Cold Saltwater Aquarium Upgrade To Tropical

[SlowSwim]

Hey all,

Ive had my 15g cold Saltwater Aquarium for sometime now. And im in the process of upgrading it to a tropical one. The only thing im needing some info on is the flow, how much would there need to be in a 15g aquarium.. Ive got a maxijet 400 at the moment but i think its too powerfull for trops.

Would i need to downscale?

Tanks - "excuse the pun"

- matt

 

[J-Money]

you plannin on keeping seahorses? people usually like alot of flow in their tanks, i'm up around 15x's the volume. does the model number 400 mean it pumps 400g/h?

 

[SlowSwim]

No, The maxi jet 400 does 106 GPH. Would this be good for my tank or too powerfull?
Or should i use it anyway and experiment abit.
I dont know if im going to be keeping seahorses, but im defernatly going to be keeping corals and maybe clown fish; i dont know yet.

- matt

 

[J-Money]

you're probably actually going to need another 1. like i said, people try for a minimum of 10x's volume turn around so you will want a minimum of 150g/h. some corals and fish may require more so you want to research what you want to put in the tank so there's no surprises later on. good luck

 

[SlowSwim]

Well I've thrown in a Little power head that runs at near enough half of the 400.
I put bubbles on it to see how fast it turns the water over and its pretty nippy, considering that this one isnt getting pulled through the filter bed.

Its got a dial on it that i can turn to lower its speed or raise it.. if i had to.

I put the heater in today.

And i bought one T5 daylight lamp. And another with a blue moon on it as well.. I will be constructing a hood tomorrow. Then during next week i will be getting some live rock (pre cured) £6.95 per lb.

Thanks

matt

 

[bunjiweb]

I have 218Gph in my 15Gallon and that seems enough as it provides 15X turnover, although im sure i could probably have more if i really wanted.

Ben

 

[SlowSwim]

Thanks for your input bunjiweb.
Im sure i have enough flow for the time being.

Im actually getting my hood constructed for me, my lfs makes all hoods and stands by them-selves.

I am interested in Mandarins would i be able to keep them in my 15g or not?

Thanx.

 

[bunjiweb]

It certainly wouldnt be advisable. If you wanted one your tank would have to be very mature (12months+). As they need plenty of pods (tiny shrimps and worms) to feast upon. Having said this i have seen a mandarin kept in a 15G nano before, although personally i think they should be kept in something AT LEAST twice that size.

Ben

 

[J-Money]

i've heard 1 mandarin needs around 100lbs of LR to be able graze on....in a well established tank at that. Ben, that mandarin you saw in the nano, did it have a larger sump full of stuff to seed the tank with? I've seen them in smaller tanks at the LFS, but it is always plumbed in with all the tanks so really there is lots of LR and all kinds of stuff flowin in from other tanks to feed them

 

[SlowSwim]

I was reading up on them finding some opinions, It is possible to ween them on to foods such as brine shrimp. Before i changed to tropical the tank has been running for 2 years. keeping LR, Small nems. A colony of alsorts of sea fleas. But ive taken it all out. cleaned the filter bed and live sand made from dead corals.

All of whitch was collected by myself from scotland. I once got a urchin. but it got killed by a crab that snuck its way into my collecting bucket.

I bought the new LR a couple of days ago, and over the past couple of days ive found alsorts of hitch hikers.

2 nems (still need to identify them, both have never closed up as yet) 2 tube worms and a pink polyp of somekind (very small its got 6 heads on it)

Theres about 7 pounds worth of LR in there.. i'll be getting another lot pretty soon. My LR has quite a low density but they are quite big peices..

My first addtion to the tank would proberly be a cleaner shrimp and turbo snails.

I'll be posting images sometime soon.

- matt