Inherited Tank

[MrG09]

Firstly id like to say hi to everyone here on the salty side,
I got a knock on the door yesterday from a neigbour a few doors up and the conversation went along the lines of "i seem to remember when you was moving in a seen you taking some tanks in.... do you still keep fish, yup, oh right we have to move away by the end of the week was wondering if youd be interested in a marine tank otherwise ill have to see if the sixhills will take them"

anyway i agreed to take the tank and it is as follows

Juwel rekord 70 with single t8 lamp
Fish only
Fluval 405
100w deltatherm heater
new api saltwater test kit
basic hydrometer swing type and a float type with built in thermometer
The rocks are rather nice reef bones which i plan on keeping
and there is a scarlet cleaner shrimp, and a clown of some sort, a blue legged hermit and a few mixed snails (as soon as i get propper net back on ill upload pics but for the min im sharing my mobiles connection and would take forever)
no skimmer
a mixing bucket and powerhead and heater and a few empty ro containers

i have been planning my own marine tank for a while and i still have a few questions

i know i have to top up the water using ro so as not to up the salinity and ill be doing 20%ish weekly water changes, ill be buying my ro from a local lfs pre mixed as the guy told me he used to mix his own but has been using our lfs for sometime now, and i as yet dont have my own ro unit as soon as i do (one of the things i was looking to buy for my bigger tank anyway) ill probs mix my own,. is this adequate?

i opened the filter to see what was in it and it has fresh floss on the intake which i was informed he changed every couple of weeks (and he gave me a huge bag full of new) then the other two compartments are filled with bio balls which appear to be quite clean (he says he rinses them in tank water monthly when he changes the floss)

do i need to buy a skimmer for it if so what sort of size i was looking to buy a v2 400 or a mce300 for my 65gal when i start setting that up, if i got that skimmer would it be totally overkill on such a small tank?

also as its just fo at the min can i piece by piece add LR and take out some bio balls each time till they are all replaced? im really concerned about a mini cycle in an established tank if i just chuck in a load of lr and remove all the bio balls in one go (he claims hes had it for a couple of years now) also i understand that the reef bones overtime will seed from the lr when i add some i think ill need about 5 to 7kg? also when i add the lr would the 405 provide enough circulation?

I have a 2ft 3x14w t5 luminaire which was on a planted tank so ill swap the tubes to marine white ones and a actinic one that way i can progress onto corals with time but for the time being ill stick with the standard lid and tube for now as its not like there is anything that needs the light and i dont want to promote algae etc

i tested the water earlier and its as follows

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
10to20 nitrate (little hard to tell) which i understand is within acceptable limits for fish only?? and that this should come down as i add lr and keep up with the water changes and i may add some rowaphos or similar to the filter for the time being?

my aim currently is to see how i get on with this tank then decide where to go from there... which im guessing will probably be to upgrade into the 65 gal that i was in the early planning stages of anyway lol


any helpd advice or guidance would be hugely appreciated

 

[spadge]

hey you mentioned sixhills are you in grimsby then? wow what a cool late christmas present, i would say use shop bought ro, its 2.50 unsalted for 25ltr at sixhills (where i am) and about £6 salted for 26 ltrs.

I would leave the tank as was setup and check it 2-3 weeks for any spikes (although i would be ch4ecking every 2-3 days tbh), has it been moved already? how long was the LR out? i would say if you hadnt had it out long and it hadnt dried put all the LR in straight away, as for the 405 whats the flow rate on that?

Either way probably not enough i would look into purchasing a small ish power head to up the flow in your tank. (sorry just re read your post) what flow rate is the powerhead?

I would say your basically setup, i would look at a skimmer if it were me, i dont believe in over kill to be honest my skmimmer is for a 500ltr tank and im running a 200ltr.

i keep my nitrate as low as possible 1oppm max, in fact as its creeps up to 20 thats when i do a water change approx every 2 weeks, of course whilst i monitor all my other parameters, clowns are fairly hardy but can become stressed easily, just watch your levels and fish behaviour.

P.s if you are in grimsby and you find your flow rate on the 405 is not adequate i colud dispose of it for you lol jk

 

[MrG09]

at the min no live rock its fish only at present lol hence the question about adding live rock piece by piece??
yeah im in gy just off hainton ave at the min but looking to move back up north again in the next couple of months,
flow rate is 1000lph its the 305 not the 405 i got it wrong lol,

 

[woody88]

Firstly id like to say hi to everyone here on the salty side,
I got a knock on the door yesterday from a neigbour a few doors up and the conversation went along the lines of "i seem to remember when you was moving in a seen you taking some tanks in.... do you still keep fish, yup, oh right we have to move away by the end of the week was wondering if youd be interested in a marine tank otherwise ill have to see if the sixhills will take them"

anyway i agreed to take the tank and it is as follows

Juwel rekord 70 with single t8 lamp
Fish only
Fluval 405
100w deltatherm heater
new api saltwater test kit
basic hydrometer swing type and a float type with built in thermometer
The rocks are rather nice reef bones which i plan on keeping
and there is a scarlet cleaner shrimp, and a clown of some sort, a blue legged hermit and a few mixed snails (as soon as i get propper net back on ill upload pics but for the min im sharing my mobiles connection and would take forever)
no skimmer
a mixing bucket and powerhead and heater and a few empty ro containers

i have been planning my own marine tank for a while and i still have a few questions

i know i have to top up the water using ro so as not to up the salinity and ill be doing 20%ish weekly water changes, ill be buying my ro from a local lfs pre mixed as the guy told me he used to mix his own but has been using our lfs for sometime now, and i as yet dont have my own ro unit as soon as i do (one of the things i was looking to buy for my bigger tank anyway) ill probs mix my own,. is this adequate?

i opened the filter to see what was in it and it has fresh floss on the intake which i was informed he changed every couple of weeks (and he gave me a huge bag full of new) then the other two compartments are filled with bio balls which appear to be quite clean (he says he rinses them in tank water monthly when he changes the floss)

do i need to buy a skimmer for it if so what sort of size i was looking to buy a v2 400 or a mce300 for my 65gal when i start setting that up, if i got that skimmer would it be totally overkill on such a small tank?

also as its just fo at the min can i piece by piece add LR and take out some bio balls each time till they are all replaced? im really concerned about a mini cycle in an established tank if i just chuck in a load of lr and remove all the bio balls in one go (he claims hes had it for a couple of years now) also i understand that the reef bones overtime will seed from the lr when i add some i think ill need about 5 to 7kg? also when i add the lr would the 405 provide enough circulation?

I have a 2ft 3x14w t5 luminaire which was on a planted tank so ill swap the tubes to marine white ones and a actinic one that way i can progress onto corals with time but for the time being ill stick with the standard lid and tube for now as its not like there is anything that needs the light and i dont want to promote algae etc

i tested the water earlier and its as follows

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
10to20 nitrate (little hard to tell) which i understand is within acceptable limits for fish only?? and that this should come down as i add lr and keep up with the water changes and i may add some rowaphos or similar to the filter for the time being?

my aim currently is to see how i get on with this tank then decide where to go from there... which im guessing will probably be to upgrade into the 65 gal that i was in the early planning stages of anyway lol


any helpd advice or guidance would be hugely appreciated

Hi mate, I'm pretty new to the salty side myself but i was in the same position as you [given an established marine tank] only thing was mine was covered in green hairy algae [check out my journel] ''established marine tank......new owner!''. Anyway advice wise if its a fish only setup i would strongly recommend adding live rock as this acts as the heart and lungs of your tank [acts as a biological filter]. The only prob is it can be expensive but if your finances allow then go for cured LR as it has already matured and therfore will reduce the chance of your tank going into a mini cycle [which more than likely will happen anyway].

As for the bio balls i removed mine straight away and added some lr rubble out of the display in a small media bag. i also added activated carbon and phosphate remover in seperate media bags

You should have some space in the 405 for these to go in but can't be certain as i'm just going by my Fluval 205 filter which I never used [waste of £100 that was].

I don't know how to advise regarding how much lr to add in an established tank but i do know it's best to add it all in one go on a NEW setup before fish are added as to reduce repeated mini cycles in a short space of time depending on how frequent you add the rock.[For established tanks though I'm not so sure what would be best].

Oh! and get a skimmer that will give a bit of 'overkill' on your tank. Skimmers are your mechanical filtration [I think].

I personally do weekly water changes [10 %] with plain RO water from my lfs store and mix it with Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt in a container along with a heater and powerhead until i get my salinity at 1.025/6.
I always test my RO water before I start mixing, for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate and if I get a reading of any of these [not so much nitrate] Which I have'nt yet I would take it back.

I would'nt recommend buying pre mixed salt ro water as the salinity levels are usually low and can shock the fish/inverts if added quickly on a water change.
Chuck that Hydrometer [they're inaccurate] and get yourself a Refractometer.
[about £20 on flee bay]

All in all ask plenty of questions on here as you will be answered by experienced keepers and check out the journels as they are a very BIG help.

Oh.........Welcome to the salty side mate!.............Have fun!


Anyone wanna correct me then feel free! LOL

 

[spadge]

as for low salinity our LFS(sixhills) keeps theres at about 1.024 so you'll be fine buying mixed, thats handys as you virtually live next door to the LFS then, they dont currently have LR they have the man made stuff but i noticed today it has aiptasia all over it so i wouldnt recommend getting that, the other LFS is fangs and fins, would highly recomend then and they have LR in at min, sells it to me for £10 kg, i would say for what you have the flow would be sufficient for now, however if you upgrade to corals nems etc you'd need to up the flow, as it stands clowns dont like lots of flow so he should be fine.

Oh sorry about the LR my mistake thought you meant youd taken it out already.

 

[seffieuk]

to the salty side of the hobby

Think Woody and Spage have more or less covered everything.

Couple of questions before I dive head first in!

Is it 70 litres? When do you plan to upgrade to the 65 gallon?

SEffie x

 

[MrG09]

to the salty side of the hobby

Think Woody and Spage have more or less covered everything.

Couple of questions before I dive head first in!

Is it 70 litres? When do you plan to upgrade to the 65 gallon?

SEffie x

Cheers for replys so far
It is 70ltr and I wasn't planning on upgrading to the 65 gal for a while really I've just been researching and my plan was to buy bit by bit till I had everything then save for the live rock, obv now o know ill be looking to buy a skimmer and my first load of live rock fairly soon, and then ro unit etc and then possibly move up to the 65
My main question is how to go about adding the live rock...... Either all at once and remove the bio balls which will most likely end up in a mini cycle caused by any die off whilst transporting it
Or
Add the lr bit by bit over time and each time remove a few bio balls so as to minimise any cycle that does occur as there will still be a mature filter present until I've added all the rock I want too? If that makes sense

Also what kind of flow am I looking at in this size tank?

 

[woody88]

Can never have too much flow when LR is concerned but if you add corals some like high and some like moderate to low flow. You need to aiming for 20x turn over random flow (once again.......I think!)..............anyone else wanna jump in!

 

[seffieuk]

Can never have too much flow when LR is concerned but if you add corals some like high and some like moderate to low flow. You need to aiming for 20x turn over random flow (once again.......I think!)..............anyone else wanna jump in!

Yep, spot on Woody.

Right, if it were my tank I would:

Move the fish to a container with heat and flow
Drain a lot of the water out
Empty the tank of sand and bioballs
Put in fresh clean water, heat and salt
Add all live rock at once - (I would have bought rock from a reefer and transported in a bucket with water.

Actually on reflection I think I would do it slightly differently, buy the live rock first and cycle in a container with heat and flow. As soon as the cycle has finished do the above

That way, you start off the way you mean to continue


Seffie x

 

[MrG09]

That's rather a good idea and makes perfect sense thankyou (wonders why I didn't concider that lol) I actually have a spare two foot tank anyway that used to be planted ill cycle my Rock in that

 

[spadge]

agree with above however on another note, i spoke to the guys in sixhills yesterday and they said they are just finishing curing ( curing for 4wks now~) there Lr and it will be ready on tue wed if that helps? they restock every tue so wed is a good day (or not if your skint like me) also i know its a fairway but lincs aquativs in alford (also known as woodthorpe aquatics) are fantastic, all keen aquarists as well as it being there job, they swayed me against allsorts, been in 3 times over 3months and the same guy remembers me and my setup each time i visit a+++++ in my opinion (oh and super cheap compared to sixhills with very high quality stock, they were telling me what to put with what minimum tank size, when they were last medicated if at all and best of all what not to buy, they dont persuade you to buy something for the moneys sake!!!