmer.. prizm? i have bio balls in it, although im still not sure if this is good or bad... id really like to get a diferent skimmer. it seems to work well, but how would i know.. hah.

i dont have enough live rock, i only have about 25-30 pounds of live rock and i have maybe 15 -20 of base rock? the numbers might be off slightly..

uhm... on average i think my sand bed is like 3 inches deep? i move the power heads around alot so sometimes it gets pretty hilly.

for frags/corals i have about 6? green ricordea florida, a little kenya tree...its about 3 inches or so? i rock with what i believe are green mushrooms... they look more reddish brown but more green in the actinics.. some gsp (maybe like 30-40ish?), but they seem to be in reverse to me ( the centers are green where the ...teniticles are more reddish brownish green). i just got some xenia.. im not sure what type it is, but i have 5 or 6 groups of it id guess and i got a little peice of what im guessing is some sort of neon green torch coral but im not 100 percent sure .

mmm...for fish i have a clownfish, its really awesome.. super super bright orange (very vivid, nice solid black and white also), and i have a little regal tang (hippo, blue, whatever) ---and hey, yes. i know... itll need a bigger tank. if it gets too big too fast i will sell it to someone who can take care of it properly. i am planning on getting a bigger tank before it gets TOO big. i know some people get sensative about tangs... so please, chill.

just got a zebra goby as well... very cool looking but as we just got it yesterday i havent seen it much.

i have a little net inside the tank with some chaeto and some grape... figuired it couldnt hurt.

oh, i have a stealth heater also.

the tank looks super super bland because everything is like..various shades and tints of tan i guess so im going to wait for pictures unless i get some requests... i can try to take some closeups of stuff and maybe someone can identify the exact type of certain corals.


uhm... yeah? 4x65 PC... top offs every other day, water changes about every 10 days?

if anyone wants to help me you can post it here, but if you want to tell me im stupid please PM me or email me. thank you very much!


one more thing, this tank is actually my girlfriend and myself - im anwsering the question so i just wrote i have or my whatever but really is our stuff, she just joined this forum tonight as well..perhaps she will post something tomorrow!

 

[Nanemene]

Welcome! As far as tank size, you can do what I did. I started with what I had, and watched for someone selling a full setup. I found a local reefer getting rid of a full tank, stand, and hood for a really good price. They included quite a bit of sand with it as well, and I saved probably $600 in start-up costs.

I lived in Waterloo previously, so I gotta ask. Where'd you get all that livestock already considering there is almost nothing around to buy it from? Just curious, as I'm hoping you'll answer with some amazing new local fish store I've never heard of.

Did you let the tank cycle before you added livestock? The only reason I ask is that in my tanks, there has always been a "mini-cycle" at about 4 weeks and then the major cycle completes at about 3 months or so. At that point, I'm stable. I'd hate to see you suffer losses if things aren't stable yet.

And lastly, I'll be the one to request pics. I always like to see other reefers setups! It's good for ideas and just fun to look at!

 

[js_bass]

Yah i also would like to see some ones tank i helped or contributed to.

 

[heartben]

helloo there.

my live stock, well. for the clown.. got it at emporium for 19.90

it really does look amazing. i will probably post pictures (maybe not a full tank shot yet) tomorrow on this thread.

the regal i got from saltwaterfish-com (i dont know if im allowed to post that?) i think it was like 34.95?

and the zebra goby is actually from a store josh took me and my gf to yesterday called coralville bay - which is in coralville! its freakin huge its probably 4.5-5 inches long it was like 19.95 or so.

i let my tank cycle for a month... about a week after though i got this HUGE diatom bloom going on and its completely gone now (which is about 1.5 months later now?) everything looks cleaner than it did in the first place. haha.

i think everything should be fine. thats the first time ive heard of that happening (the cycle/cycle again thing) but i will keep my eye open. thank you!

haha i will try and post some pictures tomorrow. i am hardly a reefer yet... which brings a question to mind.... when is a tank considerd a reef tanK??

thanks

 

[Philby]

Welcome - I know you'll find this forum (both RC and GIRS) much more welcoming and helpful than some others on the net.

I'd say the best thing you can do now that you've found RC is READ! find tank build threads of similar size to you for LOTS of great ideas on how other people are doing things. Also check out the newbie threads by Waterkeeper and the newbie articles in reefkeeping magazine (Stickied to the top of the newbie forum). He does a great job of explaning the basics of reefing - and even if you don't end up following his advice exactly - it will give you a good base of knowledge about the hobby.

Sounds like you're already doing some good things and the members here are more than willing to help you out with any questions and sell you corals from their tanks (because they're also planning their next upgrade )

And I'd definitely suggest waiting until someone is selling an entire setup - often you'll be able to save a bunch of money and even there's pieces of the sytem you'd do differently it's much easier to change those pieces than build from scratch...

 

[xroads]

Sounds pretty good. Most of us started with a 55. I think you will regret having a sand bed like that. Most people go shallow or no sand any more. There are a ton of us in the Wloo area & we do quite a bit together.

 

[Nanemene]

I've got about 3-4 inches of sand across the entire bottom, no problems so far. I know bare bottom is very popular though.

 

[tibbs2]

Welcome.

I can't say I agree that most people have little to no sandbed in their tank. I've had a 5 inch sand bed in my tank for the past 3 years with all kinds of critters and worms that live in it. I modeled it after Dr. Ron Shimek's deep sand bed filtration theory.

If I ever run into you I can hook you up with reasonably priced zoanthid frags.

 

[heartben]

hello

i think i am going to do the whole wait till a deal pops up thing. try to get the whole system at once...

xroads - what kind of things do you do? id love to meet some nice people in the area into this stuff...

tibbs2 - what area are you in?

thanks for the replys everyone!

 

[xroads]

You are right I shouldnt say most, just many. I had a couple bad experiences with them is all.

 

[Nanemene]

I've seen enough evidence for and against them that my conclusion at this point is, either way works. If you're sumpless like me, DSB is probably the better option.

 

[xroads]

Well right now my tanks are sitting empty as we just moved into our new house. I just ordered starboard to put in the bottom of my 75 so I can get it going again. Then I will set up the 125 the same way. I am debating on whether to build or buy my 300. That will be next year. You just missed the Waterloo tank tour where we visited eveyones house. Waverz, Glaspie, & Got2lb are the Waterloo experts. They can help you alot. There are also very smart reefers with killer tanks in Des Moines, Davenport, IC, CR, & Oskaloosa.

 

[waverz]

I like how you said that craig, theres us waterloo experts, then the smart reefers with the killer tanks in DM.

LOL

Seriously though, Heartben, if you need any help shoot me a PM, always looking out for newbies to take advantage of...err i mean help out.

 

[xroads]

It wasnt supposed to sound like that. What I meant was there are tons of smart expert generous reefers with killer tanks. I could list off several from every area!