Latest Commitment

[CFC]

The recent cold period over here pushed our quarterly bill from its usual £170 to £620 and most of that cost is heating the fishroom, its a vicious circle, the room needs ventilation otherwise it gets damp but ventilation means heat escapes (and cold gets in) so the heater is on for longer to keep the room at 78f, if i had halide lighting and several powerheads to add to that i hate to think how high it would go!!

 

[andywg]

No halides necessary for marine preds.

And some pumps are extremely low energy. I get 4,500 LPH for 7W at the moment, so you wouldn't need a huge amount of energy. That 4,500 LPH should do a 450 Litre pred tank ok.

Biggest cost in SW is the salt and the initial price of the equipment (decent skimmer, powerhead and Live Rock).

You seriously need to look at cutting a vent hole and buying a gas heater, or dragging my backside down to get that fish house sorted out.

 

[cane76]

one word for those fish wuvbybetta STUNNING
andy while your sorting out his fishroom you may aswell pop round the cornor to my house and do mine too

 

[fishfishfish]

any more pics?

 

[Gill]

What a Stunner

 

[wuvmybetta]

No halides necessary for marine preds.

And some pumps are extremely low energy. I get 4,500 LPH for 7W at the moment, so you wouldn't need a huge amount of energy. That 4,500 LPH should do a 450 Litre pred tank ok.

Biggest cost in SW is the salt and the initial price of the equipment (decent skimmer, powerhead and Live Rock).

True, true. No halides for me. My tank consists of the heater, the pump, and a junky light. It's buying the saltwater that's a killer. It's something I really, really hate paying for, so I usually trade fish.


Gah, I did a bad, bad thing today (not really), but I got another (final!) newb for the tank. The cowfish and grouper immediately rushed over to check him out so I snapped a pic

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

OK either that cowfish is absolutely HUGE! or your other 2 are really small. You did say that they were juveniles didn't you? How big are those fish? I can't seem to get a sense of scale from that final picture.

SLC

 

[wuvmybetta]

oh they're tiny babies...and he's a big fat cow

 

[Lynden]

Ahh, Niger Trigger Great fish.

How large is your tank, Wuv?

 

[Mr Miagi]

I don't think my husband realizes that my tanks add to the cost, and I've never taken the time to point it out

Muhahaha. Dont we all do that.

Wuv and CFC, look into NSW or Natural Sea Water, doesnt cost you anything except the time and large suitable containers (use camping water holders, or someone like Coca Cola sells thousands of Food Safe bulk containers. Collect furthest away form boat and human activity as you can, and dont skim water off the surface, and youll be right. Test before you put it in, heat and maybe run an air stone through it overnight if you decide to store it for longer periods, and all is good. Many hobbyists now do this, and I travel up to 45mis to get decent NSW. I can collect around 90L at a time, and I plan to buy more containers.

Andy is correct, no MH's needed for SW preds, just like your FW preds CFC. Look into powerheads like Tunze, they have a really low Watts/LPH turnover. And as for your comments to me before about rock, youll be surpirsed at how many of us stare at it for hours. Get decent stuff and you'll realise what we talk about.

Great fish Wuv. Great to see an update!

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks Lynden, and it's a 100g

Miagi! He's going to be going salty before you know it
Seriously, the panther grouper is worth going salt for. This kid is such a ham. He has been following the trigger all night, in between visits with the goby (who's moving to the sump as soon as I can catch him!)
So, so cute together, gah....! (ignore my back glass)

I forgot to mention my sump light earlier, which runs 24/7 and could/would add to monthly cost. But really, how much?

 

[GuppyDude]

Your fish are beutiful as always Wuv. Im esspecially fond of manderines, i just dont have the funding to keep them.

 

[fishlette]

hehe that would have to be the cutest fishie ive ever seen

nice pic too

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thank you, fishlette! I assume you're talking about the grouper because he's undeniable in the cuteness department.

guppydude, I've always admired mandarins, and it sucks to have to put him down in the sump, especially now that he's out and about all of the time. But I can't ever find any copepods in my main tank, they used to be abundant but he's really reduced the numbers. My sump, on the other hand, is crawling with them, and moving will be the best thing for him. I just wish he'd realize that. The lil yellow clown goby who lives in the sump would be a good friend, poor guys lonely but he constantly finds his way down there via my overflow box, so I've just left him for months now. For now I just switch rocks from sump to main tank to keep introducing larger copepods.

 

[fishlette]

Thank you, fishlette! I assume you're talking about the grouper because he's undeniable in the cuteness department.

if the grouper is the black and white one yes. he's adorable