Greetings from scenic Baltimore City.

M

Mattie H.

New Member
Hi,

I've been lurking for a while, but I think it's finally time to make my intro...

I'm not a reef newbie per se, but the last tank I had was in the mid-nineties, back in college years. When I went off to school I left it in the care of my mother, who shared the hobby with me, but she got tired of doing it herself and eventually broke it down and put the equipment in storage. It's been sitting in my basement now for almost 20 years. Recently decided to get the old girl going again as a fun project with my son. Man has the tech changed since I last was last in the hobby. Was nearly laughed out of the local fish store when I told them I had a great wet/dry system. ;-) I've since gotten my act together and figured out what's what these days... thank you, interwebs!

My tank is a 78gal with a home-built 20gal sump. I set it up this past July with 80lbs of CaribSea and 50lbs of dry rock from ReefCleaners. I have a 3-4 gal fuge section in the sump, in which I added 5 lbs of miracle mud. I have a Reef Octopus 150SSS skimmer, which is working like a charm, but not super useful yet since the tank is young and there is very little alive in it thus far. Upgraded the lights to a Current LED system, and traded up from the old circulators of yester-year to a Jebao PP-8 wavemaker.

It's been almost four months now. Just finished the cycle a few weeks ago, levels are perfect-o... ready to start! My wife is officially a reef widow.

Glad to meet everyone - I hope I can make a positive contribution to your community!

Matt

P.S. A few pics of the tank:

uc



uc
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif


to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :nessie:

Great start !
 
mr_tap_water

mr_tap_water

Well-Known Member
Welcome to RS[emoji846]
Looking very good from the very start and will be looking forward to seeing your progress[emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I'm looking at the pictures of your tank, and it looks like your using a brass ball valve on the return pump. If that is actually the case, it's a major mistake. brass is very toxic in SW systems.

I also recommend that you do not keep the lighting remote control next to the sump like that. In SW systems you get salt creep all over the place, and so salt splash will get into the remote and ruin it.
 
M

Mattie H.

New Member
DaveK said:
I'm looking at the pictures of your tank, and it looks like your using a brass ball valve on the return pump. If that is actually the case, it's a major mistake. brass is very toxic in SW systems.

I also recommend that you do not keep the lighting remote control next to the sump like that. In SW systems you get salt creep all over the place, and so salt splash will get into the remote and ruin it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice DaveK, it is much appreciated! Yes, when I put that valve in there I wasn't aware of the dangers of copper, but I figured it out while Googling for a solution to a snail die off. I've since replaced the brass valve with PVC. The remote, on the other hand, just happened to be there in the pic - it's usually stored well away from the sump area.

Matt
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
As that is the case, you should test your water for copper. In addition, I recommend you use CupriSorb in the filtration system for a long time. By that I mean at least 6 months.

This is needed because live rock and live sand can absorb copper from the water, and then leach it back over long periods of time. In fact, we generally recommend never using live rock or live sand that has been exposed to copper in a reef system where you want to maintain corals. However, I wouldn't replace all that just yet. With something like this you don't know how big a dose of copper the system got. It may be minimal.
 
M

Mattie H.

New Member
DaveK said:
As that is the case, you should test your water for copper. In addition, I recommend you use CupriSorb in the filtration system for a long time. By that I mean at least 6 months.

This is needed because live rock and live sand can absorb copper from the water, and then leach it back over long periods of time. In fact, we generally recommend never using live rock or live sand that has been exposed to copper in a reef system where you want to maintain corals. However, I wouldn't replace all that just yet. With something like this you don't know how big a dose of copper the system got. It may be minimal.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. My test results come in negative for copper, but I'm going to use the CupriSorb just in case there are traces.
 
prettyboy

prettyboy

New Member
Nice....What part of town are you in? I grew up in Irvington....then Catonsville, Arbutus, Landstown, Dundalk...then the last 7 years in Severn near the airport......moved to Tampa in 2005
 
M

Mattie H.

New Member
prettyboy said:
Nice....What part of town are you in? I grew up in Irvington....then Catonsville, Arbutus, Landstown, Dundalk...then the last 7 years in Severn near the airport......moved to Tampa in 2005
Click to expand...

I'm in the city, actually... just off the JHU Homewood campus. Hampden / Roland Park area.
 
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