Hello from BlackJack

Hi, Im stationed in Arizona and nearing the end of a 20 year career in the Army, after which I'm hopefully headed back to Houston Texas.

I enjoy building/drag racing my 2003 Oldsmobile Alero, and just recently decided to enjoy the stress relief of a small reef setup.

Bought all my startup equipment from a local pet store about a month and a half ago, and made a mistake or two due to my lack of knowledge.

Here's what I started with:
60g tall hex
Hydor Koralia #2 powerhead
Cascade 1000 cannister
Prizm deluxe skimmer
Current 150w metal halide, blue and white LED
lace (sp?) rock for filler
50lbs of Fiji live rock
Instant Ocean salt
drop-in heater
crushed coral substrate

After about 3 weeks of running, I went to a real salt-only fish shop, I brought the water in for testing, was given the thumbs up for livestock, and bought:

20 hermits
10 snails
1 scarlet cleaner shrimp
3 blue/green chromies
a frag each of green and red zooxanthids
a purple mushroom

Interestingly, the shop told me the cannister was pretty much unecessary and those really haven't been used very much in salt setups for the last 10 years or so. This I'm inclined to believe since their shop has been in business for awile and they have no cannisters.

One of the chromies didn't survive, cause unknown (maybe the shrimp "overcleaned" it?). The rest have done fine for a few weeks and the zooxanthids are flourishing, so.....

I just adopted a blue tang a couple of days ago, and he/she is doing well so far with lots of caves to hide in, but now it's out and active all the time (yay!)

In the next couple of weeks, I am planning on a green bubble aenemone and a pair of yellow striped maroon clowns.

Here in Arizona it gets hot, and my water temps were causing me some concern, so I built my own chiller which I'll post in the DIY contest as soon as I can find the darned camera. I'm sure it's nothing we haven't seen before, but I think the cost was just right (free desktop dorm refrigerator, and about $15 worth of parts from Lowes, that cheap enough?) and it dropped my temps back into the mid 70's range.

I just want to say thank you to everyone for consolidating their knowledge and experience here in this forum, and it has been a valuable resource for the initial success of getting started.

-BlackJack-
(Mike)

 

Your Welcome! That tang will get big! And slow down, give your tank a month to mature a little, then add a new fish if you want and repeat

 

Your still cycling and that can last up to 12 weeks. You shouldnt have any livestock in that tank. I would stop going to that LFS that told you that you were ready for livestock. They dont know what their talking about. BTW, welcome aboard and thank you for keeping our freedom alive. Luna

 

sound advice, and that's why I came here. Thanks guys!

 

Howdy and welcome to 3reef!
Congrats on your time and servie in the U.S Army!!!!!
Funny you mentioned that, because I just took my son, who is in the Boy Scouts, to West Point in New York, where the Army Cadets put on a camporee show for us. Awesome time!
Best of luck to you on your endeavors with the wonderful, enjoyable and rewarding marine hobby!

 

^ I went to West Point with my previous scouts troop. Did you see the football game we did. Switched troops because the old one was only established so the scoutmasters son could reach eagle in 3 months which by scout law, is impossible as you are supposed to wait 6 months between the ceremony things....cant think of the word right now.......

 

Welcome to 3Reef>>>>>

 

WELCOME, and thanks for serving this great country of ours!! I agree with Luna 100%, but stick with it and make sure your water parameters stay rock solid. Hopefully everything will be fine! Just remember, only bad things and bank account drains happen quickly in SW. Welcome again, and feel free to ask questions!

 

Howdy! and welcome to 3Reef we are glad you found us

 

`

Always happy to see another (almost) retired military about. (I finished up my 20 yrs in '92 - so have been at it a while.)

Sounds like you are off to a good start...Great "learning" system you can practice at, so you can get "tank of your dreams" set up from scratch when you get settled in back in Tx.

My suggestion is decide what kind of tank you want and build house around it...:

Great to see you found way here.

Keep us posted...

Scott (US Army (Ret))