Finally, I'm On The Way To Salty

[andywg]

Well, today the missus said I can have a marine tank. Picked up a brand new 21" cube for £35. Once I have built the stand and the hood I can then work on other parts.

The plan is to have a sump in the region of 20 to 25 gallons and I'm toying with the idea of a fuge held in the hood (it will be quite tall to hold the MH light) to allow 'pods to gravity feed into the tank. Anyone know of previous projects of this nature (basically a shallow tank lit by the hood lights up high with a pump into the tank)

Next up is researching a skimmer. Sadly the tank will be in the front room, so an Algae Turf Scrubber will be too expensive. Plans are afoot for around 20x turnover (1,200ish GPH)

Next up is the stocking suggestions. After a little research, just about every life form suggested by the Mrs is not reef safe (or at the very least difficult to keep). She has managed to like Dwarf Lions, puffers, box fish, pom-pom shrimps, dragon wrasse and chocolate chip star fish. The only possibles are Mandarins (so long as I can find one that will accept frozen) and a pair of clowns.

Nav has suggested a great fish in Macropharyngodon bipartitus. My only fear is that in what is a 40 Us gallon tank (even with another 20 gallons in the sump) a pair of these and a pair of clowns could well use up most of the space for fish in the tank. Would I still have room for 2 or 3 more fish in a tank that size (bio-load and time permitting)?

On the great plus side, I play rugby with a window cleaner who has a 500 GPD RO unit for his business so I can have as much RO water as I like for free B)

Saltyness, here I come! (Hoping to go live around Christmas time)

Andy

 

[houndour]

Thats really cool. Are you going to start up a journal? I'm getting more and more interested in marines and love to read how people set them up.

 

[Navarre]

Great to see you are making a salty tank there andy! IMO its a bout time too!

OK well the volume of water you are going to have means that you have the capacity for more than 2 or 3 fish. There is a proviso though. Make sure they wont get territorial. Although you have more capacity, you still only have the volum of the cube for them to swim in. So perhaps a single wrasse rather than a pair and perhaps a pair of clowns. Maybe a boby or 2 and a pygmy angel. this should really be a good capacity for the setup.. Once you reach these stocking levels you should have a feel for the hobby, the tank and your livestock and then you can re-assess it should you feel you can have more fish.

Good luck with it, any questions you have feel free to post as iam sure there are loads of people here that would love to help you with any advice on how to set it up.

 

[andywg]

Probably no real journal, as I'm too lazy to keep updating it.

Yes, it is about time Nav, I orignally joined this thread last year to learn about setting a reef up. This tank will be the start and once we move I'll get the old 6 footer (or probably a new, bigger, 6x2x2) up and running reef. I know you were dissapointed the current 6x2x2 is used for FW nasties.

What I will do is take photos of the tank (It's currently being cycled by one of the kitttens sleeping in it... ) and post at various times.

Nav, I have all sorts of questions, but the prevailing ones are:

What size plumbing, will 25mm be enough for the drainage, or shall I plump for 32mm to give that extra capacity (in case I go mad with GPH)?

Would it be ok to have say, 2 of the wrasse, and leave the angel for a little while?

Is it worthwhile building a reef rack out of pipe and returning the sump water through the pipe and forcing it up through the LR from below?

What sort of skimmer should I be looking for? I'm hoping for a shortish one that can fit in the sump.

That's it for now... Though I'm sure more will follow.

 

[steelhealr]

Hi Andywg and welcome to 'saltiness'. Here are some thoughts for some great compatible fish, although, they are small:

1) Sixline wrasse...Nav gave me the rec. Great swimmer. Beautiful fish
2) Purple or decorated firefish
3) Goby/pistol shrimp combo
4) Clowns

I don't think different species of wrasses will get along well as they may become territorial. SH

 

[andywg]

Clowns and the pistol/watchman combe are definate. After that it is all up for grabs. The lady isn't so keen on six line as the splendind leopard wrasse. I'll see what's about (no doubt she'll find another small cute fish that grows to a foot and will eat everything else in the tank...).

Only problem is I now have to try and learn all the different types of coral to make sure everything I get is fine.

I wonder whether 400W MH would be too much for a tank this size...They seem easier to get than 250...

 

[Navarre]

Its not too much but just be careful of the heat buildup. you might need to move it further away or just keep it well ventilated.

 

[steelhealr]

Check out Borneman's book on Aquarium Corals. It's sorta the 'bible' of corals. SH