If You Are New to Reef Central, Introduce Yourself Here!

[Andi76]

Hi All.

I’m currently on holiday but the day after I get back I take delivery of my Redsea series S 400.
Saltwater is completely new to me and after several months of reading (lots on here) it seemed only right to join. I hope to share my experience with you all and put all your welcome help and tips on to practice.


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[Infinity76]

Hello I'm Infinity restarting 80G Salt...

[JUNBUG361]

Hello everyone that’s new here & welcome

[JRBaker]

Hey everyone! I just signed up for RC, but have been browsing for quite some time. I'm not new to aquariums, but am new to the saltwater side of things. I previously had a 75 gallon mbuna tank as well as a 75 gallon planted tank (high tech setup-EI dosing, CO2 injected, high lighting,...etc). I'm now setting up a small reef tank in a 20 long. I'll be sticking to soft corals primarily (for now, anyway). I look forward to being a part of this forum!

[JayNew]

I see ya!

[JayNew]

Hi folks! I consider myself relatively new to the hobby. I had a FOWLR for a few years 5 years ago, but broke it down due to a move and have been dreaming ever since. Just got a 125 gallon tank and I'm jumping back in. Boy is set up a lot of work! I know just enough about the hobby to want to get everything set up just right. These forums have proved invaluable to me already, these past few weeks. I hope to start off with FOWLR and maybe move to reef once I have some success. Thanks in advance!

[LoveReef1]

Hello Everyone!
This is really not a reply, but I just can't find the way to post a new post (just subscribed). However, I have A same question as I have a newly established 125 g saltwater aquarium with 60 Lbs live sand and 30 Lbs live rocks and some green chromis. Everything is good so far!
I recently purchased 80 Lbs of Pukani dry live rock. My question is how to add the dry rock to an established aquarium. Any help will be appreciate it and thank you.

[zatch]

Hello

My name is Zach - used to post here 'back in the day' as zfriedrichs - but can't remember my old password

Have been in the saltwater hobby off and on for about 10 years - primarily nano tanks. Setting up a new 20G and getting back on RC to catch up on the last few years!

[Oldfishman]

Hello all I am 73 years old and have been in and out of the hobby since I was 11 years old. In 1956 before most of you were born I was raising and sell live bears and angels to pet stores. In those day small angels the size of a quarter
would bring me 25 cents and live bearers would bring a dime a peace. I had a 50 gal salt water tank in the mid 70's and then a 125. After the tank developed a crack and I had it fixed I went back to a 125 freshwater.

I was out for a number of years but returned 5 years ago with a 300 gal fresh water that was my pride a joy but we had to move and I could not take the tank.

I have been looking at cub tanks and keeping a reef tank so I just purchased a JBJ 28 gal intermediary with LED lights. I really want to keep it simple and safe and not get carried away like most of us do.

[JMC180]

Good evening gents and ladies, I'm Jacob, 36 and from Manchester, England. (Sounds like a tv gameshow)

I've long been interested in keeping fish but coming from a large family and getting married young this passion was only something I could start to indulge in my mid 20's with a 180litre tropical set up with a low tech planting scheme. I kept at this for nearly 6 years keeping a whole host of Amazonian type fish and this gave me and my family great joy. Maintenance was a chore but when isn't it and eventually due to losing a bit of interest and being heavily focussed on setting up my business I sold the equipment and went out of the hobby for about 6 years.

A couple of years ago I bought a house that needed a complete refurbishment and it was always in the plans from day one to build a marine tank through the wall in the morning room and siting the tankmin the lounge. Knowing precisely aero about marine tanks I got in touch with a local chap who helped me set the tank up. What I have now is a 670litre 6ft x 2ft x 2ft tank with a small sump beneath containing a skimmer, ozone, reactor containing rowaphos and carbon and a Vecton 600 UV plus ATO etc.

Slowly slowly I've been building up my knowledge and stock levels and I'm pretty much at capacity I feel.

However the more I research, the more I find that I was advised in to quite a low tech set up with no scalability as the sump is so small. Before I fully furnished the lounge where the tank is a, I feel it prudent to consider my long term plans and make the necessary changes now before it is too late.

So, despite huge amounts of dissatisfaction from the missus I'm planning to double the length to12 feet and go taller to 30" and deeper in part to 30" possibly 36 " where it goes through the wall and 30" deep for the extended bit within the room itself.

The idea is to create a system supported by a huge sump, a massively oversized skimmer ozone big UV lots of bio bricks, wet dry trickle filter and bio pellets to eventually create a very low maintenance reef. Initially I will go fish only but later when funds permit upgrade the lighting for corals.

Principally my question is am I mad? The room can handle it. It's 18feet wide and 28feet long and the 30" high by 12 ft long wall of marine beauty will be sensational but will I end up regretting this?

Thoughts on a postcard would be much obliged. Someone (very experienced and knowledgeable) has offered to lend all their expertees and design and build the sump etc but has asked for quite a lot of money. Around £5k exc materials so I'm really unsure whether to use them or just do my own research and go for it...

Some pics below of the tank now and the proposed design and I look forward to being an active contributor.

Thanks guys and gals.

Jacob.









Proposal. The tank will be 2250 litres exc the sump which will probably be at least 500 so a big system.

[Coy3]

Im new to Reef Central but have been a reef junkie for about 11 years. I have a 125 Acrylic.

tank.jpg

[MizellB]

Hello All, about 7 years ago I had a 75 gal FOWLR done on such a budget I had bare minimal equipment, and I worked my TAIL off to maintain it. I eventually got rid of it for that reason...I told myself that if I ever were to get back into the hobby I would do it the right way... well the time has come that my budget now allows for it (for the most part, as I’m still a tightwad).. I have a friend of a friend selling his 180 after being in the hobby for 25 years. The equipment he has is too long to list, but the big items include: 180gallon tank 72x24x24 (euro braced, stand/canopy, cooling fans in canopy, 75gallon sump (drain, refugium, and return areas) 3 Apollo led lights with 2 spares, apex controller with 3 eb8’s, vdm and lsm modules, 2 dosing pumps, 36watt uv sterilizer, Two tunze 6105 with 7095 controller, Mag 9.5 return pump and a spare, ASM g3 skimmerTwo 500 watt heaters, about 150 lbs of LR, half that amount in DR, 3 inches of black sand in the tank, 3 inches of white sand in buckets that once was used in tank, 3 fish, auto topoff, and a ton of extras.

[Evossoughi]

Hello!

I am a beginner when it comes to saltwater tanks! I received a 55 gallon tank for christmas this year! We have put crushed coral on the bottom of the tank and filled the tank up with the reef crystals solution. We have an Aqueon Quiet Flow LED PRO power filter for a 75 gallon tank running. We also have an Aqueon 200W Aquarium heater running for 80 degrees.

My question is, how long typically does it take for the tank to become clear? Ours is still very cloudy after running for about 12 hours. Also, my salinity is reading off the charts (literally). Will that go down on its own after a while or is there something i should do to help it? We mixed the reef crystals according to the directions on the container which said 1/2 cup for every gallon. So filling a 5 gallon bucket, we used 2.5 cups of salt for 5 gallons of water.

We chose not to used live sand because we plan on getting live rock and i liked the look of coral best!

[swthoneybee]

Good evening!!!

I am new to the forum and new to saltwater and reef ownership. I acquired a very neglected 29gallon Biocube with a Clown and electric blue damsel.

I have since been working with my local fish guy that’s been extremely helpful and full of information and also been trying to research on my own as well.

I had to start over completely and thankfully after cycling the tank and introducing my 2 fish into their newly cleaned home they have been doing well for the last 2 months.

My question for now is how many snails and crabs and or other reef cleaners should I keep in the tank? My tank now is producing diotoms, how long does this cycle last and is there anything I should do at this point?

Any advice is welcome, I’ve added 4 types of softies and looking to add more in the fire, excited to see my tank develop.

Thanks for your help!!

Melissa

[aussiemantis]

you guys all sound like you have amazing setups, im somewhat a newbie on this site.

setup:
55gallon long (recently upgraded from 25G)
aquaone skimmer 1000
aquaone cannister filter 1000
some cheap wavemaker lol (from ebay) ...im not a millionaire ahah
aqua one heater
sand substrate 1 inch
10lbs live rock (getting more as i am currently stocking for 50G)

Inhabitants:
1 flame hawkfish 3cm
1 white ribbon eel 30cm...ish
1 green chromis 3cm
1 coris wrasse 6cm
1 False Perc clown (about to die due to brooks)
1 mantis shrimp, G.Smithi 4cm
3 blue leg hermits
3 snails

i started this hobby with 0% knowledge, but thanks to you guys, i know alot more than most now. thanks to all of you! ps, ive might have stolen someones aquascape design. just so u know...

[daytonajim00]

Jim Hundo checking in from West Palm Beach. New member; been reefing a little over 10 years. I just finished my build recycling my old system. Pictures in my new build thread not showing up...maybe in here....

[Cmex84]

Hey everyone. I'm Crystal. I'm a mom of 3 and my kids wanted an aquarium for Christmas this year. I did research for weeks, got all the basics and cycled the water, and just put the fish in the other day! Funny, this was for them, and it spiraled into something that I'm excited to expand on with other avenues in the hobby lol, so this should be interesting for all of us!

Always dreamed (when I was younger) of becoming a marine biologist. Sadly, those dreams weren't in the cards for me. Always wanted to live near the ocean. Huge "water baby" all my life. Ocean life has always fascinated me, and so therapeutic to just sit back and enjoy. So, I guess you could say that this was right up my alley too.

So far, the kids are loving it. My lil one can't keep her face from being pressed against the glass (figuratively speaking) and even my teens think it's pretty cool.

We started with a 20gal freshwater tank. I got the water conditioner/bacteria items all together, made sure to cycle the tank for a few days (without fish) and took the water into Pet-smart for a quality check. All was perfect! We had each of the kids (and hubby/myself) choose one fish we wanted. We chose a gold panda molly, black molly, cobra tailed guppy, green lantern platy and a mickey mouse platy.
So far so good.
Everyone looks to be getting along nicely. We're still just starting out, and I know that I have a LOT to learn, and a lot to teach my kiddos yet. But, looking forward to this being a fun, family hobby to grow as we go.

Excited to being able to "sponge" off all this forum has to offer. I've already put quite a few miles on my YouTube/google research lol. When I get into something like this, I go 110%, so I'm ready to learn more! I'd love to eventually get a Betta, and also start a reef tank in the distant future, after we get a good feel for the freshwater and a system in place, and more space after we move sometime within a year or two. But, that'll be awhile. I want to make sure we have this down first.

Feel free to give me any advice, correct any misinformation I may post about, suggestions etc. Constructive criticism is always welcome! I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions, so I'm glad to have found this site and hopefully can make sure that our family can enjoy our tanks for years to come!

[jfg316]

Hi, I am New to Reef Central as well as reef keeping. This forum is very informative and I plan to get a lot out of it, as well as hopefully share some of the things I do.

[VirginiaMarine]

Originally Posted by Gsan

Hi i am new to the hobby and have a question..I have a 75 gallon tank set up with soft and lips corals and do weekly water changes with a quality salt and my levels never change they are also on the money .i test 2 times a week and they are good ..do I need to start dosing or just leave it? I have about 12 corals now n there..

I personally see little need to dose. It depends on the needs of the tank. If your alkalinity and calcium are low then you can two part dose. If your magnesium is low then add magnesium. Many never dose and just rely on frequent water changes. I’ve kept LPS and soft corals for many years. I dose occasionally but not often.


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[totoro]

Hello RC, I've had an account but never really used it. I'm a Marine Biologist but have been keeping aquariums for over a decade now. Moistly had freshwater planted tanks, but had gotten into reef tanks for the past 6 years. When I was in college I loved keeping aquariums so much that I was a husbandry volunteer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I helped take care of there jellies.

[Tcronrath]

Hello Everyone,

I have been out of the hobby for a few years and a few months back decided to purchase a simple biocube 29g. Keeping everything simple, after cycling and feeding the tank, I added a small CUC of 1 sand sifter, 3 turbos and 3 red claw hermits. After 2 months of feeding the tanks and the CUC, I added 2 OSC clowns, one leather finger and a small "assorted frag" - I have no idea what it is, currently it has 9-10 small (1/8 inch) green polyps (this is just a guess). I wanted to post here to see if anyone else in NYC has recommendations of where to purchase supplies/creatures from an LFS. Frankly all I have found in NYC is Petco or going out of the city. I know we can all purchase online but really looking for LFS.

Any advice help or instructional communication would be great!

[gamerunr]

Hi All,

I'm a returning reefer. Looks like RC wiped all my past posts so I have to start over again. Currently cycling a 18 gallon nano.

[kelsiguidry]

Hello! My name is Kelsi Guidry. I am a guy... Most people just assume i'm a girl because of the name so I figure I clear that up right off the bat. I'm 32 in Louisiana.

I acquired my brothers 100G fish tank which he had running as freshwater, but I turned it into a saltwater tank.
I started off around May 2017 as a FOWLR tank because my wife wanted a Picasso Trigger. We soon changed away from an aggressive tank after he ate one of our damsels and traumatized my wife because she saw it happen.

Once we got away from the "aggressive world" I started buying corals and less aggressive fish. Now i'm an addict. I go stare at my tank constantly and always want to buy new corals.

We have had a few casualties... one eaten by another as stated above, well maybe 2 because we found our golby eaten up after getting back from vacation. 2 clowns got mouth fungus while on vacation too and we couldn't cure them to save them. Think I accidentally poisoned a puffer in the QT tank by putting too much medication to be proactive in treating him before adding him to the main tank. Another damsel just randomly started swimming in circles and died in the same day. And now recently found our powder blue tang dead stuck behind some decorative coral branches.
All of this hurts the heart, especially when I killed the puffer.
However, I will continue to progress in the hobby.

you guys all sound like you have amazing setups, im somewhat a newbie on this site.

setup:
100 gallon tank
1 custom tank stand
2 viparspectra LED lights
1 24" Aqueon LED light bar
Cascade cannister filter
2 power heads
1 heater
crushed coral substrate
live rock
fake corals
real coral "skeletons"...?

Inhabitants:
1 blue with yellow tail damsel
1 fairy wrasse
1 flame angel
1 blue spotted splendid dottyback
1 cleaner wrasse
2 mocha clowns
1 blood shrimp
1 serpent starfish
15+ hermits
10+ snails
1 hatian anemone
1 white long tentacle anemone
1 emerald crab
1 pom pom crab
1 Green Star polyp coral patch, 6in
1 blue clove sansibia frag, 1in
1 purple and green round flat coral (not sure kind)
1 blueberry gorgonian coral
1 red gorbonian coral
1 tiny purple and green acropora frag
1 green candy cane coral, 1 head
2 frogspawn coral frags, 2 heads
2 hammer coral frags, 2 heads
2 green flower pot corals
10 various zoanthid frags on a large "coral tree" thing
1 orange sea sponge

...see... i'm an addict...

I started this hobby with 0% knowledge, but this forum and the internet has helped me greatly. I look forward to chatting with others and progressing.

[LReefer]

Hello Everyone from Reef Central, I’m Lazaro and I just signed up recently with RC. I’m setting up a new red sea 250, 50g reef tank and I’m currently in the first week of cycling the tank. I’m new to reefing as I had a 32g saltwater tank while I was a kid and now getting back into the hobby.

I would like to start with fish and slowly move into soft corals. I've been told I am in the right place to get great advice and all the help I need!!

I would like to start off with a couple of clown fishes, yellow tang, a flaming angel and even a blue angel. However, I’m not sure if this is a good idea to begin once my tanks completes the cycle. Also, I need to understand if all these little guys are compatible.

Any suggestions on how to begin the introduction of these fishes? Below my set-up

Set-Up
Red Sea Reefer 250, Hydra 26 HD, JEBAO, Reef Octopus skimmer, Phosban Reactor 150, Aquatop Heater

Thanks again!

[kelsiguidry]

Originally Posted by LReefer

Hello Everyone from Reef Central, I’m Lazaro and I just signed up recently with RC. I’m setting up a new red sea 250, 50g reef tank and I’m currently in the first week of cycling the tank. I’m new to reefing as I had a 32g saltwater tank while I was a kid and now getting back into the hobby.

I would like to start with fish and slowly move into soft corals. I've been told I am in the right place to get great advice and all the help I need!!

I would like to start off with a couple of clown fishes, yellow tang, a flaming angel and even a blue angel. However, I’m not sure if this is a good idea to begin once my tanks completes the cycle. Also, I need to understand if all these little guys are compatible.

Any suggestions on how to begin the introduction of these fishes? Below my set-up

Set-Up
Red Sea Reefer 250, Hydra 26 HD, JEBAO, Reef Octopus skimmer, Phosban Reactor 150, Aquatop Heater

Thanks again!

Hey, i'm new at all of this as well. It sounds like your heading in the direction that I just started about 6 months ago. I started with a couple damsels right after the tank was cycled and then about a week later I went with some semi-aggressive and aggressive fish. I was basically told to use damsels as practice. I was too anxious and didn't practice long though...

We currently have 2 clowns, a damsel, a flame angel, fairy wrasse, cleaner wrasse, and blue spotted splendid dottyback, They all get along well. When we added the dottyback he picked on the other fish for about a week, but all good now. We did just have a powder blue tang with all of these but he randomly died recently...

From what I read there may be problems mixing the tang and the bigger angels like a blue angel, but your tank is probably big enough that it won't be an issue! Good luck!