Hi ya'll

This is my first day in this community. I have been a member of Reef Sanctuary for about two months. I love the fish-chat!
I have a 55 gallon FOWLR that is 3 months old. I ahve never done this salt water tank thing before and I am very open to any help offered.
I have already made the huge and cruel mistake of using livestock to start my cycle as I did not know you can't believe everything the Fish-Store-Guys (FSGs) say. I have since learned to regret my unwitting cruelty very much and have sworn to be VERY ready and VERY informed before I do anything new to my kiddos.
I have two darling True Percula clowns, Bubbles and Red Skelton. Bubbles is the lady of the house and is prone to lying vociferously about her "Starving" condition regardless of how short a time since she had dinner. Red Skelton is a retiring fellow who allows Bubbles to boss him around but usually gets his food needs met because I push Bubbles away. Otherwise he probably would starve for real! They do not have an anemone home as yet because i am not prepared for such a denizen as we are still working on the water and lights and such. They do enjoy their cave and usually pass the night chillin' there.8)
I have a skimmer and a canister filter. I am waiting for payday so I can purchase a RO/DI unit to aid in the water level drama. Up to this point I have been purchasing boxed sea water but discovered that, in spite of the promises both of the FSGs and the box, there really IS ammonia in the water so I now mix my own. Still buying filtered water as I need the unit but soon will have that taken care of.
To anyone who offers advice, or is thinking about it, please DO. I always check alot on any information I get and will never take offence at anything you say, even if you tell me I'm a newbie idiot because...well.. it's sometimes true. I also know that everyone has their own "best solution" for any given problem and I don't expect your solution to work miracles for me. My typing sucks at times even though I am a teacher and I don't edit others' work or correct spelling.
Anyway, I am gald to be here and am looking forward to learning a lot.

On another note, I am hoping to hook up with some "locals" to trade stories, swap tank stuff in the future and some day, worship at tyour tank too! I live in SW washington (Tri-cities) and hope to find more of "us" out here.

 

Hoping that's not your age, but welcome to 3reef LOL

 

First off id like to start by saying hello fishmama my names shawn.

I too am just a newbie at this and just started my tank up, well just started to put fish and everything else in it, been running for a few months now without anything. But any who i got about a 30 gallon and i now wish i had a nice sized tank like yours to fit alotta stuff cuz id like more then what i can put in my tank but i know not to exceed the limit or else ill be paying for it in the end. So if you plan on putting some aggresive/semi agressive fish in there than yeah you should get a anemone but if you dont plan on getting those type of fish you really dont need an anemone but i know you want one just so you can have something wonderful to look at. I am the same way when i get my clownfish i plan on having an anemone my self even though i wont have any aggressive fish but i just want it to have that specialness and that bond between the fish and anemone.

But anyways i just wanted to say HI and maybe we can talk more into the future as it seems we are both startiing out around the same time.

sorry for the long post lol

S.

 

welcome to 3reef mama. youre gonna like it here. but also your tank is too new for an anenome. wait quite a buit longer

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef!

 

welcome. Nice to have ya

 

welcome to 3 reef mama

(never thought Id say that）

Steve

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone!

Fisherman, Nope that is only my age in "fishtank time" and I ain't tellin' the other one yet as I don't know you well enough yet! LOL

Aok, I know what you mean about the excitement and challenge of a new tank. I am glad I got a 55 gallon but right away decided that I should have gone BIGGER so I think that is true unless you have like an Olympic size swimming-pool reef tank!

Divott, Don't worry, I know I have a LOOOOONG way to go befoe we are ready for an anemone, corals all that stuff. The wait is half of the fun but also half of the agony! I just want to dive right in but I have very quickly discovered there are two basic types of beginners, the one's who wait and the one's with broken hearts and bankbooks and no tanks! I WILL be the former and hopefully NOT the latter!

EEnyway, this is the third forum I've joined and it feels like I am being adopted! I love it! So many helpful people with so much free advice! I only wish, in that oh-so-clear and oh-so-perfect hind sight, that I had discovered ya'll BEFORE my hubby bought the tank! I could have been MUCH better prepared as a REAL fishmama and been so much happier about how my tank is going. Well, better late than never, huh?

Hey, if you don't already belong, I recommend joining Reef Sanctuary as well as Reef Central too! Both great places for finding all kinds of cool people, ideas and advice!

Later Fish Folk!