Featured Threads Archive

Happy New Year R2R Family! (well almost at the time of this writing)

I wanted to end this year by saying THANK YOU for the best year ever here at R2R! We've accomplished many things as a reefing community here and I could not be any more proud of such a fine group of people that we have here.

We've had an awesome year and we have a pretty exciting 2019 lined up as well! We've grown at a tremendous rate all the while keeping our family oriented community roots in place! We've been through ups and downs together, enjoyed each other's company, tanks and support. We've learned, grown, upgraded, downgraded, raised $20,000+ for kids and so much more!

We have seen 2.2+ Million people visit the forums who viewed over 50 million pages! We surpassed 100,000 registered users and over 5 million posts! It's been a banner year!

Our team, as always has been amazing. If you only knew how hard each of them work in the background you would be impressed by how much they care. The time and effort they put into this community in invaluable. THANK YOU to all the team including the Team R2R Mods, Reef Squad, Reef Squad Leaders, Forum Experts, Reef Club Leaders, Admins and everyone else who works continuously to make R2R the premier go to platform for Saltwater Reef Aquariums!

Thank you to all of the members for believing in R2R, sharing with one another, teaching, learning, asking questions, keeping tank threads and everything else you do to keep R2R a bustling hub for reefing.

Thank you to all the sponsors of the community for not only advertising but really being a part of the community by interacting with the community on a daily basis. Thanks for answering questions and providing great customer service for your products and services.

We had a great year but I'm more excited about R2R than ever before! We are currently working on a new look for R2R with the same awesome forum functions you already know and love but with even more options to make reefing better! We will be rolling out the new look and options hopefully in January. We also have refined our idea for a better market to make more useful tools instead of trying to totally reinvent what we do here including more thread tools for buying, selling and trading along with a more robust rating and review system to help you find the best of the best sellers and traders. This year we also want are finally going to put together a BEST of the BEST list for the year in products and services and you'll help us do that! We the community will decide and award the most deserving companies.

That being said we will also rely on you, the members, to help us forge a new and better path into the the future of reefing by providing us with ideas, information and data.

So with all this said I would like to ask you a questions.

How do you feel you were impacted by R2R this year either on a reefing level or personal level? Would you mind sharing a few words with us?

I'm sooo excited and it's been a looong time coming but we finally are moving forward with our NEW R2R Marketplace!

You might remember we discussed creating a super detailed marketplace, where we would handle payments, arbitrate issues and more. Well you, the membership, for the most part didn't like that we would be that involved with your transaction so we listened. Honestly that was good news for us because it freed us up to take your input and just create a slimmed down, option enriched, more detailed way to buy, sell and trade on R2R.

Some quick highlights...

• More tools and options to create listings...
• Better item search with filters for finding exactly what you want and where you want it...
  
• New Buyer/Seller Rating and Review System...
• Ability/Option to connect your Paypal, Stripe or Bank to get paid (optional)...
  
• Member profile upgrade to show items for sale, items sold, user ratings and reviews, etc...
• No Fee to use the Market buying for selling...
• Mobile friendly market...
  
• Verified Seller Banner...

These are a few highlights but we believe it's going to make for a much more streamlined experience for buying and selling on Reef2Reef. We also believe it's going to make it safer with the implementation of the new rating and review system.

So who's excited?!

Here's my tiny one

I have a Red Sea Reefer 170 and like most people I've become tired of cleaning filter socks. As a result, I spent some time searching then internet for inspiration and came up with an alternative that works pretty well using a filter pad. So, here is what I came up with and the steps I used to make it:

1. I cut the sock portion off a filter sock so I ended up with the plastic ring.

2. I searched the Dollar Tree store, Walmart, and any other store I could think of that might have a plastic container to fit the plastic ring. I finally found a liter bottle at a store call Tap Plastic.

3. I cut the top portion of the bottle off and placed the ring around the top of the bottle. I used silicone to glue the two pieces of plastic together (inside top and outside).

4. I then marked a series of holes approx. 1/2" up from the bottom of the bottle, all around the bottle. I used a 1/4" drill bit and drilled the holes in approx. 1" segments around the circumference. You may need more or less holes, or bigger, depending on your flow. I got lucky and my initial pattern worked great without raising or lowering my sump water height.

5. Once the silicone is dry and the holes are drilled, then I cut a piece of filter pad to fit inside the bottle. You can fill it as full as you'd like. I chose to use a single layer on the outside edge so the water can flow down into the bottle, then though the floss and out the holes.

6. You could make two and simple pull one out and insert another with a clean filter pad or just pull the dirty pad out and replace with clean pad. Easy Peezy, Lemon Squezzy, no filter sock to clean. So far its been three days and everything it working great. I figure if I can get a week out of a filter pad it will be worth it.

Your oldest fish, how old and what kind of fish. Oh, and share some pics

I'll start...


My boy blue, my powder blue tang came in from blue zoo aquatics like this..



Fast forward 12 years and here he is now...



I love this guy. My all time favorite fish.

My wife says i'm addicted to r2r.Sense discovering r2r I find my self trolling this site more than I watch or maintain my tank,Like an alcoholic one thread (drink) is to many and 100 in not enough.I actually find myself rushing home to check the days posts.Is this a problem that needs an intervention?Should I start a 12 step program in the basement of my local church?I also wonder if i'm the only one experiencing this problem and how many members if any feel they have a the same problem.It would be nice to know I am not dealing with this demon alone.Maybe one day I will here the words hiiiiiiiiiiii mike and know I have the support my wife thinks I need.

OMGosh!!!

You read that right, we're having our BIGGEST giveaway in history at Bulk Reef Supply and we couldn't have done it without Reef2Reef and @WWC !

You have the whole month of October to enter! Tune in to YouTube Live next week to find out what's going on this dream tank. Then be sure to tune in for the LIVE announcement of the winner on November 1st, where Ryan and Randy will call one of you with the best news ever!

R2R has something special for you Black Friday and Cyber Monday reefers!

We’re going to put all the deals from all of our sponsors in some special places to make it EASY to find and EASY to get your deals on!

On Monday by 6pm est. we’re going to open up a special Black Friday/Cyber Monday forum that will be located right where you can see it! We’ll also have a special page dedicated to all the trending deals. We’re also going to send you some dedicated alerts letting you know where to find the best of the best reefing deals!

Be on the lookout and get ready to rack up and to save!!

Ps. We may even run some deals on some
R2R SWAG! Anyone want anything special?

So I just finished my video detailing my DIY 3D printed protein skimmer, check it out I would greatly appreciate it!!

Who has the biggest Homophyllia Bowerbanki?

Not you, but Chris from ACI Aquaculture does! WOW! I was informed that this particular coral is 23”x 15”

Also if you want to see it in person you can see it at ReefAPalooza Orlando at the ACI booth!

How big is your largest coral or coral colony and what type is it? (leave a photo in the thread)

It's Christmas time again and we are excited to announce our annual Toys For Kids Drive!

Official Giving Page: Toys For Kids 2018 - GoFundMe

UPDATE: GOFUNDME does not allow REWARD levels anymore so we will detail them here in this thread towards the bottom! You give and you get tickets to win prizes!

It's that time of year for giving and our members at www.reef2reef.com love to give! If you are a seasoned veteran of REEF2REEF then you know we help unfortunate children get gifts, clothing and food at Christmas time. Every Christmas for the past 10 years we have had a toy donation drive and every year the members of R2R and the reefing community step up and give to make Christmas dreams come true! Last year alone we raised over $10,000 and bought gifts for over 100 KIDS!

Being a pastor of a local church in my community gives us the platform to not only see the need around us but to be able to do something about it! We are able to make sure that all families are in need and that the kids really wouldn't have much for Christmas otherwise. We are able to buy all the gifts with no taxes because we are a non-profit at the church. That saves us hundreds of dollars every year.

We are also very excited to announce this year that we are partnering with a Home For Children in Tennessee where we will buy gifts for 61 children not including the kids we already are helping! It's pretty amazing to us that we will be able to buy gifts for these children who are in this home for various reasons and who might not otherwise receive many or any gifts at all. 74% of these kids have been abused in some form or another. So this is really going to be a difference maker!

Link to last year's drive: Click Here

Will you help us reach our goal this year? We can do it! There is nothing that makes you feel better than to give to someone in need. All the proceed go directly to the Toy Drive!

Goal is $10,000

I would LOVE for us to reach the goal of $10,000 again this year! We can do it! There is nothing that makes you feel better than to give to someone in need.




Give and Win: This year we are going to be offering prizes from some of our generous sponsors that can be won, by random draw to all those that are able to give. The following is a list of ticket entries you will receive for donating certain dollar amounts.

$10 - $24 = (1) Ticket (only one ticket will be given per person in this category to keep it fair)
$25 = (2) Tickets
$50 = (5) Tickets
$100 = (10) Tickets
$250 = (30)Tickets
$500 = (100) Tickets
$1000 = (250) Tickets

YOU WILL BE EMAILED YOUR RAFFLE TICKET NUMBERS AFTER CHRISTMAS BEFORE THE LIVE VIDEO DRAWING.

Here is a list of donors and prizes as of today which totals up to over $6800 in prizes you can win!

Red Sea - Reefer XL 525 Rimless Reef System or your choice of any other XL series size white or black. $2700 Value


Marine Depot - JBJ Rimless Flat Panel Aquarium - 25 Gallon Starter Kit (tank + stand)
Retail value: $780


Turbo's Aquatics - $300 Turbo's Aquatics Gift Certificate $300 Value


Reef Breeders (3) Prizes
Photon 24-V2+ $365 Value
Reef Power RP-M $110 Value
Reef Breeders Exo-ATO $70 Value


Tunze USA -...

Hello! Everyone! This is my first reeftank,it`s a sps tank. The tank specs, equipment, and livestock are as follows:

Aquarium and Stand
Tank size: Marineland corner flow 40*40*40cm
Sump： H28*W36*L36cm

Sump & Skimmer
Skimmer:AE301
Return pump:AT104 (2000L/h)

Other
Water Circulation:MP10*1 WP10*2
Heating: 200W heater
Lighting: DIY LED 75W, DIY 24w blue LED
Kamoer Doser for Two little fishies C-Balance

Current params (Salifert kits), stable for over a month now:
KH:8.3
CA:420
Mg:1380

Nitrates 0.2
Phosphate 0.03 (by hanna)

Maintenance
I feed fish everyday that use HIKARI SEAWEED EXTREME and Firstbite Marine Pellets.
I do a 10% water change once a week. At this time I also vacuum part of the Standard that I can reach.
I clean the skimmer cup once a week.
I clean the skimmer once in 6 months and clean the Water Circulation once in 1 month.

Established May 2015


FTS

Ok I'll just go ahead and admit it. It's embarrassing though. I hate it. I want to change it. I have tried everything.

I suck at keeping sps.

I love all types of corals. I love moving and swaying corals. I love corals that grow in little button colonies. I love those monstrous big mouthed meaty corals that love to eat! But I also love colorful sticks and protruding acro polyps.

In the past I have kept some some acros and montipora successfully but as of the last few years success has been pretty abysmal. I should also say that over the past few months I have been doing "ok" with a few tester frags but I'm tired of tester frags! I want to buy some NICE pieces but I'm afraid. To those that can grow them like weeds it even seems as easy as riding a bike but I'm stuck here with bike and still have the training wheels on.



PICK ONE!

Encourage me please!
Enlighten me please!
Teach me please!
Whine with me please!

What about you? Do you like SPS corals and wish you could keep them more successfully?



@Sahin's Sps Dominated Reef for fun....

Hi Reef2Reefers!! We're excited to invite you to participate in the R2R Secret Santa gift exchange! This a great way for our members to spread some holiday cheer and as a bonus get to know each other little better.

I mean lots of us have family and friends who just don't get this crazy hobby of ours, and let's face it, they're probably more likely to get you another pair of socks than that latest trinket for your reef hobby that you've been eyeing... But this gift exchange will be different because it's FOR REEFERS BY REEFERS! This will be lots of fun for everyone!!

Here is how it will work:

• Members can sign up between now and December 1st.
• Secret Santas will be assigned on December 2nd.

• The total value of the gift must be at least $20.00. Please keep in mind that you may go above the minimum, but you may not receive the same in turn.

• Buy or make gifts by 12/17/2018

• Ship all gifts the week of 12/17/2018-12/21/2018

• Delivery confirmation is mandatory and will need to be sent to @Santa Claus.
• Everyone is welcome no matter where you live in the world. Just don't try to ship livestock cross-border.

All R2R Secret Santa participants will receive a special SS banner under their username.

To sign up, you will need to:

1. PM @Santa Claus with your contact information (full name, email, and shipping address).
2. Join our Secret Santa usergroup (CLICK HERE)
3. Post in this thread with your answers to the questionnaire (see below) IN THIS THREAD (this is our official registration thread).

Secret Santa Questionnaire:

1. What is your shirt size?
2. Would you be interested in receiving livestock? If yes, what would you be interested in? *disclaimer due to the busy holiday season we recommend not shipping livestock*
3. What are your favorite foods or snacks? Any allergies or special considerations that need to be kept in mind?
4. What is your gender?
5. What are your hobbies or other interests?
6. What is your favorite color?

If shipping coral we ask that you notify us with when you would like 2 ship so we can notify recipient and make sure they will be able to take in. If recipient can't be there we will ask them for 2 other days and work out with sender. (We don't mind playing the go between here to keep it more a secret.)

Also, notice that we have a special Secret Santa forum going on! Feel free to start other threads in here to talk about everything Secret Santa related, holiday related, or just anything you want to talk with all of us other SS peeps! Go wild! LOL

It's finally here!

We've wrapped up our initial testing of T5 bulb longevity and in this episode we share the results of running bulbs for a simulated 2yrs as well as results we found from using them in dimmable fixtures at 0%-100% as well as 0%-50%.

Before you watch this episode, please do the community a favor and vote in the poll above so we can all get an idea of when a majority of us change bulbs.

"Wow you have an amazing tank" so are you smarter than me? I don't think so.

In this hobby you'll face trial and tribulations just like anything else in life. Joyous times and sad times. Growing times and just plain ignorant times! That being said have you ever seen someone else's amazing tank and think to yourself, "I'm just as smart as that guy?"

I don't mean this to sound bad or judgemental trust me, but I've known people and based on what I know about them and have seen of them I'm kinda shocked at how successful they really are when it comes to growing corals in their reef tank. There are many things we can successfully do in a reef tank but for argument sake let's talk GROWING CORALS! When I say growing corals I mean things like, corals are thriving, corals are colorful, corals are growing, etc.

So WHY oh why am I struggling to keep monti caps alive or keep basic "beginner" corals alive much less keeping them colorful? This is a rhetorical question because for some reason my "new" tank just started clicking and corals are growing and sps are colorful and coralline is the most dominant algae! My new, almost 1 1/2 year old tank is doing better than ever!

I'm just as smart right? So what the heck am I doing now that I wasn't doing then?

Honestly?

I'm hesitant to say because of the newer methods of maintaining a reef tank but for me I believe it's as simple an answer as this, water changes! Could that be the final piece to the puzzle? I've added more flow, I've added more equipment, I've added UV, I've tweaked my CUC, I've changed my filters, I've done this and done that but not until now have I seen glimpses of glory past. Glimpses of color and growth. Glimpse of, gasp, success?

Maybe the combo of gear and measures I have taken have finally equaled something more than negative? Maybe my aquarium is reaching maturity? Maybe the water changes have been the cherry on top of the proverbial reef tank cake! Maybe it's luck?

I don't know but one thing I do know is that my reef addiction is at an all time high! As you can tell by my ramblings, quotes and exclamation points I am fully persuaded that I am on the road to reef glory!

For those of you that care I started changing about 15% of water each week for a 60% monthly turn over. That's no small feat for me and my 400+ gallon system but man for now it seems totally worth it!

For those of you who will ask for photos.....soon! It's not amazing yet but frags are growing and colors are awesome! For now here is where it all began....



Would love to hear your thoughts on this?

Are you just as smart as "the other guy?"

Thought it might be nice to honor our veteran's going in to this holiday weekend. Yes, I realize the meaning behind Memorial Day, but it's always good to say Thank You!

Let us know if you are a US Veteran so we can pay our thanks. I for one am eternally grateful for your service.

So, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.

So at 60 years young I decided to get back into the hobby after being out for 28 years.
I did think maybe I was too old but 60 is the new 40, right????????
I purchased a used 60 gallon cube and stand off craigslist. I made a mounting board to hold all my electrical on the back. Because of the door on the stand I made a sliding platform to pull my 20 gallon sump out so I can service it.
My wife is thrilled (if you believe me I have some swamp land to sell) at all the boxes I've received of aquarium products. In fact the UPS and Fed Ex drivers and I are on a first name basis now!
I just hope she never sells it for what I told her I have in it because she is going to lose a ton!
Anyway, I would like to hear how many of you guys are in your 60's or 70's and are still enjoying the hobby.