60 Gallon - New To Reefs
 

Hey everyone,

My names Mike, I'm new to this forum. I was told by members on BCAquaria that this was a great resource for Saltwater information so here I am!

Im a life long fresh water keeper, and planted enthusiast, but have taken the plunge so to speak in salt water. I've got a standard 20 gallon tank and with the help of some friends picked up all that I believe I need to start a successful reef.
My equipment so far is an aQ.Led 108w Light fixture, Remora Nano Skimmer, Hydor Powerheads.
I've got a deep sand bed as well as 22 lbs of live rock.

After lots of reading, I got the tank setup and cycled - the cycle only took about a week because the live rock was already established and housed a good colony of bacteria. When the Nitrites and Ammonia got to 0 I went out to J&L and picked up the starting pieces, 5 Common Hermit crabs, 2 Clowns (oso something) and a couple pieces of soft coral. Very new to these so I'm not sure on the names. Can someone Id these coral for me, I believe they are both very common so it shouldn't be hard for you guys :)


http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0179.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0180.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...E3D78804CF.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0183.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0185.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0188.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0190.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0195.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0201.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0203.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0204.jpg

:welcome:

Love your sand bed, your tank looks good. The second pic looks like a Xenia of some sort or maybe Anthelia. Photos are kinda dark.

Welcome to Canreef Mike! Looks like you're off to an awesome start!

Its great to see how quickly you got started and now have livestock in the tank already. Good Luck reefing and keep the updates coming!!

Welcome to Canreef. Lots of great information here

Thanks Leah! definitely the Xenia, that name rings a bell.. i'll try to get better pictures tomorrow.... i took those while the light was still on moon lights
hey there's a familiar face/name! how u doing buddy, thanks a lot. It's so much better than fresh water!!!! lol never thought i'd say that :)

Thanks DCDN! I'm almost overwhelmed with the sticky threads here, so much new info!

I went out to J&L's to bring back a cleaner shrimp that died before i even got him out of his bag. (i got him with the clown fish) and while there I grabbed a colt coral and a rock full of green button polyps. I also grabbed a ELOS phosphate test kit and a Sybon refractometer (my ventrex one didn't compensate for temp so i wasn't sure of it's accuracy...and i'm not a fan of math!)

A buddy came by my place to trade some of his frags for driftwood/fish in my 125 planted tank. He brought with him his test kits from home to make sure everything is OK with my water chemistry. All tests came up good.

After floating the frags for a while we started to place them around the tank. Some opened up immediately, others took a bit, but now they are looking good. The tank is glowing under the moon lights and i wish i could get a decent picture but no luck so far.

I already forgot the names of most of these but here's some pictures. I know there is hammer coral, a couple zoas, an electric green lps (dont remember what harp called it) and some more.
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0280.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0279.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0288.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0285.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0286.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0276.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0273.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0270.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0266.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0265.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0262.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0229.jpg
http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/a...w/DSC_0223.jpg

Looks like a great start Mike! seems like there are alot of BCA members are here on Canreef as well! Harp is EVILLLL :twised:

nice setup , it seems to be the clowns deciding who wanna be female lol

BCA member here as well as Canreef member!
 

Who's Harp ? :surprise: