Dipping my toes in

[jessezm]

Hi all- Jesse from Atlanta here. Been a long time (about 10 years) since I broke down my 200g mixed reef, and I'm starting to get the itch again. Back then, a lot of folks were moving away from MH lights to T5s, which is what I did, but LEDs were starting to come onto the market. Boy, so many other things seem to have changed with regards to technology and wacky coral names. Also, good lord, prices are bananas! for both corals and equipment!

So I'm really taking my time, trying to ease back in slowly by picking up gear little by little as I see things that make sense.

So far, I've got a Reef Octopus 3000int (with neck extension), and Eshopps ADV-300 sump, a Kessil 360we Tuna, and a few other odds and ends. I am thinking I will be setting up another mixed reef (primarily SPS ultimately), but I literally have no idea what size/shape. I like the depth of cubes tanks and my house is pretty small, so that may be the best way to get a decent volume of water.

I do have a partially finished basement that can serve as a fish room, so there are unlimited possibilities there. I was thinking most of the system's volume would be down there, with just a really clean display on the main floor.

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself as I've never been on this forum before! I had hundreds of posts on RC, but they erased them all at some point :-/

Other hobbies I'm into:
Fly Fishing
Vintage motorcycle restoration

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!!

#WelcometoR2R

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R and your new reefing community.

 

[jessezm]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

 

[Roamer]

 

[Greybeard]

Welcome.

I too was out of the hobby for a decade... jumped back in 3 years ago. Started with a 60g cube, but had that for just over a year before deciding that it wasn't filling my needs.

I also was impressed with LED's, and some of the other cool new technology. I'm less so now. Back to T5's, thanks. Live rock, a good skimmer, macro algae based refugeum... same stuff I used to use. Even back to dosing ESV's B-Ionic and Kalkwasser. These new technologies are wonderful, but the basic needs of the animals we're keeping haven't changed. There are a very few 'new' things that I find invaluable. ICP testing can give you a much wider window into the chemistry of your tank than was ever available before. GFO reactors basically solve the long standing problem of how to maintain low phosphates in our systems. Controllers (Apex) allow a great deal of automation that can catch and alert us to issues quickly, even make changes to the actual system in order to automatically correct, or at least limit the damage, a failure might cause.

LED's? I'm of the opinion that they're just not there yet. I fully believe, one day, the lighting argument will be silenced. Everyone will use a readily available, inexpensive, flexible LED system that fills all of the needs of this hobby. That light isn't available yet. Until it is, I'm back to T5's.

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[jessezm]

Greybeard, you are definitely in line with my thinking on the lights. I do think I will incorporate t5s and LEDs that I already have together in some combo. But I have to stop second guessing the rest and remember, I knew what I was doing once and had a really kick a@@ reef! I'll post up some pics when I can find them...

Welcome.

I too was out of the hobby for a decade... jumped back in 3 years ago. Started with a 60g cube, but had that for just over a year before deciding that it wasn't filling my needs.

I also was impressed with LED's, and some of the other cool new technology. I'm less so now. Back to T5's, thanks. Live rock, a good skimmer, macro algae based refugeum... same stuff I used to use. Even back to dosing ESV's B-Ionic and Kalkwasser. These new technologies are wonderful, but the basic needs of the animals we're keeping haven't changed. There are a very few 'new' things that I find invaluable. ICP testing can give you a much wider window into the chemistry of your tank than was ever available before. GFO reactors basically solve the long standing problem of how to maintain low phosphates in our systems. Controllers (Apex) allow a great deal of automation that can catch and alert us to issues quickly, even make changes to the actual system in order to automatically correct, or at least limit the damage, a failure might cause.

LED's? I'm of the opinion that they're just not there yet. I fully believe, one day, the lighting argument will be silenced. Everyone will use a readily available, inexpensive, flexible LED system that fills all of the needs of this hobby. That light isn't available yet. Until it is, I'm back to T5's.

 

[MaddyP]

Welcome to the family, Jesse!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Welcome to R2R!

I used to fly fish all the time. Would get up before high school and go fishing. Man that was a long time ago.

 

[FredsNJReef]

Welcome to R2R @Jesse Zaro-Moore ! And welcome back to the hobby!

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to r2r!!

 

[mike werner]

welcome,sorry to hear they trashed your posts.we value our members more than that I would hope.