Hello from Mountain View

[Shaolinsun]

Hello All,

Been lurking on the forum for a couple months now, thought it's time to join. . My name is Ron, born in Salinas, CA. Graduated from SJSU in 2012. Been living in the bay since.

I don't have a tank yet, and will be my first saltwater tank. I'm looking into AIO Innovative Marine 50g or 60g. Most likely looking to buy my first kit at Neptune Aquatics. I think I've exhausted enough videos to finally make a purchase soon. Hoping to have LPS corals and fish tank. I'm looking to have my tank be automated looking 1-2 years in, giving myself 1-2 years to learn everything manual and hopefully upgrade from there.

If there are any folks in the area with the same size tank would be down to meet for coffee and chat let me know. Also if there are any youtube channels folks can recommend that would be great. I've watched plenty of World Wide Corals, Topshelf Aquatics & BRStv.

In terms tank composition in the tank I'm learning towards:
- 2 clownfish (orange storm, picasso extreme, davinci or mochavinci)
- Diamondback goby/watchman goby & Shrimp pair
- Midas Blenny
- Royal Gramma
- Hammer corals
- Torches
- Bubble corals
- (encrusting coral, if someone can recommend a yellow one)

I definitely know this will all be sequenced and added in very slowly.

Nice to meet you all

 

[Qckslvr]

Another Salinas transplant! Welcome to the board

 

[clownvan]

Welcome @Shaolinsun

 

[grizfyrfyter]

Welcome!

 

[Slingfox]

Welcome to the club and hobby! My #1 suggestion is plan to get some combination of ocean live rock and/or sand. It will make the first two years easier.

Alternatively, you can get rock or rubble from an existing tank to help kickstart things.

 

[Shaolinsun]

Welcome to the club and hobby! My #1 suggestion is plan to get some combination of ocean live rock and/or sand. It will make the first two years easier.

Alternatively, you can get rock or rubble from an existing tank to help kickstart things.

Thanks for the welcome. I definitely plan to add some sand and some caribsea life rock. Thanks for suggestion

 

[Alexander1312]

Welcome - no. 1 recommendation is to become a supporting member of this club.

For a first tank, my recommendation is not to go with an AIO (a mistake I made in the past) but the Innovative Marin 50 EXT, which in my opinion is one of the best beginner tanks out there.

Also, @Slingfox was referring to REAL live rock from the actual ocean, not caribsea rock. I do second though to have sand and do not go bare bottom.

 

[Thọ Key]

Welcome to the club . Im 1 year membership here .

 

[Shaolinsun]

Welcome - no. 1 recommendation is to become a supporting member of this club.

For a first tank, my recommendation is not to go with an AIO (a mistake I made in the past) but the Innovative Marin 50 EXT, which in my opinion is one of the best beginner tanks out there.

Also, @Slingfox was referring to REAL live rock from the actual ocean, not caribsea rock. I do second though to have sand and do not go bare bottom.

Thanks for the insight. I want the AIO route because the sump setup just seems intimidating to me and would prefer plug and play. I would imagine if I get heavily invested years down I can entertain a sump setup. Can you like me to what live rock you are referring to? I'll sign up to be a member as soon as I purchase the tank kit.

 

[Slingfox]

Thanks for the insight. I want the AIO route because the sump setup just seems intimidating to me and would prefer plug and play. I would imagine if I get heavily invested years down I can entertain a sump setup. Can you like me to what live rock you are referring to? I'll sign up to be a member as soon as I purchase the tank kit.

The most well known sellers of ocean live rock are Tampa Bay Saltwater and KP Aquatics. Both put rock into the Florida coast and then harvest them for sale a few years later. You can get live rock from Australian from an importer like Tankstop. The structure of the Australian live rock is far superior but is also significantly more expensive due to the shipping cost.

The most economical way to get the benefit of the ocean biome is going with sand from the ocean. The Florida suppliers sell that. Ryan, the founder of Bulk Reef Supply (left the company last year) now recommends the dry rock + ocean live sand approach. His method is to run the tank with no lights for a month to more then slowly ramp up the light over the course of several months (like half a year if I remember right). This allows the dry rock to build a biofilm which helps combat the uglies.

If you have the budget and want to save time then ocean live rock is a great approach. The alternative is to get live rock from an existing system. Hopefully that system is mostly pest free.

 

[Alexander1312]

Thanks for the insight. I want the AIO route because the sump setup just seems intimidating to me and would prefer plug and play. I would imagine if I get heavily invested years down I can entertain a sump setup.

I thought 100% the same way and went with the AIO for that reason. Someone from Aquatic Collection at the time recommended to me to go one tank bigger with a small sump, and this was not an upsell, but a sincere advice, and 6 months later I regretted to not follow this.

1.5 years later I bought the 150 EXT, and a few months later replaced my 26-gallon AIO with a 28-gallon tank with sump.

Never AIO again, too many limitations but tank equipment by not having a sump.

Can you like me to what live rock you are referring to? I'll sign up to be a member as soon as I purchase the tank kit.

Second the Tampa Bay suggestion, I think they have better rocks than KP, and I bought from both of them, and found KP much more helpful, but Tampa has the better product IMO.

 

[divewsharks]

Can once again get FIJI Live Rock; Branch, shelf, Pukani.

Rock & Substrates - Shop By

championlighting.com

Unique Corals is also selling, same with Saltwater Aquarium - just comes in dry.

 

[Darkxerox]

Thanks for the insight. I want the AIO route because the sump setup just seems intimidating to me and would prefer plug and play. I would imagine if I get heavily invested years down I can entertain a sump setup. Can you like me to what live rock you are referring to? I'll sign up to be a member as soon as I purchase the tank kit.

You can also grab one of the club's bio bricks or rock from an established tank. Lot of great systems here.

 

[Mike Yasin]

Welcome!

 

[under_water_ninja]

I thought 100% the same way and went with the AIO for that reason. Someone from Aquatic Collection at the time recommended to me to go one tank bigger with a small sump, and this was not an upsell, but a sincere advice, and 6 months later I regretted to not follow this.

1.5 years later I bought the 150 EXT, and a few months later replaced my 26-gallon AIO with a 28-gallon tank with sump.

Never AIO again, too many limitations but tank equipment by not having a sump.


Second the Tampa Bay suggestion, I think they have better rocks than KP, and I bought from both of them, and found KP much more helpful, but Tampa has the better product IMO.

I have a used IM 50gln INT, with sump, custom plumbing I did, return pump and heater! True plug and play ready to rock!!! I also have established bio blocks, and live rock for seeding. Another thing to mention since this is your first go with saltwater, is you might want to look into buying Quarantined fish. High Tide Aquatics is the only LFS in the country certified by Humblefish as a quarantine vendor. Come by and say hi. Also might want to watch my cycling video.

 

[Coral reefer]

Welcome

 

[Mike Yasin]

Can once again get FIJI Live Rock; Branch, shelf, Pukani.

Rock & Substrates - Shop By

championlighting.com

Unique Corals is also selling, same with Saltwater Aquarium - just comes in dry.

Unique will ship Marco rock from Florida - live rock in the ocean - comes wrapped really well and still wet. Best $100 you can spend imo