Matt's natural reef

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Salt was added yesterday. I got my order of dry rock today from billysreefconnection.com/Floridadryrock.com. Apparently billysreefconnection.com has shut down in the week since I ordered my rock. Pretty nice selection of rock IMO. Plenty of very large pieces to build aquascape out of. I ran out of room to add all of the 150# of rock received. I have to wait for some evaporation to add the rest of my rock. My salinity is at 1.023 so I don't want to remove any water to make room for my rock. I'll let my water evaporate so that my salinity will rise without having to add salt.

Don't comment about my aquascape because it's not aquascaped yet. I plan a move in 4 to 6 months so the rock is in the tank for submersion time and plan on using @brandon429 method of cycling by being able to remove and clean my rock as needed.
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BRS
I tested my Nitrates today and they are at 50ppm and my Phosphate is <0.03ppm.

I was planning on ordering some Cheato and pods and phyto to stock my fuge but none of the online retailers have Cheato! My LFS is s$@t so I found 2 LFS in Columbia, SC an hour away so I'll be going there tomorrow to get my fuge started.

In the meantime while I've been waiting for my cycle i have been working on getting my SB reeflights mounted and controlled. For mounting, I decided to use 1 1/2" PVC to hold the lights off the top Eurobracing. The PVC allowed me to tuck all the wires inside the pipe. The controller is a whole nother story.
I tried using a Kessil Spectral controller but that didn't work out so I've decided to build a reef-pi to control my lights and eventually more controls and monitoring will be added to the rpi.

For the moment I am happy with the aquascape that I arranged. No drilling or glue so I can disassemble as needed.

Would 50ppm Nitrate be a problem for some beginner corals? Any suggestions on what to add first? NO GSP!
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ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
I saw some brown spots yesterday and now they're popping up everywhere! I fairly certain they are diatoms. This is my 5th week of cycling with Ace hardware ammonia hydroxide.

I also updated my aquascape a couple days ago which caused a bacterial bloom, as it stayed cloudy for 36-48 hrs. May have had something to due with my diatoms bloom. 20181218_205254.jpg
 
I have been researching the many methods employed in reef keeping over the last 9 months. I have a 150 cycling for about 2 months. I have been attracted to the natural ecosystem methods. There are so few reefers employing natural reef systems with many more pushing all the gadgets and everything else that makes our reef tanks a sterile environment.
One of my original plans was to use natural salt water to start my tank up but was dissuaded by the multitude of naysayers who advocate for a sterile environment for our inhabitants. I am 3 hours drive away from the South Carolina and Georgia coast beaches.

The sand in my sump, which is all fuge except for return pump section, is dry sand from a beach on Hunting Island, SC. I don't know how much biodiversity was dormant in that dry sand but I would imagine some would have came to life in he presence of saltwater.

My plan at this time is to start to develop a population of phyto then pods. I plan to get some garf grunge and bag of bugs and some KP Aquatics live rock. Over the summer I am going to take my wife and daughter to every beach in the area and bring back a homer bucket with some sand, mud, water to add to my tank.

I probably won't add any fish til May or June so I can build up my ecosystem.
 
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Off to a nice start. Good call on going basic knowing you’ll be moving. I probabaly would have just waited until after I moved but good for you taking in the challenge.

Im calling in a couple folks fairly local to you. @mta_morrow @Robin Haselden
Not sure how close exactly but in that part of the country. Best of luck!
 
Scurvy said:
Off to a nice start. Good call on going basic knowing you’ll be moving. I probabaly would have just waited until after I moved but good for you taking in the challenge.

Im calling in a couple folks fairly local to you. @mta_morrow @Robin Haselden
Not sure how close exactly but in that part of the country. Best of luck!
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Hello Matt!

I’m in Bluffton/Hilton Head SC.

Where are you located?
 
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Scurvy said:
Off to a nice start. Good call on going basic knowing you’ll be moving. I probabaly would have just waited until after I moved but good for you taking in the challenge.

Im calling in a couple folks fairly local to you. @mta_morrow @Robin Haselden
Not sure how close exactly but in that part of the country. Best of luck!
Click to expand...
I probably should edit that post about moving. The move has been postponed indefinitely.
 
Scurvy said:
Off to a nice start. Good call on going basic knowing you’ll be moving. I probabaly would have just waited until after I moved but good for you taking in the challenge.

Im calling in a couple folks fairly local to you. @mta_morrow @Robin Haselden
Not sure how close exactly but in that part of the country. Best of luck!
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Yo, thanks for the tag @Scurvy.

Hey @Matt Carden, I'll have to go thru your build and see what you've done. Looks good from the first few posts. I'm in a little "census designated community" called Lugoff, SC. Yea you know exactly where that is!

(PST, get off Google maps, it's just east of Columbia. Exit 92 on I20)

If you ever need chaeto... I grow a gallon bag full(I mean F-U-L, full) about every month, so I can hook you up for the price of a USPS prepaid box.
 
Robin Haselden said:
Yo, thanks for the tag @Scurvy.

Hey @Matt Carden, I'll have to go thru your build and see what you've done. Looks good from the first few posts. I'm in a little "census designated community" called Lugoff, SC. Yea you know exactly where that is!

(PST, get off Google maps, it's just east of Columbia. Exit 92 on I20)

If you ever need chaeto... I grow a gallon bag full(I mean F-U-L, full) about every month, so I can hook you up for the price of a USPS prepaid box.
Click to expand...
Hello @Robin Haselden, Cool thanks for the offer of Chaeto. I could use some.

What do you think of the LFS in Columbia? Mine here in Augusta doesn't have a very good selection of coral.
 
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Matt Carden said:
Hello @Robin Haselden, Cool thanks for the offer of Chaeto. I could use some.

What do you think of the LFS in Columbia? Mine here in Augusta doesn't have a very good selection of coral.
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Hit or miss...

Aquarium Specialty is really close to me and focuses more on corals than fish. Pretty corals tho and I've always gotten fair prices.

Fishy Buisness is a big store and has fresh and salt. They always have lots of fish in. Sometimes they have great corals, other times I see aiptasia and majanos all over frag plugs.

Palmetto Reef is the furthest away from me over in West Columbia. I've seen some pretty stuff over there but his prices... let's just say you can get a better deal elsewhere.

If you want to make the drive, Leon's Lagoon in Sumter has nice stuff. He's been in the fish store buisness for almost 30 years now, so he's got a TON of knowledge.

A bit more of a drive but down in Charleston there's Joe Knows Reefs, who I've got several corals from and always brings the fire... speaking of, Look up Reef Dreams. It's put on by Joey from JKR on March 9th in Charleston. Gonna have 60 tables for coral vendors there this year. Its gonna be awesome, and last year was pretty great.

Also in Charleston is Tideline Aquatics. They are still under construction from the car that took out the front of the store, but last I heard will be back open hopefully by the end of the month.
 
Robin Haselden said:
Hit or miss...

Aquarium Specialty is really close to me and focuses more on corals than fish. Pretty corals tho and I've always gotten fair prices.

Fishy Buisness is a big store and has fresh and salt. They always have lots of fish in. Sometimes they have great corals, other times I see aiptasia and majanos all over frag plugs.

Palmetto Reef is the furthest away from me over in West Columbia. I've seen some pretty stuff over there but his prices... let's just say you can get a better deal elsewhere.

If you want to make the drive, Leon's Lagoon in Sumter has nice stuff. He's been in the fish store buisness for almost 30 years now, so he's got a TON of knowledge.

A bit more of a drive but down in Charleston there's Joe Knows Reefs, who I've got several corals from and always brings the fire... speaking of, Look up Reef Dreams. It's put on by Joey from JKR on March 9th in Charleston. Gonna have 60 tables for coral vendors there this year. Its gonna be awesome, and last year was pretty great.

Also in Charleston is Tideline Aquatics. They are still under construction from the car that took out the front of the store, but last I heard will be back open hopefully by the end of the month.
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Thanks for the info. I was planning on going to reef dreams. Probably get my first corals there.
 
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Robin Haselden said:
Hope to see you there. Bought my VIP ticket last week. :)
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I am trying to find a link, flyer, whatever I can that shows the event.

I can’t find anything even on the joeknowsreef website.

Anybody have something they can post here please?
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

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