Hello, my name is _______, and I'm addicted to....

[chineseknife]

Hello everyone- Well, I will finally introduce myself. I have made a couple posts and really like the info I see posted here. Seems to be a good mix of everything at all skill levels. I will say this is the first forum where I have see n FW and SW together.
My current set-up consist of a 55g sumpless system. 2 HOB skimmers and 2 sieo m1500's for flow. I run 260w power compact 2 dual daylight 10k and 2 dual actinic 03's and 2 lunars (white). about 55 lbs. LR and a 3" sand bed, except for where the flow collides from the sieos and carves out a depression in the sand bed. This tank has been through a crash, just after the cycle and addition of first critters, and instead of getting out, it made me want it even more.
Currently house:
2 false percs
1 yellow tang
1 coral beauty
3 blue/green chromis
1 cleaner shrimp
1 emerald crab
couple dozen snails/shrimp
Corals include:
BTA
RBTA
green pavona
brown pavona
tubastrea
hammer
torch
mushroom
zoanthids
palythoas
finger leather
toadstool
turbinaria
gsp
pink hydno
a. micropthalma
kenya tree
red sea pom pom xenia
and of course, the occassional aiptasia that pops up
I currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina and am an officer in my local reef club RASOC(Reef Aquarium of Charlotte- www.raosc.org).
Thanks for having a great site and I look forard to participating.

-ck

 

[Fluff]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice. Post some pics when you get a chance.

 

[Brenden]

I did not know Charlotte had a reef club. I am about 45 minutes away.

 

[Brenden]

Is www.raosc.org correct? It will not load for me.

 

[chineseknife]

sorry it's www.rasoc.org

 

[chineseknife]

45 minutes N/S/E/W of Charlotte? It's great club and we meet once a month in Charlotte and do all kinds of fun stuff, demonstrations, product reviews, raffles, frag swaps/trades, bbq's, etc. etc.....

 

[Brenden]

45 minutes north of Charlotte. My office is about 1/2 mile away from the speedway. From my house to university place is about 35 minutes.

 

[chineseknife]

Brendan- have you been to Coral Dyanmics yet? It's in Harrisburg, as well as some of our other members. Some of them live in Salisbury, and even as north as Linconton. From your specs, it looks like a great tank. Here is a member's tank that is just about that large too. not sur if the link is working right now but here it is- www.hassanmoore.com

 

[chineseknife]

Left Side:

Right side:

Full tank shot:

 

[StripesTheEel]

nice little set up there!!

welcome to AA!!

 

[Brenden]

I have not been to Coral Dynamics. Only local place I have purchased from is Greendale tropical fish in Kannapolis. I am about 10 minutes from Salisbury.
Link does not work. I will check it again later.

 

[chineseknife]

Thanks Stripes! I have another 55 sitting next to it waiting for the ideas in my head to materialize themselves......

 

[StripesTheEel]

why not make it a sump? it'd give u double the amount of water volume = a more stabilised system?

 

[chineseknife]

My mind runs wild. I was thinking of throwing the 55 underneath and putting a 33 breeder on top and just have a smaller reef only(with the clowns of course) and make the one I have now a FO, the woman wants to see some fishes swimming around. I would build functional cabinets on either side of the tank(good for aesthetics, or side mounted overflow access). I could then light this puppy pretty cheaply with a single MH bulb, instead of 2 on a 48" tank.

 

[the_sass72]

It's great to see some locals on here!! Thanks for the link to the Charlotte Reef Club. I am in the Charlotte area as well!