And Salt It Begins

[water_boy]

So i thought it was about time i started my journal, maybe a little prematurely but things are starting to move forward as i scavenge the required items.

So the tank itself is a Juwel 70ltr with an inbuilt filter. I am intending to fill the filter with bio balls and live rock rubble.

I managed to pick up the tank for just £30 from a nice guy in Liverpool who was upgrading to a shocking 5x 6foot tanks in his house...lucky fellow

Now to my sacrifice, in order to take the plunge in to a marine system i have had to sell off my very first aquarium in order to raise funds, make space and appease the mrs Which also meant the contents had to be rehomed. I have managed to rehome my pair of Kribensis to a line breeder and my pearl danios went to a LFS in return for some marine sand.

I have managed to replace the original light unit in the tank with two 40w T8 starters (arcadia) that i picked up for just £5 I intend to put in 1 marine white and 1 marine blue tube in the coming weeks.

The same kind gentleman has also provided me with a very nice power head which i will be picking up at the weekend to derive the required flow.

Going to get hold of some paint this weekend to so will post up some pictures as soon as i have painted the back (outside ofc)

I have managed to find a lady in Manchester who is breaking down her current marine tank and as such i have managed to agree a deal with her for 9k of Live Rock for just £40 which i will be picking up a next weekend.

Managed to pick up 6x 10 litre buckets with lids for free from a very kind butcher i know so that i can pick up some salted RO water from my LFS as soon as possible.

Things that i still need to get hold of are a good test kit and a couple of light tubes (white and blue)

So this is where i am at right now, very exciting times indeed but very much looking forward to pet rock watching. Im very calm at the minute which i know will change once i get going but my only concern at the moment is the lady that i am purchasing the live rock from will be breaking down her tank this weekend and has offered to keep the LR in a bucket with a heater. DO you think this will prevent die off and would you think it will still be in a good state bearing in mind it will be kept in this way for 7 days?

Im in a bit of a hurry so will have to leave it at that for today but all your comments are appreciated and i will get pictures as soon as possible so there's less text to read

 

[water_boy]

Just one more thing i will say before i go that this adventure into marine has been inspired by Seffie and Trod's brilliant journals (part 1 and 2) and if you are reading this and thinking of going in to the salty side i definitely advice you read their journals....links to follow

 

[water_boy]

Just a short update today...

Manged to get hold of some marine blue tile spray paint from homebase...it retails at £12.20 but it was the end of a line stock so got 2 cans for £2! will be spraying the back of the tank at the beginning of next week pictures will follow

 

[the biffster]

take a look at my thread
biffsters micro tank
give it a look might
give you a few ideas
just been looking at the
kent nano skimmers today
at Chilton aquatics looks
a nice piece of kit

 

[simonas]

good news will look forward to your progress

a good skimmer fdor small tank and cheap is the Boyu wg310 I;ve run mine for a few monthsand I;m happy with it

do you live near Liverpool?

 

[seffieuk]

Re you rquestion about the live rock, it will be fine as long as it has heat and flow

Seffie x

 

[water_boy]

Well its been a while and a crazy busy couple of weeks and now i finally have the time to update my journal.

So i spray painted the back of the tank which went really well i think with just 2 coats.
Also got hold of a new power head which has added to the one from the filter box to give some really good flow that i am very pleased with.

Then the really fun began...

Got some lovely salted RO water from my LFS in preparation for collecting my Live Rock got it heated up and went to collect it and added my sand.

The LR is lovely im really pleased with it got a few items on there which i could do with some help identifying...see the pictures below.On the whole though i like it a lot and have become obsessed with pet rock watching.

I picked up the LR locally from a girl who was breaking down her tank, mucho thanks to her as she gave me loads for only £40 and there was enough left over after i selected my best bits to break up the remainder and stuff in my filter box. I also added a carbon filter pad on top to polish up the water as it passes through.

Must say at this point a big thank you to my beautiful girl friend for the endless help in helping me collect everything using her brilliant car

Had my water tested and the levels came down to 0,0,5 so added the first members of my CUC a couple of red legged hermits who are great to watch, they are very efficient at cleaning up my LR.

Leaving things as they are for this week but have more additions planned for the weekend which i have picked up at a bargain price of only £22 for 2 cleaner shrimp, 2 blue legged hermits and 2 turbo snails.

On the whole its been really smooth process and its making me happy sure there will be stress only moments away.

Just waiting on a marine blue light tube to come in the post so i can fit another T8 starter which i have gotten hold of. Anyone used Super Pets Direct before? ive ordered the tube from there but hasn't shown up yet.

here's some pictures...

FTS

Strange clam looking thing

Behind the strange clammy looking thing there's like a pinky colored shriveled up thing

Just as a running cost to this point i have spent around £150

 

[ben1987]

Nice start there matee

 

[seffieuk]

looking good - why dont you put the heater in the black box?

So the clam thing, could be jsut that, a clam and the pink thing is difficult to tell at the mo, but could be polyps of some sort

Seffie x

 

[water_boy]

thank you for your kind comments

ah what a good idea seffie ill give that a go, the black box is currently stuffed with LR rubble but im sure i can shuffle that about to accommodate the heater.

So for today's update, i picked up my remaining members of the CUC.

2 cleaner shrimp which the guy who i bought them from said had been recently laying eggs but as he had other fish in his tank were being gobbled up straight away. I wouldn't begin to think that i knew the first thing about breeding shrimp so going to have a brief look in to that but wont be holding my breath. They are lovely little things tho albeit a bit stringy lol very active though.

Also picked up from the same guy a couple of decent sized Turbo Snails and 2 blue hermit crabs.

I also added a 2nd light to the hood of my tank with a 40w T8 starter which i have fitted with a marine blue tube.

A couple of other interesting things have popped up this week to... ill post photographs of them and my new additions when my housemate returns on Monday as he is the photographer.