Hello, my name is Chris and I live in Smyrna. In my teens through twenties, I had a freshwater tank (55 long) and mostly had Oscars, Jack Dempsies, Firemounts and other Cichlids. I finally had to give away the setup and fish to a roommate when I got my own apartment and then started traveling every week for work. Three decades have passed and the kids are out of the house. About 5 months ago, the wife and I were up in Kennesaw and spotted Optimum aquarium and I said let's go look at the fish. Inside, I then discovered a world of corals. I had seen them at the GA Aquarium and in large aquariums at some restaurants but to discover this was a doable hobby fascinated me. The hook was set then. I spent the next month reading books, watching BRStv videos, talking to employees/customers at the saltwater stores, and slowly purchasing equipment. I ran a new dedicated 20A GFI circuit from the basement and made many round trips to HD's plumbing department to plumb in my sump etc. I then bought 4 Clowns who survived the initial cycle and are still with me. I've added a few more fish and don't plan to add any more. I have had many questions up until now and made many calls to Optimum, Reef Shac, etc. to get advice. I'm looking forward to this forum helping me get better in this hobby and one day share some of my lesson's learned so far.
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- Thread starter Chris L
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Welcome to ARC. A lot of knowledge swimming around these waters
Thanks, Billy O. You have a nice set of pipes, at least in the 80s. Looking back at my initial post I did rush over a phrase. I did not throw those 4 clowns into my tank during its initial cycle. Rather, I added them after 2 1/2 weeks from initial startup after my NH3/4, Nitrites & Nitrates settled to nil. I did startup day 1 with dry rock but also with live sand, a big bag of seasoned porous media in my sump from PureReef, a pinch of fish food to get things deteriorating, a diligent regimen of SeaChem prime dosed daily per the bottle and daily testing of the 3 baddies. Also took a water sample up to Optimum to test before I bought those 4 fish. BUT, I was still nervous as heck that something was probably wrong. But buying the fish still wasn't as nerve-wracking as when I drilled the bulkhead holes and the bigger overflow hole into my brand new tank. The final outlet of my digestive track was quite pinched drilling those holes.
Why the prime? Are you using tap or tap to start?
That Billy guy know his stuff. Call him if ya need help
Welcome aboard, it’s a very addicting hobby. Sounds like you’re in the Alpharetta area, as am I and a few other reefers around these parts.
So, I did start with tap water and I did use Prime for that. However, in my original post above I meant to say a diligent regminen, per the instructions, of "Stability" to help move the initial cycle along. I had a slight ammonia spike a few weeks ago but instead of reaching for the Prime I had already purchased a bottle of Amquel. When I noticed the gravel wasn't as vacuumed as it normally was, I was able to discover root cause and poke around in the gravel until I found my dead Tiger Conch. Ammonia has stayed down after his proper burial.
After that initial setup, I started making weekly trips to Reef Shac to buy RO/DI water and mixing my own Coral Pro solution for water changes. Schlepping those 5 gallon buckets started tweaking my back so I bought a 5 stage RO/DI filter and also a digital TDS meter. 56 going in, 0 coming out. You can be sure if I ever ramp up a new tank I will just use my homemade RO/DI water.
Welcome to the group. I did the stair step juggle with 5 gal buckets for almost 2 years before I figured out how to get water from the garage mixing area to the upstairs tank via the push of a button. There is always some place to spend money and make improvements for us keepers of the water. If the 5gal bucket thing is more than the body can handle there are tons of options. I would say push button waterflow is one of my top 3 investments in the tank as far as making the hobby moe enjoyable. Good luck in your journey and know there are a lot of great people here with centuries of combined knowledge to share.
Welcome to the club and hobby err addiction Chris!
Conch's, Sand Sifting stars, Diamond Gobys and other sand filtering organisms do not have a steady food supply in new systems. Adding in the Clean up Crew "CuC" is a fine line timing thing. Don't listen to the sellers that tell you you need a bunch of snails, urchins and thing like that until a few months have past. A VERY well kept system maybe even longer. Don't get discouraged when the ugly stage hits, we'll all go through it to some degree. Adding some soft corals now is a good idea. Ask what would be good and what to stay away from.
In the meantime keep reading and invest in some good test kits. Ask whatever questions you may have and search the site. There's a lot of knowledge here.
Conch's, Sand Sifting stars, Diamond Gobys and other sand filtering organisms do not have a steady food supply in new systems. Adding in the Clean up Crew "CuC" is a fine line timing thing. Don't listen to the sellers that tell you you need a bunch of snails, urchins and thing like that until a few months have past. A VERY well kept system maybe even longer. Don't get discouraged when the ugly stage hits, we'll all go through it to some degree. Adding some soft corals now is a good idea. Ask what would be good and what to stay away from.
In the meantime keep reading and invest in some good test kits. Ask whatever questions you may have and search the site. There's a lot of knowledge here.
Thanks. Yeah, I just bought a Sicce mini pump for mixing my salt . Right now, I pour a 5 gallon mixture into two others buckets with 3 and 2 gallon lines I marked on the inside and slowly pour it in from the top of the tank in two batches. Now I'm thinking that after I bring the water up to tank temp that I can add a hose to the outlet and pump the water back in the tank.
Thanks Adam. The tank has been set up and running for 4 months. I've been through a brown layer ugly stage about 5-6 weeks from startup. And I do own the API Saltwater Test Kit and the API Reef Test Kit.
This is a very good read that was recently posted be a long time member.
atlantareefclub.org
In addition I highly recommend two things.
1. Read, read and read. This is a hobby of continual learning.
2. Get out and see tanks of members close to you. There maybe many shapes, sizes and configurations. But there is one thing most of us have in common, we love showing our systems to people. This is also a great way to learn more and get better information than you will get from most stores. A couple of these members might be people you hit it off with and can become great mentors to get you through the more complex parts of the learning curve.
Advice for a new Reefer -
When we set up our first reef tank, the excitement/energy/enthusiasm is typically very high! We hopefully also get some great advice about why patience & consistency are so important for achieving and maintaining success. Perhaps not so much advice about how to make these happen. So here’s some...
atlantareefclub.org
In addition I highly recommend two things.
1. Read, read and read. This is a hobby of continual learning.
2. Get out and see tanks of members close to you. There maybe many shapes, sizes and configurations. But there is one thing most of us have in common, we love showing our systems to people. This is also a great way to learn more and get better information than you will get from most stores. A couple of these members might be people you hit it off with and can become great mentors to get you through the more complex parts of the learning curve.
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Welcome!
Welcome to the club. Lots of good people here and a great resource in the hobby.
