Happy new year, Happy new Reef!

[ThunderGoose]

Hi, everyone. I'm just starting my first ever reef tank and it's a beaut - a Red Sea Reefer 250 (54 gallons in display). I set it up in December and am still in the process of cycling so I don't have much to share... yet! But I'm sure I'll have a LOT of questions.

My equipment:

Red Sea Reefer 250
Return pump: Sicce Syncra 714 gph
Protein Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 150
Power Heads: Hydro smartwave wavemaker kit with 2 Koralia power heads
Heater: Eheim Jager 150
Light: Aquatic Life edge LED

My fish stocking plan:

Ocellaris clowns - not sure which strain yet, probably a more traditional color, maybe misbar
Cardinals - captive bred Banggai or Pajama
Neon goby - captive bred
Watchman goby - probably yellow since I can get them captive bred.

Sense a theme so far? Yes, that's right, I'm trying to get all my fish as captive bred, although I may add (or substitute) a flasher or fairy wrasse to that list

My invertebrate plan:

Cleaner shrimp
Sexy shrimp
small urchin
Brittle star (1 medium size or a group of tiny ones)
Pistol Shrimp
possibly a small sea cucumber, dwarf hermit crabs
Mix of cleaner snails: cerith, nerite, nassarius

I added my first bit of clean up crew this weekend - Mexican turbo snails, 3 nassarius snails and one "fighting" conch

My coral plan (trying to get all maricultured or aquacultured or frags, none wild collected):

Starting with softies
Mushroom, toadstool, cabbage leather, St. Thomas mushroom, leather, photosynthetic gorgonian, cespitularia

Then add some LPS
Dendros, duncan, bubble, hammer, torch, brain, long tentacle plate

And maybe, next year, Plating montipora SPS

Whew.

Can you tell I've been researching and planning for a while? And, of course, all of these stocking lists are subject to change.
Next up: setting up quarantine for my first fish, a pair of clowns (obligatory first fish).

Looking forward to the new adventure. I welcome advice and suggestions!

 

[cilyjr]

Welcome to the site! We have monthly meetings where the club brings in experts to give presentations on various hobby related topics. There also a great place to meet with fellow hobbyists and there is almost always buying and selling of coral frags.

 

[cilyjr]

I little side note on the aquatic life edge. It's not a very powerful light. The standard edge is built more for planted fresh water aquariums. It produces about 180 par at 12 inches and uses 1/2 watt led as compaired to the ai sol blue pushing about 350 par at 36 inches and uses 3 watt led. I'm not saying you can't have success with it but it will limit your coral and placement options.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I was afraid of that. The whole reef light thing is confusing (especially since these lights are often sold as components and it's up to the aquarist to figure them out) and expensive. This system should at least get me started until I can save up for something nicer and then I can move it over to my planted freshwater tank.

 

[cilyjr]

Yes lighting can be confusing. That said lighting is the one place I would say you should spend money on (buying cheap usually results in upgrading in the future negating any "savings" from the initial purchase. You can certainly save by buying used (I recommend this to all new hobbyist on most equipment) but be cautious with lighting as it's difficult to know how much life older LEDs have in them.

I personally recommend the AI (aquaillumination) lights. Because they are built using a component system meaning if something breaks and then it's easy to swap it out without having to solder. And they sell pretty much every part of every light individually. There are other good brands out there most people tend to use the Eco Tech stuff and some use Kessel but I've seen many mixed reviews with them. I have no experience with them. I bought my AI sol-blues many years ago and have been happy.

 

[Flame Angel]

Happy New Year! And best of luck with your new reef venture.