Who here is ALSO a reefer?

2215 Views 27 Replies 12 Participants Last post by MiamiAG, Jan 7, 2005

Gomer

Discussion Starter · Dec 10, 2004

I go in waves with my wants, but it is starting to hit me even more so these days on swaping out one of my planted tanks and diving into a nano reed (15g)...loose a 29g planted...and gain a 15g reef.....hmmmm.....

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gpodio

· #2 · Dec 10, 2004

I did that at the start of this year, took down a 10 gal planted and got a 40 gal reef. Only problem is that now I want a 120 gal reef

It's adictive man, careful what you wish for!!

Giancarlo

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MiamiAG

· #3 · Dec 10, 2004

I'm into reefs as well. It is addictive and expensive!

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Raul-7

· #4 · Dec 10, 2004

Although reef tanks are amazing, and the marine fish are much more colorful than freshwater fish...IMO, it's much more costly and difficult to achieve a succesful tank.

With all the equipment you need to invest in(wet/dry, portein skimmer, refugium, calcium reactor, etc.) and the aquascaping problems you will face(coral aggression), the costly live rock and the VERY high lighting you need to keep everything alive. Plus, reef tanks are easily over-stocked.

And I thought keeping a freshwater tank was costly and hardwork! :roll:

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gpodio

· #5 · Dec 10, 2004

True they are more expensive to setup, but easier to maintain and require a lot less work IMO than fast growing planted tanks. As long as you keep the corals apart and know which ones need more room than others it's quite easy if you did your homework and set it up right from an equipment perspective. You need patience with reefs but they aren't as difficult as many make them out to be.

Giancarlo

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Sir_BlackhOle

· #6 · Dec 10, 2004

Thats interesting. I always thought it was difficult to maintain the correct water parameters with reef tanks.

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gpodio

· #7 · Dec 10, 2004

Perhaps in a very small tank it is. The nice thing about reef tanks is that the salt mixture has just about everything you need, it's as if our water conditioners had all the fertilizers needed for plant growth! All I add occasionally is Kalkwasser for now, I'm sure once the corals get big they will consume more and I may need to add a couple more elements here and there but it's nothing compared to what we have to do to keep our planted tanks running at full speed. Things are certainly more delicate however so more care needs to be taken to maintain a stable temperature, salinity and so on. In general good things happen slowly and bad things happen overnight :wink:

Besides that, you will be surprised just how easy it is. A lot of light, lot's of water movement, plenty of rock for filtration and a skimmer. That's the important equipment IMO. I have a fuge but since running the skimmer 24/7 the macro algae is struggling so it's being converted to a smaller fuge with built-in frag grow-out tank.

Giancarlo

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gnatster

· #8 · Dec 10, 2004

It's going to be nice to see some reefs done with an eye to the aquascaping as opposed to the Wall o' Rock(tm) thats so pervasive.

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MiamiAG

· #9 · Dec 10, 2004

Giancarlo,

What type of coral are you keeping?

Are you using RO/DI?

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Gomer

Discussion Starter · #10 · Dec 10, 2004

I have a 5g cube that is/was going to be a FW office tank.....being how I have unlimited distilled water here in the lab...it is kind of tempting to do a mini reef here LOL

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gpodio

· #11 · Dec 10, 2004

Art, my tank is SPS although until I get enough of them there are a couple LPS in there that are making it look a little less 'empty'

Need to trade/buy some more acros though, I'd like a little more red and yellow in there. I'm hoping the tank will be grown in nicely by end of 2005. I'm using RO/DI, doing 5 gallon water change once a month.

Giancarlo

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gpodio

· #12 · Dec 10, 2004

Gomer, you don't need anyone to tell you that smaller is harder, you know what you're doing.... I'm sure you also know of this site: http://www.nano-reef.com/

The only thing is that you'll be wanting a larger tank shortly after this one is up and running :wink: Specially if like me you will not be doing the usual reef wall which would allow you more space for corals.

Here's some great examples of reefscaping:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=441773

Giancarlo

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MiamiAG

· #13 · Dec 10, 2004

Giancarlo,

Nice. I have 100% SPS too although they are frags.

I just got a Royal Exclusiv Bubble King skimmer. Read about it in the Captive Ocean's sponsor forum.

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gpodio

· #14 · Dec 10, 2004

We'll have to trade some frags one day. Mine are all frags too for the moment. I'm using the CPR Backpack skimmer, it's doing the job but the pump is loud because it's sucking in air from the impeller, I plan to add a venturi or air stone to it next and connect it to my return pump rather than having it's own pump.

Giancarlo

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jerseyjay

· #15 · Dec 10, 2004

Well, I cought a bug as well.

Got 90G setup with all the rock, corals, skimmer, sump, light, whole nine yards for great price. I'm loving it so far.

I would strongly recommend looking for used equipment. Salt people are not like freshwater addicts. They keep their tanks top notch and even used is still at its prime.

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JLudwig

· #16 · Dec 10, 2004

My wife does the saltwater thing, but I do need to agree (and she will also) thats reefs are much easier than planted tanks. The huge secret is pure water, if you have problems just do water changes, don't feed very heavily, you basically want NO3/PO4 == 0 which is a lot easier than 5-10ppm of NO3 balanced 10:1 with PO4 with a variable water source, etc... you always know what you're putting in RO and it doesn't vary seasonally.

Jeff

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Gomer

Discussion Starter · #17 · Dec 10, 2004

evil people...evil!!!!! I keep trying to convinve myself that I shouldn't (doesn't mean I don't want to LOL) get a reef and I am keep getting talked into it LOL