First Marine Tank :)

[seffieuk]

Its really easy peasy, best to set up two - in case one crashes and they usually do at some point

so, take two containers - you can use anything
air pump and tubing
phyto
salt water
pods
strainer

put the salt water in the containers, add phyto until the water turns green (not too dark green, almost like tea). put the tubes in the containers and turn on air pump, needs to be slow and steady otherwise the pods will die if too much agitiation. Put on a sunny window sill and leave for three weeks. In three weeks you should be able to start to harvest your pods

Dont forget to top up every day with just plain ro water. In the summer i found that i didnt need to add phyto as the sun gave me all the food the pods needed

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

What sort of water temperature do they need? Same as the tank? If so, will have to set it up alongside the sump. Maybe ill just culture them in the refugium. Would this be enough to get a mandarin soon-ish (month or so)?

 

[seffieuk]

Room temp is fine, so no heater rquired. Growing pods in the refug, is a good idea but in a tank your size you will need to culture pods for a Mandy.

You really need to be in a position of being able to add pods every 48 hours, so as soon as the two cultures are teaming with pods you should be ok. Dont be tempted to rush

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Nah no rush. Spenidng all my money on corals! Friday im ordering my RO/DI unit hopefully. That $150 one, that does 8L an hour. So hopefully things should sort themselves out. The coral beauty really seems to like his rock picking duty. Devours flake tho haha.

Thanks alot for the help seffie You and the others here have been wonderful and helped me a ton in starting my reef tank!

Tank is coming along nicely Will 2-3 5L bottle be fine for culturing the pods inside my cabinet?

EDIT: How often do the pods need to be fed the phyto? I feed my tank phyto pretty much every day. 1 measuring spoon for the whole tank acording to the packet.

 

[seffieuk]

You are very welcome, I was given and still am given a lot of help here, so like to pay something back

Its easy to judge the phyto, just keep the water a green colour 2 x 5 litre botttles seems fine to me

BigC did somthing similar - take a look at his kilifish thread, maybe it is in there - oh no, hang on, I think he also put it in the Newsletter

http/tffnewsletter.webeden.co.uk/#/foods/4534238921

Although it is not quite what you are after - i'm sure he did one on copepods or the like, just cant think where

Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

If you have it in the window in good sunlight, you will find you don't need much phyto after a while, hence why it's best (and cheaper ) to keep them in a window rather than your cabinet.

 

[seffieuk]

If you have it in the window in good sunlight, you will find you don't need much phyto after a while, hence why it's best (and cheaper ) to keep them in a window rather than your cabinet.

Yep, I agree, I didn't use any phyto in the end - the sun did it all for me nice green algae water

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Ah green water is the trick eh? Had those before.. Now how do i get a power cord out onto the balcony in my room lol. That would be to cold/hot in australia Would the refugium light be okay instead of the sun? It would get a bit of light from that + tank lights... Otherwise ill have to find a window sill were my mum wont end up binning it lol.

I have had green water cultures, daphnia culture, and a brine shrimp culture for a while (did not like the brine for my fish though, neither did my fish ). Then i moved and never set up again so it all kinda went to waste and was pretty much gut loaded and fed to my fish prior to selling them (Fresh water).

 

[indir-emir]

Ok had a session of rock watching again tonight about an hour or two after moonlights went off. I still dont have red celephane (i know i REALLY need to get some)...

Anyway, i think i found like 10 bristleworms around the tank :\ Dunno if this is good or bad though. It is very hard to get a pic since im using a torch to get lighton them.. So no pic... They however look like a bristleworm, the largest was probably an inch long, others were not far off. I however dont know how far out of the rock the came. The body was maybe 1mm in diameter. The body was half purple, half pink/red. It had what im assuming are legs that were little hwite triangles, lots of them... Sounds like a bristleworm to me, now are they good or bad? Becuase i have like 10 scattered across different rocks around the tank :\ Any ideas?

 

[seffieuk]

Bristleworms are good guys they are great as part of the cuc, just watch the rock if you feed just before lights off, they will come slithering out to eat the left-overs

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

The rock? They are on like 10 different rocks lol.

Now im afraid of geting stung... Time to buy gloves :\ Can any of the gloves from the supermarket be safe? Like food handling ones with no poweder.. Would they work? Saw them today and thought hmmmm maybe... But wantd to make sure

 

[seffieuk]

yes food safe gloves are fine

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Would they actualy stop stings from corals and the bristleworms?

EDIT:
Have found someone shutting down his tank about 15 mins drive from my place... He is selling 12kg of live rock, bunch of zoas, bunch of morphs, a few corals, some coral sand, macro algae, and some turbo snails. Going to buy it all from him as id like a bit more rock for the tank to be a little higher in rock work. And gona put some into rubble into the sump and tank for pod shelter..

Anyway, question is would i be able to just bring it back to my place and chuck ti in the tank.. If i transfer the rock in water (or with no water) would i be okay and not get a mini cycle? Or should i do something to them before putting into the tank?

 

[seffieuk]

Sounds cool but dont buy the sand if its the creatures in the sand that you are after buy the sand and sift it to get them out. Old sand contains loads of stored up phosphates etc and you dont want to release those in to your nice tank

Transport the rock in water and have a holding tub or box waiting at home, with the salty stuff and flow - put the rock in there, you might not get any cycle at all if you transport in water for a very short time, but to be honest it seems to me that even if transported in water for a short time there is usually a small amount of die off - it is better this happens in yuour holding tank/tub than in your tank and cause stress to your fish etc

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

The sand is off the bottom fo his tank, i know for a fact his had his tanking running for maybe a month and has decided to much work for him as he is to busy. I dont really want the sand but i figure what the hell if i wash it?

Ill have to find a holding tub plus something to make some flow then :\ Damnit, i dont have a spare powerhead... Going to have to pull one out of the tank for a few days or something... No other way to prevent it happening ? It would be out of water for a few seconds at a time if i put it into the drum filled with water striaght away... and then again a few seconds between drum and my tank lol.