About To Dive Into The World Of Marine.. Suggestions Welcomed!

[zeo]

Nope I dont think it does have a flush. Remember the picture of the unit from before.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=202753&hl=

The unit didnt come with any instructions, or manufactorer name. Got the unit free (2nd hand) when I bought my tank from ebay.

I've got the water temp to about room, which is about 23C at the moment.


Do you think a reading of 15 is good enough to start collecting?

 

[sophos9]

Do you think a reading of 15 is good enough to start collecting?

Groovy! I would say 15 is fine....

 

[SkiFletch]

531 in and 15 out is a properly functioning RO membrane

 

[zeo]

cool thanx guys.
I bought my water butt today (a whopping 210Lts from B&Q). 1 Hour in, and the waters risen to about 1cm... bah I got a long wait ahead of me.

 

[zeo]

Well here it is, my tank.

Currently got both the fluval 404 and tetratec Ex1200 running. I havent turned the skimmer on yet, not sure when to.
I took your advice and hooked up 5 powerheads, producing a turnover of 29x+ (one of the powerheads flowrate is unknown).
Its pretty cool, every now and again I see a little whirlpool moving across the tank.

Remember, this is my first attempt at this (well marine anyway). Comments/suggestions welcomed as always.

I did have a couple of mishaps inbetween. When I initally turned on the lighting unit, I heard a bang, but saw no light..
I first thoughts were that the fuse or tubes went, replaced both still nothing. No way to safely open the juwel lighting unit (seal in plastic, no screws). + juwel charging £75+ for a replacement!! Ended up cutting open the plastic to found a cheap chip board with no starter to replace. Ripped out the electrics, and customly fitted a twin arcadia ligting unit. Looks pretty cool even with the ducktape (covering the plastic I broke, cut off). Lights are def alot brighter now thru.

I also added 5kg of cured live rock yesterday. Was kinda expecting the water to go cloudy or something, but instead found it to be crystal clear this morning. Is that a good thing?

No hichhikers thru.. (well none that I've seen anyway). Was hoping to see many. I did however there was a worm/catapillar type thing that was hanging from one of the rocks (but pretty sure it was dead, got blown off by one of the powerheads).

Havent done any test yet, currently awaiting delivery of a new 5 in 1 test strips.
If the results look good, planning on getting a few damsels to help cycle the tank next week.

BTW How long does it take for the live rock to become bedded? and the algea to spread?

 

[Musho3210]

No adding fish for cycle, why do people think more ammonia = faster cycle? Let the stuff die on the rock, then let ammonia and nitrite go to zero, then change the water, then add fish. Its literally torture to add fish during a cycle, and it probably adds more work.

You plan on a protein skimmer?

Looking good so far

 

[zeo]

thanx,

I've got a protein skimmer already attached to the back of the tank (the thing sticking out ontop of the tank in the pic).
Dunno whens the best time to turn it on thru.

 

[Musho3210]

is that a skitler?

I turned mine on right when i set up the tank and since my rock came from another tank, there was a very small die-off, my skimmer has only collected about <10 ml of skimmate. I would say wait until your done cycling or you can just leave it off until you have fish. Otherwise it wont really do anything except make bubbles.... If your ammonia gets a bit too high and you can tell the life in your tank isnt coping with it very well, you can turn it on to remove some of the die off (doesnt remove ammonia, removes a lot of the stuff that CAUSES ammonia, in case you didnt know...) But after the cycle and no fish, leave it off....

I like your aquascaping, lots of caves. Too bad its hard to scape a nano like that

 

[zeo]

I saw my first hich-hiker last night!!!! I saw something like a small sandworm (something you see in the movies) sticking out a of one of the rocks, then noticed it was actually a claw. followed closely by half a shell body. after 30seconds it went back into its hole . Too bad couldnt take a pic (its hard to zoom in with a bow front aquarium). It was pretty small, proberbly 3-4mm in dia. But a hichhiker none the less

Where theres one there proberbly more?

Does anyone know how long it takes for coraline algea to spread?

 

[andywg]

I would ditch the Fluval 404.

Fluval cannisters have a nasty reputation of failing and dumping tank water all over the floor. This is bad enough with FW, but having a tankful of salt water on the floor is not what you want.

 

[zeo]

I would ditch the Fluval 404.

Fluval cannisters have a nasty reputation of failing and dumping tank water all over the floor. This is bad enough with FW, but having a tankful of salt water on the floor is not what you want.

Yea i know, the quality of fluval is just so cheap and nasty. But it did come free with my tank. Seems a shame not to use it.
I am planning to upgrade it one day thru.

 

[andywg]

I would ditch the Fluval 404.

Fluval cannisters have a nasty reputation of failing and dumping tank water all over the floor. This is bad enough with FW, but having a tankful of salt water on the floor is not what you want.

Yea i know, the quality of fluval is just so cheap and nasty. But it did come free with my tank. Seems a shame not to use it.
I am planning to upgrade it one day thru.

Would be more of a shame if it wrecks your carpet though...

You don't need a cannister on a marine, so why take the risk?

 

[norite]

I have an external canister filter on my marine setup - a Tetratec 700. I find it very useful for things like adding activated carbon and rowaphos, plus it sucks out any detritus floating in the water, and helps with general water flow. For me, it's an indispensable piece of kit.

 

[Musho3210]

its not using the canister that is bad (although you dont need one), its the type of canister, i think thats what andy was trying to say. So he can take the canister off without any problems in the tank.

I asked the coralline question to the person who sold me live rock

"Keep your levels stable and have your calcium and magnesium a bit over natural levels, wait about 2-3 months and you'll find a speck of it. Dont expect much coralline until your tank has matured."

He also said no to purple up, he just told me to keep my calcium and magnesium high.

 

[SkiFletch]

The inventor of "Purple Up" should be taken out and shot. It's mostly an alkalinity suppliment which while important for growing coraline algae, will quickly imbalance the chemistry of a reef system and cause bigtime prolems. Hate that product.