Greybeard
06/11/2015, 12:16 PM
Starting fresh, wanting to do things right, and hoping for some input from those who haven't been away.
I've kept everything from a betta bowl to a large, in wall room divider reef system over the years, been keeping fish of some sort or another since the early 80's. About 10 years ago, I shut down my big reef system... Aptasia, Grape Calurpa, and ugly green mushroom corals had taken over, killed off everything else, I was just over it. Sold everything aquarium related that I owned (at a _huge_ loss), and called it quits.
Now, I find myself missing the reef hobby. Don't want anything too large, and I have serious intentions of doing things slow, steady, and safe. I found out long ago that buying cheap means buying again... not a good way to save money, so I want to fully research what I'm buying before spending the cash.
I'm considering a 60g cube. About the right size for the location I want to put it, big enough to be stable, small enough to maintain. Probably going with a perfecto frame-less with the corner overflow. It'll be away from the wall, in an inside corner, with enough room to walk all the way around it, so I really don't want a lot of piping and such outside the tank. I've looked at SCA, DBP, and CADLights... There's some bad reviews on all of them... Perfecto is a known quantity, at least. I've got a quote request in at GlassCages as well... We'll see.
So far, I'm looking at the following: A Trigger sump, Reef Octopus skimmer, and AquaticLife Halo lighting. If anyone has any strong opinions pro or con on these, feel free.
Going to go with all dry base rock. My aptasia problems started with a live rock purchase, and I want to actually 'sculpt' and glue up my rockwork, rather than just piling up rock again. Glue is one thing I'd like some recommendations on... I'm thinking 2 part epoxy putty, but open to suggestions.
Substrate: Back when I put together my last reef, DSB was all the rage... had 300lbs of Southdown sand in that system. Looks like the current trend is for a little under an inch, cover the bottom, pretty much. Fine by me. Are the bagged 'live sand' products worth looking into?
Since I'm using base rock, I'm going to need a micro flora/fauna starter... Used to use Inland Aquatics for that type of thing. Is there someplace else I should be looking?
How about additives? Are the two part calc/alk dosing products like BIonic still the way to go? Had a CO2 reactor before, not going to be doing that again.
On livestock, I'm planning to limit corals to SPS only. Mixed never worked out so well for me. In no hurry, probably go with ORA frags, buy nice ones, and let 'em grow. Perhaps a clam. Squamosa, probably. I notice that Clams Direct is gone... any recommendations for sourcing healthy clams? Probably stick with a few small fish, perhaps a pair of clowns, some gobys, blennies, dottiebacks, that sort of thing. Nothing large, or aggressive. Hopefully captive bred.
Long 1st post... Sorry 'bout that :)
I've kept everything from a betta bowl to a large, in wall room divider reef system over the years, been keeping fish of some sort or another since the early 80's. About 10 years ago, I shut down my big reef system... Aptasia, Grape Calurpa, and ugly green mushroom corals had taken over, killed off everything else, I was just over it. Sold everything aquarium related that I owned (at a _huge_ loss), and called it quits.
Now, I find myself missing the reef hobby. Don't want anything too large, and I have serious intentions of doing things slow, steady, and safe. I found out long ago that buying cheap means buying again... not a good way to save money, so I want to fully research what I'm buying before spending the cash.
I'm considering a 60g cube. About the right size for the location I want to put it, big enough to be stable, small enough to maintain. Probably going with a perfecto frame-less with the corner overflow. It'll be away from the wall, in an inside corner, with enough room to walk all the way around it, so I really don't want a lot of piping and such outside the tank. I've looked at SCA, DBP, and CADLights... There's some bad reviews on all of them... Perfecto is a known quantity, at least. I've got a quote request in at GlassCages as well... We'll see.
So far, I'm looking at the following: A Trigger sump, Reef Octopus skimmer, and AquaticLife Halo lighting. If anyone has any strong opinions pro or con on these, feel free.
Going to go with all dry base rock. My aptasia problems started with a live rock purchase, and I want to actually 'sculpt' and glue up my rockwork, rather than just piling up rock again. Glue is one thing I'd like some recommendations on... I'm thinking 2 part epoxy putty, but open to suggestions.
Substrate: Back when I put together my last reef, DSB was all the rage... had 300lbs of Southdown sand in that system. Looks like the current trend is for a little under an inch, cover the bottom, pretty much. Fine by me. Are the bagged 'live sand' products worth looking into?
Since I'm using base rock, I'm going to need a micro flora/fauna starter... Used to use Inland Aquatics for that type of thing. Is there someplace else I should be looking?
How about additives? Are the two part calc/alk dosing products like BIonic still the way to go? Had a CO2 reactor before, not going to be doing that again.
On livestock, I'm planning to limit corals to SPS only. Mixed never worked out so well for me. In no hurry, probably go with ORA frags, buy nice ones, and let 'em grow. Perhaps a clam. Squamosa, probably. I notice that Clams Direct is gone... any recommendations for sourcing healthy clams? Probably stick with a few small fish, perhaps a pair of clowns, some gobys, blennies, dottiebacks, that sort of thing. Nothing large, or aggressive. Hopefully captive bred.
Long 1st post... Sorry 'bout that :)