New Guy Saying Hello

[Liz]

We Welcome You To M.R. Land!

welcome!

 

[minyee]

Howdy!

 

[jhale]

hey bigbris1 welcome to manhattan reefs!

what part of the city do you live in? I'm downtown in the village.

 

[bigbris1]

hey bigbris1 welcome to manhattan reefs!

what part of the city do you live in? I'm downtown in the village.

Thanks!

I'm uptown in Hamilton Heights.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Why don't you give us some background on your reefing experience sounds like you've been into reefing for a while.

 

[ANCHIENT MARINER]

welcome aboard to MR home of knowledge and help

 

[bigbris1]

Why don't you give us some background on your reefing experience sounds like you've been into reefing for a while.

Well I can be found on other forums with the same name

I've been into freshwater for numerous years, even took second jobs & pet shops & have had up to 5 tanks running simultaneously. I moved into brackish & was always intimidated by saltwater.

So I did a bunch of reading & was determined to start while spending minimum dollars (FO). Needless to say that after flushing thousands of dollars worth of fish down the toilet because of haste & countless nights sleeping on the sofa, I decided to buckle down & do it right (FOWLR).

Then I scrapped the 55 & set up a 20H (Reef) http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40632&hl=
which was more of a success than my current 55 gal which has been up since February. I know it's still young but at this point two years ago I had corraline growth, microfauna etc. I guess the 20lbs Kaelini I got from Dr Mac this time didn't do a damn thing as far as seeding the 30lbs base (used, dried live rock) I got from a local.

Anyway, my goal is to end up with a beautiful reef completely from frags. We'll see.

Here are some horrible pics of the new setup when I first got it & added base rock, water & 60lbs of sand. (tank, stand, top, light, crushed coral, SeaClone skimmer, 2 Whisper Pfs, 2 submersible heaters, 2 hydrometers, 2 nets, dual output air pump, misc stuff-$160):

After I sold the NO strip light & got 260W PC, added 20lbs Kaelini & some fish, inverts & a few frags:

 

[Tonyscoots84]

whatcha doing wit them 2 hob filters...

what kind of water are you using... RODI i hope...

any skimmer.... I would get a good one...

seeing the light u bought are you planning just to do softies..

but looks good otherwise...

 

[Quang]

Welcome to MR!
First off, you gotta get a better camera so you can take better pics for us to give you advice :lol: :tongue1:
Secondly, give us a few more info on your set-up so we can give you some time-saving, money-saving, headache-saving advice

 

[bigbris1]

Yeah, my camera sucks. Wow, you guys posted fast, meanwhile I was trying to figure out how to resize the huge pics.

I'm weighing whether to use a custom phospate reactor to prep make up water or buy an RO/DI unit, as I just moved & the tap water comes in at 3 on the PO4 scale & too high on silicates. The tank water tests at .5 to 1 PO4 at any time.

I'm using the HOBs I got free while the tank is young, mainly for flow & phospure, I'll probably build a custom sump in the coming weeks. Just trying to figure out how to use gravity to flow the sump without an ugly overflow or drilling.

I skim one a week to every two weeks using the free Seaclone skimmer I modified. I built a custom auto top off & do 10 gal water changes every week. Anything I forgot?