Long time with fish, never added salt

scdigby

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Philly Reefer

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Hi everyone, I'm a long time fish keeper, had a fish tank off and on since high school, always freshwater though. I've always loved salt water fish and really liked the idea of making a reef tank, but was always a little worried about the cost and commitment. My wife and I have been making good money for a while now and since this was always something I wanted to do, I did a lot of research and just picked up a 75 gallon tank for salt water. I plan on turning this into a reef, but as I am active on tropical fish and freshwater forums mostly, thought I would start finding out more about marine tanks and start an account over here. hopefully all the questions to follow won't make me seem like I have no idea what I'm doing XD. if anyone has some tips on start up they'd all be welcome, right now I've got my water in, warmed to 79 degrees F, and salinity dialled in to 32ppt (1.023). ammonia is at 0.5 ppm with Nitrite at 0 and Nitrate at about 5ppm. calcium is about 260, pH of 8.1 (planning on putting in a buffer to bring it to 8.2) and I don't have my phosphate test kit yet (lfs doesn't have one in stock). mostly just waiting on that ammonia to come down (live rock and sand used) before going out and picking up my first couple of fish! Super excited both to start the hobby and to be a member of this new community

Welcome to R2R!

Don't put in a buffer.
Ph 8.1 is good enough for a reef tank. And if you want to increase it, there are better ways to try 1st before putting in buffers. I have my skimmer intake line connected to an airline that goes outside of my house. Drawing outside air, should increase your ph.

But once again. As long as your ph is between 7.8 to 8.5. It still suitable for reef tank.

And also increase your salinity to 35ppt.

Be patient with cycling.

And create a build thread. You can read mine. It's basicly my public journal of my reefing life
 
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Nasabeau

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Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome! I have set up a build thread with more info, but to address a few common things I saw here: I do not have a skimmer, I was told by several people that its more of a nice-to-have, and while its on my list of things to add, I don't want one right this second. I plan largely on just having a pretty good CUC to help. I am starting to bring up the salinity and calcium already, but doing it slowly to not overdo it. Thank you all again for the warm welcome
 

fishguy242

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hi ,get yourself a build thread badge,let us know you got it here, ;) so we can follow:cool:
 
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Nasabeau

Nasabeau

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hi ,get yourself a build thread badge,let us know you got it here, ;) so we can follow:cool:

I'm not sure how to do badges, but you can find my guild thread here. right now its not much

 

fishguy242

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#MODS help op please :cool:
 

Weasel1960

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Welcome to the salty side of life. Lots of helpful folks here, lots of great info in all kinds of forums. You might also want to look at Bulk Reef Supply (BRS). They have tons of videos on their website and You Tube.
 
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