First Ever Fish Tank-Juwel Rio 125Ltr Marine

[lucasfoster]

If I get tempted I will join the table

I have a few pics that I will hpfully upload tonight! including a possible pest that I need an ID on!

atm my tank has around 8 - 10kilos of live rock and some gravel! and its already looking realy good

Do i need to add anything to feed the bacteria and things on the live rock over the next few weeks whilst there is no fish to produce waste for it?

Thanks
Luke

 

[seffieuk]

Just drop a few pinches of food in a couple of times a week

And yes, please do join the league, we are up to ten now

Seffie x

 

[lucasfoster]

Hey guys im having trouble posting images!
How on earth do you do it lol

 

[seffieuk]

Get yourself a free photobucket account, upload your photos to it, then copy and paste the IMG code into your post

Seffie x

 

[lucasfoster]

Cheers Seffie!
had photobox in my head so thats why I was having trouble
So Ive added around 8 - 10 kilos of live rock up to now and its been in for a few days now.

My tests over the last three days have all read
Ammo - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Salinity - 1.022
Ph i havnt done as I was a numpty and got freshwater by mistake so waiting for my saltwater one to be deliverd.

The first few days I barly saw a thing but the last day or two It seems to have burst into life!
Ive found a few critters so far that have come on my live rock
A tiny white snail and a larger snail looks like a collonista,
2 or 3 little starfish which I belive are asternia stars,
a larger starfish in a rock which I have not seen since It looks like a mini brittle star tho,
white feather dusters popping out of some rocks
and some sort of anenomie/coral possible polyps that im not sure of yet!
plus loads of amphepods and copepods scuttling around on the rock

ive added some pics if you would like to confirm what you belive they are sorry for some of the poor quality pics

In the begining!

Some water in with the heater and powerhead on! with black vinyl

Adding live rock and gravel

Were im up to atm

£5 powerhead

Some of the Feather dusters

Not sure what these are

Luke

 

[seffieuk]

Its looking really nice like the black background.

The thing in the foreground looks like a paly to me you will quickly get more but I need a clearer photo of the thing in the front

Seffie x

ps you need to slowly bring the sg up to close to 1.026

 

[lucasfoster]

There tiny so its hard to get a picture thats any good but i will keep trying!

Whats the best way to get the salt up? Mix it in RO water and then add to the tank or put some straight into the tank?
Thanks
Luke

 

[seffieuk]

EEEkkkk dont put salt in the tank, it can burn

You will need a container, most of us use an old salt tub, your lfs will probably give you one or let you have it for a small price, a heater and powerhead

you need 35 m for every litre of water to be at 1.026, so you probably need to be aiming at slightly higher. so, over the next couple of weeks when you do your water change add the extra salt and bring your water in your mixing bucket up to about 1.028 and slowly increase the SG

Seffie x

 

[lucasfoster]

Sorry that was meant to say in RO water and leave or straight into the tank! I wasnt goig to put the salt straight in

The test over the last 4 or 5 days have all been exactly the same
ammo - 0
nitri- 0
nitra - 10

A mate at work got 2 humbugs for free off somone breaking up a tank so next week, aslong as the water is ok, I will be adding one of them to help mature the tank. Ive heard they can aggressive so I will probably give it away myself before I add my own fish.

Ive seen green shoots growing out of the live rock looks exactly like grass, any ideas? bad/good?

still waiting for my bucket of salt so cant start increasing the salinity along with my PH tester.
Ive also orderd a bottle of copepods to add, hopfully they will form a stable colony before I add any fish.

Is it still ok to add things whilst the salt level is at 2.022 aslong as I increase it slowly?

Thanks

Luke

 

[seffieuk]

Yes its fine to add things as long as not corals

I would strongly suggest you pass on the humbug damsel. And you dont need a fish to help the tank mature. Just stick to your original stocking plan as fish are quite often hard to rehome once you have them unless they are rarer fish

Seffie x

 

[simonas]

looking good and I;m looking forward to see it progress

 

[lucasfoster]

Yesterday I added the last bits of live rock around 8 kg so i have bowt 16 - 17 kg in the tank now.
Got a brown algae growing on the tank glass, looks as tho its growing in the shape of finger prints and smudges where I have touched the tank. must be eating the chemicals left on the tank. Also got a little growing on the gravel.

Tons of critters now, a couple of nice snails came on yesterdays live rock. there black and white with stripes, they look pretty cool have a sort of trunk at the front they use to feel round.

Keep seeing a bristle worm poping in and out of holes in the rock aquascaping can be a twitchey activity now lots of little clear worms stuck out of holes in the rock.

water perameters are staying stable with nitrates staying at 10. adding some pre mixed salt water tonight to increase my salinity slightly so hpfuly removing a little water may reduce the nitrates.

CUC hopefully in by the start of next week

Pictures will be on tonight

Luke

 

[lucasfoster]

Here are the photos of where i am so far!

Picking up a halloween hermit crab and 5 or 6 turbo snails off someone braking down a tank for a tenner next week may get some other stuff at the weekend aswell
Brown algea or detrois whatever its called is making the tank look dirty ive left it hoping it will die off eventualy!

You can see the brown on the glass in the centre! not entirly sure on the scaping yet! its hard getting it to look right!

The brown stuff on my gravel

Close up of the brown stuff

one of the 2snails that hithiked on my live rock yesterday

Ive got lots of these white tubes and they all have little white tentacles that go in and out of them. bowt 2 or three in each tube. What are they? good or bad?

 

[lucasfoster]

Yesterday I had a visit to an LSF and got a few little fellas for my tank

I got 3 turbo snails, a red legged hermit and an emerald crab

 

[n3ont3tra]

The brown stuff on the gravel looks like diatoms, which is completely normal for a new setup. Your snails and crabs will love it.
Also I have those little white tube things with the tentacles. I have no idea what they are either but they don't seem to cause any harm. They're just kinda scary looking lol.