Inspiration Wanted!

[Miss Wiggle]

I'd just like to say

WERE GETTING A MARINE TANK, WERE GETTING A MARINE TANK, WERE GETTING A MARINE TANK, WERE GETTING A MARINE TANK



Went round to see it and it's gorgeous. it's a lovely little set up, shed load of live rock, 3 clown's and a yellow tang, loads of corals. The tank and fish look immaculate, everything's in perfect health obviously been running yrs with no problems. It's a right old fella selling it and basically the maintenance is just getting too much for him so he just wants shot of the whole lot. so for 150 were getting

- nice 30g (ish) tank and stand, homemade hood that's really nice
- metal halide lights
- I'd say about 150 worth of live rock, all been there yrs so nice amd mature
- UV Filter
- hang on the back miracle mud filter/sump thing
- protein skimmer
- lovely yellow tang (to be re-homed but i'm sure he's worth 20-30 or so)
- 3 clowns
- RO unit
- all the assorted fishkeeping stuff from his cupboards, books, food, meds etc etc

don't think you can say no to a deal like that can you!!!

were going to strip down our FW tanks this week, re-home and re-arrange things. spend the next 2 weeks swotting up as much as is humanly possible. then the weekend after move the tank as it is, set it back up at ours, the tang's going straight back to the shop in exchange for some clean up crew as there is none. Then give it a good few weeks to settle and make sure everything's running ok, then we can start tinkering and adding corals, fish etc etc.

I really can't wait

Thanks for all your help so far guys, sure we'll have a million questions, so thanks in advance for putting up with us and helping.

 

[SkiFletch]

Sounds fantastic, I'm really excited for you guys and I'm sure you'll love the marine experience. If you are lucky enough to buy them, established marine setups are GREAT to purchase, and it really sounds like you guys have found a gem .

So now that you're decided if I may make some suggestions for the "move". Have lots of buckets ready, they come in way handy . Try to move the corals in old tank water as much as possible. Bare liverock can be put in "new" saltwater without much trouble, as can clownfish. The tang though should stay in old tankwater if possible and go straight to the LFS if thats your plan. Buckets are your friend

Cant wait to see pics of everything when its all setup and running. And keep the questions coming, we enjoy helping and it keeps my mind off bieng under the weather today

 

[Siamese Fighter05]

Great news!

Can't wait for pic of the the setup either it sounds really nice

Like Ski said scarlet red legs and electric blues are the way to go if you're after crabs. Another hermit to steer clear of is the common algae hermit... It's a little menace!

Also ask the man how old the filters are in the RO unit when you pick everything up so you know how long you have left out of them before they need replacing

Goodluck

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Sounds fantastic, I'm really excited for you guys and I'm sure you'll love the marine experience. If you are lucky enough to buy them, established marine setups are GREAT to purchase, and it really sounds like you guys have found a gem .

So now that you're decided if I may make some suggestions for the "move". Have lots of buckets ready, they come in way handy . Try to move the corals in old tank water as much as possible. Bare liverock can be put in "new" saltwater without much trouble, as can clownfish. The tang though should stay in old tankwater if possible and go straight to the LFS if thats your plan. Buckets are your friend

Cant wait to see pics of everything when its all setup and running. And keep the questions coming, we enjoy helping and it keeps my mind off bieng under the weather today

it's undoubtedly a complete and utter bargain, we were doing some basic adding up last night just on rough prices of everything he's got in there..... must be saving ourselves 5/600 quid.... and a shed load of aggro cycling a marine tank.... can't say no to that can you!

yup we've about 8/9 buckets and he say's he's got 2 we can have as well, was thinking of just getting a shed load of big fishy bags and bagging up as much old tank water as possible so we can set it back up with it. mostly cos ro unit's take a while to make water don't they, don't wanna be sitting around with everything half set up waiting for it to make enough water to fill the tank, we can set it up with old water then get the RO going in do a water change a day or two afterwards. Virtually all the live rock has corals on it, it's covered in those mushroom ones. He's also got 1 coral that's he's apparently never been able to get anyone to identify, say's he's taken pics to all sorts of lfs's and no one knows what it is.... so that's gonna be a challenge for you guys to ID it when I can get a pic. I'm right in thinking you should use rubber gloves to handle live rock aren't I?

If we don't get the tang back to the LFS straight away (might not be possible in the chaos of moving) then would it be best to leave him a good few weeks in the tank at ours before moving him again? Wouldn't want to stress him out unduly.

sorry your poorly, hope you get well soon

Great news!

Can't wait for pic of the the setup either it sounds really nice

Like Ski said scarlet red legs and electric blues are the way to go if you're after crabs. Another hermit to steer clear of is the common algae hermit... It's a little menace!

Also ask the man how old the filters are in the RO unit when you pick everything up so you know how long you have left out of them before they need replacing

Goodluck

I'm gonna do some mroe research today into clean up crew. Our basic stocking plan is get rid of the tang and one of the clowns (we thought we saw the 2 bigger one's picking on the little dude so he's gonna be re-homed too) pretty much asap. Add shrimps, snails and crabs as clean up crew asap then give the tank a good few weeks to make sure everything's running well and everyone's healthy. Give us a chance to get used to the new maintenance routine as well so we don't rush things and overstretch ourselves.

as far as maintenance goes he say's it pretty much runs itself, he just does 30% water changes fortnightly, runs the skimmer a few hrs a day (it's understocked so doesn't need more at present), lights on a timer for (i think) 7/8 hrs a day then obviously a bit of tinkering with algae scraping etc and changing the filter pads as when they need it, and that's it. We thought it's gonna be least stressful to the system and fish if we do the same as he has at least to start off with. Does that sort of routine sound acceptable, anything so abd it needs changing asap??

yup good call, will ask him about the filters

we got a pic of the tank on Ian's phone last night, will try and get it on the pc to post it

EDIT: Forgot to ask as well, were planning on stocking a flam angel and about 5/6 small fish, goby's, blennies, clowns etc not completely made out minds up yet which ones. I'd really like something a bit more unusual in there, just something small but a little bit different, any suggestions?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

right how would this work for stocking

1x flame angel
1x long nose chav sorry hawkfish
2x clowns
1x firefish
1x yashia haze goby
1x pistol shrimp
1x emerald crab
2x cleaner shrimp
......... some snails........... got myself a bit confused reading up about them earlier, i'll have another bash at lunch time!

overstocked/understocked... anyone gonna kill/eat each other ??? or too tricky for beginners to look after.

how much clean up crew should you allow for a tank that size. it's got none in at the moment and it's a bit mucky as a result of it, but i don't wanna overload it then find they've nothing to eat and they start chowing down on Ian's corals

 

[Sushii]

Not too sure if it is real or not but here is a small tank

http/www.nano-tanks.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=134

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Not too sure if it is real or not but here is a small tank

http/www.nano-tanks.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=134

nice, that really is small though!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Well to answer some of your questions, all those fish would be fine together, no compatability problems there. As for snails, I'd think 10 trochus, 10 cerith, and 10 nassarius would be good crew options .

His maintenance routine sounds just right, thats pretty much what you do with a marine tank. And I can't wait to see this mystery coral

When moving everything, definitely wear gloves, especially because you dont yet know the composition of the tank. Its also always a good idea to wear gloves when handling corals you dnt know much about. Some have very nasty stings... Also when you do go through with the move, might as well have a bucket of RO and a couple buckets of pre-mixed saltwater, just in case . I find buckets the best way to transport corals and LR to be honest. How far is he from your house? 30 mins? an hour? more?

Edit: And have superglue gel on hand

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well to answer some of your questions, all those fish would be fine together, no compatability problems there. As for snails, I'd think 10 trochus, 10 cerith, and 10 nassarius would be good crew options .

His maintenance routine sounds just right, thats pretty much what you do with a marine tank. And I can't wait to see this mystery coral

When moving everything, definitely wear gloves, especially because you dont yet know the composition of the tank. Its also always a good idea to wear gloves when handling corals you dnt know much about. Some have very nasty stings... Also when you do go through with the move, might as well have a bucket of RO and a couple buckets of pre-mixed saltwater, just in case . I find buckets the best way to transport corals and LR to be honest. How far is he from your house? 30 mins? an hour? more?

Edit: And have superglue gel on hand

excellent, thanks, is that an appropriate stocking level, too many/few ? I'll have a look at those snails. want to take a wishlist into the lfs tonight and see what he can easily get hold off and prices etc just so we cna see if it's realistic.

the mystery coral is navy blue, sort of tree like structure but instead of the braches being pointy they're like flat discs on the end of it, not perfect circles or anything, just rounded circles, oval's etc. he say's it's rubbery to touch. been hunting a bit on google images and can't find anything anywhere near it.

aye i was thinking even though were getting the RO unit obviously we won't have it until the day so we might just go and buy a couple of buckets from the lfs to have them ready at home.

nah he's just the other sid of town, about 15 mins away. so thankfully not a long journey!!

superglue gel ??? why!

thanks

 

[k100 trike]

im glad to hear you decided to go to a sw tank they are far more rewarding than fw when i moved my 150gal tank my lfs gave me some polystyrene transport cases that they get there fish delivered in these are good as they are insulated and thus keep the water temp higher for longer

 

[Miss Wiggle]

im glad to hear you decided to go to a sw tank they are far more rewarding than fw when i moved my 150gal tank my lfs gave me some polystyrene transport cases that they get there fish delivered in these are good as they are insulated and thus keep the water temp higher for longer

Oh forgot about that we've got a big polybox, will dig that out for transporting the fish.

 

[SkiFletch]

Superglue gel for holding your rockwork together and gluing corals in place if necessary. When aquascaping, if you have a piece that doesnt want to stay you can use superglue gel to hold it. You can apply it underwater and it'll cure underwater, AND it wont harm your livestock . Cyanoacrylate is a fantastic invention

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Superglue gel for holding your rockwork together and gluing corals in place if necessary. When aquascaping, if you have a piece that doesnt want to stay you can use superglue gel to hold it. You can apply it underwater and it'll cure underwater, AND it wont harm your livestock . Cyanoacrylate is a fantastic invention

aaaaaaaaah i never knew that! we've always used aquarium silicone to stick rocks together but you have to take them out of the water and let it set before you put it in the tank. marvellous invention I'll go and invest in some

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, make sure you invest in teh GEL not the regular stuff, the regular is too runny.

 

[Mr Miagi]

I wouldnt want to glue rocks together really. Use cable ties, or something you can remopve later if you must. NOTLOCK is having trouble ATM with pests on his LR cause he cant remove the pieces he wants to kill them, cause he used glue, LOL.