To whom it may concern: Hi!

[SPR1968]

Hi Andrew Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello Andrew and welcome to the channel.

 

[puffer_reef]

Welcome!

 

[a hill]

Hello and welcome to R2R

Merkey, thank you!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Peace River, thanks for the glittery welcome!

Welcome to R2R, nice looking cube

You're too kind! Apparently the 24 hours in a frozen garage plotting perspective lines and juggling rocks was worth it! Thats the side view of the soon to be SPS cube. the tanks are 18 inches from the ground so they are mostly viewed from above apart from when I'm in my bed looking from the side. Lots of places for coral above and a pretty solid sand bed for gobies or jawfish and the like below.

Welcome to R2R!!!

Billldg, Thanks for the welcome!!!

Welcome!!

Rubertoe93, I appreciate the welcome!!

Welcome
Another one sucked in!

You have no idea... Okay, you probably have a great idea. I left salt for when I was older and wealthier, I'm only older and will soon be poorer! I Now if only I can find a starfish that was so good looking! Thanks for the Welcoming BSR2430.

Welcome!

Thanks Specific Ocean!

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

FishFace NJ, Thank you for the welcome!

Welcome to R2R!!!

KJ, I"m glad to be here. It seems to be a great community!!!

Welcome!

Thanks Fred!

Hello

Snuggs! Hello there!

Welcome Home!

I'm glad you guys have created such a lovely place, and there is room for one more! Thanks 328 reef!

Hey Andrew, welcome to R2R. I do remember you from my planted days.

Hi old friend! I'm glad to see I'm not completely an egotistical dude thinking there might be some others from once upon a time still around! I actually read through your 3D printed cages... I mean condos... thread, very cool stuff. It got my creative juices flowing the other night. I'll have to send you a pm. The new version you made is beautiful!

This means I can trade you some scissors and forceps. for your stuff, right

Welcome to R2R!

Ippyroy, Thank you for the welcome!

Welcome.

Arabyps, Tank you!

Bays End Reef, I think you won the largest greeting card award. Thank you for the welcome!

Hello and welcome to R2R!

Oh hello there Merkey! Thank you for the welcome, I hope to see you around!

I believe this thread concerns me! I’m big into saltwater and have been trying my hand at nano and pico planted freshwater scapes but I’m having trouble sourcing the plants and specific shrimp I want so it’s looking pretty bleh at the moment. I’ve also got a leopard gecko tank that I’ve been wanting to spruce up but I just can’t find the materials I need. Welcome to R2R! It sounds like you have a very solid plan and a good start!

Footgal I might be able to help a bit. Plant wise I have a huge bias towards simple epiphytes. I recomend mosses, narrow and trident java ferns, and anubias petite. Theres obviously lots of other plants but with tiny tanks and coming from the reef side of things I think simple is best to start. Playing with High light Estimative Index dosing and compressed CO2 for a nano or pico is a bit insane unless you're completely off your rocker. I've done it, and know many who have but its honestly more work than reward. Hardscape wise I would recommend looking at Tom Barr's driftwood scapes for large tanks along with reading up on perspective in high art and sculpture. Then toss it all in a blender and use appropriate sized pieces for your tank. I'll always be a fan of extra branchy malaysian driftwood covered in moss and a simple substrate with leaf litter for shrimp but thats not everyone's style. As far as shrimp go, it seems there are a lot of options. I'm a classic guy, and prefer Pure Red Line and Pure Black Line Crystal red/black shrimp Hino Maru pattern or higher. I used to know the guy who "invented" the blue bolt shrimp and wine reds and everything, those are "cheap" these days but it seems the quality has suffered. I'm not sure where I would recommend to purchase plants and shrimp specifically these days, however I prefer to purchase form other hobbyists or small hobbyist run businesses whenever possible.

Sounds like you have some procurement problems across the tanks! Maybe you have high standards but if you drop me a PM I should probably be able to help or at least will give it a shot.


Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I was not expecting more than 3 replies. It really seems that Reef2Reef may be one of the friendliest forums I've come across associated with the hobby in all my years bouncing around. I look forward to getting to know everyone.

-Andrew

 

[Reefer1978]

Hi old friend! I'm glad to see I'm not completely an egotistical dude thinking there might be some others from once upon a time still around! I actually read through your 3D printed cages... I mean condos... thread, very cool stuff. It got my creative juices flowing the other night. I'll have to send you a pm. The new version you made is beautiful!

This means I can trade you some scissors and forceps. for your stuff, right

Of course my man, shoot me a note.

Footgal I might be able to help a bit. Plant wise I have a huge bias towards simple epiphytes. I recomend mosses, narrow and trident java ferns, and anubias petite. Theres obviously lots of other plants but with tiny tanks and coming from the reef side of things I think simple is best to start. Playing with High light Estimative Index dosing and compressed CO2 for a nano or pico is a bit insane unless you're completely off your rocker. I've done it, and know many who have but its honestly more work than reward. Hardscape wise I would recommend looking at Tom Barr's driftwood scapes for large tanks along with reading up on perspective in high art and sculpture. Then toss it all in a blender and use appropriate sized pieces for your tank. I'll always be a fan of extra branchy malaysian driftwood covered in moss and a simple substrate with leaf litter for shrimp but thats not everyone's style. As far as shrimp go, it seems there are a lot of options. I'm a classic guy, and prefer Pure Red Line and Pure Black Line Crystal red/black shrimp Hino Maru pattern or higher. I used to know the guy who "invented" the blue bolt shrimp and wine reds and everything, those are "cheap" these days but it seems the quality has suffered. I'm not sure where I would recommend to purchase plants and shrimp specifically these days, however I prefer to purchase form other hobbyists or small hobbyist run businesses whenever possible.

Sounds like you have some procurement problems across the tanks! Maybe you have high standards but if you drop me a PM I should probably be able to help or at least will give it a shot.


Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I was not expecting more than 3 replies. It really seems that Reef2Reef may be one of the friendliest forums I've come across associated with the hobby in all my years bouncing around. I look forward to getting to know everyone.

-Andrew

Some solid advice right here. I can also put you in touch with some shrimp folks if you get stuck and can't find what you are looking for. Here's all I have from freshwater days, my daughter's 5g tank with Anubias White and a moss ball.

Huge fan of Manzanita Driftwood, I still have 3 peaces that came form Tom Barr's private collection that I just don't have the heart to let go, so they are sitting in the garage collecting dust. By the way Tom stopped selling driftwood to the public a few years ago and only distributes in full pallets. I just chatted with Tom in the fall, he picked up my last freshwater Radion.

Ohh does building customer CO2 Regs bring memories. Attaching a pic of the last one I built, that I was using on my calcium reactor. Way overkill for a Cal Reactor, but hey, I could configure 1.1 bubbles per second.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Merkey, thank you!



Peace River, thanks for the glittery welcome!



You're too kind! Apparently the 24 hours in a frozen garage plotting perspective lines and juggling rocks was worth it! Thats the side view of the soon to be SPS cube. the tanks are 18 inches from the ground so they are mostly viewed from above apart from when I'm in my bed looking from the side. Lots of places for coral above and a pretty solid sand bed for gobies or jawfish and the like below.



Billldg, Thanks for the welcome!!!



Rubertoe93, I appreciate the welcome!!



You have no idea... Okay, you probably have a great idea. I left salt for when I was older and wealthier, I'm only older and will soon be poorer! I Now if only I can find a starfish that was so good looking! Thanks for the Welcoming BSR2430.



Thanks Specific Ocean!



FishFace NJ, Thank you for the welcome!



KJ, I"m glad to be here. It seems to be a great community!!!



Thanks Fred!



Snuggs! Hello there!



I'm glad you guys have created such a lovely place, and there is room for one more! Thanks 328 reef!



Hi old friend! I'm glad to see I'm not completely an egotistical dude thinking there might be some others from once upon a time still around! I actually read through your 3D printed cages... I mean condos... thread, very cool stuff. It got my creative juices flowing the other night. I'll have to send you a pm. The new version you made is beautiful!

This means I can trade you some scissors and forceps. for your stuff, right



Ippyroy, Thank you for the welcome!



Arabyps, Tank you!



Bays End Reef, I think you won the largest greeting card award. Thank you for the welcome!



Oh hello there Merkey! Thank you for the welcome, I hope to see you around!



Footgal I might be able to help a bit. Plant wise I have a huge bias towards simple epiphytes. I recomend mosses, narrow and trident java ferns, and anubias petite. Theres obviously lots of other plants but with tiny tanks and coming from the reef side of things I think simple is best to start. Playing with High light Estimative Index dosing and compressed CO2 for a nano or pico is a bit insane unless you're completely off your rocker. I've done it, and know many who have but its honestly more work than reward. Hardscape wise I would recommend looking at Tom Barr's driftwood scapes for large tanks along with reading up on perspective in high art and sculpture. Then toss it all in a blender and use appropriate sized pieces for your tank. I'll always be a fan of extra branchy malaysian driftwood covered in moss and a simple substrate with leaf litter for shrimp but thats not everyone's style. As far as shrimp go, it seems there are a lot of options. I'm a classic guy, and prefer Pure Red Line and Pure Black Line Crystal red/black shrimp Hino Maru pattern or higher. I used to know the guy who "invented" the blue bolt shrimp and wine reds and everything, those are "cheap" these days but it seems the quality has suffered. I'm not sure where I would recommend to purchase plants and shrimp specifically these days, however I prefer to purchase form other hobbyists or small hobbyist run businesses whenever possible.

Sounds like you have some procurement problems across the tanks! Maybe you have high standards but if you drop me a PM I should probably be able to help or at least will give it a shot.


Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome. I was not expecting more than 3 replies. It really seems that Reef2Reef may be one of the friendliest forums I've come across associated with the hobby in all my years bouncing around. I look forward to getting to know everyone.

-Andrew

Thank you! At present, my main system is a 10 gallon AIO style tank with an itty bitty piece of african root through the center and a little bit of dragon stone leaned up against the back right corner. There's well over 3-400 crystal shrimp (I didnt know that different colors could interbreed so now I have green jade, blue rili, cherry, bloody mary, blue velvet, king kong, gold, etc etc colors) and two cardinal tetras and one sad little cory cat who thinks hes a tetra as well. Plant-wise, its very sad; three amazon sword type plants and one bush of baby micro anubias. Originally, I did run a CO2 system with this tank but it was too delicate and a lot of effort for the size. Im really wanting to add some more plant color- red floaters, moss on the wood, some different shapes like laceleaf just to mix it up a little. Im also wanting to sell all of the crystal shrimp and replace them with Caridina Dennerli, which look like teeny tiny little freshwater fire shrimp, although these have proven difficult to source. If youre interested in the crystal shrimp, be my guest! I would love to work with you if you can help me with my plant plight because many of the hobbyists around me either do classic fish-only freshwater tanks or salt tanks.


I think you'll find that this forum is one of the best places to get info on the saltwater hobby, and everybody here is very very nice and welcoming. No stupid questions here! I actually dragged my father back into the hobby (he quit nearly 17 years ago in order to have the time to raise me) and it was very difficult for him to adapt to all the new technology we have now. Even a 1-2 year break would probably leave you a little shocked at the progress of technology! Best of luck to you, there's just about a million different strains of SPS available these days and it sounds like your tank will be amazing! For your display refugium, are you planning on putting any livestock in there? Personally, I have a fuge monster (gigantic green brittlestar) and I think I will continue to have these because its a great way to create a species tank for non reef safe critters without the hassle of an extra system.

 

[maceto]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[SaltyT]

Welcome to R2R! We're glad you joined us!

 

[fishguy242]

hi welcome to the reef going to love it here!!
lots of fun/info/fun/help/fun..

 

[Bepis]

It appears that you are no noob. We are happy to have your expertise with us!!

 

[KWT]

Welcome to R2R, come in sit down and relax, enjoy

 

[G Santana]

Welcome aboard

 

[Leah Ryan]

 

[Salty Rambler]

Welcome to R2R! We are glad to have you here. Looking forward to seeing what you add to your tanks, especially if you add some sea grass.

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Weasel1960]

Welcome to the club Andrew.

 

[tricky_tran]

 

[Macbalacano]

Hi! I’m Andrew Hill aka A Hill. If you recognize my username, it’s me elsewhere over the years.

In 2006(or so) I found a 55g in a neighbors garage and since then I’ve become addicted to moss, and all things epiphyte along with microfauna/live food/substrate optimization. I also really love quality tools and products.

I had a specialty planted aquarium Ecommerce business for a handful of years that focused on moss, stainless steel aquascaping tools, ans occasionally hone made aquarium foods and plant food (fertilizer tabs). Between being in college and overcrowding in the market I left the e-commerce business.

The past six years I have been inventing and developing products. I have mostly been working on a very low maintenance vivarium method for large installation. My prototype system is 900 gallons. For testing the system is actually 5 180 gallon tanks and not one single unit. The system works, was planning to launch in March. Covid has put a pause on that product for now.

Fast forward to today, I have a pair of 15 inch cubes I’m playing with to go back to basics and try and get my creative juices flowing again after a long year.
One cube will be sps heavy and the other will be a show fuge and or Seagrass tank if I can manage to find enough at a decent price. The live rock is an iwagumi style layout and hardware is aqua illumination.

My last saltwater tank was an ADA Mini M mixed tank that became a showfuge. Earlier in the year I did a 6 inch cube with locally collected macro algae.

That about sums me up at the moment. I hope to learn a thing or two while I’m here and hopefully even be helpful to others. I should have a build thread up within the week on my current project.

-Andrew

Welcome!

 

[PTXReef]

Looking good! Thanks for sharing!

Welcome to the R2R community and happy reefing!

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Welcome to R2R!!