I Need Some Advice Please

[seffieuk]

Watching with interest

Seffie x

 

[Pearsondesign]

okies

ive had a change of plan, for about a week at least. ive moved my turtles into one of the bottom tanks as im getting 3 more musk turtles tomorrow from a friend.
so, ill have 2 musks and an ouachita map on the right, and 3 musks on the left.
then, i will be selling the musks on, all 5 of them, and keeping the map on his own til i can find another ouachita map its harder than i thought!
heres some pics of it tonight

and the old turtle tank will be used for a sump for one of the sets of tanks when im ready to start the breeding thing

now then, im still undecided what to try and breed... are people generally saying cleaner shrimp and bangai cardinals?
or is there something else as easy people think i should try?
im going into this not expecting the world, so i wont be disheartened if i get nothing from it, i just figure it will be worth a go

 

[-Nemo-]

I would say clownfish would be one of the easiest fish to do and then the others i mentioned prior. I wouldn't shoot for cleaners... go for peppermints or fire shrimp (fires are a tad harder). Shrimp are incredibly easy to get breeding with each other as they are hermaphroditic.

I would get some cultures started up soon as it will take some time to get used to them and get the density up to speed. Rotifers and phytoplankton are a must for clownfish and many other larvae. Shrimp generally eat BBS (baby brine shrimp) which are not older than a day, so those are easy and you don't have to worry about that until you have something. I'm going to try to dig up a couple things for you... If I find them, I'll PM you.

PS Musk turles are cute They look like little dinosaurs

 

[Pearsondesign]

oh brilli! thanks nemo

if your interested, i have all 5 musks for sale can even sort out some nice bits of bogwood and extras for them

looks like i might be swapping the top 3ft tnk split into three for a 4ft tank split into 4
not sure yet though as i think the 4 foot is slight less depp than this one.


my only problem now is filtration and stuff.
salt, lighting and fish arent a problem. im not sure how to go about a sump as ive never used one before.
i need to figure out a way of using one sump tank to power the top 3/4 tanks in one go. is this possible?
itll need to be a pretty powerful pump to make it go that high up. the reason i wanna use the one sump for all tanks is i dont wanna get huge electric bills all the time, i wanna maybe make some money out of this, not lose it lol

nemo, youve bred clowns havent you?

also, as far as phytoplankton goe, can it be the stuff in a bottle? or does it need to be fresh? also, what are rotifers? might be a silly question, sorry.

 

[-Nemo-]

I'd love turtles I have no room in my house for anything else I should take a picture of my dining room with all the tanks...

A sump here would be different than a sump for a display tank. It doesn't have to be fancy with all the chambers and such. As for the pump issue... that is an issue... How tall would it need to pump? Perhaps put the larvae tanks on top to help avoid that problem?

Yes, I have (and still do) raise my clownie's babies. I messed up their light cycle a couple months ago though which screwed up their mating cycle. They only just re-laid for me last week, so expecting a hatch on sunday or monday from them. (My avatar is one of my babies at a couple months old)



You CAN use the stuff in the bottle and there is also some type of algae paste people use (although I'm very unfamiliar with the paste), the only problem with that is it will get expensive very fast. You're better off just culturing the stuff yourself. It takes minimal effort and it's a one time buy (unless you somehow manage to kill them). Same with the rotifers, plus larvae will only eat live foods. I have, at several times, almost completely neglected my cultures and within a few days of care they were back up to par (although I would not auggest neglecting them ).

Rotifers are small zooplankton, if I remember correctly they are around 50 microns long, maybe less. Regardless, they're teeny. They only look like white dots in the water. Sometimes referred to as marine snow.
So the rotifers eat the phytoplankton and grow and reproduce and then you feed the cure little larvae the rotifers.

Both are very simple to take care of once you get them going. There should be a lengthy section about culturing both in that PM i sent you. If not I can find you something or write something up myself.

 

[Pearsondesign]

wow!
thankyou thankyou thankyou!
that was super helpful!

ok, today i get the new musks. there is now 4 not 3! so i will have 6 musk turtles to rehome! doh!

next week i get the salt to setup the bottom 2 as salty, then just got to leave them for a few weeks and then go from tehre
its gonna be expensive isnt it!?!?

 

[-Nemo-]

dozens of cute little faces staring back at you begging for food makes it worth it

 

[Pearsondesign]

right then, tomorrow is the day i begin my setup

gonna get the salt, RO water, some more live rock and setup the two bottom tanks for salty.

the turtles are gonna have to come out and be put somewhere else for now, not sure where yet though lol

ok, so checklist for tomorrow...

Salt
RO water
Live Rock
Thermometers

my idea is to either get RO water and salt and mix it up and keep ready for use, or, i can get free saltwater from existing display tanks in my LFS and put that in new tanks and leave to cycle filters for a few weeks.
is this ok?
surely if i use water from shop and live rock it will cycle fine?


also, on a side note. my tropical feshwater have been rehomed, so once they are collected and that tank is shut down, ill be using it for another marine display tank in my living room. thinking of either seahorses and pipefish, or a couple of wartskin anglers and fuzzy dwarfs.
would this look good for a display tank do you think? its a vision 180 with external and internal filters, plus i can add a skimmer if needed but was looking to use live rock as an "island" in the middle for them to swim round

 

[-Nemo-]

If you use water from lfs with LR and the rock stays wet, you may not even have a cycle at all.

Horses and pipes... anglers and lions... complete different ends of the spectrum I love all of them.

 

[GAB99]

If you use water from lfs with LR and the rock stays wet, you may not even have a cycle at all.

wait isnt that a bit kinda like my setup i have? therefore he should still wait the month just to be sure??

i guess it could differ since my rock was moved over 4 days where as his take a 30 minute trip at most....




anyways good luck on the setup dude it should be fantastic, ive settled for fire fish or cardinals (bangaii or orange stripped) so i dont leave my parents with too much to take care of lol either way asi only have two year leftwith them at most.

 

[Pearsondesign]

hey guys

basically, the idea is to go get ready mixed saltwater from shop tanks, then leave tanks running with some live rock until i have the cash for some clowns lol
my lfs is getting some nice perculas in next week for me, but until then i figure the tank should be ok using shp water, live rock and filter media from shops sump.

although, i have just spoke to my mate at the shop and unless i can find some huge buckets today ill have to wait til thursday til the ones they have become spare

 

[-Nemo-]

Mojo, your situation was different, the LR had a longer trip and you already had a large amount of livestock going in. In a situation like pearson's, it would still be wise to wait about a week, but there will most likely be no cycle at all if done correctly.

Here, you can buy buckets at any hardware shop. Check them out?

 

[Pearsondesign]

lol, i know i know, but im so poor
if i wait til weekend i can get 60Litres from my mates reef setup, and then the following thursday i can get as much "used" water as i need from the fish shop

decided that im gonna move the turtles to the top 3 tanks tonight.
although im having one of those days where i wanna do it all but cant cos i dont have everything i need, its irritating me

 

[Pearsondesign]

right then, it seems like its been months since i last posted, but anyways...

so my plans have changed again, lol.
last week i was given a shop to use for my other business idea, a dedicated xbox gaming centre so this idea is now in the process of becoming a reality.

now, your probably thinking whats this got to do with marine fish!?
well, it hasnt lol
i was considering clowns and shrimps, but after car3eful consideration i have changed to h.babouri seahorses.
at the end of the day im doing this to make money, im not gonna sugar coat it lol.
breeding clowns wouldnt be as profitable as seahorses, so that made my decision easier.
i have the tanks, the equipment, and a source of captive bred seahorses, so im just waiting on the salt, and to cycle tanks and then im off on my way

i will be starting a proper journal, using the pics from this idea, but then switching to horses

 

[-Nemo-]

Seahorses may sell for higher, but they are generally not as high in demand so you have to take that into consideration too.