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Intermediate Reefer New to Forum

prestonreefs

prestonreefs

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Hello BAreefers!

My name is Preston, and I've been a reefer for about a year and a half or so. I'm currently a student at UC Berkeley studying Public Health.

I had a 15 gallon long set up with about 25-30 heads of frogspawn, various common/intermediate zoas and some mushrooms.
Livestock included 2 extra dark true percs, four sexy shrimp that were breeding, a cleaner shrimp, and a pellet trained mandarin goby.
Pretty low tech setup, I was running 4x24w t5hos, a HOB filter for flow, and a koralia nano. Nothing special... 30% water changes every 2 weeks in slow, small increments. I had an JBJ ATO, but it didn't work very well, so I ended up usually manually adding RO water after a few floods. (All equipment was low/medium tech in accordance with my low student budget.)

Unfortunately, during winter break the HOB filter overflowed, spilling a gallon or so of water onto the floor until the whole thing short circuited. I came back and it was quite the disaster, nothing survived because all the equipment was short circuited except for the lights.

I came here looking for help via a recommendation from a SFBAAPS member (I'm mostly a planted freshwater guy).
I was gonna discontinue saltwater because I was so discouraged after this crash (both emotionally and financially). What should I do?

-Preston
 
If you'd rather set up something with a sump is be happy to help. I assume your tank is glass, which can be drilled, although acrylic is much easier to drill. I may have a similar sized acrylic tank you could have and then you could use your 15 g as a sump. That way HOB can't fail you again
 
Welcome!

You might want to go a little bit bigger, and try to set up a system with a sump and a skimmer.
Small systems can be so touchy. A bit larger is actually easier.
Sumps make life way easier.
Skimmers remove a lot of crud, reducing reliance on water changes.
But skimmers are noisy. Not sure if you are in a dorm room.

Key advice to a student on a budget with a small system:
A lot of people at BAR have upgraded to larger tanks over the years so have a ton of old stuff in the garage.
Used - but good quality, and very often given for free.
Once you know what you want, let us know.
 
Welcome!

If you have to start again, why not do something bigger ;) LoL, I just got my 90 up and running and I am already planning a bigger build, haha ^.^

Welcome and good luck!
 
Many thanks for all the warm welcomes!

I was actually going to quit saltwater after this disaster, but I have been working on a project for about 3 months now.
It's basically a customized Fluval edge 12 gallon that I gutted out and created my own LEDs, overflow and sump for. I'll post pictures and everything later, but yeah. That's the only reason I'm going back into saltwater... I spent all that time making the tank, I might as well try to enjoy it for its designed purpose. I was originally going to replace the 15 gallon long with this new tank build I made, but of course I didn't intend that my current tank would completely fail. I didn't like the HOB filter to begin with, and I guess I should've listened to my instinct.

The reason I don't go for a bigger system is mainly because of limited space and noise. I can't run a skimmer because this is in my own room in my apartment, and it's already hard enough to sleep with noisy canister filters running for my freshwater tanks. I also only have space for a smaller tank, or else I'd definitely elect to go with something at least 50+ gallons. Oh and that plus the money and maintenance. My electricity bill is already through the roof, and having to do 5 gallon water changes in a pretty small place is already a bit of a chore. I can't imagine having to do those weekly.

Anyways, I get back to Berkeley in about a week, and I'll have to clean everything up and see what I can salvage from my old tank. The main things I will be looking for are starter frags after I cycle the tank. One generous person at SFBAAPS has already offered up some live rock to help get it going again.

Does anyone have any recommendations for where I can get cheap, high quality livestock?
I usually shop on Craigslist as its the cheapest option. The LFS that I've been to just are completely out of my price range. I would love to support the local businesses, but honestly my budget just can't handle it. The only store I went to before was Aqua Exotic, and that's because it's near my hometown, and because I really liked the manager and wanted to support his business. Now that my entire system is gone, I'll need to shop somewhere much cheaper.

Thanks for all the help guys!
-Preston
PS: Does anyone have experience with"Crystal Reef Sand" on eBay? It's like a pure white aragonite live sand.
 
The sand Marco Rocks sells looksa lot like it (don't pay attention to the yellow picture, that is due to lighting)... not to mention he is a sponsor of BAR

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http://www.marcorocks.com/sand.aspx

www.marcorocks.com
 
Welcome! You're more experienced in the hobby than I am!

I'm working on a 40B with 20L Sump-Fuge myself. I was originally going with a 20L build but I wasn't happy with the limited selection of fish I had at my disposal. I'm also a fan of the more shallow-wide tanks. :)
 
I want that pure white!
If somewhere local sells it dry for much cheaper, that'd be the best option for me. I'm just afraid that if I go pick up dead sand, it might not be true aragonite sand.

The shipping is "free", making the sand a little over a dollar a pound shipped.

Let me know if you guys have recommendations for some place local that sells pure white aragonite sand for cheap!

EDIT: Still new to this forum. The post above was in response to someone asking why I would pay to ship water.

@denzil
I love the look of frag tanks. They give you so much more room to work with for aquascaping. However, I also love the look of the fluval edge, which is why I basically took one and remade it for a more proper saltwater system.

If I had the space, I would definitely get a frag tank as a display tank. Long and shallow is where it's at!
 
Salinity went to unreadable numbers. That was just the start but on the good side it is now stable and what survived is now doing well.
 
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