New here and introducing myself

Hello everyone, my name is bigfish93, but you can call me Joe if you would like. I am not new to the hobby, however, I am new to the saltwater side. I have kept small freshwater tanks on and off for as long as I can remember. My most recent one was a 20 gallon high planted tank with 7 Lemon Tetra. I played sports my whole life and continued through high school and I was very dedicated them. My parents were also very supportive and helped me financially because I did not have time for a job; I was a four sport athlete in high school. This meant that saltwater was not an option for me due to its expense and time committment. I was ok with this though because I never had a desire to set up a saltwater aquarium. While I thought they were neat, I didn't think they were worth the time, effort, money, or trouble that they required to be properly set up. I have since graduated from high school and started my first job, which I have had for about a year now. Money is still tight because I am a college student, but I now have some spending money. My only freshwater tank was recently taken down after I had to take care of my Unlce's reef tank for a week while he was away on vaccation. After only a couple days of taking care of his reef, I was hooked! I immediately started researching saltwater tanks again. However, this time I went more in depth and researched everything about them. I quickely learned that a saltwater tank was not as daunting of a task as I originally thought. It just takes a lot of research and patience. I now have a 40 gallon breeder set up in my room waiting to become a beautiful reef tank. The forums seem to be a fantastic way to acquire the most recent and useful information. With that in mind, I started talking with the Salties on another forum that I was actively involved in while keeping freshwater tanks. I quickly learned that the saltwater side of the forums was dead, and began looking for a new forum. This seems to be a hot spot and I look forward to meeting all of you and picking your brains for all the information I can. From what I hear, I will also be using all of my "spending money" to get this thing going, but I cannot wait to get my first fish. I will be continuing my tank build thread from a previous site so everyone can follow along here.

 

Nice to meet you Joe! This forum has alot of topics that are great for learning the hobby.

 

Congrats on the conversion and welcome. What equipment did ya get for it, and what are your plans for it?

 

You picked the right site. I'm in the process of making the jump from fresh to salt too. Everyone here is very helpful.

Good luck on the build.

 

My tank will be a 40 gallon reef tank with soft and LPS corals. It will be lightly stocked with 2 ocellaris clown fish and a yellow watchman goby. Possibly another fish, but I'm not sure. My equipment will include a Reef Dynamics INS80 protein skimmer, 2 150w Jager heaters, BRS dual GFO and Carbon reactor, and a mag drive 9.5 all in a 15 gallon sump. I will have a kalkwasser reactor in line with the ATO. In the tank, I will have 2 koralia 550s and an AquaticLife 156w 4 bulb light fixture. All of this will be controlled by a reefkeeper controller.

 

Damn nice plan my fellow buckeye. May I suggest looking into a hydor koralia evo 750's or even 1050's instead?

And ya can add another fish for sure.

 

Welcome to 3reef Joe.

Sounds like you have a good plan.

 

You sure can cosmo. You are not the first person to suggest that change, but I have also had just as many people tell me I would have to much flow. Most recommended koralia 425s. Without knowing much about just how much flow 550GPH really is, I am torn. Between some people telling me I have enough flow, and others telling me not enough, I figured I would just buy some powerheads and go from there.

 

well you're buying a reef keeper which will allow you to control the flow, so buy too much flow, the price difference is less than $10. on my 55 gallon which isn't much bigger i just went from 2 750's to 2 1400's, and its much better. Trust me 2 550's aimed correctly is far from too much flow, 2 750's may be just right, but 2 1050's on a controller is enough, and 2 1400's on a controller should be about right.

 

(a) Welcome to our little adventure land, (b) please throw in a few paragraph breaks, it makes things easier to read, and (c) it's my limited experience that there is no such thing as too much flow or too much light.

Every time I wait a week or two after adding more, everythin seems to have adapted and looks better than ever. I have 5000 ghp on a 57 and I bet I could add more. Admittedly mine is for sps, but 2000 ghp in a 40 is respectable, definitely not too much.

Get the hydros, you won't regret it. Just don't aim them straight at your corals. Use indirect flow and the wave maker to reproduce the natural environment.