Hey everyone. New to reefing

[Trongtran0407]

So.. I'm new to SW and reefing, but I am being caught along the way by a relative. I bought a neglected 46 gal bow front saltwater tank, restored what I could, and had it cycling for 2 months. I'm a big fan of DIY stuff, very fun to make these stuff. Once the parameters were in ideal conditions, I started buying corals and kinda went overboard . They were gorgeous! I couldn't help myself (<~ impulse buyer, haha). So far, no losses. I'm getting ready to upgrade my 10 gal sump to a 20 gal sump so that I can upgrade my HOB skimmer to a fit-in-sump skimmer and to also had a carbon/phosphate reactor. My HOB skimmer is started to be a hassle to deal with (had caused a couple of overflows and nearly wreck my power surges). For the time being, I turned my skimmer very low. If anyone selling a good skimmer in a reasonable price range, please let me know! Thanks!

 

[extremecoral]

welcome to RF!!!

 

[HUNTER01975]

welcome

glad your having fun.. lots of diy guys here..

classified has many fish related items for sale.

 

[blk822822]

Nice to see more people on here. Welcome to the forum..........Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Better to ask then spend a lot of money learning the hard way. Or worse killing animals due to bad husbandry. Welcome again.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk

 

[NC2WA]

Trong,

Welcome to RF.

Since you are new to the hobby, I would strongly recommend purchasing the following book:

The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists (Microcosm/T.F.H. Professional): Robert M. Fenner, Matthew L. Wittenrich, Scott W. Michael: 9781890087999: Amazon.com: Books


I would suggest reading it at least twice. This will answer a majority of your questions, but feel free to ask any question you have.

Along with reading, the only other advice I can offer is slow down. This hobby requires PATIENCE. If you go too fast, bad things will happen and u will spend most of your time fixing your tank INSTEAD of enjoying the hobby.

 

[Trongtran0407]

You are right. It was just that jolt of exciting that I couldn't control . Sorry! The tank is properly cycled though with two damsels, and I've only added 1 additional fish ( a lawn mowing blenny) and a couple of crabs/shrimps to eat up the algae that accumulated from the previous owner. I am monitoring my corals like a hawk! I don't think I've done anything seriously wrong. I know adding corals doesn't fluctuate the parameters much, but yes, I do need to slow down and let them grow. As for DIY stuff, I love to tweak things to make it better, can't help it, but I am careful not to let it disrupt the tank. The last thing I'm building is the 20 gal sump, and then finally I can sit back and enjoy just weekly maintenance.

What's a good rule of thump to determine how much light a coral need? Another hobbist told me the brighter the coral, the more light it'll need or the darker the coral, the less light it'll need. I have a dimmable LED set at 30% white and 70% blues. It is hung about 10-12" over my tank and my tank is 21" deep. All of my corals seem to open up fine except for 2: yellow plate and red blasto. I had my red blasto near the top (about 20-22" from the light) and I've just noticed some bleaching on it so I moved it further down. As for my yellow plate, where would be a good place to put it?

 

[NC2WA]

Plates should be on the sandbed

 

[Eileen60]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers.