From The Bay To The Reef

[DigitalStorm]

Ok then - here goes!

After much trawling of the net I decided that the best place to start my marine journey was in the capable hands of the 550 as I'd only read good things about this tank.

Off to ebay I went and low and behold what should crop. An Orca! 175 notes lighter and I'm the proud owner.

On Saturday I went off to collect the latest addition. It was a bit dirty but nothing that a good clean up wont remove.

On Sunday the big clean up starts by removing everything in the tank, including the dead stuff in chamber 4 - it might of been the reason why they were getting rid of it; constantly high ammonia levels?

Anyway, I digress. With the tank having had a good soak with vinegar and a good scrape down onwards to the wash out and test fill...

...it was successful - NO leaks!

As of today I've cleaned up the gear that the tank comes with and am in the process of reconfiguring the chambers, whilst in the background I can listen to my 25 litre jerry can slowly filling with RO water :0), the heater's back in, holes in the chamber wall nicely sealed up and the spray bar cleaned up and re-installed.

Now to sort out my media; next update tomorrow!

DS

 

[Neesmo]

Always exciting starting a new project! Will be watching for pics

Kyle

 

[seffieuk]

Woo hoo - and the journey starts

Seffie x

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool Sounds like you have read up well on the Orca tank. They are good tanks (I have the smaller version).

Any plans on stocking or what you are doing with it yet?

 

[DigitalStorm]

Oh yes, plenty of plans!

Going to do the usual to start, rock, cycle, cuc, fish then corals.

Looking at the following fishes. Advice would be good on bioloads and order of introduction.

Flymo blenny
Clownfish x2
Banggai cardinal
Mandarin (eventually)
one more, any suggestions? Purple firefish - too aggro?

DS

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Firefish should be fine. Never had any aggression from the ones I have had.

Assuming you are going for common clowns this should be ok (though personally I would prefer to keep them in something with more open swim room).

I would personally skip the mandarin unless you are willing to culture live food for it constantly. From personal experience I know that keeping dragonets in these sizes of tanks (even if they eat frozen) is not viable long term without providing a constant supply of live food.

Rest sounds ok, With these fish I wouldnt worry to much about the order. With the clowns if you can get a mated pair (not an easy thing to get). If not get the biggest and smallest clowns on the tank and introduce at the same time. I would probably put the clowns in last but it wont really matter. Common clowns are territorial but I wouldnt really class them as aggressive.

One note on the flymo blenny - Mine really, really hates gobys. I dont know if this is something they all have in common but I put a clown goby in with mine and it did nothing but chase it and attack it 24/7 until I managed to catch it to get it back out. Not a problem with this fish list but something to check out if you consider a goby in the future.

 

[DigitalStorm]

I know the Mandarin is going to be a little bit more high maintenance than the others.

But hey, aren't they worth it?!

Still all that's a long way off...

DS

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah most definitely worth it

I always try and put people of keeping dragonets because generally they do not realise that to keep one in a smaller tank means having to grow its food for it (and this doesnt just mean have one small pod culture going it means having multiple pod cultures going so that if one crashes your mandy still has food).

This means more maintenance (partial water changes on pods, transferring pods to tank, feeding the pods, etc), more space used (places with a light source kept at average room temperature for 3 or 4 pod cultures) and more cost (air pumps, phyto, containers for pods, initial pod culture).

I have spoken to a lot of people that started with the very best of intentions but then soon got fed up with it (which is very understandable, I have cultured pods myself and it is a time consuming, PITA, process) but if you have a fish that depends on it you need to know you can commit to it 100%

Sorry if this sounds a little "preachy" and its not aimed directly at you but more at anyone that happens to read it and is considering keeping a dragonet (including scooter blennys). I honestly believe that a large percentage of the dragonets that are sold in the UK aquarium trade end up dying from starvation just because people are not aware of what is required to keep them alive.

 

[DigitalStorm]

What are people's opinion? 3 Korali Nano's or 2 Korali 1's?

DS

 

[DigitalStorm]

Well then the water going in s l o ww llll yyyyy...

got a nano in there mixing it up.

Apart from that not much to report, saliferts are arriving today, so now the orca has it's own test seperate kits from my trop.

DS

 

[xxBarneyxx]

What are people's opinion? 3 Korali Nano's or 2 Korali 1's?

DS

2 Koralia 1's would probably push more water. However I have always been a fan of using more, lower powered, powerheads though. That way you have more options when you come to position them. Personally I would go for the three nano's (or a 1 and two nanos) as it then makes it easier to create higher and lower flow zones and eliminate any dead spots.

 

[seffieuk]

If you go for the three nanos, that is a lot of powerhead in a small tank - i had one K2 in mine but agree with Barney about having more than one in a tank. I would go with the 2 x K1 or better still 1 x K2 and 1 x nano to put behind the rock

Seffie x

 

[DigitalStorm]

Evening all, so the tank is full and salty! I've got the water circling round with two K1's and have switched on the pumps to get the water cycling.

As of now the tank is at...

pH 8.1/2, it has SG 1.022/3 and is hovering at 75.5F.

All that's left to do is to let the water turn over for the next couple of days hopefully, the SG should come up a touch to .025. (Might go more and then dilute - seems a little easier to dilute than increase.)

I visited the LFS with regard to a bit of LR, £10 a kg, which is just over average, but it's only a couple of miles away and I should get away with only a little die off.
They showed me behind the scenes where they do all their stuff. Really interesting, he showed me all of their rock - all the stages, fishing bits out to show it hadn't fully cured yet.

There were some nice pieces in there so roll on Saturday morning hopefully!

Until tomorrow, when then filtration is going in.

DS

 

[seffieuk]

How exciting, you will soon be pet rock watching get your red light ready for the hours of darkness

Seffie x

 

[DigitalStorm]

Bubbles in tank - normal when filling? - do they go eventually or do they have to be persuaded?

DS