Hello All

[MPSchenck]

Hello,

I'm new here and very new to reef keeping. I've had my tank up an running since January 22nd 2016

What prompted me to finally start a SW tank was my wife was sitting in my man cave few weeks back and said "it would be nice and relaxing to have a huge saltwater aquarium along that wall". I was like ok "Gimme the credit card and it'll be done", but she guffawed at the potential expense. I, however, was not going to let the opportunity to get into SW go to waste.

I've kept FW aquariums since I was in middle school, but my entire fish keeping life I have wanted a SW tank so I finally jumped in.

So I've been a member of Nano-Reef.com and ReefCentral.com for a few weeks and I lured around here for about that long. Everyone here seems much nicer and more friendly than the other two sites. Also my local reef keeping reef keeping club is based here.

Equipment List...
JBJ Lighting Rimless Cube, 30-Gallon
JBJ Aquarium Cabinet Stand, Black
Custom cut polycarbonate lid

InTank Rimless Nano Cube 30 Media Basket x1
Stock filter basket x1
Poly Filter Pad, 4 X 8"
Seachem Matrix Bio Media, 250ml
Seachem The Bag
Seachem Purigen, 100ml
Stock sponges

Cobalt Neo-Therm Heater, 100 watt
ReefSafe Solutions RS1 Heater Controller (calibrated with lab-grade mercury thermometer)

Tunze Comline DOC Protein Skimmer 9001

Innovative Marine MiniMax All-In-One Media Reactor
Seachem PhosGuard, 500ml

Jebao RW-4 Wavemaker with Controller

Avast ATO Kit w/ peristaltic pump w/o float

Letica 2 Gallon Food Safe Bucket w/ Lid (RO/DI reservoir)
I'm finishing my DIY polycarbonate 5 gallon reservoir today

Kessil A360WE LED Tuna Blue
Kessil Spectral Controller
Kessil LED Light Pendant A-Series Gooseneck Clamp/Mount
Kessil 90 Degree Adapter for A Series Gooseneck Mount

Two Little Fishies Nanomag Glass Cleaner
Innovative Marine AUQA Gadget Gourmet Defroster (never used )

Salinity Refractometer, Aquarium & Seawater - Dual Scale
Standard Seawater 35 ppt Refractometer Calibration Solution, 60 ml
API Saltwater Master Test Kit
Acu-Life True Easy Syringe (get exacty 5ml of water for test tubes everytime)
Seachem Ammonia Alert
Turkey baster
Two Little Fishies Julian's Thing Multi Purpose Tool

32 pounds of cured live rick
20 pounds of Carib Sea live sand

Livestock List...
SA Standard Ocellaris Clownfish x1 (had another but it jumped out hence the lid)
Starry Blenny x1

Scarlet Skink Cleaner Shrimp x1

Several dwarf hermits
Varius snails - trochus, astrea, etc

Red Spotted Mushroom coral - 1 polyp
Purple Mushroom coral - 1 polyp
Orange Mushroom coral - 1 polyp
Green Star polyp - 1.5"x 2"

Future stocking plans

• another clownfish
• another skunk cleaner
• either add a midas or canary blenny or trade-in the starry for a midas or canary
• anemone - LFS has a rainbow BTA was just traded in that looks amazing, but I'm waiting
• My daughter and wife want a BLUE fish so I've basically narrowed it down to a Blue Sapphire Damsel (Chrysiptera springeri)
• Zoas - the colors are crazy on some of these
• Softies
• LPS

Nothing hard or advanced.

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to R2R!!! Let's see some pictures!

 

[143MPCo]

Welcome to r2r, and yes we love pictures!!!

 

[Scotty LaBeouf]

Welcome good sir! I agree that everyone is much more friendly on this site! And looks like your on the right track, stoked to see the tank!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R

 

[MPSchenck]

Ok, I know everybody on the reef forums enjoys pics. Honestly I haven't broken out the DSLR yet just because there isn't much going on in the tank yet. I have plenty of smartphone pics though.

Sorry if these pics are really wide I have the resolution on my laptop turned up really high so I wont know. Also, I'm still learning and experimenting with the Kessil's color in pics but it's a given now that the actinic washes out a lot of color. You can see in a few of these where I turned the color up to normal and the pics turned out decent.

Pretty happy with my mushrooms. The red spotted below was the size of a dime when I picked it out and was $5.

Super happy with this one. It's actually very, very orange. I had him tucked up under the rock a little to acclimate it to the Kessil.

GPS doing well it's put on a few polyps since I added it. I'm not crzy about the green but the purple is stunning.

I keep forgetting that I recently added this guy. It was sold to me as candy cane coral but it really doesn't look like an candy cane coral I've ever seen or been able to find pics of.
It' really colored up well since I got it the green has really come out more, the brown has turned to a nice vibrant orange, and the teal really shines under the right actinic light.

Some peripheral pics...
Underneath - I'm finishing my DIY custom ATO reservoir after work today. I've also added a nice LED fixture on the right side since this was taken. I need to chain two more together to illuminate the other 2 compartments. I also have plans to wire in a door switch so when I open the right cabinet door the lights come on. I'm trying to figure out a way now to turn an indicator light on when the reservoir is almost empty.

 

[Diesel]

 

[Reeflogic]

Welcome to R2R!! Great start!!

 

[AlexStinson]

Good to see a local!
And that is not a candy cane. LPS isn't my thing, but it is probably a favia or something of the sort.

 

[cameronh]

Welcome to reef2reef!

 

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[MPSchenck]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

Good to see a local!
And that is not a candy cane. LPS isn't my thing, but it is probably a favia or something of the sort.

Thanks! I figured it was related to a brain so that is how I've been treating it.

I have some more pics today.

I finished my "custom" DIY ATO reservoir last night. It basically takes up the same amount of space as the white 2g bucket I was using, but holds just a bit over 5g and now I can see if I need to fill it up just by opening the door. I know it's not pretty but as my first acrylic/polycarbonate welding job it's not awful especially since it's hidden under the cabinet.

I also got a better color shot of the 'shrooms.

I'm kinda freaked out now that the red spotted has anchored itself. I expect to get up any day and there to be 40 of them all over my rock. I'm pretty sure I don't want that.

Better pic of this guy color-wise anyway, it's bit blurry and the orange still looks a little brown.

Skunk cleaner hanging out.

I realized last night that I said "peripheral pics" (plural) above and then only posted one. So I figured I throw in a pic of the tank in my man cave/daughter's playroom. I have about half the room and she has the other half. Her 20L goldfish tank with bright blue gravel and small anubias collection is directly across the room from my SW tank.

 

[Brian Mountain]

tank looks great!

 

[s2nhle]

Wow nice set up.

 

[CastAway]

Vinyl. YES!

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Rickyb1982]

Welcome !!

 

[justaDutchguy]

Welcome! Looking good, enjoy the ride!
You might already know this but the gsp will start to overgrow your rocks and it is nearly impossible to get it off. I brought 2 huge rocks full of it back to my LFS last year. I do like the stuff so i now have an elevated island where it is isolated.
Looking gorward to see your tank evolve!

 

[MPSchenck]

Vinyl. YES!

Welcome to R2R!

It really does sound better. When I tell people that they look at me like I have 2 heads, but it's true.

 

[CastAway]

It really does sound better. When I tell people that they look at me like I have 2 heads, but it's true.

I like the flashback of the sequence of songs on a side, and that some of my favorites are the not-so-mainstream tracks one hears as a result of listening to whole album sides. Digital music has us all a little spoiled I think, and missing out on a lot.

 

[s2nhle]

Welcome to R2R!