Cj's 33gal Nano Journal

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hiya all i just got given my early birthday present.... a marine setup!

i dont know how good it is but im happy - i dont need the best thing ever when im just starting out - i will upgrade at some point!

the stuff i got is as follows:

33gal "tallboy" tank with stand (about 2 foot tall)
the hood has lights (2 X 15W 14000K bulbs) and a filter with two chambers in it (came with ceramic noodles and carbon and sponges)
20W heater
ammonia test kit
high ph test kit
25kgs of white marble chips
Hyrdometer

i havent thought about what fish i want yet (clowns probably and/or seahorses.... i would want fancy or rare fish more though)

i have pics and i would love to put them up but i dont know how.... i tried the upload thing when i made the post but it didnt work coz nothing is under 100Kb

thanks in advance for everyones help ALL suggestions and guidance will be appreciated

CJ

 

[ox5477]

Well couple of things that occur to me right off the bat.....

Are you going FO, FOWLR, or eventually doing a reef?

A tall tank makes much more fun in rock scaping as it is harder to have a tall skinny reef as it is to have a long, wide, flat one...

I would get rid of the marble chips (assuming this is the substrate) and buy a small bag of live sand and mix with some aragonite sand for your substrate. Will look much more natural and much easier on any bottom dwelling fish you may go for... ie gobies and the like

If you do plan on corals..... your gonna need to upgrade your lights. the 15watt lights will do little to nothing for corals in that tank, especially towards the bottom as its a taller tank (and the deeper into water you go, the more light is filtered out)

Also, look into a master salwater test kit. I believe APi makes one and it will include, pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. If you plan on corals in the future, look into test kits for calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, and phosphorus. These last four are unneeded really though if you are doing FO or FOWLR though.

Hope this is a good basis

Ox

 

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i was going to go FOWLR but i evertually will want some corals... what should i do though - should i get good sand and LR and put it in and cycle it, get crusteaceans and then fish then get coral or should i figure it out first

i guess what im asking for is some kind of timeline!

so ill have to upgrade my light (im not bothered to do so)
what lights should i look at???

also... should i just buy a packet of sand to go straight in... i dont want to have to wash it again (so irritating) any suggestions?

(EDIT:are theses sands ok?
http/www.thereefshop.com.au/index.php?ma...roducts_id=1463
http/www.thereefshop.com.au/index.php?ma...roducts_id=1160
http/www.thereefshop.com.au/index.php?ma...products_id=601
)

i also have a FLUVAL 305 thats brand new (could i use that instead of the lame filter thats in the hood of the aquarium - i could use both!)

does anyone know how to post pics??? i have plenty to show people!!!

 

[SkiFletch]

For uploading pics, use a hosting site like photobucket.com. Once uploaded there, your pictures will be stored in "photo albums" with little thumbnails for each pic. Underneath the thumbnail will be some text with a tag that starts with IMG in brackets. You copy that text into your post here and it'll embed the pic here

 

[ox5477]

well technically if your using LR... you dont need any external filtration (man-made that is). When purchasing lr, you should have enough to meet the bioload of your tank. Sometimes when having preds, it is very hard to meet the bioload requirements because if you have two or three messy fish in a tank, you may need external filtration. But this can also be taken care of by using a sump/refuge that can have additional LR and water volume to dilute the waste.

For substrate, aragonite sand is the best as I believe it will help buffer the water. The coral substrate will also hlep to buffer as it is pure calcium carbonate... but with it being very coarse, it can be a bear to clean plus it wont be very friendly on any bottom dwelling fish.

The light question is all dependent on what type of corals. Many softies can get away with pc's or a few T5 bulbs. Start getting in lps and sps, then you will prob need to look into halides as these corals require more light to grow and flourish. Especially with the depth of your tank being larger than a typical 30G...so if you want to have any kinds of high light corals at or near the bottom, they will need halide. But for now, if you wanna use a pair or quad set of T5's, that should be good for most corals you would prob want. and in the future, if you decide you want to try some hard corals, then you can just easily upgrade to a halide light.

Ox

EDIT: Thinking about it... I have talked to some people that keep hard corals under T5 lighting. They did not specify how many bulbs over the tank they had but I guess it is possible....

 

[SkiFletch]

EDIT: Thinking about it... I have talked to some people that keep hard corals under T5 lighting. They did not specify how many bulbs over the tank they had but I guess it is possible....

Usually 4-6 tubes with individual reflectors depending on the species kept and the depth of the tank

 

[kj23502]

hi click on my uploading pics thing in signature. It pretty much goes step by step

Read post # 91

 

[[email protected]]

ok..........
so this is the tank and the stand

this is looking into the tank at the lights

showing the top of the tank (filter media is ceramic noodles and carbon... do i need to wash them?)

bag the substrate came in (white marble chips)

substrate in a bucket - washed!

ill be getting live rock probably tomorrow.... how much do i need??

i have done a full freshwater test run - no leaks! good sign!!!

i also bought a saltwater master test kit (API)

should i put the sand and water in first and THEN get the live rock???

i also want moonlighting.... so should i just take back the lights i have and what should i get for nice corals all the way down the tank... also what are some good easy corals???

thanks for everyone's support so far!

 

[SkiFletch]

Mix the water to appropriate salinity and heat it up to 76-80 first. Then, purchase LR and aquascape as you desire with the rocks on the bottom glass. In tall tanks like that it can be difficult to aquascape. You may want to select larger pieces if possible. Some LFS' have really big pieces of rock, buying one of those that would fit in your tank might be the easiest method here. Otherwise, you can buy some epoxy putty to help you out with the aquascaping. Failing that if you're handy enough, you can also buy some very thin carbon fiber rod (like 2mm diameter), cut it to lengths you need, and drill holes in the rock to skewer it if you want to make some wierd shapes. You SHOULD be looking for ~1lb/gallon of rock, but that rule becomes difficult to follow in tall tanks.

Once your aquascape is done, add the sand around the base of the rock, add any equipment that needs to go in, and then slowly pour water over the rocks so that you don't kick up sand everywhere

 

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thanks for that skifletch!

here are some photos of the test run (i had it in my shower with all electrics!!! house fire waiting to happen!

tank in the shower - notice the leads going OVER the sink!!!!

side view of the filter and the heater doin their thing!

same shot with the lights on... do they look ok? (i like 'em)

top view of the filter in the hood... going from left to right... in the first chamber there are ceramic noodles, then there are bits of carbon then the pipe from the filter leading into the tank

thoughts???
there are no leaks so far!
touch wood!

EDIT: how many pounds are in a KILO
i know its a 33 gal so 33 pounds but how many kilos do i need (im from australia)

 

[ox5477]

I believe you would get much more benefit from getting rid of the media and replacing with lr rubble and/or macro algae like chaeto. You could keep that back lid open and rig up a light for the macro algae as well pretty easily.

Ox

 

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hey also could i use a fluval 305 (brand new) as a sump/refrigium???
i could just take out the filter media, put in a light and a little heater!
anyone else doin that???

i think ill find some live sand - wats a good brand (something i dont have to wash would be good!!!)


wats some good macro algae???

 

[ox5477]

You could use it as a refuge. I believe I have seen a diy where someone put an led light into an eheim canister (already has heater). Though, I do think maybe the flow would be too fast through the canister. You normally want a pretty mellow flow for your refuge.

The typical macros include chaeto or caulerpa, though I have seen more TFF members lean towards chaeto. And I have heard that keeping the light on 24/7 for chaeto keeps it from going sexual so you dont get it growing throughout your whole system? That last bit of info is hit or miss... I think I remember reading this... but I dont remember where.

If you get live sand... get only one bag. In a month or so, the so called "dead" sand you put with it will become live with creates and small inverts before you know it... so dont go spending lots of money on 20 or 30kg of live sand when all you need is a small 5 pound bag.

Ox

 

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here are some pics of the tank with live rock in it!

this is taken after a few days and a massive water change... (i put the rock in and 3 days after that there was a smell worse than death in the room so i changed over 50% of the water and now it dont smell so bad!!!

side view of the tank... notice the clam!! i think ill open it right up and put something in it later!

this is the controller for the two powerheads i bought ( you can have both of them on or have them alternating... i thought it was a good buy - two powerheads and a controller for $150AUD down from $250)

each powerhead is 266GPH rated and the brand is "accela"


thoughts???

 

[ox5477]

i put the rock in and 3 days after that there was a smell worse than death in the room

That would be die-off from the rocks.... but also, even fully cured, lr isn't the prettiest smelling thing

As long as those powerheads were made to be controlled and able to shut off and on.... then they should be fine. If they were just two pumps that the seller put with the controller, they prob wont last long with the constant power cutting and surges.

Ox