Hello all! I'm new and eager to learn!

James.gridley · Mar 24, 2020

I live in Nebraska surrounded by seas of corn and waves of gently running hills. I'm excited to be creating a small piece of reef in my living room for my girl friend and kiddo, friends, and my self to enjoy. My first tank just cycled a few weeks ago just before Denver Reefstock. I've been working on it diligently for the past few months, many of the components are DIY. We were excited to attend Reefstock, buy a few fish, then get them into our tank- plot twist... We won the raffle for the RedSea XL200 tank sponsored by RedSea and Reef2Reef! So now we have two tanks! Stay tuned to see plans for both tank builds . Thank you Reef2Reef and RedSea!

Auquanut · Mar 24, 2020

Welcome to the party! Congrats on tank #2. I've been in the hobby awhile and won nothing! Glad to have you with us.

Noah's Shark · Mar 24, 2020

Ah, I envy you my good sir. I was present when you won that beautiful tank. I'm glad to see that it went to a good home. Firstly, welcome to the hobby! Next, I have a series of questions for you:
What size is your first tank?
What are your plans for each of the tanks? And
Did you buy any new fish friends while at Reefstock?
I'd be interested in hearing more about your DIY'd portion of the tank build. I'll be following along with the builds!

James.gridley · Mar 24, 2020

Auquanut said:
Welcome to the party! Congrats on tank #2. I've been in the hobby awhile and won nothing! Glad to have you with us.

Thank you! I've only ever won one large gift before, tickets to Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. This win came from the last drawing of the day... I hadn't won all weekend, but was still happy to see the people around me getting their numbers called for various prizes. Loved seeing kids winning big stuff like Eshopps sumps, skimmers, and even a full Apex system. Not only was it the last drawing, but somebody else had the winning number, but didn't show to claim the Tank. Then they drew my number!

Copingwithpods · Mar 24, 2020

Welcome to the last forum you'll ever need

James.gridley · Mar 24, 2020

Noah's Shark said:
Ah, I envy you my good sir. I was present when you won that beautiful tank. I'm glad to see that it went to a good home. Firstly, welcome to the hobby! Next, I have a series of questions for you:
What size is your first tank?
What are your plans for each of the tanks? And
Did you buy any new fish friends while at Reefstock?
I'd be interested in hearing more about your DIY'd portion of the tank build. I'll be following along with the builds!

Really!? That's awesome! I'm happy that someone from that experience is here to continue the journey with me. Yes, I will definitely be starting a tank thread or two and posting lots of pics. I've already started on Instagram, is it ok to share my username here??

First tank is a 55gallon. 48x12x 20ish. 40 gallon breeder as a sump. Bean Animal style standpipe setup connecting them with 500gph turnover from return pump.

Plan was to keep that tank simple, learn more about fish and all the critters as I go while entertaining and educating both the 3 year old and girlfriend at home. Planned on some zoas and paly in a few months and eventually get into sps. Well, plans have changed with 2 tanks... Not sure what to do. The DIY 55 is up and running. The RedSea is set up but dry: needs lights and a return pump. Didn't have that expense planned for lol. I'd like to get it running too! Not sure what I'd put into it though.
Yes, we did get fish at Reefstock! 3 Bengaii Cardinals. They're doing great other than being a little skiddish still. In the quarantine tank we have 3 fire fish, 2 turbo snails, 1 bumblebee snail, and 1 cleaner shrimp. They've been in QT less than a week. Thanks for the follow up.