Hello, My name is WarDaddy and I am addicted to salt water

[WarDaddy]

I have been maintaing a great African Cichlid tank now for 2+ years. I had always wanted a Reef, well my reef has begun.

the reef tank is 55 gallons, with a 15 gallon refuge and sump. I have 90+ pounds of Live rock in Fiji Premium rock in the display. I wil be adding between 10 and 20 lbs of rubble into the refuge and sump.

my tank has been running 1 week today with live rock curing in the display. The amonia is alread below .25 Nitrite is 3. and nitrate is abot 15. I am hoping a week to 10 days and the cycle will complete.

I have pretty much gone DIY on the whole thing, exepct for the stand and Overflow box and display tank.

HEre are a couple pictures and a link to my reef pictures:
My reef photo album (http://gifford-family.smugmug.com/gallery/651634)

http://gifford-family.smugmug.com/photos/31532405-M.jpg

http://gifford-family.smugmug.com/photos/31235833-M.jpg

I plan on housing a RBTA, soft and mushroom corals. and about 7 fish.

[Zack]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/DKWICK/CFBANNER.gif

Looks like a great tank!

[Doctor_Reef]

Wow....Sweet...great looking tank....and nice DIY!!!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v406/RLeversee/Site%20Stuff/WelcomeDoc.png

[newtofish]

Welcome to the forum! Great start. Looks like you are doing everythng the right way first.
I had African's also before I started my reef. You will enjoy the experience.

[FishinInTheDark]

Very, very nice! Welcome, and glad you found us!

[gman0526]

Looks awesome!! great job

[Sugar Magnolia]

Very impressive. Very clean looking set up, everything looks great! Do you have any stocking plans in mind yet?

[WarDaddy]

Thanks for the welcomes. I am undergoing a major plumbing rework this weekend... what DIY job is without kinks :-)

Stocking plans. We are building this around a RBTA with a Maroon Gold Stripe clown. Along with that will be softies, Mushrooms (Zumas) and Zoas. As for fish, probablly find a goby, wrasse, and others, I am pretty open, as long as they are colorful and interesting.

I am planning n a crew of snails, shrimp, a britle star and such for cleaning. should be an interesting little system.

My biggest problem right now is mcro bubbles and heat. I am working on the heat. The temp was 87, and this morning we are at 83 and dropping. I had to place a fan on my closed loop pump (increasing the pipe diameter this weekend and building a cooling/sound box ofr it) and I have a small fan blowing on the sump... what will the temp be ths afternoon????

so far I am having a blast wiht it, but damn I have spent a lot of money :-)