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Noobs from SJ

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ssm05rsx

Hey guys, I was browsing the web and stumbled across this forum and decided to join to get some advice on saltwater fish/reef. Just wanted to say hey whats up, and tell you guys whats going on with our tank.

My brother and I are sharing this account so we do not have to make two accounts cause we live together and have only one tank soon to be two when he brings his other tank home from college.

Right now we have a 55gal tank that is almost done cycling with two Blue Devil Damsels. Which will most likely be returned to the LFS due to their aggressive nature. We are still trying to figure out what we want to do with our tank, either go reef, or go non-reef compatible aggressive fish. We were leaning towards going with aggressive fish, but seeing reef tanks, it has changed our mind.

We are trying to start off small/simple/easy because we are new to saltwater tanks, and in the future we plan to get larger tanks. We still have our basic lighting where that will soon be upgraded. We have no reefs in our tank just the two Damsels. My brother knows more about what we plan to do with the tank, just looks like its going to be expensive. Haha.

advice is appreciated, and I'll see if we can get some pictures of our tank up in a thread. Doesn't look like any of your tanks, but.. got to start somewhere. Right?

Thanks, Dan
 
T

tbone212371

Welcome and Good Luck!!!!
Don't everybody was a newbie at one time in our life!!!!
And every day is a new learning expierence!!!

TR
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Welcome to the forums! There is a wealth of information on the boards, don't hesitate to ask ANY questions!

Have fun!
 
S

ssm05rsx

adesimone1 said:
Welcome to our club! Where at in South Jersey are you located? We are also in S Jersey.
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Mullica Hill, 08062. How about you?


Yeah, were looking at picking up some Coral after we upgrade our lighting. Open to suggestions for coral.
 
adesimone1

adesimone1

Stop down and see our setup and we have a lot of corals for sale when you are ready. PM your number and I will call you and set a day and time for you to come over.
 
S

ssm05rsx

Rbu1 said:
adesimone and myself are located in Logan Twp NJ. About 15 minutes from you.
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oh cool. good to see some locals on here. makes me feel good cause as of now i know noone local who has dove into the saltwater scene

adesimone1 said:
Stop down and see our setup and we have a lot of corals for sale when you are ready. PM your number and I will call you and set a day and time for you to come over.
Click to expand...

that would be very cool - even just to see someone else's setup and get ideas. thanks for the offer. its very much appreciated. we may take you up on that offer once we get appropriate lighting.
as for lighting, what do you guys suggest? I was looking at a Current Nova T-5 system (a 4x54W system at a total of 216W). Is that system sufficient for coral? Our budget is limited right now so we really cant do an expensive MH system but we are open to any suggestions.
Thanks so much for the warm welcome.

-Ralph
 
ricwilli

ricwilli

Welcome to NJRC.... You will get allot of help here in the forum. How long have you had the damsel in the tank? I am very surprised that no one has mentioned anything about it. Normally you would cycle the water with a raw shrimp or get some live rock or sand. I know damsels are hardy put that can be very stressfull on them.

Don't know to much about the Current Nova T-5 lighting but all I can say is that, I LOVE T5's. Make sure that the fixture have individual reflectors. Don't know how much you are willing to spend but one fixture that I like is the Aquactinics TX5 fixture. That is a nice fixture and they just upgraded there reflectors to put out 98% reflectivity.
 
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ssm05rsx

TheGuyFromNJ said:
I am in woodstown, and have 4x54 t-5 on my 90 if you want to see it in action.
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How do you like that lighting setup? Is it sufficient for your reef setup?

ricwilli said:
Welcome to NJRC.... You will get allot of help here in the forum. How long have you had the damsel in the tank? I am very surprised that no one has mentioned anything about it. Normally you would cycle the water with a raw shrimp or get some live rock or sand. I know damsels are hardy put that can be very stressfull on them.

Don't know to much about the Current Nova T-5 lighting but all I can say is that, I LOVE T5's. Make sure that the fixture have individual reflectors. Don't know how much you are willing to spend but one fixture that I like is the Aquactinics TX5 fixture. That is a nice fixture and they just upgraded there reflectors to put out 98% reflectivity.
Click to expand...

Yea we heard about that on the aquarium thread on the car forum that we post on as soon as we put the damsels in. I know it was alittle cruel to subject them to it but we added Cycle by Hagen to the tank to boost the bacteria within the tank and make the cycle go faster. I wanted to go with live rock to cycle but was on a very limited budget due to not starting work yet (just had graduated from college). Now that I have a job and a paycheck under my belt, I am working on getting around 50-80 lbs of LR to put in the tank sometime this week from a local member on that same car forum who is parting out his tank. Overall, the damsels seem to be doing fine and we've been keeping up on doing 10% water changes every few days to keep the stress level down.

This is the Current T-5 system i was referring to: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+12772&pcatid=12772.
Not too sure if it has individual reflectors though - after doing a quick google search i found the products homepage - http://www.current-usa.com/novaextreme.html. Claims it has a German parabolic reflector that increases light output to 99%. Not sure if that is really true though but it has good reviews on Dr.F&S.
I will look into that Aquactinics light fixture later tonight. Thanks for the suggestion and welcome.

Everyone else, thanks for the huge warm welcome. I can see that this forum is going to be very fun and informative to be a part of. ;D

-Ralph
 
R

reneeRN

Hi Ralph, welcome to the club.
Get the t5's. You will love them. I have the current nova extreme 8 bulb t5's on an 80 gal. 48" long. They are great. I am looking at the current nova extreme PRO, which has only 6 t5 bulbs, but the individual reflectors seem to be a cool alternative. I want to get one and test it with my PAR meter to see if they are similar.
Here is a good site to buy them from http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-USA-36-...ryZ46314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Renee
PS WHat is that avatar, a picture of an engine?
 
S

ssm05rsx

reneeRN said:
Hi Ralph, welcome to the club.
Get the t5's. You will love them. I have the current nova extreme 8 bulb t5's on an 80 gal. 48" long. They are great. I am looking at the current nova extreme PRO, which has only 6 t5 bulbs, but the individual reflectors seem to be a cool alternative. I want to get one and test it with my PAR meter to see if they are similar.
Here is a good site to buy them from http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-USA-36-...ryZ46314QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Renee
PS WHat is that avatar, a picture of an engine?
Click to expand...

Thanks Renee!
I'm really leaning towards getting the Nova Extreme 4-bulb T5's. At least for a beginner system for now to hold me and dan over until we can upgrade to a better system like the 8 bulb setup. Good to hear you like the 8 bulb, makes me feel better at considering its little 4bulb brother. :)
That 6 bulber is pretty cool. Let me know how it works out if you get it! Guess that also answers the individual reflector question about the 4-bulb model - guess its only available on the Pro model.

Haha, ya the avatar is a picture of the engine of my Acura RSX Type-S. Figured I'd throw it up there until I am able to take a good picture of one of our fish. The car is my baby so she deserves some time as the avatar - at least until Dan sees it and wants a picture of his car in it! Haha

PS, Oh ricwilli - Forgot to post this in the last post but the damsels have been in the tank for over 3 weeks now.
 
W

waynes reef

welcome to the reef club guys, this place is awsome and so are the members, there is allot of combined knowlege here, and i agree with your one statement, "its expensive"...lol
 
S

ssm05rsx

Not to jump to a new subject but I don't want to make a new thread... and my brother is asleep or I would ask him. You guys did say I can ask questions. :)

Once the tank is done cycling we are looking at getting Clown Fish for the tank. Well I was just looking on LiveAquaria.com and saw the Kaudern's Cardinal Fish and pretty much think it looks awesome, and now i really want it.

p-39350-kaudern-cardinal.jpg


LiveAquaria said that is an easy fish to take care of so thats good for beginners and it is good with reefs.

Would it go good with the Clown Fish? My brother already has a Bicolor Blenny that will be introduced to the 55gal when cycling is complete. Will it be ok with that?

Any other nice/exotic/easy-care-level fish we may be able to add to the tank?

Do you think Two Clown Fish, and Two Cardinals and the Bicolor Blenny is enough or to much for the 55 gal.
I don't want the tank over crowded because last time we did that it was with Oscars we had one of pretty much each oscar; red/tiger/albino then a Texas Cichlid all at full grown size all in a 55 gal tank LOL. (it was not fun cleaning after them.)


Thanks again!
 
JohnS_323

JohnS_323

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
That type of cardinal (also known as the Banggai Cardinal) is peaceful, hardy and will generally get along with most other species. The BIG problem with them is that they are being completely over fished and have made it to the endangered species list. If you have your heart set on it, find captive bred fish and only buy them. They may cost you a little more but it's the right thing to do. That's pretty much the best ecological advice across the board. Whenever possible, buy captive bred livestock.
 
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