New to the hobby...
- Thread starter bobbbm
- Start date
eboonaman
In Memoriam
hi and welcome, a lot of people here belong to LIRA (long island reef association) Http://www.lireef.org
next meeting is Jan 20th . stop on by and check it out..you woun't be sorry.
chuck
next meeting is Jan 20th . stop on by and check it out..you woun't be sorry.
chuck
YOU ARE SOOO NOT KIDDING!!! I cant put my finger on it but I am Obsessed in 3 months time LOL! Just got back from Aqua Hut (Great people) The store seems alot better for hobbies rather then people with Unlimited funds. I just picked up 10 turbo snails to take care of some brown much... Ill post what I have later and where I want to go and maybe you guys can give me some advice
DEXTER SOLIS
New member
welcome. hope you find the site ashelpfull as I have. try not to think you ask alot of questions, the only time you stop asking is the same time you stop caring. good luck with all your efforts! save your moneyon the real important things.......like a wet dry vac & grounding probe..
Ok here is my story I will try not to be too long winded.
I share a large Office with another manager, we started talking and he told me he had a 125 gal tank in his garage that he always wanted to setup but never had the time. It was 125g with a built in sump but it was kinda beat up..... We brought it to the office and decided to go fresh water because the company was paying for it. Long story short the tanks is running great and I get to see it everyday 2 Oscars 1 Dempsey and a Channel Cat.
One afternoon another co worker walks in the office and says he is moving would anyone want his Salt water tank with two fish in it? Ok this is where I show that I am not very bright and will believe anything anyone says
He has had the tank for 2 years and it has always run great!!! I am thinking WOW I get to start in salt water for $200??? This is just too good to be true. I pack up my two good friends in a truck with 10 Home Depot Buckets and go get my NEW TANK! Ya well I get there to find a rusted stand and a smelly tank... Why didn't I walk away you ask? Well there was a beautiful Blonde Naso tang and a Yellow tang screaming at me HELP HELP, I know you can do better then this guy! ""Sigh''' So I take the fish rocks and sand home (what a stink) I set it up in my dining room with my wife glaring at me and my friends snickering.. I get everything back in the tank and it is one big dust ball.... I was thinking "can this be right"?
This was the setup I brought home
55g tank (rusted stand)
Fluval 304 Only Bio Media ONE chamber filled in the tank.
No Name Hang on filter Filter Pad/Charcoal
60 LBS of Live Rock
1" Of Crushed coral
blonde Naso Tang
Yellow Tang
100W Heater tank running at 74deg...
One standard Daylight bulb.
This is what I have done so far, with my limited funds.
I Cleaned all the sand with salt water and got all the muck out and added around another 1" of Coral. I wiped down all the walls as they were coated in Brown algae as were the live rock, both were coated in it. Then I took the filter apart... (you don't want to know) and added 2 Chemi Pure bags and some pre Filter media and cleaned out the second filter. I did a water change every 4 days till I got the water levels correct and added a clean up crew.
1 Diamond Gobe
2 Pepperment Shrimp
4 Emerald Crabs
1 Fire Shrimp
10 Turbo Snails
I then go to Ebay after reading that I need to have a protein skimmer cause I just cant get the water clean and I find a Jebo 180!!! Man O man you have to get one of those!! NOT! Ok it made pretty bubbles for 4 hours till I realized that this just cant be right!!! I then read reviews (after the fact) because again I am swift... and find that I could not get a worse skimmer. So I remove it and beat it with a small hammer. I decide that if the guy before me can run the tank without it so can I.
My 40th Bday comes and the tank is doing ok I guess because I am afraid to add anything for fear it will die... My wife comes home with a Seabea Anemone and tells me the guy says it will be great in your tank! I am thinking if I take it back she will just hate the tank and I seem to be making progress...
Let me cut to the chase this is what happened...
Sigh I felt bad and so did she... I went out the night before it died and bought a Prizm skimmer that at least works somewhat but I know I know....
I had to bury it because my kids loved it.
Now Really have my water under control and added 2 Coralife 24" Fixtures with 96W 50/50 Bulbs and a decent size power head for waterflow!
Ammonia 0PPM
Nitrates 0PPM
PH 8.4
Salinity 1.024
I want to know where I should go from here... I am totally hooked but with 2 small kids I cant spend thousands of dollars a month right now.
Sump?
New Stand?
Bow front tank? (who said that)?
Sorry for being too long winded
Bob from Lake Ronkonkoma
I share a large Office with another manager, we started talking and he told me he had a 125 gal tank in his garage that he always wanted to setup but never had the time. It was 125g with a built in sump but it was kinda beat up..... We brought it to the office and decided to go fresh water because the company was paying for it. Long story short the tanks is running great and I get to see it everyday
2 Oscars 1 Dempsey and a Channel Cat.One afternoon another co worker walks in the office and says he is moving would anyone want his Salt water tank with two fish in it? Ok this is where I show that I am not very bright and will believe anything anyone says
He has had the tank for 2 years and it has always run great!!! I am thinking WOW I get to start in salt water for $200??? This is just too good to be true. I pack up my two good friends in a truck with 10 Home Depot Buckets and go get my NEW TANK! Ya well I get there to find a rusted stand and a smelly tank... Why didn't I walk away you ask? Well there was a beautiful Blonde Naso tang and a Yellow tang screaming at me HELP HELP, I know you can do better then this guy! ""Sigh''' So I take the fish rocks and sand home (what a stink) I set it up in my dining room with my wife glaring at me and my friends snickering.. I get everything back in the tank and it is one big dust ball.... I was thinking "can this be right"?This was the setup I brought home
55g tank (rusted stand)
Fluval 304 Only Bio Media ONE chamber filled in the tank.
No Name Hang on filter Filter Pad/Charcoal
60 LBS of Live Rock
1" Of Crushed coral
blonde Naso Tang
Yellow Tang
100W Heater tank running at 74deg...
One standard Daylight bulb.
This is what I have done so far, with my limited funds.
I Cleaned all the sand with salt water and got all the muck out and added around another 1" of Coral. I wiped down all the walls as they were coated in Brown algae as were the live rock, both were coated in it. Then I took the filter apart... (you don't want to know) and added 2 Chemi Pure bags and some pre Filter media and cleaned out the second filter. I did a water change every 4 days till I got the water levels correct and added a clean up crew.
1 Diamond Gobe
2 Pepperment Shrimp
4 Emerald Crabs
1 Fire Shrimp
10 Turbo Snails
I then go to Ebay after reading that I need to have a protein skimmer cause I just cant get the water clean and I find a Jebo 180!!! Man O man you have to get one of those!! NOT! Ok it made pretty bubbles for 4 hours till I realized that this just cant be right!!! I then read reviews (after the fact) because again I am swift... and find that I could not get a worse skimmer. So I remove it and beat it with a small hammer. I decide that if the guy before me can run the tank without it so can I.
My 40th Bday comes and the tank is doing ok I guess because I am afraid to add anything for fear it will die... My wife comes home with a Seabea Anemone and tells me the guy says it will be great in your tank! I am thinking if I take it back she will just hate the tank and I seem to be making progress...
Let me cut to the chase this is what happened...
Sigh I felt bad and so did she... I went out the night before it died and bought a Prizm skimmer that at least works somewhat but I know I know....
I had to bury it because my kids loved it.Now Really have my water under control and added 2 Coralife 24" Fixtures with 96W 50/50 Bulbs and a decent size power head for waterflow!
Ammonia 0PPM
Nitrates 0PPM
PH 8.4
Salinity 1.024
I want to know where I should go from here... I am totally hooked but with 2 small kids I cant spend thousands of dollars a month right now.
Sump?
New Stand?
Bow front tank? (who said that)?
Sorry for being too long winded
Bob from Lake Ronkonkoma
Hi Bob, welcome. It's a great addiction.
Now, take a breath.
now, take another.
Fell better? Good.
This is a slow hobby where bad things happen fast. We've all done many dumb things, but since finding reefcentral my batting average has gone up. The archives and forums and reefkeeping mag can answer any question you may have, so please keep asking. Just go slow, and read read read.
Justin
Now, take a breath.
now, take another.
Fell better? Good.
This is a slow hobby where bad things happen fast. We've all done many dumb things, but since finding reefcentral my batting average has gone up. The archives and forums and reefkeeping mag can answer any question you may have, so please keep asking. Just go slow, and read read read.
Justin
Ya I know about the Naso.... But that's now my kids favorite fish
I want to make a decent Reef with lots of critters and just a few fish. I want people to look at it and say ahh cool! I don't need the biggest and the best... Clear water with nice looking fish and critters. My wifes goal is to have an Oak tank that matched the dining room
I want to make a decent Reef with lots of critters and just a few fish. I want people to look at it and say ahh cool! I don't need the biggest and the best... Clear water with nice looking fish and critters. My wifes goal is to have an Oak tank that matched the dining room
I'm not sure that Sebae was dead - sometimes they do that for a while. Nevertheless, he couldn't have made it with the existing lighting. Sounds like you are all ready to start a softie/LPS tank. You have probably already achieved the bigget milestone, as your wife is on board. Its a good thing you don't have thousands extra a month, as the slower you go, the better off you will be. If that heater is at 74, its got to go up a bit, around 79/80. What I would do next is get a useful critter package, maybe from reeftopia.com (ANYBODY INTO A POST-CHRISTMAS GROUP BUY?), and include some fun stuff llike serpent stars and emerald crabs. Then, get a piece a month for a while, check your water parameters weekly, make sure you top off when needed and do regular changes. You can probably get the kids into giving up the Naso if you get a pair of percula (Nemo) clowns.
Bob,
I have to say that reading this thread made me smile and at times sounded very familiar. Although I am in no way an advanced Reef keeper I have been taking it extremly slow in setting up my reef tank. This is due to a multitude of reasons; funds, time, other ongoing projects and ignorance about this hobby. In many ways this has worked to my advantage in that I have avoided some of the pitfalls/mistakes along the way, (I had the time to rethink before having purchased items). Although I would ultimately like to have a beautiful reef tank, (as many of our members have), I know that it's going to take time, (and money), and planning out everything is in itself part of the fun. Take your time and enjoy. Also, come out to one of our meetings and you will learn alot more.
Frank
I have to say that reading this thread made me smile and at times sounded very familiar. Although I am in no way an advanced Reef keeper I have been taking it extremly slow in setting up my reef tank. This is due to a multitude of reasons; funds, time, other ongoing projects and ignorance about this hobby. In many ways this has worked to my advantage in that I have avoided some of the pitfalls/mistakes along the way, (I had the time to rethink before having purchased items). Although I would ultimately like to have a beautiful reef tank, (as many of our members have), I know that it's going to take time, (and money), and planning out everything is in itself part of the fun. Take your time and enjoy. Also, come out to one of our meetings and you will learn alot more.
Frank
I was thinking of picking this up to replace my rusty stand
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=280062352413&rd=1&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=280062352413&rd=1&rd=1
eboonaman
In Memoriam
cool next meeting is jan 20th at dowling college dir. are on the site http://www.lireef.org.
before you get too deep into adding things to the tank. IMO I would replace that crushed coral substrate with a finer agronite sand. crushed coral traps to much dirt and also is to rough on bottom fish. you will have a lot of problems using crushed coral. do a search on it and see.
all the best
chuck
before you get too deep into adding things to the tank. IMO I would replace that crushed coral substrate with a finer agronite sand. crushed coral traps to much dirt and also is to rough on bottom fish. you will have a lot of problems using crushed coral. do a search on it and see.
all the best
chuck
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