I've been a member of reefcentral for years now, but didn't want to post until I could actually set up a reef tank, and for quite awhile that looked like it wouldn't happen anytime soon.
But it turns out that my brother, who's had a reef tank for a few years, was planning to give me a bunch of his old equipment, and buy and build the rest that was needed so that he could give it to me for Christmas so that I could set it up in a 29 gallon I had laying empty. However, when someone near him got out of the hobby and sold him 100 lbs. of live rock for $50, he decided that it was too good of a deal to pass up, and also that he didn't have room to keep all the rock until Christmas, and so he told me early, and yesterday he drive in from San Jose with everything.
So, I got the tank up in the living room last week and added salt and water and let it mix. Yesterday we put in all the equipment, and since we figured that leaving the rock sitting in the buckets it had travelled from CA in was probably a lot worse than adding it to the tank, we put the rocks in.
It's nice rock, too. Lots of coralline, and quite a few hitchhikers that I've been able to see so far, including a Hawaiian feather duster which my brother couldn't get off the rock, and a few small soft corals (some zoos and a couple of others I can't remember).
I do have a few questions, though, which I think can be best answered in this forum instead of one of the general ones. First, is there any place locally that I can get some acrylic weld-on? The overflow box got a small crack in it - it's inside the tank, so no leak problems, but I worry that if the power goes out it may let the box drain enough to lose siphon, and I really, really don't want to have to explain to my wife why there's 10 gallons of salt water all over her living room carpet.
Also, are there any formal meetings/get-togethers/frag swaps/etc. in Tucson? I'd like to get to know other reefers around here, especially since I'm new at actually keeping a saltwater tank.
And finally, am I going to have heat problems this summer? I keep the house air-conditioned, but my brother also managed to convince my parents to chip in and they bought me a 250 watt MH retrofit system. I probably won't have a hood ready for it for a month or so, and I really want a hood that completely covers the tank (I have a 2 year old and a 3 year old, and don't want them "feeding the fishies"). Will fans in the hood blowing across the top of the water be enough, or will I need to start researching chillers?
But it turns out that my brother, who's had a reef tank for a few years, was planning to give me a bunch of his old equipment, and buy and build the rest that was needed so that he could give it to me for Christmas so that I could set it up in a 29 gallon I had laying empty. However, when someone near him got out of the hobby and sold him 100 lbs. of live rock for $50, he decided that it was too good of a deal to pass up, and also that he didn't have room to keep all the rock until Christmas, and so he told me early, and yesterday he drive in from San Jose with everything.
So, I got the tank up in the living room last week and added salt and water and let it mix. Yesterday we put in all the equipment, and since we figured that leaving the rock sitting in the buckets it had travelled from CA in was probably a lot worse than adding it to the tank, we put the rocks in.
It's nice rock, too. Lots of coralline, and quite a few hitchhikers that I've been able to see so far, including a Hawaiian feather duster which my brother couldn't get off the rock, and a few small soft corals (some zoos and a couple of others I can't remember).
I do have a few questions, though, which I think can be best answered in this forum instead of one of the general ones. First, is there any place locally that I can get some acrylic weld-on? The overflow box got a small crack in it - it's inside the tank, so no leak problems, but I worry that if the power goes out it may let the box drain enough to lose siphon, and I really, really don't want to have to explain to my wife why there's 10 gallons of salt water all over her living room carpet.
Also, are there any formal meetings/get-togethers/frag swaps/etc. in Tucson? I'd like to get to know other reefers around here, especially since I'm new at actually keeping a saltwater tank.
And finally, am I going to have heat problems this summer? I keep the house air-conditioned, but my brother also managed to convince my parents to chip in and they bought me a 250 watt MH retrofit system. I probably won't have a hood ready for it for a month or so, and I really want a hood that completely covers the tank (I have a 2 year old and a 3 year old, and don't want them "feeding the fishies"). Will fans in the hood blowing across the top of the water be enough, or will I need to start researching chillers?
