Hello everyone

I'm new to the board and wanted to say hi. I'm still a newbie in the Reef Hobby but I maintained a planted fw tank for several years.

i just finished my initial cycle after 5 weeks and I recently added 2 skunk cleaner shrimp, 10 Nerite snails, 5 Cerith snails, 5 Nassarius snails and 2 Emerald crabs. My tank is 55 gallons.

I'm not going to add anything else for at least a month while I continue to learn as much as I can to keep my tank critters happy.


I am glad to be aboard and I will post pics soon!

 

Welcome to 3 reef The Tanker

you will not regret that period of not adding anything IMO
the longer you leave it, the more stable it becomes

Steve

 

Welcome to 3reef

 

welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef, I like your avatar.

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Wow, yet another Texan! Welcome to 3reef, and great that you're going slow! We also have a 55, and we waited about 3 months before we added any fish. It's definitely helpful to go slow!

 

Welcome! I too recently converted over to saltwater from fw plants. It's really not as bad as the horror stories make it out to be as long as you use a little common sense, which you seem to be doing. Just like in freshwater, you don't want to add too much too soon. But you already know this...

If I could give you one single piece of advice it would be to choose your fish very carefully. With freshwater it's a little easier to say "I'll try it and see what happens" but when you have an established reef tank you can't exactly move everything around anymore. Catching the unwanted creature becomes a nightmare. I emphasize fish in particular because everything else is easy to remove in comparison.

If I could give you two pearls of wisdom I would tell you to look carefully at pieces of live rock that you are considering purchasing. When you see that awesome coral at the fish store look closely at the live rock that it is attached to or based on. Pest species are a PITA and it's so much easier to just take a second and inspect things before you purchase. What you want to look for in particular is Aiptasia Anemone. They are easy to spot once you know what they look like. (google)


The only time I was ever in Texas I was driving about 95 mph and the TxDPS pulled me over. Fun times.

 

Thanks, everyone for the warm welcome. This seems to be a lively board that is growing.

@Corailline - You see what I did there?

@SushiGirl - Thanks fellow Texan! Here's an obligatory "y'all".

@Doratus - Thanks for the very good advice regarding saltwater vs. freshwater. I also appreciate the pearls of wisdom. It sucks being pulled over but, hopefully, your fine went toward a worthy cause.

I will post my questions in the appropriate forums if I can't find the answer using search.

Again, thanks everyone!