New to this forum....wanted to say Hi.

[dustinsterk]

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to say hello after finding this forum. I am starting to get all my parts together for my first salt water tank.....did freshwater and ponds for years. I am in the process of building my 40g breeder with 20g sump.

If anyone has any t-5 lights or a RODI for sale please let me know, Wilmington water stinks!

Oh yeah.....my name is Dustin.

Thanks!

 

[Gordonious]

Hey Dustin. Welcome to the DE forum. Always nice to see new faces. Let us know if you need any help with the set up, there are some pretty knowledgeable people that frequent this forum. Ken, the president of the reef club, will be posting details on the clubs meeting this month sometime soon if your interested.

 

[dustinsterk]

Thanks and will do! I will try to post some pics as I go....and I am sure I will have tons of questions.

--Dustin

 

[ronert]

Welcome Dustin!

Are you looking for a T5 fixture or DIY? I have some spare T5HO ballasts, but they are for 4 foot tubes only.

- ted

 

[Gordonious]

Dustin it would be great if you could ake pics of your progress. We havn't had too many biuld logs in this forum recently. Not only is it fun for us to watch your progress, but you'll be amazed looking back a year from now how much progress you have made. Good luck.

Oh and btw I think T5s are the way to go. The subject is debated back and forth and basicly comes down to application and personal opinion. I like the lower electric bill, less heat and uniform illumination across the tank.

 

[dustinsterk]

Hey everyone.....I will def post some pics as I go....right now things are slow because I am so busy with work and things. I was looking for t-5 retrofit b/c i will be building my hood. I think the 4 foot bulbs are going to be too long for me, but thanks anyway ronert. My tanks is only 36" long.

 

[wds21921]

Welcome Dustin. You might be surprised to find out that Wilmington's water isn't nearly as bad as you think.
I'm adding some speculation here but one thing I've noticed is that almost all of Northern Delaware seems to have ideal conditions for coralline algae growth which I can only attribute to fluoridated water? I could be wrong but I know when I lived in Elkton Maryland (non-fluoridated water), it was nearly impossible to grow any exotic corals or coralline algae without adding a two part balanced ionic calcium additive, and often!
From Hockessin, Wilmington, Newark, Bear and Glasgow areas, I've seen beautiful coralline growth and some very nice hard and soft corals grown with little to no additives at all.

Two tanks in particular in the Newark and Bear areas used regular untreated tap water with only salt added and had more coralline growth than I've ever seen. And the one tank I worked on in Wilmington wasn't too far behind them and also used untreated tap water.