After a long hiatus...

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and back to the salty world Dom

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Hello and welcome to Reef 2 Reef

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

Hello Everyone

After being in the hobby for nearly 10 years, life got in the way of this amazing hobby and forced me to sell all equipment, LPS/SPS coral, critters and fish. Some 15 years later I have the time and resources to setup once again. Last I left the hobby "state of the art" looked different. But after researching for a few days much seems to be the same.

I'm looking at a 170G Reef tank from Innovative Marine as a starting point. I do expect to stock with LPS/SPS and a 3 or 4 fish (if they will behave). Now sadly, I used to have some amazing live rock so I would love some advice as to what people recommend. Should I invest again in live rock, or start with with something like Marco Rocks? Also skimmers were critical back in the day as was a refugium with some chaeto in it... still a good choice? I assume so if I will have fish. And what the heck is a fleece roller? j/k ... it looks kinda cool :)

Anyways, I've got a lot to research before pulling the trigger, do feel free to provide any advice you might have as I'd prefer to minimize mistakes.

Thanks!

Hey Dom- welcome back-same boat as you. Took a long time away. Some things changed, some didn’t. I’m a huge believer in skimming for a few reasons. I use it to keep my ph elevated in my basement tank and keep nitrate in check. Funny- i still use my SWC skimmer from 2008 and it still kicks butt. Go 60-75% Live rock. You’ll have a faster cycle. Also find a really good live bottled bacteria starter colony to move it along.

Some people use fancy algae turf scrubbers and other reactors to keep nitrate down. I don’t need anything but a skimmer and i do fine.

170- awesome.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hello and welcome! I have an IM 170 EXT being shipped here this coming week. Good luck with the build.

 

[Dom_P]

Hey Dom- welcome back-same boat as you. Took a long time away. Some things changed, some didn’t. I’m a huge believer in skimming for a few reasons. I use it to keep my ph elevated in my basement tank and keep nitrate in check. Funny- i still use my SWC skimmer from 2008 and it still kicks butt. Go 60-75% Live rock. You’ll have a faster cycle. Also find a really good live bottled bacteria starter colony to move it along.

Some people use fancy algae turf scrubbers and other reactors to keep nitrate down. I don’t need anything but a skimmer and i do fine.

170- awesome.

Thanks Chris and hello to a fellow Jersey reef keeper,

I think if I had my old Deltec skimmer I'd still be using it as well. It was built like a tank. Been looking at the OCTO skimmers based on forum posts. The Deltec was an external as my sump used to be pretty small, but think I will run the skimmer in the sump this time around.

I also used to have a calcium reactor/CO2 setup on my old tank and also ran GFO to keep phosphates in check. I think I'm going to avoid both for now and maybe just setup with two part solution for Alkalinity and Calcium before doing anything else. I used b-ionic prior to the calcium reactor and from what I'm reading, with new controllers and dosers maybe it is a lot easier to control now than trying to fine tune dripping it. I did use Chaeto in my sump as well, I'm thinking that may still be a good idea. I'm also reading about using dosers to do continuous water changes, this sounds really interesting to me as well and I assume will help keep nitrates/phosphates in check and also replenish calcium, alkalinity, and trace elements.

Lots of great info on this site, and it's kinda cool seeing how the hobby has progressed. The thing I'm struggling with now is I didn't realize how heavy these Euro braced tanks would be. I'm not sure I'll be able to get a ~600 lbs tank down the flight of stairs to my basement and may end up needing to go for something closer to 100 gallon. I suppose maybe that just means a second tank down the line :)

 

[Dom_P]

Hello and welcome! I have an IM 170 EXT being shipped here this coming week. Good luck with the build.

That's awesome if you post some pictures please let me know!

 

[Adolfo]

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board. hello from PA!

 

[Reef Regeneration Verified Sponsor]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[BriDroid]

Welcome! Tons of great info here! It amazed me how much things have changed over time!

 

[1112-425XL]

 

[voelter76]

Welcome back!!! So glad you are back in this wonderful and fascinating (and periodically infuriating) hobby!!!!

 

[Gman83]

Welcome!

 

[MDAquatics]

Welcome to R2R! I prefer sand, just looks more real.

 

[PharmrJohn]

Greetings and Welcome to our collective obsession!!!!

 

[danreef55]

Hi Dom,
your greeting is below but I wanted to give you some input. I have been out of the hobby for many years. Been researching for over a year and getting ready to finally get wet.

I just had a 72x30x25 tank moved by a team of riggers. They did an excellent job. If you want their info pm me. If you have external access into the basement the tank could be taken around the outside of the house.

I did a bunch of research on skimmers and went with a countercurrent skimmer by RK2. It isn't running yet so I can't give you firsthand critique. IMO skimmers are a necessity.

I have used Marco dry rock in the display and will be getting live rock in my sump. Will be using Dr. Tim's and live sand in the refugium chamber of my sump for the cycle.

Look closely at DC return pumps. If you don't have a lot of head pressure, they are worth it.

Automation has come a very long way. I am going to use Hydros for control and monitoring.

Best of luck and start a build thread when you are ready.

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !! :cool:

 

[Psyduck]