My 48g Fowlr Journey. 13 Months On...

[sparklefuzz]

I got a real bargain for a second hand tank, only £99 ready for my saltwater adventure. I am planning to blog the whole journey as I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everyone elses. I am planning a FOWLR, hopefully starting to buy all necessary bits and pieces when I sell my current tank (which is on ebay - fingers crossed). So, lets just hope my next update isn't too far away. A couple of pics. (You'd think they would wipe the thing over before selling it? But for £99 who cares) I've already cleaned it up a little and it was minor surface dirt, so all is well.

It is 40 ukg, 41" x 15" x 18".



The cabinet is hand made, and unfortunately the lighting is a single 25W bulb... not enough I presume??? [edit: it is a Triton 30W and at first look, it is quite bright. I am going to leave it until I have got the tank filled with the sand and LR, then decide if to upgrade or not.]

 

[Chac]

Very Nice Tank

You painting the stand or sticking with da brown

99.00 excellant deal

 

[sparklefuzz]

Very Nice Tank

You painting the stand or sticking with da brown

99.00 excellant deal

I can't quite decide. It will either be stained darker or painted a satin black (I think). What would you do?

 

[Chac]

Silver

How good would it look with a Silver Arcadia Halide above it

 

[sparklefuzz]

Silver

How good would it look with a Silver Arcadia Halide above it

LMAO!! I hadn't considered silver.... hmmm. With the metal halide thing, you can't half tell you're male!! I think they look too techy... for me anyways. But you have got me thinking about silver.... think it would look good on that kind of tongue and groove design?

 

[Chac]

Thanks

I think

Halides - Techie - Nah just plug in & play

Well after finding you support beams & hanging them from the roof or finding your wall supports & haging the brackets

Did mine in an hour & that was with 2 Puppies running round like edjets

And DIY & I aint friends

(Not telling how many holes there are behind my tank from drilling in the wrong place)

 

[sparklefuzz]

Thanks

I think

Halides - Techie - Nah just plug in & play

Well after finding you support beams & hanging them from the roof or finding your wall supports & haging the brackets

Did mine in an hour & that was with 2 Puppies running round like edjets

And DIY & I aint friends

(Not telling how many holes there are behind my tank from drilling in the wrong place)

You sound like my hubby. I am already panic stricken about him screwing in new clips for 2 new bulbs on that basic wooden lid. *eek*. How can a man be that allergic to DIY? Isn't it supposed to be as natural as a woman washing up?!

Things hanging off my ceiling isn't something I envisage for my living space, bedroom possibly... lounge, no.

 

[sparklefuzz]

A question... my initial plans are to have 20kg LR and a skimmer for filtration. What would I need if I decided not to go with a skimmer? An external filter? Would it be possible to run with only LR, if I had enough of it?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

looks good and a right bargain! good luck and keep us posted.

how big is the tank (gallons) .... the basic guideline for skimming is under 30g you don't need to over 30 you do. However there are some differences of opinion.

A lot of marine tanks filtration is just LR. We had a HOB Filter on ours when we got it but we've removed all the media it's only there to house the skimmer, we're gonna convert it to a fuge eventually, you don't need an external filter.

I know it's kinda scary for a tropical fishkeeper to run a tank with no filter, I was really concerned when Ian said he was taking the HOB off. It's fine though, the LR is your filter media, you operate it by having loads of powerheads blasting water all around it.



p.s. hey get me giving advice, I almost feel like I'm not a newbie

 

[aberdeen aquarist]

Instead of halides, go for the arcadia luminaire, they look great and just sit on the tank sides. No need to drill holes in anything!!

 

[Pheonix]

lovely looking tank there sparkle!! look foward to seeing the timeline as you progress!

i would deffo recomend going with a skimmer! if you see the amount of crap they pull out of the water its astonishing!! your fish could be swimming in that!

i find they also keep algea down to a minimum aswell and in a fish only it can set in pretty quick and be a pain to get rid of, if i turn my skimmer up it soon starts dying off!

just my 2 quids worth

 

[sparklefuzz]

Has anyone used the V2 400 Skimmer? I ike the look of it and it is in my price range.

Regarding the powerheads, would 3 of these be ok? (the tank is 180l) or would I be better getting one big one like this??
What kind of lph would I need for the powerhead that will go in the RO water vessel? I'd be wanting to use it to pump the saltwater into the tank via a hose attachment.. the highest point would be approx 1.25m from the bottom of the vessel to the top of the tank... anyone?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Has anyone used the V2 400 Skimmer? I ike the look of it and it is in my price range.

Regarding the powerheads, would 3 of these be ok? (the tank is 180l)

What kind of lph would I need for the powerhead that will go in the RO water vessel? I'd be wanting to use it to pump the saltwater into the tank via a hose attachment.. the highest point would be approx 1.25m from the bottom of the vessel to the top of the tank... anyone?

think the powerheads are fine, you need to aim for 20x turnover, so if your tank's 180l then you need 3600lph...... those are 1400 which x3 for 3 powerheads gives you 4200lph so should be plenty enough.

The brand's fine too, we've got some aquaclear stuff and while it's not top of the range it's perfectly acceptable.

The only thing I'd say to consider is that with more smaller powerheads you'd have more options for positioning them to make sure you've no dead spots, just something to think about.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Has anyone used the V2 400 Skimmer? I ike the look of it and it is in my price range.

Regarding the powerheads, would 3 of these be ok? (the tank is 180l)

What kind of lph would I need for the powerhead that will go in the RO water vessel? I'd be wanting to use it to pump the saltwater into the tank via a hose attachment.. the highest point would be approx 1.25m from the bottom of the vessel to the top of the tank... anyone?

think the powerheads are fine, you need to aim for 20x turnover, so if your tank's 180l then you need 3600lph...... those are 1400 which x3 for 3 powerheads gives you 4200lph so should be plenty enough.

The brand's fine too, we've got some aquaclear stuff and while it's not top of the range it's perfectly acceptable.

The only thing I'd say to consider is that with more smaller powerheads you'd have more options for positioning them to make sure you've no dead spots, just something to think about.

Thanks Miss Wiggle. I'm glad you said the brand is ok. I'll make a note of those then for when my credit card 'starts again' next month. LOL! By the way, where would be the best places for them to go in the tank, if I had 3?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Has anyone used the V2 400 Skimmer? I ike the look of it and it is in my price range.

Regarding the powerheads, would 3 of these be ok? (the tank is 180l)

What kind of lph would I need for the powerhead that will go in the RO water vessel? I'd be wanting to use it to pump the saltwater into the tank via a hose attachment.. the highest point would be approx 1.25m from the bottom of the vessel to the top of the tank... anyone?

think the powerheads are fine, you need to aim for 20x turnover, so if your tank's 180l then you need 3600lph...... those are 1400 which x3 for 3 powerheads gives you 4200lph so should be plenty enough.

The brand's fine too, we've got some aquaclear stuff and while it's not top of the range it's perfectly acceptable.

The only thing I'd say to consider is that with more smaller powerheads you'd have more options for positioning them to make sure you've no dead spots, just something to think about.

Thanks Miss Wiggle. I'm glad you said the brand is ok. I'll make a note of those then for when my credit card 'starts again' next month. LOL! By the way, where would be the best places for them to go in the tank, if I had 3?

It depends really on your rock formation, we have a sort of wall of a few layers of LR at the back of the tank with 2 powerheads behind it blasting out to the front and this get's sucked back in round the sides of the LR, then one at the top to get surface agitation as it's harder to keep salt water oxygenated as well as freshwater. You just need to play with it so you've got no dead spots where there's no flow, but it's good to have a variety of flow rates around the tank as different coral's like different things so you can put them where you like.