Local Introductions

[boviac]

It seems we're starting to pick up more participation on these forums so I would like to have people take a moment and tell us somethings about them (for example: real first name, current tank setup and inhabitants, how you got into the hobby, other hobbies, your occupation that allows you to afford this hobby, particular skills you have that benifit you in this hobby, etc, etc).
Feel free to post pictures as several of you already have but I would like to request they aren't so BIG that they expand the thread page and take long to d/l even with broadband.:rolleyes:

I'll start. My name is Chris (boviac) and I currently have 50 gal garden reef with a 29 setup to be a place to hold frags. I have a 125 in the garage but in order to set it up right I'm going to take my time and budget myself. So anticipate it being around a year from now at the earliest and I may not even set it up here as we rent and my tanks already are a pain to move (including the move we did last June, I've moved my tanks five times within two years.:mad2: :eek2: ). I got into the hobby when I was about half way through my ME degree and got bored - I really should have just continued to study. I had the 29 in storage and took it out, set it up as a FOWLR. The same day I bought live rock for the first time - (did I just pay $110 for three rocks?) I saw an ad for a reef tank for sale in the newspaper the first day I looked. Thats when I bought the 50 but arranged to move it May of 2002. So that is more or less when I got into the 'reef' hobby but I had FW fish as a child and teen, and again in the 29 before I got out of the Navy.

I'm a mechanical engineer who works for an group of geologists and geotechnical engineers and I'm pursuing attainment of a Civil engineering license. Before I got my degree, I worked on a nuclear propulsion plant on the USS Enterprise. Wife is currently finishing her master's and we have a two year old girl.

I just overpassworded my photobucket account so I'll post some whole tank shots when I get a chance.

Who's next?

[boviac]

My 50 gal on 7/15/07:
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k21/boviac/IMG_1133a.jpg

Close up of my eductor mod - see DIY forum.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k21/boviac/IMG_1101.jpg

-Chris

[boviac]

Can you hear me now? Anyone?

[kinghokus420]

is this thing on....hello..hello???

ok well i guess i'll take a turn at this. my name is josh and i live up in paradise. im in my 1st year at butte. finally, almost 15 yrs out of highschool im going back.I have 2 girls that are as hooked as i am. i guarantee you will see them at the meetings. i started out in the hobby by being bored with cichlids. i've had fish for a long time but only seriously for the last 8. i started out with s/w by reading on RC. i soon got tired of all the bull**** that goes on there. but the spark was started. i soon moved to RAG where i stayed for a year or so just studying.(im a internet forum junkie). my first tank was a bowfront 72 with 20g sump. i was one of the few that actually studied and took my time before rushing too fast. so i had a stack of decent equiptment to go with it. then after it was going for a year or so, I found a 135 in orland for a decent price. and that is what i currently have. all i started out with was a glass box. i DIY'd everything else. the stand, i drilled the bulkheads myself, built the overflows, sump/fuge, the whole 9. about 3 or 4 months ago i transferred the 72 over to it and so far i have succeded in growing some fantastic hair algae. actually everything seems to be good. i just need more stuff to put in it. now that it is running good i seem to have a never ending list of mods to do. i just re-plumbed the whole works the otherday with flex tube, removed the durso pipes in favor of stockmans. i highly recommend this. stockman standpipes kick ***!!!! way quieter than a durso and only slightly harder to make. ok well enough about that on to the pics...

this is the 135 just after i set it up
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b384/norcalreefer/DSCN7753.jpg

and this was the 72
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b384/norcalreefer/DSCN7639.jpg

[boviac]

Great Josh... looks great! I see you have a phosban rx and I'm assuming you have phosphate removal media (not carbon) in there so that should help with the hair algae.

When you moved the 72 over did you use all the same sand? I've heard disturbing old sand without cleaning it can release lots of stored and safe detritus (read phosphates). I was having a seriously hard time a little over a year ago. When I moved to Chico however, I replaced nearly all of the sand and razored down all the walls. Nearly 100% water change - nearly all new sand and The Debresia disappeared nearly overnight. I was amazed. Good luck.

[kinghokus420]

im sure thats what the issue is. i re-used everything from the last setup. i have phosban in the reactor and a diy reactor with carbon daisy-chained after it. i also have a wad of whatever reef conn. has in their fuge in my fuge. i "shouldnt" have anything going on, but i do. i may go barebottom for a while to see if that helps.

[mikekman]

NIce pics Chris and Kinghokus!

Chris, I heard the same thing about reusing sand but I do it anyways :-)

I think as long as you have a good skimmer to get rid of the detritus and a refugium, shouldn't be too worrisome.

[boviac]

The first few times I moved I went through my sand by hand and sifted and rinsed it for the most part. Plus, I know before the Debresia outbreak I had someone else tending to the daily feeding and had an overfeeding habit. Been free, for the most part now, for over a year.

[micynyorkies]

Okay, okay - my turn. My name is Cindy; I am in Chico, finishing my Master's in Computer Engineering. Apart from fish, I ride dirtbikes, breed Yorkies, and run my dogs in Agility (great fun - come and watch sometime!) I have been into saltwater for about 6 months. I plumbed it myself (stockman standpipes). It only leaked for about a week, then it sealed itself. :D You can see my main tank at: 7-14-07 90 gallon tank picture (http://www.micynyorkies.com/images/07142007_whole_tank.jpg)
I also have a 46 gallon bowfront fresh water planted tank w/a pair of breeding angelfish (they haven't bred for me yet, though). I have a 10 gallon sw set up for my Banggai babies.

[boviac]

Cindy,

Thanks for posting. I've heard of someone taking a cup of water from their nano and exchanging it with water in their main display. Talk about daily water changes made simple. With such a small volume of water for the Banggai babies I think this suggestion might help their water quality a bit.

HTH & YMMV

[missyshrout]

Hi,

I guess it's my turn now . I got a 30 gallon tank at a thrift store for 3 bucks and my hubby was the one who wanted to do the s/w thing. Well I was the one doing all the shopping (after several petco trips):eek2:

So I started going to the LFS stores and wow I got hooked big time. My husband deals with all the equipment and I buy all the shiny stuff. I still need to learn alot more and am really excited about the meetings . I really want to meet everyone.

Iwas looking on craigslist and found a 50 for 100 bucks and drove all the way to LAporte to get it with the stand.:rolleyes:

Then I found Micynyorkies ad and bought her 50 with the refugium and sump set up and some of the great stuff that she let us have. I am totally crazy about everything to do with s/w tanks now.

I could do nothing but drool over her 90 which is sooooooooooo gorgeous.

I want to learn so much more from everyone who has more experience and am looking forward to a little instruction.

I am going to post some pics of the 50 (which is now currently being de-hair algaed so I can start packing it in and making it colorful and gorgeous like all these other tanks that I see. A new yellow tang will be added tomorrow.

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/161435HPIM1430.jpg

[mikekman]

Looking good Melissa! Appreciate the enthusiasm you have for s/w tanks!

[boviac]

Congrats and good luck with the Debresia (hair algae). ;) You sure did get a good deal there with everything you got from Cindy. Thanks for posting and I look forward to meeting you and hepling out in any way I can.

[boviac]

Anyone else out there??? ^

[Thizzelle686]

Hey guys My name is Chris and i am a sophomore at Chico State. I just recently got into reef aqauriums, only about a month ago. I currently have a 29 gallon biocube with a tomato clown fish and a fire shrimp. i just today became a member of the chico reef club and i look forward To going to the next meeting.
I have become completely addicted to the hobby and practically spend every free dollar i can on my tank. My most recent additions are a large colony of some orange zoas and a smaller colony of some daisy polyps. i would eventually like to put a purple fire fish and some type of dwarf angel in my tank. i would also like to add some frog spawn and maybe a few other softies.

[missyshrout]

Hey Chris,

Welcome to the club. Now we have two Chris's. WE are all looking forward to our next meeting because we are going to be electing officers and hearing about zoos from another member.

We are also exchanging some sand from our tanks. So bring some sand with you.

As you can see I am really excited about this, I have only been in the hobby for about a year. My hubby started it and I have taken over now.

I learn something new every day just by reading things on reef central.

So again Welcome.


Melissa

[kinghokus420]

welcome chris!!!!

[boviac]

Thizzelle686

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

Yes Welcome!!! Thanks for posting in this thread. Just curious about how you found us?

I think your fish, inverts, and coral wish list is great but I would make sure you plan your fish introductions carefully. One thing is some fish tend to become agressive when in a smaller tank when others are introduced, even if they may not be known to be agressive fish. So it is best to introduce the least agressive first. Ironically, I would have added the clown last. But no need to worry about that now.

Make sure you have a good top cover for the firefish as they are known to be spooked easy and can hop. Flame angles are my personal favorite of the dwarf angels but they can be finicky eaters. And with that fish load on that tank I would consider a skimmer.

It is very easy to get sucked up and devote all cash on hand and unfortunately credit available for this hobby. Especially for the real eye-candy corals out there. But take it slowly, learn as much as you can about everything, specificaly anything new you are planning to add to your tank (coexistance, feeding, behavior), and you should be off to a successful and rewarding hobby. If you have any questions post them here and someone is likely to help you out or point you in the right direction. There are A LOT of 'free' (if you don't count your time) resources out on the internet and hopefully, within the local club. Good luck to you. Looking forward to meeting you at the September 14th meeting.

[mikekman]

Welcome Thizzelle. If you somehow see me on campus say hi and we can chat about reefs, etc.

Definitely go slow on buying everything you see. Read lots of topics on reefcentral and learn. That way you will be better educated when you go to the LFS or buy stuff from online places.

Go slow and plan out what you want in your tank. Trust me, when you go so fast and spend all your money so quickly on a bunch of stuff without planning, when you do see a REALLY eye catching coral, you won't have room for it in your tank or the money for it. Look at all the topics on the chico forum and you will see some really nice corals that the local guys have that you can try and get frags of.

[Thizzelle686]

So i have a question. Like i said earlier i have a tomato clown fish that has been in my tank for about a week now. He seems to be very happy and eats readily. The only thing is he doesnt really like to leave the back right hand corner of my tank. He swims around a lot back there but he doesnt ever really venture out to the front of my tank. Why is this? I was speculating that he is either really shy or he is still just trying to get used to the adjustment. the only other thing i was thinking is that he likes to hang out over there cause that is where the intake to my filtration system is and he might like to pick up on any available food items that would be sucked in. Does anyone have any input?

[boviac]

Thizzelle686,

My clown has found his anemone to be his home and rarely ventures too far from it - even for food. However, as the anemone on occasion moves around so does the clown.

It could be the clown simply has found a place it likes and feels safe. Not all fish love to come right up to the front glass, in fact some you may never or rarely see. In fact, I had just written off my pink spotted shrimp goby as I had not seen him in just about two weeks and just yesterday morning there he was. :)

As long as he's eating and shows no sign of stress or wounds, I think everything would be fine.

[BBishop]

Hey Guys,

I'm Bill, one of the founders and first president of RARE. I'm working down here in San Luis Obispo, but I live in Redding. Unfortunatly I see that RARE is dying a slow death...hopefully it's just in hibernation.

The largest reef tank I've had was a 240, which I sold when I moved down here to work. Currently I have a 20 gallon set up in my RV where I stay. Believe it or not, I've had that tank now for 37 years, about 20 as a saltwater. It has gone through many upgrades and changes over the years. Right now I have a 250 watt MH pendant over it, a CPR skimmer and a Seio power head for water movement. My tank is thick with acros with one fish that I rarely feed. I'll try to get a picture in later.

My interest in aquatic life goes back as far as I can remember when I got my first fish 42 years ago.

Like Chris, I was also in the navy which gave me the opportunity to dive all over the world. My big dream was to work in aqua culture, so I settled in water treatment here in SLO. Now I see myself more as a conservationist, trying to save reefs through our efforts here at home.

Any how I'm a member of several clubs and I like seeing what you guys are doing, so I thought I'd check in.

[boviac]

Hey Bill,

Thanks for your interest in our small but growing club! :)

I've often though of life in an RV but my aquarium always keeps coming in to being a conflict. My idea of living in an RV required using forest roads, etc... not conducive to keeping the water in the tank.

You've got PM!

-Chris

[shelbiesdaddy]

Hi All,

I am Melissa's husband. I've got the 29 gallon and a 12 gallon Nano that is currently being used as a hospital. In the 29 I've got a couple oscillaris, a yellow-tailed blue damsel, a scooter blenney, a couple red starfish and a sea hare. I also get all my wife's leftovers.

[shelbiesdaddy]

Oh yeah, my name is Dan.

[boviac]

Welcome Dan,

It was good to meet you the other night and good luck with the QT tank. Thanks for posting your tank intro.

Everyone: All the increased activity is good. It will keep us and others coming back for more and more often. Further, there are other regional club's forums that can easily be accessed if you subscribe to them via your 'MY RC' link at the top. I simply go to RC, click that button, and then shuffle throught the various clubs to see what's going on. Plus there are the general forums that have a variety of topics to read about or help people out on.

Just a helpful tibit of info that took me several years ;) to figure out.

[mikekman]

Nice to meet you Dan and glad you joined RC along with your wife Melissa.

I will help you and your wife get lots of good corals!
Mike

[shelbiesdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10664660#post10664660 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mikekman
I will help you and your wife get lots of good corals!
Mike

Thanks Mike,

my tank could use a little color. Right now it is mostly pink with a little green mixed in.

[shelbiesdaddy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10660366#post10660366 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by boviac
Welcome Dan,

It was good to meet you the other night and good luck with the QT tank. Thanks for posting your tank intro.

Thanks, but unfortunately the Flame Angel didn't make it.:(

[boviac]

Sorry to hear that. You didn't have it very long did you?

I've heard of other potential problems with this fish when wild-caught and with cyanide tactics. The fish may recover initially but develop terminal internal problems that will show up several weeks later. Nothing anyone could do at that point but maybe in hindsight, find out if the flame angel, or any fish for that matter, was caught using cyanide and resist the purchase.

Nonetheless, no one can say what actually caused the demise of your fish (no fish autopsies being done in our area that I know of) but it is still sad when you lose one of your fish.

[nova67]

:)

[nova67]

hi everyone my name is micaiah some of you know me some dont i am a member of the redding club and former president of the redding club.i just stoped in to say hi and post some pics of my past and present reef tanks.


this was my 33gal cube before i sold it
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/33galcube026-1.jpg
http:// http://
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/33galcube025-1.jpg

this was my 54 corner before i sold it
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/54corner009.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/54corner028.jpg

and this is my 125 gal w/55gal fuge
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/125pics005.jpg
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m276/nova1967/125pics004.jpg

[mikekman]

Nova67, thanks for posting and coming on the Chico RC club forum! Visit and post as often as you would like. The Chico club is really bustling with activity!

125 looks good, let me know if you want to trade anything :-)

[boviac]

Bump for Bob or really for anyone else who hasn't yet posted about their tank... But seriously Bob, at the begining of this thread there is a photo of my DIY eductor.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1099596
is the thread which piqued my interest. :D I love this forum and build threads!

Nova thanks for sharing your tank shot photos!!! Amazing to have such a large volume of water in a single residence.

[Twisted]

Hey most of you now me by now, I don't know why, but for some reason I just noticed that the post I had made did not show up here, so I will try it again.

My name is Brian and I have been in this hobby for around 2, maybe 2 and a half years now. I had a fresh water tank for about 4 years before that. I work from home so tend to do a lot of reading on the internet and have learned quite a bit, but never enough since so much of this hobby seems to change from tank to tank.
I mainly have soft corals with a few LPS and a couple SPS, I have attempted SPS many times but of the 12 pieces I have tried I only have 4 still going. <A lot were killed by my stupid snails knocking them over> but I love my softies.
Here are some pictures. All of my pictures of my tank seem to be old ones other then the close ups on these. So I will try to get a good shot of my entire tank later today.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/IMG_0216.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/zoacolony.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/sunburstzoa.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/ringoffirezoa.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/fewzoacolonies.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/eagleeyezoas-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/orangetipcloves2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/bluetinycloves.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v207/Lordtwisted/lowertank.jpg

[shelbiesdaddy]

Nice, I love the softies too. Love the colors on pics 3 and 7.

[boviac]

Nice zoo's and I still have affinity for those blue clove polyps :D

[Twisted]

yeah, those are one of the ones Karl said would be allowed in the rare part for the dixon frag swap, so when I frag them, if I get an extra small piece we can talk. I have a friend up here that wants a piece too.