Hi from KY

Matthew England · Apr 10, 2018

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm currently in the process of building a new mixed reef tank, but at the very beginning phases, meaning I have the tank bought, and a second tank to build my sump from. Main display tank is a 75gal, and sump is a 29gal. I had a smaller lps tank about 10 or so years ago. It did was ok, but just not what I was looking for. So, I got rid of it after having it running for a couple years or so, and have been without since then. All of the equipment on that tank was HOB style, so this will be my first "real" setup using a sump.
Still a long way to go though. Still have to build a stand, build the sump, plumb the tank, water test, then start the cycling process, so I'm a good way away from my first fish. So, i plan on reading through the pages here and learning a bit..

dbl · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to R2R and thanks for signing up. Welcome back to the hobby as well.

Tahoe61 · Apr 10, 2018

Hi and welcome to R2R Mattthew.

Congrats on your new SW adventure. Hold on a lot has changed in 10 years.

Crabs McJones · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to R2R and your new reefing community!!

welcome12_af875eaa887ed91c39e4c81c7d4fd966-0ed06ab93ea565647147c6beddbca4eb.gif

#WelcometoR2R
Be sure to take lots of pictures

We like pictures

Lovemyreef2015 · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to R2R

Jrco226 · Apr 10, 2018

Congratulations and welcome to R2R

Tautog · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to Reef 2 Reef !
We have fun here !

Matthew England · Apr 10, 2018

Tahoe61 said:
Hi and welcome to R2R Mattthew.

Congrats on your new SW adventure. Hold on a lot has changed in 10 years.

Thanks. And yeah, I've noticed just how much is different. I mistakenly thought this was going to be a fair bit less expensive this go around, with the advancement in lighting with led, and better tech in some of the electronics... Laughable mistake on my part Haha.....

Reefer Deez · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to R2R and back to the hobby!

Yati · Apr 10, 2018

Tahoe61 · Apr 10, 2018

Matthew England said:
Thanks. And yeah, I've noticed just how much is different. I mistakenly thought this was going to be a fair bit less expensive this go around, with the advancement in lighting with led, and better tech in some of the electronics... Laughable mistake on my part Haha.....

Yeah it's hard not to get all wrapped up in "what are the must haves".

Honestly if you're not a techie or state of the art is not in your budget the basics still apply and are still successful.

Flow: You can go Tunze or RWP a lot cheaper than Echotech or Gyre.
Lighting: T5 get the job done without the shimmer, but you can go LED like ReefBreeders, you do not have to spend the big bucks. DO a lot of homework on lighting though, you get what you pay for and there are a lot of cheaper LED fixtures out there but they will not support stony corals that you might want in the future. Metal halide is making a come back I think and is still one of the best methods for lighting an aquarium and growing corals IMO.
Water/Filtration: You're not going to need reactors initially or never if you keep a basic mixed reef, water changes will take care of trace elements. Now if you end up with SPS corals eventually a dosing pump will be of assist. Skimmers based on your bioload. The days of low nutrient systems seem to be a thing of the past.
Controllers: Not a must have but allows you a lot automation and safety features.

JBKReef · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome Matt! And hello from Northern Kentucky!

There was a really interesting article written a couple weeks ago about the price increase in the hobby compared to 15 or 20 years ago. An interesting read.

What part of the commonwealth are you hosting your reef in?

Matthew England · Apr 10, 2018

JBKReef said:
Welcome Matt! And hello from Northern Kentucky!

There was a really interesting article written a couple weeks ago about the price increase in the hobby compared to 15 or 20 years ago. An interesting read.

What part of the commonwealth are you hosting your reef in?

Very cool. Was that written here on the forums? If so, I'll have to dig around and find it.
As for location, I'm in south central ky, near Glasgow, which is located between bowling green and Somerset.

JBKReef · Apr 10, 2018

Matthew England said:
Very cool. Was that written here on the forums? If so, I'll have to dig around and find it.
As for location, I'm in south central ky, near Glasgow, which is located between bowling green and Somerset.

No digging necessary.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/has-t...sive-and-how-does-it-compare-to-the-past.419/

Cool. I used to ride that road when I would visit a friend in Bowling Green when I was going to school at EKU.

Do you have any good LFS's around you?

KJ · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome to R2R!!!

kschweer · Apr 10, 2018

Welcome!!

Matthew England · Apr 10, 2018

JBKReef said:
No digging necessary.

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/has-t...sive-and-how-does-it-compare-to-the-past.419/

Cool. I used to ride that road when I would visit a friend in Bowling Green when I was going to school at EKU.

Do you have any good LFS's around you?

No. We used to have a decent lfs, but it went out of business. There is a new one that just opened up in bowling green now, but it's brand new, so there isn't a lot to choose from yet. Other than that one, we have a petco