New guy in Macon, GA

[ddaddy2420]

Hi all,
I am brand new to this saltwater hobby, have my first tank up and running for about a month and a half. I have been posting a little bit on reefcentral and have been looking for a local club and this looks like the closest thing I will find. I read a post about a build for a guy named Rich (rdnelson) and was so impressed by the kindness of everyone willing to help out this guy who from the sound of it had helped out just about everyone else at some point in time. This poor guy went thru the ringer, losing all of his fish to some parasite during the build but then eventually getting his tank stocked and with some nice coral. You just don't find that kind of kindness everywhere. Anyways, I had to join so I could meet some of yall, hopefully living in Macon, won't matter. I could use all the help i can get as I have hit a few rough patches already in this hobby, all my own fault of course, but rough patches nonetheless.

I'll post some pics and how I started and look for some advice going forward. Just wanted to say hello and I look forward to meeting some of you at some of the club meetings or if anyone needs any help, I am available and would love to get involved.

THanks,
Dale

PS I am looking for some good LFS that I can become a regular at and can count on. I have found a few here in Macon but haven't been that impressed. Noah's Ark is ok but all these pet stores are general pet stores and I would like to find a pet store that is mostly fish and has someone that knows what they are talking about. Even if I have to drive to Atlanta, I would rather do that than go to a store that has no idea what they are doing.

 

[ripped tide]

Hello Dale! Welcome to the arc. There are a lot of great folks here. Feel free to ask any questions and we'll do what we can to answer.

As far as fish stores go, we have tons of them! Check out the sponsor forums, you'll see quite a list to choose from. I reccomend visiting them ALL!

 

[rdnelson]

I heard my name. LOL What you took away from reading my thread is exactly right. The people in this club have done some amazing things to help me out. I stumbled on this forum in a similar fashion and like you, I immediately saw how people helped each other. Not just with hobby stuff but with all of life's obstacles. That is what drove me to join as a full member. You wont find a better group of people anywhere.

So, welcome to ARC. Can't wait to see some pics of your set up. Tell us the details of your system and what all you have. There are several members who live in the Macon and Warner Robbins area and I know they all will be glad to have another reefer near by.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Couple of pics of my set up for anyone interested, I am a website builder and can host pics for anyone that ever needs me to. Its a lot easier and faster and I can have pics as big as i want basically.

http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/IMG_1659.JPG">This was the set up before I got it</a>

[IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/IMG_1655.jpg>After I cleaned it up</a> - even after i cleaned it up the sides are still a little hazy. I used a method posted on youtube by a guy named new york steelo of using vinegar, then bleach, then regular water.

You can see I don't have anything to protect my overflow, this is how it came when i bought the 90 gallon from this guy.

http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/IMG_1679.JPG">This was the rock i got from this guy who had this tank.</a>

So i set everything up with the water and rock from an established tank and as such i never really had a true beginning cycle. At least I don't think i did. After a few weeks a buddy at work decided he didn't want his tank and fish (brown powder tang, yellow tang, ocellaris clown, orange spotted goby, coral beauty angel). He said I could take all these fish and his rock and tank for $250. What he didn't tell me at the time was that all these fish had ick and that it woudl come and go. [IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/IMG_1737.JPG">This is the tank after i put his rock in. </a> Needless to say, a few days after adding all the fish, they all got ick. I did everything I could, as I didn't have a QT and I added a bunch of fish based on the instructions from this guy who said it would be fine. All i have left is the yellow tang and coral beauty angel. The brown tang never got over the ick, found him and the clown dead after i came back one weekend and found the goby had jumped out a few weeks later.

[IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0290.JPG">My current set up.</a> My wife bought me 50 lbs from BRS and I cycled it in antoher tank i have set up downstairs that had nothing but water that i was using to do my water changes with. I didn't put it all in my tank because it looked like i had a ridiculous amount of rock in there and no room for any coral.

I have a [IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0286.JPG">xenia,</a> I have a [IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0293.JPG">young leather coral</a>, I have some mushrooms and a few zoanthids. I am very new and have made lots of mistakes aleady so I am trying to get everything going back the right direction.

My set up is: eshopps adv-100 sump/refugium, little giant 3 external pump, tunze 6055 and tunze wavemaker, aqueon 950, and a marineland 1200 to help out with flow. You can probably see it from the pics, I installed this return system that pushes water up thru the rocks. The only problem is being able to see the line feeding it and the check valve. Other than that I think it keeps the water circulating and is good. Will post water parameters later but I generally have a little bit of phosphates and nitrates in the tank. In the process of getting some gfo. I also have ordered a ro/di unit that is greatly needed. Any advice is appreciated because like i said, i have made some mistakes but i am trying to turn this thing around.

Dale

Edit: Oh and my lighting is 4 x 54 watt T5's but I also put a 36" with 4 x 39 watt T5s on a timer so at times i have 8 T5's. I will be getting the new 32" 200 watt reefbreeders controllable LED fixture very soon. So i hope to be able to get SPS coral, however, I don't know that my water is good enough and stable enough for that. I mean i can't even get some of these zoanthids to open up.

[IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0294.JPG">Pic of zoa's</a>

[IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0299.JPG">Pic of feather duster</a>

[IMG]http://www.prioritypaymentsiso.com/pics/DSC_0307.JPG">My tank before i made my last aquascape move - too much rock in there.</a>

 

[rdnelson]

Looks like you are off to a good start. I think you are right on track with making a RO/DI your next priority. It will pay for itself over and over. The rock work looks nice. I like have some wide open space in my tank tank but having a lot of rock will help keep things healthy and give you lots of places for corals as you go foward. The best advice I can give you at this point it not get in a hurry. You will hear over and over again that "Only bad things happen fast in this hobby".

Very sorry to hear about the ich outbreak. That is a tough thing to go through. Since the Yellow Tang has been subjected to it once, it's immune system should be built up a bit and help it fight it off if it ever comes back. One thing to keep in mind is that once you have had ich in a system or a fish has had it, it is pretty tough to get rid of entirely. Be prepared for it to come back down the road. Keeping some Metro and Focus on hand just in case will give you piece of mind that should it pop up you will be ready to fight it off quickly.

 

[ddaddy2420]

>

class="gc-images" title="ImageUploadedByTapatalk1357482321.352674.jpg[/IMG] style="max-width:400px" /></a> Becca u are not far from where I live, your work I mean. I live in Shirley hills, the neighborhood off of Nottingham drive.

 

[darth reefer]

Welcome to the club! You will be very happy here. The kindness you saw on Rich's build thread is very true. Everyone here is extremely friendly. The closest sponsor store to you would be blue planet. I've been there a couple times. I think you will be happy with it even though its a little bit of a drive. They are very friendly and stock some really nice stuff.

 

[tbryan]

Welcome always good to have some more guys in the local area.

 

[mgr111]

Hey,

There are a couple of us in the warner robins/ macon area. I generally have around 40 to 50 gallons of saltwater made up. We also have a spare Mag Drive 12 and Mag Drive 18 and a smaller wet/dry sump if you ever have a tank emergency. That goes for anyone in the area.

 

[gnashty]

:welcome:

And watch out for that Rich character......He'll drink your tank water. :shades:

 

[robbywood20]

I'm only about 5 miles from you just inside jones county. come over and I will give you some corals to get your tank full.

 

[rdnelson]

gnashty;826008 wrote: :welcome:

And watch out for that Rich character......He'll drink your tank water. :shades:

You always have to ruin my fun don't you. :-(. LOL

 

[gnashty]

rdnelson99;826026 wrote: you always have to ruin my fun don't you. :-(. Lol

:d

 

[KrisDeitz]

Im in griffin. Can make 200 gallons of water if needed within 3 hours

I also have lots of extra items. Heaters and stuff.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Got a quick question since I have your attention. My sand seems to be getting colored brown pretty much daily. I think this is what is known as diatoms but my question is what is the best method to help it. My water tests this morning were:

Temp 76.6
ph 8.2
salinity 1.024
Alkalinity 8 dKh
phosphate &lt;.20 ppm (api)
Calcium 420 ppm
Nitrate 20 ppm
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Magnesium 1260

The thing that stands out to me are the nitrates, they aren't usually that high. Here lately they seem to stay around 10ppm, which i think is a little high still. I have just put a phosban reactor in my sump with carbon in it and have some gfo on order to put in another phosban reactor. My phosphates were running high when i ordered the gfo but they don't seem out of control. I need a more accurate test for them i think. Have read a lot about biopellets, are those worth a try? Of course all this is masking the real issue, which are high nitrates and I need to figure out why that is. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Dale

 

[rdnelson]

If it is diatom it will die out on its own when the dictates have been consumed. The phosphates are going to be a problem though. They should at or near 0 or you will have a lot of algae issues. The RO unit should take care of that assuming it is kept in good shape. But it will take time to get the phosphates out of the system.

 

[ddaddy2420]

Ok well i have had some hair algae issues but they seem to be done now, i have one other thing mainly growing on one rock - looks like grass almost, its very green and circular. Doesn't look like something bad but you never know. Will try and post a pic tomorrow. I do have a lot of coralline starting to grow on my overflow.

 

[superclown]

ddaddy2420;826155 wrote: Ok well i have had some hair algae issues but they seem to be done now, i have one other thing mainly growing on one rock - looks like grass almost, its very green and circular. Doesn't look like something bad but you never know. Will try and post a pic tomorrow. I do have a lot of coralline starting to grow on my overflow.

That seems kind of fast for coraline already starting to grow, at least imo anyway. Not to say that it isn't but don't make the mistake I did when i was first learning and thinking cyano was coraline :confused2:

 

[ddaddy2420]

SuperClown;826158 wrote: That seems kind of fast for coraline already starting to grow, at least imo anyway. Not to say that it isn't but don't make the mistake I did when i was first learning and thinking cyano was coraline :confused2:

Even if 90% of my rock came from systems that had been running for 5+ years? I think it is, i will try and get a good picture. It is popping up on my overflow box and doesn't come off like most everything else does with a light scrub.

I just figured it was because I am seeing what i thought was new coralline on top of the rocks old coraline. Almost all of the rocks in my system had a good bit of coraline prior to my tank. So i just figured that was what it was, I could most certainly be wrong. In fact I would lean towards me being wrong seeing as how new i am, lol.

Again will try and get a good picture and post it later.

Dale

 

[darth reefer]

If it doesn't come off when you scrub it probably is coralline. I started min with established rock and had coralline growing on the glass really fast too.