Newb(:

[lonelyfloat]

Welcome to R2R!! ヾ(｡･ω･)ｼ Seems like you have a solid plan in place.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Hi Amanda, Welcome to R2R !!!

 

[tdlawdo]

Hello Amanda and welcome. Sounds like you are doing it right with patience and forethought. You should be able to get some GSP for free from local reefers. Look around before spending the cash. Let us know how the scratch cleaner works. Cant wait to see the set up.

 

[TK_KW]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Reesj]

 

[Goose91]

Unfortunately I do not. I am going to purchase distilled water and then use reef accelerator. Do you have any better ideas?

I have a 35 gallon and dont use rodi or distilled. I use my town water and just add water conditioner to take out the chlorine. My tap water is hard water and there is virtually nothing else in it but chlorine or perhaps some floride.. so my fishes teeth should be extra healthy ;Happy. Im 5 months in and am having no issues so far from using my tap water. So my opinion is rodi water isnt something to die over if you cang afford it. Having access to readily available water is more important. Meaning youll want a way to have access to water 24/7 that you can complete a 100% change because you just never know.

But welcome to reef 2 reef. This place is the best place ever.
~ Goose

 

[PRock]

Welcome to R2R! Taking your time is the biggest part of this hobby so it's good that you're already keeping that in mind. One thing that I'd suggest is to skip the shrimp - they can get stinky. Find some Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride (virtually every online aquatics store and many LFS's sell it) and dose that instead using Dr Tim's fishless cycle method you can find here https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

 

[Mastiffsrule]

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Welcome to r2r! This is a great place to learn and ask questions. Enjoy the new tank.

 

[amfreefer]

Welcome to R2R! Taking your time is the biggest part of this hobby so it's good that you're already keeping that in mind. One thing that I'd suggest is to skip the shrimp - they can get stinky. Find some Dr Tim's Ammonium Chloride (virtually every online aquatics store and many LFS's sell it) and dose that instead using Dr Tim's fishless cycle method you can find here https://www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/fishless-cycling

Would you suggest that method or purchase live rock from someone's 180 gallon? Or both?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Glad you joined the community!! We welcome and look forward to your success in the hobby.
Place RO unit on your Xmas wishlist. Although distilled water acceptable, most LFS sell RO WATER. I would purchase that for now. 5 gallon bottles or buckets will be your friend for transport

 

[Gareth elliott]

Welcome!

Besides the advice already in the thread. I also like to carry around tic tacs in a medicine bottle.
When conversation turns to your tank; if their eyes blank out, offer them one. When they ask what it is, “the third pill option from the matrix”.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

+1 on vetteguy. I don't have a rodi yet, but buy my saltwater and rodi from a lfs. It's not nearly as expensive as I thought when I first got in, (5 months ago). Rodi is still on my wishlist though.

Btw welcome to R2R, and congrats on the new tank! This hobby has been a great source of both stress and stress relief

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Hey Reefers,
My name is Amanda. I'm getting ready to set up a reef tank. I got a 25 gallon acrylic cube used.
Waiting on novus scratch cleaner to arrive in the mail so I can get it sparkling again.
I'm going to be taking my time with it, making sure all the levels are perfect before adding livestock. I plan to start with 2 clownfish when I do. Thinking about getting some green star polyps to eventually cover the back wall. Also interested in adding frogspawn.
To start, I got Dr. Tim's one and only and I plan to use frozen brine shrimp to get the bacteria go grow. For equipment I have Aqua Knight. Aqua clear canister filter, hydor heater, dry aragonite and dry rock.
If you have any tips or comments feel free to drop an opinion.
Thanks for accepting me here

Welcome, your doing it right, take your time, go slow. Thanks for sharing, comrade

1 of 27 carnation corals, dendronephthya sp.

 

[amfreefer]

Welcome, your doing it right, take your time, go slow. Thanks for sharing, comrade

1 of 27 carnation corals, dendronephthya sp.

I need one of those in my life

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

I need one of those in my life

Haha, not ready to frag yet. It's like an avocado, not rip yet.

 

[PRock]

Would you suggest that method or purchase live rock from someone's 180 gallon? Or both?

If you can get live rock from someone you trust that'll be a big boost to your tank, but you'll still need something to feed the bacteria that forms the basis for the nitrogen cycle, and that's going to either be Food, Fish Poo, or Ammonium Chloride. I'd personally much rather have the ability to control how much ammonia is in the tank myself so it's easy for me to measure how quickly the tank handles it. If you setup your rock and dose 2ppm of Ammonium Chloride, and 24h later there's no detectable ammonia in your tank, you're set! The rock did its work. If not, keep testing every day until it hits zero, then dose back up to 2ppm and repeat until your tank eats it all in a 24h period.

 

[Blutspitze]

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like you've got a great setup ready to go and it should turn out quite nice so long as you continue to take your time and keep things steady and slow.

 

[LiveWire]

Welcome to the REEF!!

 

[Sumbub]

Welcome to R2R! I can’t wait to see your build when it starts! Like everyone else says, nothing is fast in this hobby. Patience is beyond a virtue in this hobby.