My Second Nano

[Truck]

as most of you know on the salty side of the forum, i am planning on setting up my second nano marine aquarium, after first shutting down the first one a biorb (sigh) which im going to sell as i cant enjoy my fish due to the ridiculous viewing angles.

i have 2 swordtails left in my rekord 60 which im giving to a friend, (there getting a bit boisterous and big now)

so i figured as i dont have all the money to upgrade my lighting yet could i start by setting up the tank, (FOWLR) and just set it up cycle it and get all my live rock in, and then maybe a cleaner shrimp and 2 tank percula clowns, i know that they can get a bit boistrous in a smaller tank so if any trouble stirs i will have my friend take them on in his 300 litre system.

so back to the tank, its 54 litre's and has an internal filter (planning on taking it out) and it also has one 15watt T8 tube so lighting isnt great.

so my plans are,
empty tank give it a good clean, and remove internal box filter. then fill with RO water and heat with a new heater (any recomendations?) i will bring it up to temperature, and then add marine salt to get the SG between 1.023-1.026 and add all the power heads, im looking at 2 at 600 lph or 3 at 400lph(anythoughts), then add my live rock, and then some reef sand.(i know that the live sand malarchy is all crap) then i shall leave the tank with the live rock in for around 4 weeks (do i need to do water changes in this time?) add some CUC wait 4 weeks then add my live stock (the 2 clowns)

does all of this sound right? and is live rock ok with crap lighting? and ive heard that polyps can live happily without much light, i dont belive this however seeing as they are a soft coral and gernerally require lots of light.

i will be upgrading the lighting in the future to some form of luminaire.

thanks and i know this is a long winded post but i need help

 

[xxBarneyxx]

That all sounds fine. You may not have to wait so long until you start adding livestock though it all depends on the cycle for your tank. You will need to just check the ammonia and nitrite to see when its ready.

One thing you might want to consider is drilling the tank for a sump. This gives you more water volume which is always good and somewhere to hide equipment (which in a smaller tank can be a big bonus, espeically if you want to add a skimmer later on).

For powerheads I would recommend tunze or korilias. Both are very good (I have used the korilias for over a year with no problems at all, they can start out a little loud but soon settle down).

For heaters I beleive hagen has just released a really cool one that has a digital readout on and a lot of failsafe controls. Depending on your budget I would also recommend getting one of the external canister filters with the heater built in. Take all the media out of the filter and put in either LR rubble or chemical media. This means one less bit of kit in the tank as well. If you already have a spare external canister filter you can get "inline" heaters which will do the same thing.

Your liverock doesnt need any light but any polyps or coral hitchhikers on there will do. In the short term you might want to look at picking up a cheap power compact unit to mod into your hood. I have kept soft corals under 36w power compacts and they did ok (though more light will make them grow better in most cases).

 

[Truck]

hi barney thanks for the reply, i was hoping that the 15kg of live rock would do all the filtration for me? and as for the compact units, i dont know if you have read my other posts but im planning on buying either th luminaire (4 tubes from arcadia) or 2 twin starte T5 units each with a 24watt lamp so 48watts of white sun light and 48 watts of blue atnic.

as for modding into the hood, i might make a new one out of a few peices of ply wood or MDF and fix the four tubes into that, i will make it so the tubes arent to close to the hood, or wouldnt that matter? and modding into the existing hood isnt an ooption, as its a rekord 60 it has the monloux with the GIANT ballast built into hood

 

[Crazy fishes]

hi barney thanks for the reply, i was hoping that the 15kg of live rock would do all the filtration for me? and as for the compact units, i dont know if you have read my other posts but im planning on buying either th luminaire (4 tubes from arcadia) or 2 twin starte T5 units each with a 24watt lamp so 48watts of white sun light and 48 watts of blue atnic.

as for modding into the hood, i might make a new one out of a few peices of ply wood or MDF and fix the four tubes into that, i will make it so the tubes arent to close to the hood, or wouldnt that matter? and modding into the existing hood isnt an ooption, as its a rekord 60 it has the monloux with the GIANT ballast built into hood

You can mod the Rekord 60 hood ask BIG C about it. He did it for a freshwater setup. I personally would not bother a just make one as you say. If you use individual reflectors heat against the wood won't be an issue. The white marine light is actually more important than actinic so think 3 marine water with one actinic, you should get better growth. Actinic stimulate colour and are aesthetically pleasing but don't really add to growth rates of corals. It is the same with halides you should start with a 10,000 K lamp which is best for growth and once you like the look of maturity switch to the 20,000 K which brings all the colours out. 15 kg of live rock is plenty; I have a 24g and that has 15kg of live rock in it. Seriously think about a sump/refugium they are the mutts nuts. I am so interested but I can't drill my tank and you can't buy an overflow small enough. It boils down to making one, which is unlikely with my creative skills.

Anyway hope this helps and best of luck

Regards

 

[Truck]

a sump is a no go im afraid, because the aquarium is glass, and i dont fancy doing it my self, and im trying to keep costs down, i have found a skimmer its the boyu 600 lph hang on PS, do you have any experience with these?

yes i think i will build my own hood and fit the lights my self because im quite handy with a peice of wood and some screws

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah the LR filtration is perfectly fine. Many people will use phosphate and nitrate removing media as well (which is where a canister filter can come in handy) you dont HAVE to have one though but it can help.

You might not need 15kg, I had a similar sized tank (at least in terms of water volume, not sure what shape yours is) and had about 7-8kg of LR in there which was more than enough.

If you are getting new lights soon then ignore the PC suggestion , just threw it out there incase you where going to be leaving it awhile before getting the new lights as an option to get corals a bit earlier.

Sump isnt needed either but thought I would suggest it as something to think about as its a lot harder to do once the tank is set up (I really regret not drilling my tank before setting it up again now). It is easy to drill glass tanks but at the same time there is some risk involved (which is why I didnt drill mine).

Not sure on the boyu. I have seen someone commenting on this brand before and I unfortunately cant remember if it was commenting on that they where good or that they where crap (sorry not much help I know). Someone on here knows about them though im sure.

Agree totally with CF on the light 3 white and 1 blue is probably a better option for higher light output.

 

[Truck]

If you are getting new lights soon then ignore the PC suggestion , just threw it out there incase you where going to be leaving it awhile before getting the new lights as an option to get corals a bit earlier.

i dont know what you mean by this, do you mean dont throw the light unit away? and then i could by my corals a few weeks before upgrading?

 

[GShorty1981]

i doubt you would need 15kg in a rekord 60 mate,10 would fill it up.

 

[Truck]

would 8 be enough? my lfs ar doing a deal 8kg for 60 quid

 

[seffieuk]

Have a look on ebay or ultimate reefs for someone breaking down a tank, you will get a better deal and better rock

Seffie x

 

[Truck]

i would but im only 14 so i cant use paypal, and i dont have a credit card etc, but i thought 60 quid for 8kg sounds reasonable

 

[xxBarneyxx]

8kg will be fine I should think (about what I had in mine) and thats not too bad a price.

Sorry I confused you with the lights What I meant was if it was going to be maybe 5 or 6 months before you get a new light unit you could probably pick up some cheap power compacts which would be ok in the short term.

 

[Truck]

do you have any recomendations? are they bogstandard T8's see im trying to keep my budget down, and it will only take me month or 2 to save up for the light starters after the tank is set up, i may just wait and buy the stuff as i can afford it and once i have everything i will set it up.

i shall have £170 quid next week so i shall go shopping.

i currently have on my list:
protein skimmer (boyu 600 or smaller)
reef salt (enough for 200 litres)( so ill get 1 fill up and 9 water changes)
hydrometer
thermometer
food (im swinging towards hikari marine S as ive used it before) any other recomendations? and some mysis and brine shrimp etc.
power heads. (2*maxijet 600's)
Red Sea Marine Lab Master Test Kit (any good)
Caribsea Seaflor Special Grade Sand (15lb)(out of experience what depth of substrate do i need? 1inch maybe?
Aquascape construction Putty (Coralline Algae colour)(do i need this? ive never used it before)

i will be getting LR and lights on a separate visit

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Yeah ignore my suggestion about the lights and just stick to your original plan of getting the T5 starters and tubes

Sand is a personal choice really, you dont have to use any. I personally put in about 1/2-1inch in the front and dont put any behind the rockwork. Put your live rock in first before the sand, as if the sand shifts under the rockwork (or something digs into it) it could cause the rock to fall.

With regards to food I tend to get whatever flake they normally have in stock at my LFS. However I would recommend getting a good stock of frozen mysis as well. Its a great nutritional source and most fish will happily eat it (even very picky ones). If you get fish that will eat flake you can do fine just with that but I personally like to feed a mixture of food.

With regards to the putty it can be useful when arranging your rockwork but I have never had to use it for this. I do use tons thoug for attaching coral frags so probably handy to have some around.

Personally I would replace the hydrometer with a refractometer. I find these easier, less messy and quicker to use.

 

[Truck]

lighting wise i think im ok now, check out this thread

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=267587&hl=