Nu-B from Camano

[Duffer]

Howdy all! As is my penchant afa hobbies, I'm diving into this head first! :wave:

Once upon a time, eons ago, I got myself soooo deep into fresh water breeding (Angels and Discus) that I just totally burned out and walked away from it all. My wife really enjoyed the fishes but being strapped to the fish room 24/7/365 was just too much work.... and it was all my fault! I kinda ruined it for her!!!

So many years later, after dirtbiking and circle tracking and tuner-ing and classic restos and home brewing, none of which my wife had any interest in (mostly) I'm old, my back is shot and I'm thinking about what hobby might interest my wife and I equally..... and I notice her watching those new TV shows with the Reef tanks. .....and I think, "I've always wanted to do Saltwater!"

So here I am! Doing what I always do when I start a new hobby. Reading and studying and contacting the local community!

We are sooooooo new to this that we don't have a single piece of the puzzle home yet. (except for a couple of books) We've ordered a custom 50-ish system from Wil in Arlington (supporting the local community while forging a local business contact)

I'll try to do a set-up 'blog' once it arrives.

 

[rainydave]

Welcome!

Can't wait to see the build thread.

 

[DolphinLVR]

Welcome Duffer!

Your doing the right thing by doing alot of research first. Thats what I did prior to setting up my 180 and I am still learning and re-doing things from when I had first started. What aslo helped me was going and visiting other reefers in the community and seeing their systems first hand and asking alot of questions.

The reefing community here in Wa and on RF are awesome. Feel free to ask questions and if you ever want to swing by La Conner feel free to contact me.

 

[TJL]

Hey Duffer another BIG local :welcome: to Reef Frontiers, as Jeff stated ask away and your welcome to visit as well.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Welcome Duffer, a fun group to connect with. All Qs are welcome and as they say, there are no bad ones.
A friend of mine in Arlington area just got his feet wet again. I keep telling him to not stand in the tank!:loco:

 

[IPisces]

Welcome to the SW world. You will enjoy it. Just take it slow and you will learn alot along the way. Read up on all the threads here and learn from our mistakes!!!
Looking forward to seeing you build.

 

[Krish]

Welcome and look forward to seeing your build!

:welcome:

 

[Duffer]

Thank you'all for the kind welcomes! We are really quite excited to get going on this system. I expect it will be ready to install this weekend but we have to attend a funeral down Portland/Vancouver way, so Memorial weekend is shot.

Work and life always get in the way of my fun-time!

 

[IPisces]

Work and life always get in the way of my fun-time!

Works that way for most of us.....Dont feel alone!

 

[NemCrazy]

I love camano island I go there to utsalady to do my clamming and mussel picking. Congrats on starting sw! I go to wills every friday to see his stuff and pick his brain. Anyway welcome

 

[Peppie]

There are so many ways to do a SW tank right. It will be a challenge, Get as much info in your head as you can hold. Then think about it for a while. Then ask as many Qs
you may have. You will get very good solid feed back here at RF.

One piece of advice. Buy the best equipment you can, so you dont have to spend money on it again down the road.
Second, the more water volume the better. A sump is recommended by the majority.

BTW Welcome to RF

 

[Duffer]

Thanx again, all! My wife & I naturally split the aspects of this new reef. :fencing:We are still absorbing as much info as possible! She seems to be leaning towards Zoas and some mushrooms. She wants "colors that pop". I love the clams! Neither of us really cares much about fishes. We'll see how long that lasts! I'm a tinkerer so the equipment and automation is what's winding me up!

Staying fishless may make things easier to control?

The system as delivered is a 54 (I think) cube on a custom stand with a sump (15gal I'd guess), "top of the line" skimmer, pump, heater(s) and 2-color LED panel. Plus 1#/gal of semi-cured live rock and a bit of sand. (my wife would prefer minor amount of sand) Then later on I can pick out some cleaners.

..... stupid interruptions. To be continued....

 

[Duffer]

We are on one of the Camano community water systems which I had tested a while back for my beer brewing. It's not an 'aquarium' test set so it's not gonna have all the data I'd like but here's what applies: pH = 7.9, TDS = 226, Conductivity = 0.38, Na = 16ppm, Ca = 34ppm, Mg = 19ppm, Hardness = 164, Nitrate = 1.6, Sulfate = 10, Cl = 18, Alkalinity = 127, Fluoride = 0.5ppm, Fe = <0.01

So I don't have data on phosphate or copper. I know they dose chlorine intermittantly. Not sure if Cl or chloramine. We usually get a notice cuz it's a huge, sterilizing slug. Something I'll hafta watch out for.

RO/DI seems to be required by most everyone, so that's on my shopping list; plus auto top-off.
I'm researching controllers too. :rockon:

If we run fishless, what are our primary concerns? Calcium consumption, right? Mg consumption? Phosphate? Less so for nitrates than with fish? :juggle:

 

[jetmech]

You say you like clams and such, they are cool, but before you get one, wait for your tank to mature for quite a while. One thing that is as sure as death and taxes is that in the reef world, nothing good happens quickly. Clams require very stable water quality and for that, it takes time. Other than that, WELCOME TO THE ADDICTION!! I am on Camano as well. North end, up by Huntington's Grocery. I'm stocking up on equipment for my 248 gallon right now, other than that, just a fresh water running. I also do the home brewing, so there might be some beer drinking tank visiting sooner or later!
Bill