Ready For The Marine Challenge (again)!

After a break of 14 years since my last marine tank and 5yrs since the last tropical tank I am ready to give it ago again...

My previous marine tank was succesfull and ran for approx 18mths (a overseas job stopped the fun) So much appears to have changed since then.. Back then it was internal skimmers and large external canister filters full of media and undergravel filtration doing the business... now it appears to rely heavily on live rock.

I have been surfing and gathering info from the net for many months now and have finally taken the plunge and bought some new equipment. A reef tank is planned with tank up and running and cycling at the moment and hope to add the CUC in a week or so.

Equipment so far

Betta Lifespace 680 Aquarium (62 gallon)
Sump
two visitherm heaters
150w MH light
Hydor Korilla 3
40KG Live rock
MCE 600 Skimmer


Its been runing for approx 2 weeks and I have seen a small cycle of Ammonia and Nitrite and a slow rise in Nitrate. At present Ammonia is 0, Nitrite 0.05 and Nitrate 15.

I need to get some more live rock as soon a payday comes, thinking of another 10kg.


Thanks for all your help so far.

Here is a picture of the tank now.



Jetbox

looks great! I like that tank a lot.

Thanks... Early days yet....

Hitchikers so far:

A large Brittle star
A strange worm type thing Vermitid???
a manjano anemone (now gone....)
lots of coriline algae

Jetbox

does the tube that you're thinking is a vermetid have two little hair looking antennae sticking out or stringy mucus?

not seen the head of the vermatid but its the closest match I have seen so far....


Happy with the tank so far but am a little concerned about the amount of evaporation. I have not run a tank without cover glass before, It seems to be using approx 1.5 - 2 litres a day. ok if I am home but tend to travel a bit with work so have to leave the tank. need to investigate auto top up...

US or UK? got any good DIY electronic skills?

Hi, UK. and yes handy with a soldering iron and have been reading the DIY auto topup threads with interest.... The biggest problem I see is where to place the water tank.. Space inside the cabinet is very limited due to being full up with the sump etc. As an alternative can I use cover glass with a MH light? Is overheating going to be a problem? Ambient temperature does not get above 20 degrees C where I live

If ambient stays low around 20C, just a fan is all you need. In fact, a glass can be problematic in that it will also keep CO2 in the tank which plays games with your pH. Yeah, andy's topoff looks pretty cool, and you don't even have to modify the parts list

Hey Newbie,

I'm even more of a newbie than you, as just got the same tank for the same purpose this week, but only ever kept tropicals before.

I'm ok with the water tests and maintenance but not sure how to even set-up the tank or the principals of the integral sump arrangement. Will pop in to the place where I got it from, once I make a list of the all the questions I have. Have dealt with them for a few years and always been very helpful.

I'm planing to try and keep reef and fish.

Grateful for any pointers.

One of my main questions is that if there is a power cut, will I flood the house???

Hopefully see you soon.

Best of luck with the tank set-up.

Regards, Mark

You wont flood the house if you use safeguards. Weir boxes over the overflows/outlets are usually the preferred method.

Hi Lost Jock,

welcome....

Setting up the tank and sump is easy.. If you have not got the advice you needed today I am happy to let you know how my sump is setup now.

It will not flood the house if the power cuts out. The tank level will only drop to the level of the weir and the sump has lots of spare capacity.

What colour tank did you choose?

Update...

Added some cleanup crew yesterday. Levels are all good with only a little Nitrate. Carried out a 10% water change before adding the CUC.

Now the proud owner of:

1 brittle star
1 vermatid (maybe id??)
6 Turbo snails
6 hermit crabs

Hi Jetbox,

Got a white betta tank (picture is a bit dark)


The tank came with Hai Yang pump (HY 806) 3000L/h (slightly more than 10 x capacity).

I also got the Hai Yang halide light (MH 150 = 14000k).

This is the filtration tank I have below the main tank, its different to the one in the diagram provided as it only has 3 x compartments


Have set up pipework but grate if you could let me know if I have done it ok. As the above picture the pipes are (from left to right)
(i) LH Pipe - Water outlet (pipe with flow adjustment valve from bottom of main tank to LH compartment of filter tank) - No pipe above bottom of tank, basically a hole.
(ii) Centre Pipe - Reserve water outlet (plain pipes extending over the same lengths as pipes (i) + (iii), fastened to bottom of the main tank only).
(iii) RH Pipe - Spray pipe (returning filtered water to tank) - Is it ok to leave of 20degree angle at end?

In the filter tank, the left hand and centre pipes drop into the left hand compartment. This compartment already has 2 layers of foam.

The pump will be submerged in the right hand compartment.

This leaves the centre compartment to purely filter, I assume.

Very grateful for all advice please.

Regards, Mark

How big are the pipes? And can you tak a pic of the inside of the weir (box inside the tank)? And most importantly, can you post them up using a website like photobucket.com so that they're a little larger?

lost jock

looks cool in white!!!

The pipe setup is fine but not sure on the sump.

Regarding the outlet pipe in the tank, I think you can leave off the angle if you want. The impotant part is to not have the outlet positioned underwater otherwise when the power goes off mine started to syphon the tank contents back into the sump ( not all but more than is intended)

After lots of advice and reading about sumps I changed it slightly. I fitted the sump the other way around (with the two glass [two close together ones] partitions to the left) I then removed the third partition with a stanley knife and then resealed it a little further to the right and with no gap at the bottom. (increased area for sand bed)

I run it as follows: (taken out all the media provided)

l/h compartment live rock rubble and skimmer
middle comp. sand bed and cheato
third comp heater and return pump

not sure if this is the best way as I am a novice too....

jetbox