Hello From Southern England

[APG78]

Hi all, - you can call me Al.

(Hope this is the right place for a Journal)?

Wife and I taken the plunge and gone and bought a tank for salt water marine setup. We blame my mother for this, getting her new 60L freshwater tropical, and that's given us the bug. Spent about 2>3 weeks hunting around Sussex (S.E England) for something. Found a 60x18x24 that had been sitting in a not too "Local"FS, and had nearly £300 off, Sold!

Got it delivered, and up the flight of stairs... it kind of shrunk the TV, sitting on the same wall in our living room. Moved a few things around, so it shouldn't get direct sunlight and has a small window above it, so we can hopefully keep it cool in the summer. Here's hoping to a warm summer anyhow though.

Next weekend we tried out luck with advise @ Maidenhead Aquatics and World Of Fish. Good advice, great ideas all round. Got the water sorted first - with a 189L per 24 hours RO unit. Think that took about 3 days to fill. While filling, went and worked out with local plumbers how to drain from the weir to the sump, nice and easy. Well, it would have been, if I'd remembered to remove the Styrofoam from under tank where the connectors went - which it why it took so long to fill it - I expected to do something wrong. Still do. Water in, went serious shopping for what felt like a tonne of salt, refractometer, heaters, return pump, 4 bags of live sand (not enough), lights and backing for the tank.

Took a few days working with pipes how I could keep things quiet, as I live in a flat on the 1st floor - and you can hear the slightest noise, so a 1262 ehiem humming away on the solid wooden floor in my living room could (and maybe did) drive the neighbours mental. Managed to avoid floods, using ideas from this fab forum/site. Seems to be getting there.

I think I should have added the sand to the tank before I filled it - but had in my mind the tank was going to leak? Added the sand, made it pretty hard to see anything in there. But few days later, all fine.

Next up. Live Rock...

 

[chrisbassist]

Nice tank.

There is a subforum in the marine section specifically for journals. If you're lucky a nice mod might move it there for you.

 

[krissykat]

Wow thats a beautiful tank!
cant wait to see what you do with it

 

[ENR]

Thats a lovely tank matey! Stunning! Living on the first floor too, i can sympathise!!

 

[Assaye]

Head over to the marine section =) it's really good and they'll be able to make sure you stay on the right track. I have a policy to only trust lfs employees as far as I can throw them, and this is coming from someone who worked at a lfs!

 

[APG78]

Hi all. Thanks for the comments. Typical of me, wrong place to post - will try and look out for an admin. I am also very weary of anyone that I am giving money to, don't worry. Exactly what these forums are for huh, lots of different opinions. And when I hear the same thing more than a few times on here, and the shop confirm with the same kind of answers, I'm in. My preferred shop is World of Fish, out near East Grinstead in West Sussex, www.worldoffishes.com They seem quite serious about what they do. Fingers crossed with them.

Got some rock Saturday morning, only about 5Kg. Packaged well, car nice and dry too. No hitch-hikers that I have yet seen, alas.

Also got some miracle mud, didn't realise it was that pricey! It (me) clouded up the tank pretty well. Did leave the pump off for a while, but bit the bullet and it's cleared again fine now. Light installed for the refriguim, have decided it would be okay to try the Berlin method for filtration on my FOWLR setup. Hope so?

Also replaced the pipe for the return to the tank, from my custom temporary attempt - and wow, the restrictions a 90 degree bend puts on a pump! Read something about that when trying to calculate head height pressure calculations for the pump to choose. Real difference. Problem this has created is the overflow/weir system is now REALLY flowing! Gargling and spluttering is very loud. Telly now has to go up an extra 5-10 notches, which is loud. I've read recently about drain systems that simply raise the level of the water in the weir and also add a breather for my single holed drain off. Will look at making one of these up --> www.dursostandpipes.com

Just read I should leave the lights off while I'm cycling? Also just tried the PH test, looks to be about 7.7>8.0 and salinity seems to be around 1.023

Rock as of today:

 

[Terri_84]

Wow what a nice tank!

We are about to go marine with our 190l tank - will be following this as we need as many hints and tips as we can get! (Trying to swat up before we take the plunge so to speak)

Any ideas what fish you want in there?

Terri

 

[APG78]

Wow what a nice tank!

We are about to go marine with our 190l tank - will be following this as we need as many hints and tips as we can get! (Trying to swat up before we take the plunge so to speak)

Any ideas what fish you want in there?

Terri

Hey Terri - thanks for the compliment! To be honest, not really sure - going to sit down for a day with the wife and see what goes with what salinity / ph / temp. Then need to see what in that group will live with each other. Of course there has to be 2 'nemos' (Percula Clowns I think) in there, I have my orders so to speak! But I'm after a dwarf lion, so have to think about that, a LOT more. Still got about 40kg of live rock to get first, gives me a month or two to mature and cycle the tank first.

I have spent hours and hours online (not at work of course boss) here looking at other peoples journals, seems a good place to start?

Good luck with your setup.

Regards,
Al.

 

[Terri_84]

I agree nemos are a given! My other half really wants a porcupine puffer but our tank is sadly way too small.

Yeah think i'm going to be doing alot of reading on here!

Hope all goes well with yours!

 

[sorgan]

Did you want a reef tank or FOWLR? If it's reef your after (corals and inverts) then there are many species you shouldn't keep, lionfish eat shrimp and small fish so they arnt considered reef safe.

If it's fish only then go ahead and get a lion, I would avoid certain species of clown to go with a lion in favour for something like a maroon or clarkii clown as they get bigger (look different to)

I love lion fish but I also like keeping inverts so lionfish are a strict no no for me.

Good luck buddy and btw the tank looks top, your gonna want more LR though

 

[simonas]

welcome to the forum!!

wow that tank is great and will make a superb marine tank

I bet you change your plans for stocking as time goes by!!

considering making my big tank a marine fish and live rock only as well so will watch your tank progress with interest

simon

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Nice start. Good size tank and nice setup to start with, will give you at least a year until you want to upgrade it (unlike us that started off with a nano and want to upgrade within 2 months ).

Are you 100% sure on going FOWLR because that is what you want or because you think it is easier then going with a full reef setup? If its because you want FO then its all good (would be nice to see a few more FO set ups about).

If you think its because corals will be to difficult to start with then you need think a bit harder about your fish stocking. Most people I know that go into marines start out as a FOWLR beucase its considered easier. But then within 2-3 months, when they are comfortable with running the tank, they want to go for corals. If you have fish in the tank at that point that aren't reef safe it makes life more difficult.

If you are considering going for a reef setup skip the clown fish. My Perc clowns have now managed to kill off about £300 worth of coral's in total and I'm having to set up a tank just for them (which was going to be a seahorse tank). I no longer consider clown fish to be reef safe

World of fishes is great. Its quite a drive for me (down in Dover area) but they are very good there. Unfortunately when I have been up there I always catch them just as they are waiting for more stock to come in but the staff are immensely helpful and do really know what they are talking about. The livestock has always looked to be top quality as well.

With your LR dont make the mistake most of us do and think more is better. This is what is drummed into our heads as soon as we start reading about marine setups and it results in most of us ending up with tanks full of big piles of rock. I have got a 450l tank which had about 70-80kg of LR in and all it did was take away swim room and water volume and cause a whole bunch of deadspots for crud to build up. I have taken out about 20KG now and rescaped it so its nice and open with flow going all around every rock and its so much better.

If you are going for FO then you don't need as much LR anyway. You can put LR rubble or even bioballs into your sump to aid the biological filtration. I know people that run very successful FO setups only using canister filters (all be it very big ones) so dont always listen to the people that say bioballs/biomedia filtration is the bane of marine keeping as its not true (though not advised for reef setups).

I may have missed it but you only seem to have 1 powerhead in there at the moment? You will need IMO at least 15X the tank volume in water flow for berlin filtration on a FO (most people say between X10 and X20 without corals). I would recommend 2 or 3 smaller power heads over 1 big one as you get better flow patterns around the tank (unless you can afford something like the vortech's systems which are AMAZING!)

Also if you are going FOWLR or full Reef (or somewhere between the two) I would strongly suggest getting a skimmer. I have run tanks without them and done ok but after running with one they do make a huge difference. The water is clearer and the parameters are kept much more stable. It much better to run with one from the start as well as it helps reduce the build up of phosphate and nitrate levels (it doesn't remove phosphate and nitrate but it does remove the DOC's before they break down to these).

Very nice looking tank and look forward to seeing what you are going to do with it.

 

[APG78]

Did you want a reef tank or FOWLR? If it's reef your after (corals and inverts) then there are many species you shouldn't keep, lionfish eat shrimp and small fish so they arnt considered reef safe.

If it's fish only then go ahead and get a lion, I would avoid certain species of clown to go with a lion in favour for something like a maroon or clarkii clown as they get bigger (look different to)

I love lion fish but I also like keeping inverts so lionfish are a strict no no for me.

Good luck buddy and btw the tank looks top, your gonna want more LR though

Hi - I think we're going down the route of FORLR to keep things simple(for now). We only have 2 T8 bulbs, 50(something)" long @ about 38 watts each. Antec(?) marine blue and white. Don't think they'd do for corals, not anemones? If what I've retained from this site is still correct in my jumbled up head? I was thinking of maybe a little fuzzy/dwarf, or even a Peppermint (http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHbv0zFtT0w). Just need to read up a bit more. Bigger clowns do seem quite nice, LFS has one on its own, but looks VERY sad in the corner, so maybe get another shop to get a pair in. It's the maroon one, I think. Nice and big, about 3 inches.

Cheers, I'm asking the LFS if they'd get me some LR shipped to my door instead of coming to them first - nice and FRESH. Maybe I'll get some more life in the rock this time round, were not many hitchhikers on the last batch. But that had been in the store a while.

welcome to the forum!!

wow that tank is great and will make a superb marine tank

I bet you change your plans for stocking as time goes by!!

considering making my big tank a marine fish and live rock only as well so will watch your tank progress with interest

simon

Thanks - I'm still quite petrefied about some of the things I can do wrong - such as when to change the water and how much to keep the first spike down. Still got a bit of LR to get anyhow, best get that in there soon.

Something about the best laid plans and all that... ?

Good luck with yours too.

al.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Dont worry too much about not seeming to have many hitchhikers. They sometimes take quite awhile to appear. I have had most of the LR I have got in one system or another for over 2 years and I still see new stuff appearing out of nowhere all the time

 

[APG78]

Nice start. Good size tank and nice setup to start with, will give you at least a year until you want to upgrade it (unlike us that started off with a nano and want to upgrade within 2 months ).

Are you 100% sure on going FOWLR because that is what you want or because you think it is easier then going with a full reef setup? If its because you want FO then its all good (would be nice to see a few more FO set ups about).

If you think its because corals will be to difficult to start with then you need think a bit harder about your fish stocking. Most people I know that go into marines start out as a FOWLR beucase its considered easier. But then within 2-3 months, when they are comfortable with running the tank, they want to go for corals. If you have fish in the tank at that point that aren't reef safe it makes life more difficult.

If you are considering going for a reef setup skip the clown fish. My Perc clowns have now managed to kill off about £300 worth of coral's in total and I'm having to set up a tank just for them (which was going to be a seahorse tank). I no longer consider clown fish to be reef safe

World of fishes is great. Its quite a drive for me (down in Dover area) but they are very good there. Unfortunately when I have been up there I always catch them just as they are waiting for more stock to come in but the staff are immensely helpful and do really know what they are talking about. The livestock has always looked to be top quality as well.

With your LR dont make the mistake most of us do and think more is better. This is what is drummed into our heads as soon as we start reading about marine setups and it results in most of us ending up with tanks full of big piles of rock. I have got a 450l tank which had about 70-80kg of LR in and all it did was take away swim room and water volume and cause a whole bunch of deadspots for crud to build up. I have taken out about 20KG now and rescaped it so its nice and open with flow going all around every rock and its so much better.

If you are going for FO then you don't need as much LR anyway. You can put LR rubble or even bioballs into your sump to aid the biological filtration. I know people that run very successful FO setups only using canister filters (all be it very big ones) so dont always listen to the people that say bioballs/biomedia filtration is the bane of marine keeping as its not true (though not advised for reef setups).

I may have missed it but you only seem to have 1 powerhead in there at the moment? You will need IMO at least 15X the tank volume in water flow for berlin filtration on a FO (most people say between X10 and X20 without corals). I would recommend 2 or 3 smaller power heads over 1 big one as you get better flow patterns around the tank (unless you can afford something like the vortech's systems which are AMAZING!)

Also if you are going FOWLR or full Reef (or somewhere between the two) I would strongly suggest getting a skimmer. I have run tanks without them and done ok but after running with one they do make a huge difference. The water is clearer and the parameters are kept much more stable. It much better to run with one from the start as well as it helps reduce the build up of phosphate and nitrate levels (it doesn't remove phosphate and nitrate but it does remove the DOC's before they break down to these).

Very nice looking tank and look forward to seeing what you are going to do with it.

Hi. Thanks for your input, great to hear all these inputs. Not 100% on anything yet, really. I'd already gone out at the start with the intention of keeping it simple for the first year or two, so got a T8 setup, twin 48W bulbs. The rock was something else I'm not too sure about, how much that is. It's something that could take over the tank quite quick from the looks of a different LFS, a closer one to me (but has more of a shop feel about it than the other one mentioned). Their main display is very nice, but has a massive wall of LR across the entire back length. I need to balance looks against the Berlin beneficial settings, somehow, and your suggestion of breaking up some of the rock into the sump. Into the first stage, or with the plants and mud?

There was a 2nd Hydor Koralia Evolution 4000 not in the tank at the time, it went back in today as I had to swap it with LFS as it was making a loud hummmmmm, compared to the one on the left. With the massive return pump flow, and two of these, should that be okay? The flow rates are quoted as 4000lph each. The tank is 425, so that without the sump x15 would be 6,375lph. split between 2 of these, should that be okay?

I've also waited for the skimmer, I'm not sure what one to get. I know by the time I get the CUC in I'll have to get one. Only problem is that I have issues putting anything else in the sump itself that can generate noise. Only because the amount of noise through vibration I got off my Ehiem 1262 return pump while it was submerged in there. I'd want to get something external. Even if it does make the cupboard underneath look a right mess with tubes and cables everywhere. Rather go silent and the cost of it looking terrible in there.

That silence issue leads me onto today’s purchase from the local plumbers. I'm going to attempt to make my own Dursto drain. Wish me luck! Photos later on of what I've got. LOTS of towels on standby. Best get this right before I stock the tank up any more...

Cheers again!

Al.

Dont worry too much about not seeming to have many hitchhikers. They sometimes take quite awhile to appear. I have had most of the LR I have got in one system or another for over 2 years and I still see new stuff appearing out of nowhere all the time

True - today I'm sure I've seen tiny little mini anemoes? They've got about 5 fingers, and are only about 10mm acorss. They look like inverts. I'll try and take some photos later.

Someone's said something on here about using red lights.


why?