Hi all,
I am new to the saltwater addiction and it looks to be a fun journey. I'm sure my start is like a lot of you, my 3 year old daughter saw Finding Nemo for the hundredth time and in her best "puppy dog eyes, daddy please" look said she wanted a Nemo. I thought, why not, and 3 months of research later I am starting a new reef tank. I have read so much and asked so many questions at my local aquarium stores that it all runs together. I'm sure I will be on here with specific questions in the future but I will give you a quick rundown of my setup.
75 gallon drilled tank
10 gallon refugium
15 gallon sump
Eshopps 150 skimmer
2 powerheads
Return pump, not sure what brand/size, came with the setup
About 50lbs of dead rock
100 gpd ro/di unit
Coralife T5 H.O. W/lunar
2 200W heaters (one of which mysteriously fell of the kitchen counter when I was in the other room, first casualty, and of course it was the expensive one that broke, lol)
I purchased the tank, stand, sump, rock, pump, powerheads, heaters and light used. Everything else I have acquired over the past few weeks. I plan on purchasing some live rock, hopefully locally, to help seed the dead rock I have now. The previous owner cleaned and dried the rock well, but I cleaned it again and have been curing it for about two weeks now, changing the water every other day to try to get rid of the leaching phosphates.
I started filling the tank last night, man that's a slow process, and my wife turned the water off this afternoon. I have a heater and a powerhead in there now to get the water ready. When I get home tomorrow, I work for the railroad and am out of town every other day, I am adding the salt. I am fortunate to have the complete backing of my wife and her assurance that she will help feed and monitor the tank the days I am out of town as long as she doesn't have to do any water changes.
So, tomorrow is the salt. And in a few days the rock, dead and what live I can acquire. Soon after that I plan on sand. Probably going to use "dead" sand and try to get my co-worker, who is on here also, to give me a cup of his sand to seed mine. I plan to cycle the tank with a piece of deli shrimp and the liquid bacteria I purchased at the ARC sponsor in Kennesaw. I have been told I can use a couple Clown's, but I don't want my daughter and son to wake up one morning and see Nemo doing the backstroke. One thing I have learned so far is you can talk to 50 people and get 75 opinions. I'm just trying to do what I think will work best in my situation.
Well, I think this is a long enough introduction....
I look forward to talking to and hopefully meeting many of you through this obsession. From what I have seen so far, saltwater people are very opinionated, but also some of the friendliest people I have met.
Until next time, Nathan.
I am new to the saltwater addiction and it looks to be a fun journey. I'm sure my start is like a lot of you, my 3 year old daughter saw Finding Nemo for the hundredth time and in her best "puppy dog eyes, daddy please" look said she wanted a Nemo. I thought, why not, and 3 months of research later I am starting a new reef tank. I have read so much and asked so many questions at my local aquarium stores that it all runs together. I'm sure I will be on here with specific questions in the future but I will give you a quick rundown of my setup.
75 gallon drilled tank
10 gallon refugium
15 gallon sump
Eshopps 150 skimmer
2 powerheads
Return pump, not sure what brand/size, came with the setup
About 50lbs of dead rock
100 gpd ro/di unit
Coralife T5 H.O. W/lunar
2 200W heaters (one of which mysteriously fell of the kitchen counter when I was in the other room, first casualty, and of course it was the expensive one that broke, lol)
I purchased the tank, stand, sump, rock, pump, powerheads, heaters and light used. Everything else I have acquired over the past few weeks. I plan on purchasing some live rock, hopefully locally, to help seed the dead rock I have now. The previous owner cleaned and dried the rock well, but I cleaned it again and have been curing it for about two weeks now, changing the water every other day to try to get rid of the leaching phosphates.
I started filling the tank last night, man that's a slow process, and my wife turned the water off this afternoon. I have a heater and a powerhead in there now to get the water ready. When I get home tomorrow, I work for the railroad and am out of town every other day, I am adding the salt. I am fortunate to have the complete backing of my wife and her assurance that she will help feed and monitor the tank the days I am out of town as long as she doesn't have to do any water changes.
So, tomorrow is the salt. And in a few days the rock, dead and what live I can acquire. Soon after that I plan on sand. Probably going to use "dead" sand and try to get my co-worker, who is on here also, to give me a cup of his sand to seed mine. I plan to cycle the tank with a piece of deli shrimp and the liquid bacteria I purchased at the ARC sponsor in Kennesaw. I have been told I can use a couple Clown's, but I don't want my daughter and son to wake up one morning and see Nemo doing the backstroke. One thing I have learned so far is you can talk to 50 people and get 75 opinions. I'm just trying to do what I think will work best in my situation.
Well, I think this is a long enough introduction....
I look forward to talking to and hopefully meeting many of you through this obsession. From what I have seen so far, saltwater people are very opinionated, but also some of the friendliest people I have met.
Until next time, Nathan.
