New Member - Hello All!!!

[Johnny M]

I'm a retired NJ state correction officer, was a p/t wedding/event videographer from 2002 - 2009 ( still do videos for aquarium clubs I belong to), have been in the aquarium hobby for over 40 years - all mostly FW fish and planted tanks. I recently decided to try my hand at maintaining a reef tank - Biocube 32. Have everything needed - and $2K poorer - RO/DI unit up & running, already made a batch of saltwater stored in a "Brute" 32g trash can. Just waiting to glue ( not really glue - Aquamaxx Reef Welder, works better than epoxy or cyano gel ) my rock work together, add Caribsea Arag-Alive pink sand, SW and wait for the cycling process to finish. Have an ATO - Aqua Smart mini - , got rid of the stock led light and bought NanoBox reef led retro kit ( easy install, about 4x light intensity than stock plus love the BlueFish Controller app on my Samsung Note 4. Can control 4 channels of lighting plus pd. xtra for moonlight channel) and many other bangs & whistles!
I live in central NJ, recently joined NJ Reef Club. Also belong to Jersey Shore Aquarium Society, North Jersey Aquarium Society, Bucks County Aquarium Society - have a YT channel : Plantman of tanks - with many videos of guest speakers recorded at the monthly meetings ; have a FB page, and also belong to Monster FishKeepers forum and various other FW/planted tank forums. Well thats about it, don't want to bore you too much. Looking forward to asking a lot of questions and learning lots of info for my reef tank, lots of great Expert advice here on this forum!!
For now my avatar will be the BC32 with rockwork minus water.

 

[DSC reef]

Welcome to R2R

 

[4FordFamily]

Welcome home, you will love it here!

Let’s see some tank pics!

 

[Mal11224]

Welcome to R2R.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! I'm a "Planted Tank" guy too. Sounds like you are doing great. Enjoy!

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R and your new reefing community.

 

[Luno]

Welcome and welcome to the world of salt water. Sounds like you've done you research and are well prepared with some good equipment. Just remember in the salt water game patience is always key and good luck!

 

[Johnny M]

Welcome home, you will love it here!

Let’s see some tank pics!

No water in reef tank yet only rocks :

Here are some of my 120g planted tank:

and my 75g African cichlid :

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Dsnakes]

Welcome to R2R that planted tank is beautiful.

 

[WWIII]

Welcome to the best SW Reef forum in the Universe! Beautiful planted tank(s)! What took you so long to add salt?!

 

[LadyMac]

Welcome! Beautiful angels!

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Johnny M]

Welcome to the best SW Reef forum in the Universe! Beautiful planted tank(s)! What took you so long to add salt?!

It took me a long time for going salt because my perception was 1. cost and 2. so many parameters to worry about compared to FW. But I'm older now, have a lot more patience and mainly a friend told me recently that "your very successful with growing plants you should try a reef tank". Also I always believe in doing research, research, research. That's why my FW tanks have been so successful.

 

[Johnny M]

Welcome to R2R that planted tank is beautiful.

Thanks. A lot of hard work & trial & error and almost a year to get it to look like that. Plus I always go hi tech : undergravel else heating cables, fully automated CO2 injection system, hi quality led strip lights with controller ( lights were from a company called Build My Led - BLM- they are great lights unfortunately the company stopped production 2 years ago & now sell strictly to the horticulture industry. That is were the real money is. On my planted tank my front strip light is 10,000k @ 65% and my rear strip is 6500k @ 77%. My African tank light is 13,000k @ 30%.

 

[Johnny M]

Welcome! Beautiful angels!

Thanks

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to the salty side!!

 

[ourcoralreef]

Welcome to R2R