90gal reef to be, all tips and opinions welcome

[mrbh22]

My name is mike and I have always wanted a saltwater reef tank. I have had a few times where I was going to start one and something always came up preventing me from taking the first step.

I recently purchased a house and got married. So now that I don't plan on moving any time in the near future I started to look again for a reef setup. I looked all over and actually priced out what it was going to cost to buy all new equipment and I was floored by the total I came up with Lol. I know that this hobby isn't cheap to get into. So on to craigslist. Actually 2 days after starting to look I found a 90 us gal setup that has been up for a year. The best part was the guy literally lived two blocks away from my house. He gave me a great price and helped me move the whole thing.

So I got the tank all set up at the house and had the livestock in buckets for a couple days to let everything settle. It came with about 100lbs of rock 1damsel 1 o clown 1 engineer goby (10"-12") 1 Benggai cardinal. I did not want the goby or the damsel and found them a home before putting them into the tank and not being able to get them out.

Recently I purchased a second O. clown and a royal gramma. The gramma is in QT.

I am deciding on what to do with my scape. it looks like an afterthought. Anyone have any creative talent care to come by and help me out.

I think I have one or two pics of the tank. I will try to load them in the next post

Thanks for looking!

Mike B

 

[mrbh22]

Here she is making micro bubbles ( had a low sump for a min)

In the.middle of a big water change.

 

[Budman's Corals]

Welcome to Reef2Reef Mike..

Very nice setup you have,Im sure you will find this board very informative.

eace:

My Home town-Cincy..Sure do miss it but not the Cold/snow...

 

[inurocker]

Looking good.

 

[mrbh22]

Thanks bushman. we are actually under a winter weather warning. I'm sure you don't miss those. I have found a lot of good info on here already.

Inurocker- thanks.


The wife and I are going to go out Sunday and pick us up our first coral. I want a hammer or a torch. She wants anything pink Lol

 

[mrbh22]

Just got my first corals yesterday. I got two zoa frags. One is a whamming watermelon the other is radioactive dragon eyes. I can't help but giggle at the crazy names people come up with for the corals. Im loading the pics to photo bucket now. I will post them as soon as they load

 

[mrbh22]

 

[mrbh22]

 

[mrbh22]

So sadly I lost the two zoanthids. I tested the water and thought eeverythig was in order until I reread the nitrate test kit and I wasnt shaking the bottle near enough. I have nitrates in the 80-100ppm area. So looks like im going to get into the world of dosing. Im thinking that vinegar is going to be my best most available to me. Any suggestions on where to start the dosing ?

 

[mrbh22]

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/r2...-some-waves-win-tunze-wavebox-$340-value.html

Really could use some more flow for the tank.

 

[mrbh22]

Really needed to update this thread. I finally got the nitrates under control. A fer 50 gal water changes and slowly swapping out thw crushed coral for some fiji pink live sand. My nitrates are now under 10ppm. I have two new zoos. I got a frag of la lakers. And a frag of unknown names. I will post some pics when I can get to my laptop. Also got a free maze brain and a frag of cypathestrea (sp) its bright greenish yellow.

 

[mrbh22]

 

[mrbh22]

 

[mrbh22]

I added a skunk cleaner shrimp yesterday and he seems to be taking to his new surroundings quite well. I have also added a coral beauty and a pink spotted watchman goby. All I have left to add to the fish population in the tank is a mandarin once the pods are up to sufficient levels

 

[mrbh22]

I have not updated in a long time. The la lakers zoos have grown steadily. I have also gotten the no named zoos to take off to the point i have to cut them off my fragrack. I believe they are alpha and omegas. I also have a torch coral and a frag of a maze brain. The only fish additon is a yellow tang that my wife has affectionately named DD for dumb dumb. I also have recently added the reef radiance dm 165p light. It is bright and i have had to ruen it down because it bleached all the coraline that was on the rock. Lol. Here are some pics.

 

[mrbh22]