DrBCool
Reefing newb
Hello all you Reefer Heads out there ,
My Name is Doug , or some know me as Doc . I have always admired the looks of a saltwater tank and now find myself in the midst of setting one up .. Let me tell you all a nice long story of how I got to this point .......
A couple months ago my girlfriend and I were in a LFS and was checking out the complete setups they had to offer . Just inside the door was this 36 Gallon Bowfront on a stand with light , pump , filter , gravel , fish net , fish food , some decorations and a magazine . The price caught my eye as well , $338 .. I had been reading on reef tanks and originally I had all my figures for a 150 gallon bow , but the cost of tank and set up was just way out of my reach .. So after seeing this tank I then decided to do some shopping around the area to see what other tanks were to be had and the pricing . I went to several other LFS's in the area and found myself back at the first store with the 36 gal bow .. I asked them if they had a layaway plan and Hay they did .. How nice is that .. lol .. So I put more than the 10% they wanted down , what I had in my pocket at the time ... Within a couple weeks I had the tank home and sitting in my bedroom . Laying there in my bed staring at an empty tank Oh the possibilities , but my thoughts at the time were on a freshwater system with lots of Tetras .. After studying the tank and looking at the gravel in bags sitting in the tank I decided I needed a few more bags of black gravel to deepin the base . So I hop in the car and go to some more LFS's .. The first stop didn't have any of the black gravel , so I thought I would check out a place I had never been to .. So I go in and the manager working there Eric , starts asking me how big a tank and what kind of tank and such .. He thens tells me that is a great tank to set up saltwater .. He then spends the next hour and a half talking to me about what I will need to setup and then things I will need in the near future .. So after the long chat I left there with a couple decent chunks of live rock , 2 different sizes of coral for a base , some seasalt , a pump to help create flow and a hydrometer .. At home I get everything going and after 24 hours the water cleared up and I took a bunch of freshwater stuff back to the original store for a refund ( I bought extra decorations and such that wouldn't work in salt ) .. I Evelyn and I got a yellow tailed Damsel ( basically a loner fish till we cycled the tank ) some more live rock which I am sure didn't hurt :-) and some base rock that another LFS guy said I needed ( wrong ) !!!!!!!! Woulda rather gotten more live rock ...
So now here I am 4 weeks into the cycling process and the tank is going wonderful .. I added my first thing last week a Hawain Feather Duster he is awsome I love it .. I have a few hermits in there and a couple snails .. Now I need to get myself a decent but not overly expensive hang on skimmer and then the hard part .. Lights .. shew lighting is the toughest thing I have found .. Everyone agrees to disagree when it comes to lights .. I found this forum by searching for lighting information .. I just don't know which way to go with it .. I have time I guess cause the skimmer needs to be my first purchase .. After that it is off to the LFS with Homer my Damsel fish for a trade in on some clowns , Evelyn wants some clowns around other than me ... lol .. I really want some firefish I think , they look really really cool . Eventually I want a clam as I have seen some blue or purple ones that are awsome .. I know I want some of the little round zoanthids ( did I spell that right ? ) They would be cool on my rock ..
So there it is that is how I got here .. Hope you all can help me out a bit as I am confused by the lighting .,. My LFS guy suggested this
All-Glass Aquarium: Bow Front Curved Glass Aquariums for lighting ..
My Name is Doug , or some know me as Doc . I have always admired the looks of a saltwater tank and now find myself in the midst of setting one up .. Let me tell you all a nice long story of how I got to this point .......
A couple months ago my girlfriend and I were in a LFS and was checking out the complete setups they had to offer . Just inside the door was this 36 Gallon Bowfront on a stand with light , pump , filter , gravel , fish net , fish food , some decorations and a magazine . The price caught my eye as well , $338 .. I had been reading on reef tanks and originally I had all my figures for a 150 gallon bow , but the cost of tank and set up was just way out of my reach .. So after seeing this tank I then decided to do some shopping around the area to see what other tanks were to be had and the pricing . I went to several other LFS's in the area and found myself back at the first store with the 36 gal bow .. I asked them if they had a layaway plan and Hay they did .. How nice is that .. lol .. So I put more than the 10% they wanted down , what I had in my pocket at the time ... Within a couple weeks I had the tank home and sitting in my bedroom . Laying there in my bed staring at an empty tank Oh the possibilities , but my thoughts at the time were on a freshwater system with lots of Tetras .. After studying the tank and looking at the gravel in bags sitting in the tank I decided I needed a few more bags of black gravel to deepin the base . So I hop in the car and go to some more LFS's .. The first stop didn't have any of the black gravel , so I thought I would check out a place I had never been to .. So I go in and the manager working there Eric , starts asking me how big a tank and what kind of tank and such .. He thens tells me that is a great tank to set up saltwater .. He then spends the next hour and a half talking to me about what I will need to setup and then things I will need in the near future .. So after the long chat I left there with a couple decent chunks of live rock , 2 different sizes of coral for a base , some seasalt , a pump to help create flow and a hydrometer .. At home I get everything going and after 24 hours the water cleared up and I took a bunch of freshwater stuff back to the original store for a refund ( I bought extra decorations and such that wouldn't work in salt ) .. I Evelyn and I got a yellow tailed Damsel ( basically a loner fish till we cycled the tank ) some more live rock which I am sure didn't hurt :-) and some base rock that another LFS guy said I needed ( wrong ) !!!!!!!! Woulda rather gotten more live rock ...
So now here I am 4 weeks into the cycling process and the tank is going wonderful .. I added my first thing last week a Hawain Feather Duster he is awsome I love it .. I have a few hermits in there and a couple snails .. Now I need to get myself a decent but not overly expensive hang on skimmer and then the hard part .. Lights .. shew lighting is the toughest thing I have found .. Everyone agrees to disagree when it comes to lights .. I found this forum by searching for lighting information .. I just don't know which way to go with it .. I have time I guess cause the skimmer needs to be my first purchase .. After that it is off to the LFS with Homer my Damsel fish for a trade in on some clowns , Evelyn wants some clowns around other than me ... lol .. I really want some firefish I think , they look really really cool . Eventually I want a clam as I have seen some blue or purple ones that are awsome .. I know I want some of the little round zoanthids ( did I spell that right ? ) They would be cool on my rock ..
So there it is that is how I got here .. Hope you all can help me out a bit as I am confused by the lighting .,. My LFS guy suggested this
All-Glass Aquarium: Bow Front Curved Glass Aquariums for lighting ..