New from Broward County, Florida, planet Earth

lorbocaust · Feb 7, 2011

hey guys, i guess i will start off with a brief overview of my tank. I had it running for about 6 years, its a 20 gallon tank. It started off with a undergravel filtration with crushed coral bottom and only fish in there. So i decided to start upgrading to a coral system once i convinced my friends to start a system and they far surpassed me in tank advancement and in knowledge. So i had to upgrade. lol

About 2 months ago i cleaned out my tank and put in florida sand(beach sand) and some live rock in it. And about 2 weeks ago i put my first coral in(toadstool leather). and last week i found a local fragger with an awesome set up in his garage, which i will post up pictures next time i go there. So i bought 2 corals from him as well.(Green Implosion Paly, Green Trumpet).

And yesterday i went canoeing and grabbed a couple of white mangroves to regulate my nitrates and phosphates :D Please tell me if this is a proper in-tank set up for them. I will be getting a HOB refugium with built in skimmer very soon so in the meantime, they are chillen in my tank :D

So i figured this was the proper form to post pics and get some feedback.

I am usually running into problems and always have questions so i figured this site would be great for getting feedback and my questions answered.

I think this is the appropriate form to show off some pictures and get some imput.

Here are some pics:

Captain Nemo · Feb 7, 2011

Welcome to reef2reef! It is a great site with a large resource of information. Please ask any questions you have, we will anwser them. I am not sure why but I canot see your pics. Maybe try re-loading them or using photobucket to upload them. Anyways Welcome to Reef2Reef. BTW are you near coco beach??

fsu1dolfan · Feb 7, 2011

Woohoo another South Floridian....Welcome and enjoy the site. Lots of useful stuff and helpful people!

As for the pics...try using the upload button that shows a little tree when you are replying. You can just get the file from your computer.

JGoslee · Feb 7, 2011

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Wy Renegade · Feb 7, 2011

Welcome to R2R; please don't hesitate to contact us if we can be of any assistance.

FYI, mangroves are said to remove far more than nitrates and phosphates, you may need to keep an eye on iodine levels as well. Also, Green Implosions are a protopaly and tend to spread quickly under the correct conditions. HTH

droblack · Feb 7, 2011

Welcome. I stopped using mangroves a few years back after my magnesium kept running low, and found out they deplete mag.

revhtree · Feb 7, 2011

Welcome to R2R!

lorbocaust · Feb 7, 2011

Thanks for the warm welcoming guys!!! :D

I am using NANO Code A and B for trace elements and nutrients they need. Will that give the corals all the trace elements it need if added to daily? I just read on the bottle today that there is no iodine/iodide in it. I was reading that was an essential element for corals. especially my leather coral. Should i go buy a bottle of Iodide and does the mangroves remove that element as well?

skinz78 · Feb 8, 2011

Welcome to R2R!

The first thing I would recommend is going and purchasing some good test kits, get the big 3. Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnisium. These are really the only elements that you should need to supplement and with your tank being young I doubt that you have much of a demand for them. The rest of the elements will be kept up by doing 10 percent water changes weekly.

I recommend ether API or Salifert test kits. You will need more as you go and you may already have them from being FO for a while, they are Nitrates, Ammonia, Phosphates, etc.