Welcome To NJRC! Take a minute to introduce yourself

[kabal2]

Hi, Im Gabriel, Colombian, i moved to new york 11 years ago and then move to new jersey, 6 years ago, married to my wife for 5 feels like 20, ok i was in the hobby before but hair algae defet me, now im back and doing good i think, i have a 20h sps and working in my 120 that is going to be sps, i dont have much to say but if you want to know anything about me just ask, i dont have problems answering anything you ask
do i make sense??? ???

 

[cwrenge]

Thanks to " Bob n Jason ".... Ggggggggggeee i finally got my E and password straighten out.... you guys i'm sure worked hard to help me again thanks.. well herr goes... i started reef about18 yrs ago... afriend in the pet shop bussiness got me building my first reef tank... it was made out of plywood with a 3 sided viewing ( glass )area... it filled me with wonder everday... nd i made my Wet-Dry out of some glass hanging around the shop. the tank turned out to be about an 55 long... with floresent lights... it started me on a life long journey... i presently have a 55 reef, 175 halide/2-95 blu.. some frags (just recently ) ...i have some blennys, a Tang,maroon clown wth anemone, a weaver, Pgmy angel ( i'm babysittin ) some star poloyps, green ployps,and some newly discoverd other forms... i hope to go " Berlin Style System...... cw.

 

[hobokenaddict]

I'm very glad to have found the NJRC after being on the nano-reef.com and manhattanreefs sites.  My name is Matt and I currently live in Hoboken with my wife, and soon to be baby(boy? girl?). 

I'm not originally from NJ.  I was born an Airforce brat, and lived in OK, FL, MX, and VA(much of it when I was too young to remember).  I gew up in Northern Virginia, went to college at George Mason University, met my future bride while in VA, and followed her to NJ/NYC.   I've had cichlids, frogs, snakes(my 9ft suranam boa named Rebecca, named after this girl at www.rebeccacardon.net), lizards, dogs, cats, and rats.   I currently work in Manhattan, and as I say above, live happily in Hoboken, and spend many weekends down in Manaaquan and Bayhead NJ.

About 18 months ago, a buddy of mine showed me his little 7 gallon saltwater tank, which i then learned had a clam, featherduster, and shrimp.  What struck me was the fact he had no big filters, carbon systems, and that it was only 7 gallons.  I was hooked right then.  So I spent about 3 months figuring out what I wanted for a tank, what I needed to buy and build, and of course, how much my wife would tolerate me putting another tank in our condo in Hoboken.  We curently have a FW tank with happy fish and a few plants. 

Because of size issues, I decided to go Nano and bought my AGA 7 gallon minibow.  I decided to go Berlin stylie with 14lbs of LR, a CPR BakPak 2R skimmer, and i think about 5- 6 gallons of SW.  My initial lighting was a retro CSL 2X32 pc 10k and Actinic, and water flow is a mix of the BakPak, and a ph.  But before I could even start on the tank, I had to buld the stand, which is probably sturdy enough to hold an elephant.  With my basic setup , I got my LR, mixed my salt, turned on the equipment, and stared into the tank in awe, wondering what's next. 

I'm a big fan of DIY.  I created an air powered auto topoff with floatswitch.  I use 3.2 gallong nalgene bottle and an airpump to topoff.  I also use this to add the various seachem supplements for KH and Ca.  I also recently built an acrylic sump which will have a fresh water storage tank(6gallons), a sump(10gal) for macro algea, an ice probe chiller for temp and to move my heater and skimmer into the stand.  I also DIY's my overflow off of directions I found online using Lee's skimmer boxes.  I have not installed this yet, still have a few more things to do before it's ready.  I recently replaced my stock hood with a bent wood oak canopy, and added a 70w 14k MH to the hood, plus i put in a 2x32 all actinic PC as well. I'll put some stuff into a gallery if anyone is interested in seeing my nano-monster.

My tank is mixed sith soft, LPS, SPS, and some hitchiker inverts and featherdusters that came out of the LR on their own.  I have green star polyps, purple star polyps, encrusting briareum(i think), neon green stars, purple mushrooms, green protopalythoa, frogspawn, candy cane, woods polys, bright orange zooanthids, red zoos, woods polyps, hairy mushroom, and I think a tan acro frag with blue/purple tips.  I also have two fragments of a neon green and purple yuma that survived a protozoan slime out and are gettting bigger and bigger each day.  I also have a capnella coral that is overgrown the tank, and needs to be fragged, although I don't have the space or a prop tank yet.  I think I have probably 6 or 7 potentail capnella frags from the host.  BTW-need someone to help me frag, and then can have them for trade, give, whatever.

All my corals are either from GARF in Idaho, or are cpr rescued frags from Seacrop.  When we move into a house sometime in the future, I'd like to do a 200 gallon built in and do everything, including making LR without having to harvest the corals or the reef rock.
Shot of tank

Various corals

Hairy, the Mushroom

I want to thank anyone who actually read through this thread.  I use the HobokenAddict name on nano-reef.com and Manhattanreefs.com and look forward to meeting you all in the future.

 

[nagel]

My name is Erik (those of you who were at the July meeting now know me).  I am one of the "oldtimers" that Tracy speaks of..  Started reefing in the Spring of 2000 and literally got addicted..  I worked part-time at Hanover Pet for 3 years which helped me fund my addiction as well as grow my collection of tanks..  I currently live in Stanhope (and dont want to move anytime soon!  not with all these tanks at least!) with my wife of 3 years and my two boxers..  Plus the 11 tanks (of which only 4 are currently lit due to excessively high electric bills).  I literally jumped right in, and read everything I can get my hands on. I am a moderator and staff member at ReefCentral, and try to attend every major reef conference that my budget allows (Baltimore and Boston MACNAs,  IMAC this year, and MACNA again this year in DC) and love talking with my fellow hobbiests as well as meeting and becoming friends with many of the big names in our hobby (I've met most of the authors on my bookshelf, and even talk to a few of them on the phone regularly)..  I'm addicted, as those of you who saw my 300g show tank cant attest to..  I've bred and raised Bangaii cardinals, even having some of my babys go on to breed and make my original pair grandparents!  I am currently working on breeding some clowns, and would like to get another pair or 3 of Bangaiis to breed..  My main interests are soft corals and LPS, and I LOVE zoanthids..  In my basement its a madhouse, over 1200 gallons of water..

I started keeping FW when I was 15, but my father always had a FW community tank in the house. a 20g.. I remember the look on his face when I brought home the 75 that I won in Baltimore (at that point, the largest tank in the house was my 29). Then the 300 nearly gave him a heart-attack. Now he practically begs to go downstairs when he comes over.. I bred guppies for line and color for a few years, but I always knew I wanted to go salt, and more specifically reef. That was forbidden in my house for a number of years because pops had major issues with the cost and the fact that when he tried it in the late 60's, he killed most everything (hmm, minimal filtration and a META FRAME tank (remember those?).. He flipped when I started the 29g reef saying that I would kill everything, but thanks to the internet, that wasnt the case.

But then again, this hobby IS addictive...

ps. wow, 3 Colombians in the club.. You'd never know it looking at me, but I'm a full 50% Colombian, pops was born and raised in Bogota.. Uncle was a very high ranking military man in Colombia.. Would love to visit, but being a foreigner, I don't need to be kidnapped. I'll wait till the political unrest is over before I venture down there...

 

[ham]

Hi all.. my name is Bill, ( you can call me ham) born in good old Philadelphia Pa. Relocated to a little town called Egg Harbor Township back in 1973 (not so little anymore).I live with my fiancee Tracy who i met on the computer,she is from Indiana, we have 3 children all together. Our journey to the salt water hobby started when I made the mistake of taking her and the kids to Ocean Aquarium in west Atlantic City about a year ago.Thats all it took to get HOOKED.We have a 90 gallon tank with 150lbs of live rock,4 - 110 vho plus 2 - 175w 20 k metal halides in the canopy, a chiller, seaclone protein skimmer,i turned my wetdry system into a sand refugium with a grow light for the plants. I dose once a day with b-ionic calcium buffer. We have a few fish but more coral, this is what we have:

1- yellow tang, 1- coral beauty, 1- royal gramma, 1- six line wrasse, 1- blue hippo, and a pair of scooter blennies. We also have the usual clean-up crew.

Our corals consist of:

Orange tree sponge, brown/green polyps, pumping xenia, (grows like weeds!) toadstool mushroom, devil's hand, kenya tree, green/orange zoos, cabbage leather, scolymia, button coral, ruffled ridge coral, open green brain, candy cane coral, orange tube coral, torch, hammer, gonipora, long, tentacle plate, fox coral, 2- galaxias, leaf plate montipora, purple acropora, birds nest frag, a couple of acropra frags and an orange montipora frag of some sort.

We do have pictures...plenty of them...but...I sure haven't figured out how to post as of yet...any help would be appreciated.

 

[concept3]

Hey ham, welcome! Galloway here, and Ruden (NJRC treasurer) is EHT as well. To post pictures here, you may have to contact Jpelzer afer you have submitted your yearly dues to the club ($12) and you'll have full access to upload pics to your personal gallery. You can also host pictures at www.photobucket.com and link to them in this forum. Post pics, we'd love to see them!



P.S. the yearly dues gets you a lot more than posting pics!!!

Merv

 

[ham]

Easier than we thought...this is one pic...have individual close ups that we will post later. Is there a size limit for posting?

 

[steve68]

wow, 3 Colombians in the club.. You'd never know it
LOL that's funny
;D

 

[Savager]

Hi guys. My name is Danny. I am happily married for little more than a year now. And I work for Citigroup as a computer programmer. I moved to NJ after I got married.

I had fresh water tank long time ago. And I recently got introduced to salt water tank by my coworker. It's really fascinating hobby. So I decided to get one for myself. I researched for like a month, visited every reefing forums and bought couple of books to get some knowledge. However, my problem was the size of the tank since I live in small apartment. And I found out nano-reef.com and I see alot of people do have small tanks.

So this is what I got,
12g JBJ Nano Cube with 92W DIY light upgrade.
16 pound LR
20+ pound LS
8 snails
4 Hermite Crabs
1 Skunk Shrimp

I cycled my tank for a month before I added those live stocks. All the parameter came down to 0. 1.023 salt lvl.

Anyway, I am trying to figure out what kind of corals I should add into my tank. It will be fun to decide what kind of stuffs I will be adding in.

Thanks all.

 

[Brian]

Welcome Danny... This is a great place to be.

That is a lot of sand and rock for such a small tank and what lighting!! Yee Haa.. You'll have a 30 gallon in no time..then a 50...then a 100....lol

 

[Savager]

Thanks. You are so right on the size of the tank that I want to upgrade. I don't have much live stocks in my tank and I only had it for little more than a month but I am already looking for 30 g. I think I am crazy like that. But I just need to concentrate my current tank and get some experience out of it.

Can you guys recommend me what kind of corals I should get? I am going to that Midnight madness thing from Absolutely Fish store tonight. My wife wants to pick up a nemo, Clown fish. I don't like to put any fish on my tank because of the small size but I need to satisfy my wife's approval.

 

[Brian]

I would stick with softies for now.. Mushrooms...Green Star Polyps.. Leather Coral or Colt Corals.. I have some stuff I could frag ya depending on where you are..

Just watch your salinity.. It can swing hardcore in a small tank.
I guess you could put a small percula clown in that tank...But that would be it.

 

[concept3]

Welcome Danny to NJRC!

 

[cwrenge]

Welcome Danny... ! i'm a newbe to here allso, the people here are careing / and full of experience they share... when ever i get on my pc... i allways check NJreefers out... again Welcome, cw.

 

[Savager]

ReefDrumz,
I live Northeast NJ, Bergen county. If you can frag me, I WOULD LOVE IT!!! I'll go where ever you located if it's not like 5 hours driving =)

Thanks everyone. Oh if anyone wants to sell nice corals, please let me know. I would rather want to buy from the hobbiest than LFS.

 

[nagel]

I can frag you, but I can't guarantee that the frag will live, nor can I guarantee that you will grow that part back..

But its worth a try! I just gotta borrow Sharks tilesaw...

Let me know when..

 

[Phyl]

LOL, Nagel, I was thinking the same thing! Northeast Aquatics is up in your neck of the woods. PM Fred for info on corals that he has available. Also if you can make it to the meeting the frags are always *flying*!

Welcome to NJRC!

 

[DownTown]

Hi All...

My name is Dave, and I'm a fish-a-holic (this IS the twelve step program, isn't it ?) I was born and raised in Sea Isle City, NJ, about the time God was a child. I married in 1996, and landed in Absecon in 1997. I work for the worlds largest casino company (don't know whether I'm bragging or complaining) for the moment. Bigger isn't always better. Except in fish tanks... 

I've had fresh water tanks on and off since I was about 12, and currently have a 20 hex in the bedroom full of tetras, and an 850 gallon pond in my back yard with about 45 sarassas and a volunteer frog. I was in Ocean Aquarium one day a few years back, saw some corals swaying in the current of one of their tanks, and was addicted almost instantly... I spent the next 18 months reading, and then the next  6 months plumbing and running electric and ripping out carpet and laying laminate and contracting custom cabinets and and and.... Finally, 3 years ago this October (4th) I added live rock to my 135 Oceanic. My mantra has been, "the only things that happen fast in a reef tank are BAD things". So I don't have a lot of coral, and I don't have a lot of fish. (Though since the last NJRC meeting, I have significantly more coral ;D ). I DO have a barnacle named Bill (seriously). It seems that my tank goes through cycles that last about 2 or three months... hair algae, padina sanctae crucis algae, nickle sized brittle stars, snails of all flavors, dictyota algae (you DON'T want to get that stuff in your tank !) and now some brown stuff that seems to cover my rock every day. But, that seems to be changing too. Finallly getting some coralline to grow on the TOPS of the rocks. Up until now, it only grew on the shady side of the rocks.

So there you have the last 3+ years in a nutshell, and you probably know more about me than you need to. (ask me sometime about a barnacle's potty function  )

Ask if you want to know more....

D.T.

 

[jimroth]

Hi, My name is Jim...
I'm another oldtimer, I was at meeting six at Brian Conger's house! I hosted a meeting later that year.
I was born and raised in NJ, in the same town as my wife, though we never met when we were kids. We've been married 17 years and have two boys, eight and 11. It was great to finally meet her.
I got a freshwater set-up for my tenth birthday (Yo NAGEL it was METAFRAME LivingWorld back in tha DAY!!) . When I was a teenager I used to got to a store in NYC called Aquarium Stock Co.,which sold SW fish (a rarity), and I fell in love. IN 1975 I had a windfall and set up a 30 gallon (all glass!) tank with an undergravel filter.  No reefs in those days. Lionfish, yellow tang, cowfish and no RO and few water changes. Hey, it lasted a year! I got back into SW about 10 years ago, and had two reefs for in around 5 years. I just recently  :-[ tore down my 90G and it's sitting empty on my deck, and all that rock is cooking in the garage. I still have my 58G going.  I am gearing up for a much bigger tank, in a different room.
I have had a few personal crises which have made me lose interest in reefing for long periods. I'm somewhat fired up again. I'm hoping my trip to MACNA will give me some new ideas.
I'm a unix system administrator for the Federal Reserve, we distribute all that money you folks spend at the LFS and shred up the nasty worn out money you get back in change. Please keep using money, my job depends on it.

 

[Phyl]

Ahhh. If your job relies on me using cash you're done for, man! Cash is a behind the scenes novelty that I almost never see in person, lol!!

John and I lived in the same town for 20 years and didn't meet until we went on a ski trip to upstate Vermont. And here I thought that story was somewhat unique!