Aquaone Aquastart 500

[SlowSwim]

Hiya All,

Its been awhile since ive posted here ever since i got a plague of aptasia. I havent been able to get rid of it as yet. Im gonna do some water changes get the water back to zeros and try peppermint shrimp.
But as soon as i've got rid of these pests.. Im thinking about modernising

The tank i have is the traditional ugly square, with the glued corners.

Ive seen the AquaOne 500 67lt at World Of Water for £89.99 the cabinate is a further £49.99.. so 128.98 is great for what you get..

The hood comes with two T8's, ventalation, water proof switches on top, pipeholes and a large flap that leaves space for a hang on skimmer.
They've gone all out on this one they even put legs on each side to keep the lid open while you maintain the tank.
Plus you get undergravel filter complete with powerhead AND a "FREE" heater!

With only 67lt's to play with though its really just going to be a coral tank but it would be nice to have a little strewberry gamma in there or a little blennie..

what you think would thrive in there regards to fish??

- Matt

 

[SkiFletch]

Psuedochromis Springeri

 

[SlowSwim]

Are you sure Psuedochromis Springeri would survive in a 14.5g?
Ive just googled it and most sites say 30G or above.
Good thing about this fish is that it doesnt need high temps.. 72-75F.
A few degrees helps on elecy

 

[rhysiboy]

hey the aqua start 500 is a brilliant tank i have it. its currently tropical but its still great. id suggest to upgrade lighting though allthough you probably already gathered. oh and im plaaning to get a pair of clowns or 3 bengaii cardinals, but i think the clowns would be more intresting. oh also the tanks undergravel fiklter is okay but its y'no well its an undergravel filter its not the best of things, i got rid of it a long while back. als o no good for sand.

 

[SlowSwim]

The lighting that comes with the tank is good enough to keep most LPS corals.
At world of water where i live they have a AquaStart system set up using all that came with except the undergravel filter, they use a external filter filled with carbon.. they have a hook on skimmer on it and a UV steriliser on it as well..
The setup has been running since ive been going there for about a year and its all looking pretty healthy..

I might be limited on what corals i can buy but because its a small tank i dont want anything that grows too large anyway.. apart from pulsing xenyias they are just too groovy..lol

I think i'll go with the Strewberry fish.. The minimum Gallons is 10 for them.. so 14.5 should be plenty.

A pair or even 1 clown wouldnt fit into a 14 gallon they need a minimum of 30 gallons to be happy.. the cardinals would be ok.. but i think one would be enough for 14G..

- matt

 

[rhysiboy]

look on some of the top sites they suggest 7 gallons per percula clown.

 

[Mr Miagi]

look on some of the top sites they suggest 7 gallons per percula clown.

And I think thats far too less. You want your clown to have room to grow, not be squashed into a 7 gallon mini bowl. What "top" sites did you read this from? It amazes me how many people want to squeze in a clown fish into a mini tank, have you never seen an adult sized Occellaris clown? They are quite large, I think this is where people go wrong, they dont see the larger version, just the cute nemo in the store. Anyway, off my soap box ( )I think the one Cardinal or two would be ok, they are not half as active as say a clown. I dont know what a Strawberry Fish is though, so wont comment!

 

[bunjiweb]

Personally I would say 10Gal is an absolute minimum, clowns are active fish. My B&W percula swims up and down the length of my 39" tank, so i personally believe the bigger the better.

In a small tank you are far better off with small gobies, blennies, wrasse etc. A Strawberry fish would be fine, they dont need big terratories and aren't the kind of fish that dashes up and down the tank all day.

I had the Superfish version of your tank known as the Aqua65. A nice tank, and I did alot with it, There is an article in August Marine World about it or there are loads of pictures in this forum of it somewhere.

I had a clownfish in the tank, and although it was a very small one it seemed quite happy.

Ben

 

[SlowSwim]

This is a Stawberry fish..

They are best of on there own in small tanks because they are terrortorial fish.. Even though they only grow up 2 2" 1/2 they will attack fish more than twice they're size.
These are Indo-pacific so they like a low temp of 72-75F the highest PH is 8.2 Salanity being the usual 1.025 but will allow the odd fluxuation.

Over all a small very hardy fish. A No1 for beginner nano'ers.

So knowing this what small corals would thrive in a 72-75F temp?

My favs are blue sponges, tube worms, pulsing xenyia and most types of mushrooms.
- matt

 

[SkiFletch]

All of your favorites will do just fine in that temperature. There are not many types of corals that suffer at 72-75. Some leathers and other shallow water carribean species might not like it all that much but the deeper water species like LPS woudl be just fine. In general because of our high-power lights, most reefers are more concerned with their tanks getting too warm in the summer which is much harder to correct than too cool

 

[SlowSwim]

Thanks for the confirm skiflech.

I went and bought the tank today i'll be setting it up tommorrow.
I'll have pictures and everything for your pleasure.

- matt