New Reefer - Taking it slow...

[Proctor614]

Jonas in Northern Illinois.
I've done freshwater fish off and on since I was a kid. My favorite fish was my Silver Arowana in my 220gal or my breeding pairs of cichlids in my 115.
Now we're going for the full reef experience. Picked up a 180gal Marineland Reef Ready dual overflow tank. Building a custom stand with a custom ordered sump. Just ordered 150lb of Pukani and plan to begin curing that. Not legitimately planning on having our first fish till mid July or even August. We've been spending months planning, researching, and way over-thinking the whole process. Now the basic one tank plan has turned into a plan for 3 quarantine tanks and eventually a frag tank...
I'm sure I'll have lots of questions along the way, especially when we get to programming the Apex for dosing, water changes, etc..

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like your off to a great start. Knowledge and patience will be your most powerful tools in this hobby. It is great that your planning everything out and taking it slow, thats something I wish I had done!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Wow! Sounds like an excellent start. How big did that Arowana get? I have seen 2’ which is crazy.

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Proctor614]

Wow! Sounds like an excellent start. How big did that Arowana get? I have seen 2’ which is crazy.

Welcome to R2R!

Around 30 inches. Had a heater fail while on vacation and he(?) never quite bounced back.

 

[mike werner]

welcome,all the cool kids hang out here

 

[NY_Caveman]

Around 30 inches. Had a heater fail while on vacation and he(?) never quite bounced back.

Wow. Nice sized. Enough to make a 220 look small.

Gear likes to fail when we are on vacation. Sad to hear, but excited to see you starting a reef.

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome to R2R Jonas!

Maybe start a build thread when you get the chance.

 

[mike werner]

vacations killed many a reef tank.

 

[Proctor614]

Welcome to R2R Jonas!

Maybe start a build thread when you get the chance.

LOL, Don't tempt me!
We are taking pictures along the way and plan to make the 'behind the scenes' just as interesting as the display. I'm sure you'll see something.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R! The slower you can go in this hobby the better

 

[reef lover]

Welcome to the salt life!!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Reefer Deez]

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like your off to a great start. Knowledge and patience will be your most powerful tools in this hobby. It is great that your planning everything out and taking it slow, thats something I wish I had done!

I couldn’t agree with this more! It’s a wonder foundation to reef keeping hi and welcom to R2R! Please don’t be shy ask a lot of questions there’s a lot of really kind people here to help you with anything

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R and to the salty side. As said, taking it slow is about the best thing you can do.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Welcome to R2R

 

[4FordFamily]

Jonas in Northern Illinois.
I've done freshwater fish off and on since I was a kid. My favorite fish was my Silver Arowana in my 220gal or my breeding pairs of cichlids in my 115.
Now we're going for the full reef experience. Picked up a 180gal Marineland Reef Ready dual overflow tank. Building a custom stand with a custom ordered sump. Just ordered 150lb of Pukani and plan to begin curing that. Not legitimately planning on having our first fish till mid July or even August. We've been spending months planning, researching, and way over-thinking the whole process. Now the basic one tank plan has turned into a plan for 3 quarantine tanks and eventually a frag tank...
I'm sure I'll have lots of questions along the way, especially when we get to programming the Apex for dosing, water changes, etc..

Welcome home, you will love it here!

Quarantine is the way to go, @HotRocks is about a year in and has expert-level fish throughout his 180 due to research and doing things the right way the first time!

Keep us posted with your build with lots of photos!

 

[HotRocks]

Welcome to R2R! Great Place, Great People, and TONS of Great Info!

I also chose the route of a disease free DT from the beginning! Please don't hesitate to ask questions! Sounds like you have done some research and are going to be off to a good start!

 

[Cliffsreef]

Just wanted to add myself to this thread

 

[Turbo's Aquatics Verified Sponsor]

Welcome to R2R!!

Not legitimately planning on having our first fish till mid July or even August. We've been spending months planning, researching, and way over-thinking the whole process.

Sounds like you have the right plan, you may have already seen this one but if not, I would suggest reading #15 in this article first: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/

I have found myself referencing this article more than any other, not just to anyone new to the hobby. The nitrogen cycle is only the startup of a SW tank cycle. The next 6-12 months is a maturing phase, and it's typically in this time frame where algae outbreaks occur and things can sort of roller-coaster, and if you stock the tank up too quickly, you might see corals randomly dying & fish getting sick, etc...people who are relatively new to the SW hobby (or never bothered to study this aspect of it too much) can very easily fall into the trap of chasing problems = making more problems => giving up and selling everything off. We don't want that to happen to anyone!

Long-term stability and balance are the keys, and you just can't shortcut the process significantly. That's always the #1 thing to keep in mind!