VT reefers!

Eric R. · Jan 5, 2023

hawgger said:
Hello, New reefer from Burlington here. Started a biocube 32 couple weeks back.

Hello! In Essex. Running a 13.5 fluval for a year, and a 10g macroalgae and invert qt tank. Just picked up a used Red Sea 250 for my next tank.

How's the tank going? What did you use to start your setup? Still cycling?

hawgger · Jan 5, 2023

tank is doing well. still cycling. I started with 1 clown, live sand, dry rock, and nutri sea water. I wasn't well informed at the moment of starting. I haven't had any issues yet and the clown appears to be happy and healthy. ammonia is at
about .50ppm and nitrites just started to show up at 0.25ppm and i cant tell with nitrates yet. I'm using a API test kit.

hawgger · Jan 5, 2023

Eric R. · Jan 6, 2023

hawgger said:
tank is doing well. still cycling. I started with 1 clown, live sand, dry rock, and nutri sea water. I wasn't well informed at the moment of starting. I haven't had any issues yet and the clown appears to be happy and healthy. ammonia is at
about .50ppm and nitrites just started to show up at 0.25ppm and i cant tell with nitrates yet. I'm using a API test kit.

Did you pickup stuff at Pet Advantage?

Also, if you haven't done it yet, and you want to give your cycling a bump, you can add a bacterial starter. Or anything that has a source of nitrifying bacteria, including a chunk of live rock, some sand from an established tank, or a small piece of hardy coral.

hawgger · Jan 6, 2023

ereccer said:
Did you pickup stuff at Pet Advantage?

Also, if you haven't done it yet, and you want to give your cycling a bump, you can add a bacterial starter. Or anything that has a source of nitrifying bacteria, including a chunk of live rock, some sand from an established tank, or a small piece of hardy coral.

Yes I did. Do you recommend them or someone else?

Eric R. · Jan 7, 2023

hawgger said:
Yes I did. Do you recommend them or someone else?

I mean, I believe they are the only store in the county with saltwater fish or invertebrates/coral. I personally think some of their stuff is overpriced for saltwater, though I've gotten plenty of freshwater fish and some equipment/supplies from them. I liked the guy that used to run their fish section, and I think there's a woman that currently runs it though I've only met her once, she seemed knowledgeable. You don't always get those employees though. There's the green mountain coral place, but I don't even know if they are around anymore, website is down and facebook has been inactive for almost two years. I think even when they were more active, they were hit or miss if they would be there during business hours.

There's a local hobbyist that sells off excess coral frags at very reasonable prices, has some good easy to keep beginner stuff, here's on here from time-to-time, lives locally (@thepotoo). He might also be able to hook you up with some live rock, if you were interested. Keith Berkelhamer (reefbum.com) lives in the mad river valley, and sells corals online. I plan to pickup some things from him at some point.

All of my SW stuff I've either ordered online (inverts, live rock, macroalgae), gotten used, or gotten from thepotoo.

It seems from this forum that we have folks around the area that enter and leave the hobby in a year or two, which is probably the norm in generally from what I hear, but I think it's too bad we don't have a group of regular saltwater hobbyists that can better support new hobbyists locally. There's the tropical fish club, but I think they tend to be more freshwater than saltwater focused.

I'm still pretty new myself, and unfortunately am just not running very large tanks, so I don't have any extra coral or live rock to easily share with new hobbyists.

Eric R. · Jan 7, 2023

hawgger said:
Yes I did. Do you recommend them or someone else?

Also, as a beginner it was crazy for me to find easy to digest reliable information. My 2 cents is that starting with old books can be helpful, even if some of the equipment discussed like lighting or using chillers can be outdated for most folks running LEDs. The Reef Aquarium Vol 1 by Sprung and Delbeek can be picked up used cheap.

I like listening to podcasts, Keith with Reef Bum does youtube livestreams (Rappin' with Reef Bum) and posts them as podcasts and interviews a lot of longtime reef keeping folks that have great info, like Sanjay Joshi, Rich Ross, Charles Delbeek, and Julian Sprung. Rich Ross and Ben Johnson also run a youtube video series/podcast called Reef Beef which I love that has a ton of useful info. They have a great episode here that talks about some challenges new and experienced hobbyists alike deal with, but that can catch up new hobbyists that haven't dealt with them before (The Dishes are Never Done). They also have a discord you can join for free, and post questions on to get advice from or just meet people to chat with. Kinda like here, but I appreciate the community a lot better. Very knowledgeable folks on there.

hawgger · Jan 7, 2023

ereccer said:
Also, as a beginner it was crazy for me to find easy to digest reliable information. My 2 cents is that starting with old books can be helpful, even if some of the equipment discussed like lighting or using chillers can be outdated for most folks running LEDs. The Reef Aquarium Vol 1 by Sprung and Delbeek can be picked up used cheap.

I like listening to podcasts, Keith with Reef Bum does youtube livestreams (Rappin' with Reef Bum) and posts them as podcasts and interviews a lot of longtime reef keeping folks that have great info, like Sanjay Joshi, Rich Ross, Charles Delbeek, and Julian Sprung. Rich Ross and Ben Johnson also run a youtube video series/podcast called Reef Beef which I love that has a ton of useful info. They have a great episode here that talks about some challenges new and experienced hobbyists alike deal with, but that can catch up new hobbyists that haven't dealt with them before (The Dishes are Never Done). They also have a discord you can join for free, and post questions on to get advice from or just meet people to chat with. Kinda like here, but I appreciate the community a lot better. Very knowledgeable folks on there

ereccer said:
thanks for all the info.

hawgger · Jan 7, 2023

Thanks for all the info. I've been doing a lot of research the past week. That's too bad the hobby is such a small community around here. That would be cool having more access to corals without constant shipping fees.

thepotoo · Jan 7, 2023

Thanks for the mention @ereccer

I have live rock from my sump with sponges and pods I'd be happy to set you up with dirt cheap. Plenty of easy corals too, once you feel ready to try those. I'm in the Burlington area and available most of the time. PM me and I'll get you set up.