Hello, new to the community.

[ErikAnderson]

Heya,

i have a 38 gal that i have been getting in to the hobby with. Been a FW guy for a few years and i happened to come upon another tank and decided to take a dip in to SW with it.

Mostly interested in corals and other inverts.

My tank:
38 gal
Fluval 404 (had it laying around)
5 gal Fuge with 7 lbs of garf grunge and some macro alge
bak pak 2 skimmer
corallife light fixture, 130w
2 powerheads to move things around.


fish/inverts:
Garf invert cleanup crew (made the tank perfectly clean after first bloom)
2 anemone crabs
1 emerald crab
1 cleaner shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
3 turbo snails
1 rose anemone

1 mandrin dragonet (gobbling up pods from the fuge, but also just as happy to eat brine shrimp and pellets)
1 flasher wrasse
1 midas blenny
1 percula clown

not too many corals yet, i have a few star pollyp frags, some brown/green mushrooms, and a yellow finger gorgon cutting.


My main interest lies in corals, our LFS is a good place with lots of healthy fish, but their coral selection is a bit drab.

So i just wanted to introduce my self, i hope i can meet some of you soon and check out your tanks.


Hope i was not too long winded.


Erik

 

[Jiddy]

Welcome to RF, glad you found this great site!

 

[Jiddy]

Do you have any pics of your tank yet? When you do you'll have to post some. And people will tell you that you might not want to run your fluval all the time because its a nitrate trap.... Just my experience! And do you have LR and how mucH?

 

[ErikAnderson]

hi, i will put some pics up soon.
about 45lbs of Live rock
and 40 lbs of crushed coral (sure wish i would of put in live sand)

I have heard the same thing about the fluvals. With dilligent cleaning it should be under control though right?

What i was wondering though is can i just use the fluval to move water? IE no fliter media inside? and let the live rock handle the bio filter work?

I dont have a sump yet, and i wont for a few more months, i plan on building my own, just not too sure on the size that i will go with.

Thanks alot.

erik

 

[Jiddy]

Since no real experts are on RF right now ill pretend like i know what im talkin about, ive asked the same questions as you so ill give the answers ive recieved, lol, ok!

The fluval will be fine if you deligently clean it, i know that is really the only reason why they are bad. And i know of a few people that do like to use them for water movement, it is also not bad to use at first so you can spend money elsewhere, then later down the road when you are sick of cleanin, hopefully you will have the money by then for somthin else!

LR diffenatly does most of the BIO-filter in a reef, the denver craze only uses LR for filtration, but you have a good skimmer so you are ahead of the game anyways!

the size of the sump has many factors, the most important is the space you have to keep it in, many options include either a very cheap rubbermaid containter, which pretty much saves you tons and you can go as big as you like, or somthin as simple as a 10g tank you have lyin around or can get cheap in the classifieds! Sumps dont have to difficult so dont worry about that!

Another great tip i tell people is, the book "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert Fenner, ive bought a few books when i first started to research, and that one starts off simple and walks you through many things, when your done readin it you feel confident in many grey areas!

HTH and im always on here
-Jidz

Rumor has it im a vampire and dont sleep!

 

[ErikAnderson]

what do you use to host pictures?

my normal host does not like this website.

erik

 

[mojoreef]

Hiya Eric and welcome aboard!! for the pictures you can upload them (if sized properly) to our member photo gallery. Or if you want to add them to the thread (and they are the right size) you can hit the manage attachment button when you are posting and it will allow you to upload direct from your computor to the thread


Mike

 

[ErikAnderson]

oh ok, outstanding.

most Vbulliten boards have the upload part disabled, forcing you to link from another server.

it has been so long since i have been on a board that let you upload that i did not even try.


lets see...

 

[ErikAnderson]

ok cool it worked.

again, nothing special as far as a SW tank goes, but it sure is fun to watch.

 

[bradreef]

First off. Canister filters are a great way to use carbon in reefs. second go out to your local reef club meetings and meet others in the hobby. Here is seattle area we have a great group of people.

 

[mojoreef]

Looks like a great begining Erik!!!!!!!! The canister filter can be used. If it has media then constant cleaning as Jiddy said is a must to keep nitrates down. If empty then its fine, using it for occasional carboning is another great choice for it.
With the use of CC as a substraight your going to have to do aggressive syphoning cleaning (how often will be based on the bioload) so make sure when you do it you get in thier and do a good job. This can be done in conjunction with a water change or done though a filter sock and back in again.


Mike

 

[ErikAnderson]

what will happen if i switch to live sand?
i was thinking about doing it slowly, like half the tank and then the other half of the tank a month or two down the road.

i dont like my crushed coral and wish to remove it.

as far as local club meetings, how do i become a member?
i just want to meet and talk to people who are in the hobby.


Erik

 

[Jiddy]

You can be a member of my S.Dakota club if you want! Im the president, VP, Sec, treasurer and only member, but hey, im goin places baby! Yea

 

[wrightme43]

Dont let him sucker you in, He just wants your dues money. LOL
Welcome to Reef Frontiers. I am glad you are here. Looks like you are off to a good start. You may wanna do some research on the bio glass media I see on the back of the tank. My opinion is that the live rock does all the bio filtration you need, and a much better job of it as well. The live sand issue its fine to do half, but easier to do it all at once. Glad to meet you. Steve

 

[ErikAnderson]

thanks, yeah the bio rocks in the back are my attempt at keeping the bubbles in the skimmer down.
i was having some serious bubble issues when i first put in the skimmer and nothing seemed to work.
so i filled it up with bio rocks and it seems like the problem is solved.

any ideas on how i can do it differently>?< any negative impact with leaving them in there?

erik

 

[reedman]

June 18th is the next club meeting and would be a great one for you to attend. It's our annual picnic/raffle (check this thread), so you can meet lots of people, see a great tank, eat, talk reefs with other reef nuts, and just have a good time...oh yeah, there is a huge raffle that will culminate with a new aquarium being raffled off to som elucky winner.

 

[ErikAnderson]

sweet, do i need to pay dues or anything to join?


Erik

 

[Skimmy]

yup, it's $20, and then the raffle tickets are $5 a piece. hope to see you there!

 

[Jiddy]

Ill only charge $25, and you and I can make our own raffle if you join the...um...SDAG, YaY, the S.DakotaReefGroup! Im havin a BBQ too

-Jidz






-JK-