Introduction:baldbean

[baldbean]

Hello Everyone.

I just wanted to introduce myself and share my first reef tank. I have been a member for a couple months now and have to say it is great resource and best of all its local. A friend and fellow member has helped me A LOT as well and pointed me to this forum. This is my first reef tank and I am very excited about it. With that said here is what I am running:


Mr Aqua 18x18x18 Low Iron Cube
Tunze Nanostream 6015 Powerheads (2)
120W Epistar LEDs Blue: 56*1W @ 460nm White:56*1 @ 14,000K
DIY overflow box (built by ajn81)
DIY Refugium (behind tank - also built by ajn81)
JBJ Nano-Glo Refugium LED
Maxi-Jet 400 Powerhead/Pump
CaribSea Argonite Special Grade (15 lbs)
Fiji Premium Live Rock (25 lbs)
Scripps Saltwater
Neptune Apex Jr Controller
DIY Tank Stand



Here is a pic of the first night I set it up. Excuse the quality (iPhone) and my girlfriends hand in the pic LOL. She as almost into this as me...

35502

I have also created a Facebook page for my tank to track its progression. The tank has only been up for a little more than 3 weeks, but if you are interested search "Baldbeans Reef Tank" on Facebook. Nothing but algae so far, but that will change after I get in on ajn81's group buy from reeftopia.

Thanks everyone and I look forward to learning from and possibly even meeting some of you.

[jason142]

Great start so far, like that aquascape, very simple

[baldbean]

Great start so far, like that aquascape, very simple

Thank you. I hope the critters like it too. :lol:

[jt_milstead]

Very nice. I look forward to see updates in the future....

[LotsaFishies]

Welcome to the site and the hobby! Great start, looking forward to seeing the tank fill-in!

[Yolo]

This is such a perfect example of how to post an introduction for a New Member it had to trigger a New Forum!

Welcome! to the site. I have a buddy just starting up the same type of tank, newbie, and I will refer him to this post!

Mike

[baldbean]

Oh wow, a new forum! Way cool.

Thanks everyone for the welcome's.

[ajn81]

The tank is gonna be awesome! Glad you finally got a pic up on here.

Can you tell us what livestock you have in mind?

[specvjeff]

Welcome to the world of San Diego Reefs!

[baldbean]

Thanks for all of the welcomes everyone.


The tank is gonna be awesome! Glad you finally got a pic up on here.

Can you tell us what livestock you have in mind?

Fish:
- Snowflake Clown (the clown type has changed many times)
- Jester or Dracula Goby
- An unknown 3rd (if there is room)

Inverts:
- Peppermint Shrimp
- Cleaner Shrimp (depends, i don't want any shrimp on shrimp crimes)

Corals:
- Bubble coral
- Torch Coral
- Frogspawn Coral
- Zoas (pick them as I see them)

I would eventually like a few SPS corals, but I have to build my skills and see if I can even keep my CUC alive. This list is definitely an evolving beast...

[goody]

Welcome to sandiegoreefs. It looks like your off to a great start, including picking up some of the handy work of ajn81.

[hydrahawk]

Welcome to SDreefs. Will be looking forward to some stocked pictures.

[TravisSD]

Welcome :)

[seareef]

Nice start. Welcome to our addiction! :)

[baldbean]

It's been a while since my last post so I thought I would give a few updates.

I added a CUC about a week ago thanks to ajn81's reeftopia group buy (sup duder!). My CUC consisted of:


12 Cerith Snails
12 Nassarius
6 Nerites
24 Hermits


They are doing pretty good, but the Nerites just pile up on each other or stick to the same place on the rocks. I never see them move. I wake up and they are camped out on different location on the same rock. Some of the CUC mentioned above have passed on to the reef tank in the sky, but the majority of them are doing pretty good.

So after the CUC was introduced I went for another round of critters purchased from AW:

2 Peppermint Shrimp
5 Margarita Snails
3 Scarlet Hermits


I have been fighting a GHA problem, which is getting under control now, and wanted to buy a couple Turbo nails to chomp on the algae. After realizing thay could get pretty big, I opted for Margarita snails. I read they do not do well warm tanks, but they seem to be doing fine. Of the 5 I purchased, 1 is a BEAST clearing a path everywhere it goes. The other 4, meh.Definitely a keeper if I need to give a few snails away.

A couple days after I did my water change last week (3 gal) one of the peppermint shrimps died. After analyzing my changes, it seems that my pH dropped significantly and my calcium was also pretty low. The thing that confuses me is that the smaller of the two shrimp is doing great. The two aptasia buggers I found in the DT are also gone. Yay!

So as of now I am good with my snails, hermits and single shrimp. Once I pull out the dead GHA and other mess I will think about getting some corals.

[baldbean]

I finally had a chance to install my ATO. I lose an average 1200 mL of water a day due to evaporation. I am using a 5 gallon bucket to hold 2 weeks worth of RO/DI (another awesome tip from ajn81). The top off/dosing pump is a BRS 50 mL/min pump. Its pretty nice. My Apex is controlling the top off by turning the pump on every 15 minutes for 15 seconds. For those who care, the code looks like:


OSC 000:00/000:15/014:45


Here is a pic of my little setup:

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/i469/BaldbeansReef/ATOSetup.jpg