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SFReefer

Greetings from a Newbie in San Francisco!

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SFReefer
, 01-09-2010 at 01:58 AM (2574 Views)
Hello everyone! My name is Ryan and I'm a 28 year old Reef Addict in progress. Ever since I was a kid, I had all kinds of pets...but I was never successful with a fish tank because I hated reading and the library (internet wasn't available) and I never new about the so called "new tank syndrome" until 2008. In October of 2008, My girlfriend gave me a 29 gallon tank for my birthday and that's when my addiction started.




I started with freshwater fish and kept Convicts, a Fresh Water Barracuda, Exodon Tetras, a Jack Dempsey, a Green Terror and a Red Devil (all at separate times). I did some research on fresh water tanks and got bored pretty fast. Long story short, maintaining the fresh water tank was simple and boring. I needed a challenge. In June 2009, I switched over to the Dark Side!

Here is a picture of my tank as of today:



I changed the lights an Odyssea brand PC lighting System, but wasn't satisfied. So I bought an Aquatic Life 30" T5HO Lighting System. It was very hard to find lights for my 29 gallon tank. Not too many companies sell 30" lights. I spent tons of money on everything in the tank and still wasn't satisfied...so I bought a new stand, a 10 gallon sump and overflow and experimented with plumbing. I Even invested in a Spectrapure RODI unit!



AND I'M STILL NOT SATISFIED! I want a huge tank like Marc's and will stop at nothing to get it! I love tinkering with the water tests and monitoring the tank's water parameters! I know for a fact, I'm a REEF ADDICT! I've been perusing melevsreef.com (amazing site!!) for a while and stumbled on this website. I Never joined a forum so I plan to make this place my home on the net! Thanks for having me on here!

Btw, can anyone please help me identify these??

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Updated 01-12-2010 at 02:03 PM by melev

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‎ Tank Entry

Comments

  1. Snakebyt's Avatar
    tank is looking really good, is that lighting fixture 4 or 6 bulb?
  2. BatterThanTV's Avatar
    i know the second one is a rock pagoda. and it looks good
    Updated 01-09-2010 at 12:57 PM by BatterThanTV (just want to put more)
  3. Trido's Avatar
    Looking good!!

    The corals in the first pic, from left to right
    An acan, or possibly echinophylia (chalice) but its hard to tell from that angle
    middle front, an acropora
    middle back a plating or whorling montipora. (monti cap is the generic name)
    an encrusting montipora.
    Second pic is a pagoda.
  4. melev's Avatar
    Welcome to the site, and I'm glad to hear you want to make it your new home.

    I wouldn't call it the dark side... more like the better side.
  5. doomicon's Avatar
    NICE! Like the Pagoda, spot feed with a baster it's fun to watch it chow down :-)
  6. SFReefer's Avatar
    Thanks for the Ids!
    Snakebyt: It's a 4 lamp fixture. 24w T5HO x 4. I'm wondering if 96 watts are enough to support SPS with me having to worry about placement in the tank.

    So I did a water change two days ago and tested the water using the API liquid test kit yesterday @ around 7pm. Calcium @420-440 mg/L, and dKH is 12. I love the corraline algae look and I'm done with bottle of Purple Up. I was reading about B-ionic and decided to buy it. Tell me if I'm wrong...I normally do water changes every week. Should I wait a week and test again, and if the levels are low, dose with B-ionic and start doing water changes every two weeks?
  7. Blennymower's Avatar
    Awesome tank, and that's a pretty good job on the sump. Is that purple up working for you?