Dan's Turned To The Salty Side

Hi everyone,

This is my first journey over to the salty side, im not completely new to fish keeping i am currently running a juwel vision 260 tropical tank and have been for the past two years.

Me and my girlfiend both loved marine fish but when we started out in fish keeping was told we were best to start out with tropical as marine was alot harder. So here i am two years down the line and starting my fist saltwater tank.

I picked up a second hand tank which came with everything i needed to get started including so fish and a unexpected hitch hiker, which now resides in southend sealife center, i will talk more about this later.

Now for the equiptment.

Tank: Custom Made 39*26*17 inches
Sump: 36*18*15 inches
Protien Skimmer: Deltec (unsure which model it is)
Uv: Vectron uv25
Powerheadeio M820
Lighting: Aquamedic ocean light 2x 150w Halides
Inhabitants

2x Clown Fish
1x Tomasi Tang
2x Orange Hawaiian Crab
3x Turbo Snails
3x Brittle Starfish I believe, They are very thin and spiny
Green star polyp with white dot centers
A finger leather coral
And alot lot of red mushrooms which i am not very fond of so plan to get rid of them.

The hitch hiker was a giant sea worm. There is one courrently in devon i believe which measures 4ft long. Mine was only a fot and a half. As i was tranfering the rock from a bucket to the tank it fell out on my door mat and just looked up at me. Being new to marine i didnt no what i was looking at so it got put back in the tank while i decided what to do. In the end a friend took it to southend sea life centre who were very happy to take it in. Sadly i didnt take any pictures but here is the link to see whats its like.

http/www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1165930/Barry-giant-sea-worm-discovered-aquarium-staff-mysterious-attacks-coral-reef.html

Here are some pics

Along the way if if anyone has any suggestions or feels that i doing doing somethig wrong feel free to say.

I am planning to change the substrate for Crabisea White sand. i am going to move old substrate to one end of the tank and put new sand in, then leave for a few weeks. Is this right or can i just take old out and put in new? I am also looking to change the powerhead but i was wondering how many to put in? I was look at Seffie's post on different powerheads which was very helpfully but if anyone has any suggestions please let me no.

Those clowns are completely different species. One is an ocellaris and one is a maroon. If they get along presently, they will not for long. You should find a new home for one or the other. If you want to keep the maroon, keep in mind they get quite large and can limit your future stocking.

Ah eunice worms... My friend just took a 2.5 footer out of her 24g tank...

-Nemo- said:

Those clowns are completely different species. One is an ocellaris and one is a maroon. If they get along presently, they will not for long. You should find a new home for one or the other. If you want to keep the maroon, keep in mind they get quite large and can limit your future stocking.

Ah eunice worms... My friend just took a 2.5 footer out of her 24g tank...

Click to expand...

Yea thought the clowns would be a problem, i think it will be the maroon that i will be rehoming. 2.5 footer not nice i hope i dont get another one of those any time soon.

Hang on, Southend sea life centre............does that mean you are an essex boy? I live about ten miles out of Southend, in between Hockley and Hullbridge

Show me a photo of the mushies, I may buy them off you, if I don't my sister Trod might be interested

The sand, Mmmmmmmmm, well, if it were me:

I wouldnt have put the old sand in, but its there now so, what are your test results, are they stable? If they are I would just add the new sand to the top, you really do not want to be pushing sand around the tank in case it kicks up load of and puts your water quailty out!

Also, how much live rock do you have, it doesn't look enough to me, but could just be the angel of the photo

Anyways, to the salty side of the forum

Powerheads: you want to be aiming for at least 20 x turnover for softies

Seffie x

Welcome looks like you got a good start with the equipment you picked up, my only comment would be as Seffie has said, definitely needs some more Live Rock in there, but it may just be my love of rockwork, always think a tank looks bigger with more rock. Although if you look at my tanks it is quite a significant feature

Ive just noticed the bio balls as well how long have they been in that tank?

Seffie x

seffieuk said:

Hang on, Southend sea life centre............does that mean you are an essex boy? I live about ten miles out of Southend, in between Hockley and Hullbridge

Show me a photo of the mushies, I may buy them off you, if I don't my sister Trod might be interested

The sand, Mmmmmmmmm, well, if it were me:

I wouldnt have put the old sand in, but its there now so, what are your test results, are they stable? If they are I would just add the new sand to the top, you really do not want to be pushing sand around the tank in case it kicks up load of and puts your water quailty out!

Also, how much live rock do you have, it doesn't look enough to me, but could just be the angel of the photo

Anyways, to the salty side of the forum

Powerheads: you want to be aiming for at least 20 x turnover for softies

Seffie x

Click to expand...

Yea im an essex boy, i live in basildon, so yea we are pretty close. Was wondering what your lfs that you use, i am always looking for new one to go and see. My test results are good had them tested at lfs (i know i should have my own test kit, will be getting one soon ).

As for rock i have more but it was in the sump but have put in tank now , its looking better now i think.

The mushies are gone now im afraid, traded them in for a couple of cleaner shrimp.

Dan

seffieuk said:

Ive just noticed the bio balls as well how long have they been in that tank?

Seffie x

Click to expand...

Yea they are bio balls, they have been in the tank since i got it. The previous owner put them in there. Are they not needed cos ive been searching the internet for sump setups but not really had much luck so far.

HappyGeorge said:

Welcome looks like you got a good start with the equipment you picked up, my only comment would be as Seffie has said, definitely needs some more Live Rock in there, but it may just be my love of rockwork, always think a tank looks bigger with more rock. Although if you look at my tanks it is quite a significant feature

Click to expand...

Yea i like rockwork too, like i said to seffie put more in that was in the sump. I will probably be getting some more though to give it abit more height.

The equiptment i got with the tank was pretty sweet also got loads more than what was stated all that was not needed has netted me £275 so far. Which is all going back in the tank

Dan C said:

Was wondering what your lfs that you use, i am always looking for new one to go and see.

Click to expand...

Well, if i'm going to buy fish I buy form pets at home in Southend, they will order in what you want and their tanks are run to a good standard. If I just need food etc, I will buy from Swallows if I have to, but I dont buy marine live stock from there as their tanks are run at such a low sg, means acclimatisation of many many hours. My sister and I usually end up going on road trips and touring lfs in Epping, Crews hill, Kent etc

Where do you go?

Seffie x

seffieuk said:

Dan C said:

Was wondering what your lfs that you use, i am always looking for new one to go and see.

Click to expand...

Well, if i'm going to buy fish I buy form pets at home in Southend, they will order in what you want and their tanks are run to a good standard. If I just need food etc, I will buy from Swallows if I have to, but I dont buy marine live stock from there as their tanks are run at such a low sg, means acclimatisation of many many hours. My sister and I usually end up going on road trips and touring lfs in Epping, Crews hill, Kent etc

Where do you go?

Seffie x

Click to expand...

Well the moment I've been using wickford aquatiacs, although I have always been a fan of road tripping it. Everytime me any my gd go away we always end up in a fish shop. I do like to go to swallows, but only for idea's as they are a bit expensive. Think I might have to check out pets at home. I've got one near me but doesn't have a marine section. I have been meaning to go wet pets as someone I no works there but still not got round to it.

Pets at home are expensive, but they order in for you and their water is of a good quality if you have to buy it

Seffie x