Introduction

[BigH2OChief]

Hello San Diego Reefers,

I stumbled across this site about a month ago and visiting it has become much more than entertainment. I'm married with a bunch of kids, most grown and gone (Yay me!) and we live in Carmel Mountain Ranch here in San Diego.

I have been active in the hobby for about ten years experimenting with various segments (mostly FW). About 6 years ago I built my 'pride and joy ... a 65g SW Reef that I felt was my best work. Unfortunately I was deployed overseas and although I provided wifey a detailed color coded spreadsheet explaining how to care, feed and maintain our Reef over the course of a few months it crashed. Fortunately some of our friends scored most of the healthy livestock, corals rock and equipment... but <dang> that hurt!

Reading this Forum has rekindled the SW passion. I convinced my wife a new project will help me to relax (ha-ha)... and since I'm no longer traveling I could manage a tank myself. I'm on a tight budget so I am going to have to be creative and very thrifty to make this happen. To set myself up, this week I convinced my youngest (10) to part with her 55L freshwater Turtle habitat to free up a tank and space [Read: score a display tank]. I then passed on our planted Cichlid environment to a happy neighbor kid [Read: score 29g sump]. So I'm off and running!

I'll be spending lots of time here reading...particularly in the DIY and Equipment area watching, learning and hopefully gathering everything I need to start. In the interim I'll begin working on a stand, modding the sump and hopefully get the 55L drilled so I can start plumbing it. I'm really looking forward to meeting and learning from you all!

Have a great Saturday~ Woody

[x3thelast]

Welcome and good luck! I had the same thing happened when I deployed (spreadsheet and all). But the wifey just lacks the same OCD care about our tanks as we do. :)

[LotsaFishies]

Welcome welcome!

I wish you the best of luck with the new tank! If you ever har any questions don't be shy about asking them -- there are a lot of friendly and knowledgable people here!

Btw - if you have any pictures Of your past aquariums, please share them!

[scubasteve]

Welcome to the site- you'll be on here all day once the tanks up and running! Lol ;p oh- always ask questions on here before you do anything!!! ... It's saved my ass many times! Lol

[jessegarcia28]

:welcome: 2 Sdr
& have fun with your new adventure in reef keeping
jesse

[goody]

Welcome to sdreefs Woody. Sounds like you're off and running, and being on a budget, this site can have some great deals along with a wealth of information. Let me know when your tank is ready for some coral and I can pass on some frags to you.

[DaveMorris]

Welcome and as others have said, ask questions and look for deals here often. We are a helpful bunch. Also keep an eye out for the periodic SDR/SDMAS events like the one coming up at AquaSD. These events are a great way to meet the local folks face to face as well as take advantage of great discounts and opportunities that the stores give to us. Keep us posted on your tank progress. Start a thread to document your build as you go. Many of us love reading about how others are doing their setup.

[BigH2OChief]

Thanks for the warm welcome! Lots of good advice which I will absolutley follow.

Pics of my old Reef is another sore subject. I had a Laptop stolen a few years ago that had all of my photos on it. I have since set up a secure hoome network with external storage but it was a tough lesson to learn.

So here is my first question: A cool learning tool I am looking for is "a dummies guide" that would list the basic equipment required to start a Reef project. Basically I want to build a shopping list (and timing is perfect being its Christmas and all). Understanding there are an infinite number of variables, using a 55L DT and 29g sump what equipment (make brand and model) would you advise on a creative budget?


Popcorn is in the mocrowave~ W

[saltybalz]

Welcome, I love making equippment list(im a gadget guy). The basics to get you up and running would be lights(check the sale threads on here, tones of lighting for sale), a good skimmer( rated about 2 times your total water volumn), a reliable heater(wouldnt skimp on this one), some power heads(if you chose to not go closed loop) and a return pump( ehime or mag drive wopuld be the two i would reccomend). Im a firm believer in buy the right thing the first time even if it means holding off to save a little extra money. Have fun and enjoy!