Mother of God I have never had so much trouble trying to register and establish a log on to a forum in my life...but at last I am here and hoping to rub shoulders, trade notes and possibly network a bit in the not too distant future.New here but not new to the hobby although due to curve balls in life I have had to take a few breaks over the years. But I am back in the saddle again and hoping I can do something longer term this time around. Got into the hobby back in 2002. So I am obviously more of an old school kinda reefer. Im starting to kind of embrace a little of the more recent technology, just not a gadget freak and I really dont try to keep up with the Jones's all that much.I currently have a couple of 10 gallon, a 15 gallon and a 29 gallon reef tanks going at the moment.[10 Gallon #1 ], is a tank set up with some dry rock and sand a half a dozen Sailfin Mollies that I am converting over to full strength saltwater. Once I have got that tank up to 1.023-1.026 I might head off in more of a Cryptic Reef Zone type a tank with a few NPS corals. So far I must be doing something right as we already have fry in the tank. Why Mollies? Well I have experimented with these fish in the past after converting to salt water and found they did a fabulous job keeping algae in the main tanks in check without the nipping at corals, especially when Tangs werent an option due to tank sizes. They are also cheap and can be bred easily and I am a tight wad with money. (I know...I am am in the wrong hobby for that huh?) Plus too some of the Molly Morphs look pretty nice to boot too![10 Gallon #2 ], is little more than a small frag tank at the moment until I can get a better arrangement built, like the Coral Framing Racks I had in Seattle-Tacoma area before I retired from the military and came back home for good. Just a little something I am playing around with in the mean time.[15 Gallon ], is more of a mixed reef tank with some Softies such as Ricordia and Zoanthids and a few LPS corals. Its nothing to write home about really but we are slowly getting there. Its only been set up for a couple of months, has a little live sand, live rock and a few small frags, HOB filter and a 2x65 watt PC fixture over the top. See I wasnt kidding when I said old school...but hey I already had the fixture from days gone by and a gang of spare bulbs and said "what the heck - I can make this low budget set up work!". I have an amazing amount of coralline algae going finally on the rock despite starting with just dry dead rock. The Ricordia and Zoanthids are splitting like crazy and growing well. The LPS corals are new and havent been in the tank long enough to do much. Yeah this tank is probably going to see a lighting upgrade too as soon as we have enough fun dollars for stupid stuff.[29 Gallon ], this one is going to be a SPS only tank as I am such a SPS-ahoilic in no uncertian terms. Right now its a no-frills set up that will hopefully have some upgrades coming in the near future...ie, a sump and LED's to replace the 4 x T5HO currently on it. The several Montiporas and Birdsnest corals are doing well, but I want to upgrade the filtration and lighting before we add much of anything else. I am still playing around with the rock work in this tank trying to make the most of the limited space I have to work with in such a small tank.Well I guess thats about all for now, hope to see you all around and see you all often!
Thanks for sharing!