Hello all,
Please allow me to introduce myself and share some information about my reef. I began in this great hobby nearly 5 years ago when my wife said to me that my then year old daughter might like to have/watch a fish. She meant a goldfish in a bowl, I envisioned something a bit larger but remaining in my comfort zone of fresh water as I has kept a 55 gallon tropical tank in the past. At any rate, I immediately asked her to call her mom who had a Dodge Caravan so that I could get the goldfish bowl home . I went to Petco and bought a 46 gallon Oceanic non-reef ready tank, stand and all that I thought I would need to run a fresh water setup. As I got the tank home and began to fill it up I became very excited and my mind switched to salt water. Again, I didn't have any idea of how to setup or run this type of system. So, as the water filled I began to do some online research and was taken by the beauty of a "reef tank". I was up for the challenge but had no idea the adventure ahead of me. The very next day I bought all of the basic things to run a saltwater tank. Basic skimmer a Coralife 65, new more intense PC light, power heads and test kits. I added a few pieces of live rock and some dead base rock and I then played the cycling waiting game becoming more and more excited as the days passed and my tests improved. One of my earliest mistakes was that I used CC (crushed coral) for my initial substrate. This all had to be removed and then was replaced with 80lbs of live sand.
Once I was given a clean bill of health and I was sure that the tank was cycled I began to slowly add a fish here and there, damsels were my first fish of choice for a few reasons, price and color. I also began adding smaller pieces of live rock to eventually total 62 lbs. The addiction to this amazing hobby had already taken hold and I became involved in my local reef club CTARS (Connecticut Area Reef Society) meeting a bunch of local members that were a wealth of knowledge and source for my first pieces of coral. I began with a kenya tree coral and large green favia. As I watched these corals change in the different lighting according to time of day as well as their feeding response the addiction ran deeper and deeper. I quickly traded off my damsels because they became very territorial and wouldn't allow any new fish to be added without fighting and upgraded from a PC light to a SunPod dual 150watt metal halide system. I also began to learn more about SPS coral and water quality concerns so I purchased a small 50 gpd ro/di system from Air Water and Ice and began doing weekly water changes with this new 0 TDS water. As my water chemestry stablized further and I was progressively adding more and more SPS frags I decided to upgrade my lighting system and skimmer. I contacted Aquactinics which happens to be a few towns from mine and bought a MHT5 Classic dual 175w halide with 2 39w T5 bulbs, moon light module and external ballast. I also purchased a Deltec MCE 600 skimmer which would skim the water a few hundred times over throughout the course of the day. The rest, as they say is history. Flash forward to today. I have a thriving mixed reef tank, a hobby and group of friends that are great and a conversation piece for all of the events that we hold at our house.
Thanks for reading my abbreviated reef adventure story!
Happy reefing!
Please allow me to introduce myself and share some information about my reef. I began in this great hobby nearly 5 years ago when my wife said to me that my then year old daughter might like to have/watch a fish. She meant a goldfish in a bowl, I envisioned something a bit larger but remaining in my comfort zone of fresh water as I has kept a 55 gallon tropical tank in the past. At any rate, I immediately asked her to call her mom who had a Dodge Caravan so that I could get the goldfish bowl home . I went to Petco and bought a 46 gallon Oceanic non-reef ready tank, stand and all that I thought I would need to run a fresh water setup. As I got the tank home and began to fill it up I became very excited and my mind switched to salt water. Again, I didn't have any idea of how to setup or run this type of system. So, as the water filled I began to do some online research and was taken by the beauty of a "reef tank". I was up for the challenge but had no idea the adventure ahead of me. The very next day I bought all of the basic things to run a saltwater tank. Basic skimmer a Coralife 65, new more intense PC light, power heads and test kits. I added a few pieces of live rock and some dead base rock and I then played the cycling waiting game becoming more and more excited as the days passed and my tests improved. One of my earliest mistakes was that I used CC (crushed coral) for my initial substrate. This all had to be removed and then was replaced with 80lbs of live sand.
Once I was given a clean bill of health and I was sure that the tank was cycled I began to slowly add a fish here and there, damsels were my first fish of choice for a few reasons, price and color. I also began adding smaller pieces of live rock to eventually total 62 lbs. The addiction to this amazing hobby had already taken hold and I became involved in my local reef club CTARS (Connecticut Area Reef Society) meeting a bunch of local members that were a wealth of knowledge and source for my first pieces of coral. I began with a kenya tree coral and large green favia. As I watched these corals change in the different lighting according to time of day as well as their feeding response the addiction ran deeper and deeper. I quickly traded off my damsels because they became very territorial and wouldn't allow any new fish to be added without fighting and upgraded from a PC light to a SunPod dual 150watt metal halide system. I also began to learn more about SPS coral and water quality concerns so I purchased a small 50 gpd ro/di system from Air Water and Ice and began doing weekly water changes with this new 0 TDS water. As my water chemestry stablized further and I was progressively adding more and more SPS frags I decided to upgrade my lighting system and skimmer. I contacted Aquactinics which happens to be a few towns from mine and bought a MHT5 Classic dual 175w halide with 2 39w T5 bulbs, moon light module and external ballast. I also purchased a Deltec MCE 600 skimmer which would skim the water a few hundred times over throughout the course of the day. The rest, as they say is history. Flash forward to today. I have a thriving mixed reef tank, a hobby and group of friends that are great and a conversation piece for all of the events that we hold at our house.
Thanks for reading my abbreviated reef adventure story!
Happy reefing!