First Marine Tank :)

[Harry1996]

well you could put the rock in the tank if u think it would be ok. but if u do that make sure u test the water a lot and if u see any change in ammonia etc. i would do a big water change. or even move the rock in 2 the drums. and then wc. also if u have a filter spare then maybe use that? and make sure there isnt any media in it

 

[indir-emir]

Hmm the filter idea may work if i can find my internal filter for pushing water around lol.

I undersatnd where your coming from. Im just curious wether the rock being out of hte tank for at most say one or two minutes.. Would it really effect things to the point of any cycle?

 

[seffieuk]

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?

If you are really sure his sand is only that old and he has looked after the tank, then sure, take it, no need to wash it -but to me it would be all too much trouble with no real gain - although I might be tempted to let it dry out and keep it for topping up my own sand later

Ill have to find a holding tub plus something to make some flow then :\ Damnit,

B&Q or cheap shops usually sell these sort of things pretty cheap but I bet you have something laying around, think out of the box (excuse pun) - I used my granddaughter's toy boxes!!! (Sorry PrincessCoral x)

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 ?

You should really have a spare powerhead and a heater - what happens if on a Sunday, late afternoon one stops working!!!! - I buy second hand ones just for this job!!

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.

The problem will not be the time it is out of the water but the transport time without heat and flow - although this time of year the heat will not be a problem, it is the lack of oxygen, the smaller things will die off in the 15 minute trip home - I really would only expect a small mini cycle but it really would be better not to add this to your main tank just in case! Anyways, it is always a good idea to have a spare container around, you can use them for quaratine, acclimatisation tanks etc

Seffie x

 

[Harry1996]

i dont think so i brought 15kgs from my lfs and didnt even transport it in containers
and i didnt get a cycle. my lfs is 30 mins away maybe less. the only thing that whent up was nitrate (25) thats it. and i tested it every day. unless i tested it wrong that day.

 

[indir-emir]

Yes seffie i know its a bit silly of me not ot have spares sitting around lol. I really need to get some, waiting for a cheap bargain to pop up on the forums that are based in australia

Goign to buy a plastic tub and use an old internal filter... Would this be ok? Or should i pull out one of the power heads and test every 12 hours for a few days if no sign of stats chuck in tank?

I had the same thing happen to me harry. No cycle seen, just nitrats up a little tiny bit

 

[seffieuk]

Yes I dont see why not as long as there is enough flow?

Put the rock in the holding tank and test after 24 hours

There are a couple of second hand heaters on ebay australia, but I dont know the brands - I also looked for a powerhead and couldnt find that many - might be good to import a cheap one like sunsun from hong kong, might even be worth importing several and selling them on


Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

Considering the high values you can import into Australia without having to pay tax, the sunsun/resun/etc units from ebay sound like a good option.

Less than £10 a piece in queen's money

 

[seffieuk]

Sorry off topic

you boys not going to play tff fantasy football?

Seffie x

 

[drsquirrel]

Sorry - football is for sissies who roll about on the floor "hurt" from being nudged.





(feel free to delete this later to keep the thread on topic )

 

[Harry1996]

yes it is i agree but i may just do it anyway

 

[indir-emir]

Well some good news today! Watchin the tank as the lights came on and something caught my attention... A mini goni!! I freaked out! Did some google searching and found out they reproduce asexually by "dropping" offer a bud. And it appears mine has done that! Wooo! Looks like its liking my tank!

How should i attach this and to which rock would be best? Or should i pull it out and get it in the refugium under the light i will get for the refugium?

Pics soon to come as my new corals should arrive in 5 minutes!

 

[indir-emir]

Well i went ahead and attached the goni, got my new corals in today too Got a few free zoa rocks, and the rock he sent me had alot more than 15 polyps on it So his a top guy and great to deal with. Anyone from sydney give me a pm and ill give you his website.

He also accidently sent me his pet crab Looks like a teddy bear crab to me. Kinda like a gorilla crab, just without the black pincers. Scared the absolute crap out of me when it crawled across my hand hahaha. I will probably send him this crab back as its his pet that he enjoys caring for, and it just gonna live in my sump otherwise

On with the pics! Lots this time, warning!

Baby Xenia Frag that fell off the main colony so it got glued to a rock lol:

My baby goni frag! This bud dropped of the mother colony so ive decided to glue ti to a rock. It must be liking the tank, the mother colony that is! This was just after gluing it to the rock so its closed up:

The baby goni once i found it on the floor there

Goni family

Green Zoa Colony with flash:

Orange Zoa Colony (This one was a freebie with the green colony i bought):

Orange Zoa Colony half opened up:

These two rocks are pink and green zoa colonies (These are also freebies ):

My Pulsing Blue Xenia Colony, cant wait for this to have settled in nicely and coloured even brighter! Looks fantastic already. May move it to a lower flow area though:

A morph coral (i think, anyone want to confirm this?) that was a freebie (there is also 2 or 3 of these on the green zoa colony rock):

Green Zoa Colony:

Green Zoa Colony again:

Green Zoa Colony Under Moon Lights (Looks awsome!):

My goni frag under moonlights:

A not so good tank shot that is current as of the 9th of August 2010:

And finally, the new crab hitchicker that is living in my sump with the red crab

I am really happy and excited that my goni has dropped a bud as this means it must be happy in the tank! It is quite big when it is completely opened which makes it looks fantastic!

The zoas are smaller then i was expecting them to be by my guesses through photos of them lol. But they look great at night, and should look very good once they all open up across the entire rock and my little live rock with my frags on it will look great once all the corals settle in and open up properly

The xenia still stands to be my favourite coral to date Cant wait for this bad boy to settle in!

More corals coming in wednesday. Was not able to pick up the rock and the other corals from the guy that lives near me as he was busy today and tomorrow. May wait till the weekend to pick it up so i can prepare everything for a holding tub.

Got a question though. Ever since the new corals came in my skimmer has begun to overflow within seconds. It appears to be getting more air inside the body compared to the other times i watched the bubble in the body going Only difference is that i introduced the new corals and used the epoxy to hold the corals down... Could the epoxy have caused this? Or maybe zoa toxin or something? No idea how to fix this from happening so i had to turn the skimmer of as its 12.30 am at the moment and i need to get up early, spent a few hours tyring to fix it, and no idea why its happening ANy ideas?


EDIT:
Here is the shot of the crab with a bit of brightness/colour adjustment and circled in green. It was throwing sand on itself or something as it had sand on it when i took the picture lol.

 

[seffieuk]

Oh how lucky are you with that Blue xenia, I would kill (well, maybe not kill!) to have a piece like that - it doesn't come along very often around here and when it does its feeble

You need to slow down now and let everything settle in, i'm glad you decided to put the new rock in a holding container, you wouldn't want to lose any of those would you

Seffie x

 

[indir-emir]

Have not got the rock yet. This way i just get enough time to sort everything out for myself

The xenia is a very beautiful piece. Its bigger then the seller had told me it was Looks fantastic.

Any ideas on why the skimmer overflows in seconds?

 

[drsquirrel]

First thing I would say from looking at your sump pics is the water level outside the simmer body is a bit high. Try putting something under it to raise the height.