New Marine Member

[CluelessScot]

Hello all,

After looking around, reading up and being told 100 different thing i finnaly found someone who seems to want to help rather than sell me crap. The guy told me he is sick of people being ripped off so he would help me 100%. He told me i need a budget and i need to read (more or less told everything ive read up on here he has said). He told me when it comes to fish i need to take a sample of water to test and if its not what it should be then sorry no fish. He also said read up on them cos if you dont know about it, no fish for me. As for equipment he has made me a list.

Tank + Trickle filter + heater = £166 (its a 24" cube)
Skimmer = £90
Sand x 3 = £ 13.50
Lava rock = £30 (been told this is the cheap way, put down lava rock and stack LR ontop)
Live rock = £10.50 per kilo or 10kilo for £90 (said to get it per kilo as corls will come on LR)
Salt = 25 kilos for £45 or 2 kilo for £9
Hydrometer = £15
OR
Refactometer = £45
Test kits = £20

What do you all think of the above list? is there anything missing or anything seem out of place there?
This is the exact set-up he is running in the shop for seahorse and he has had no problems.
I was told not to expect to get many fish in it (about 6~7) with my cleaner crew which dont include in the stocking

If i get all this would i be well on my way to having a good marine tank?
Please let me know what you think about this

Thank you

Kev

 

[Lynden]

Sounds good. I wouldnt do lava rock though. It stores ammonia, to be released later. As soon as i took mine out, my ammonia and nitrites plummetted.

What is the brand name of the skimmer, ect.? And what kind of sand? Live sand is superfluous. Sand will be seeded by live rock anyway, so dont buy live sand, it is a waste.

 

[Navarre]

Dont go with lavarock.. if you want a rock that will be useful later on and yet save some money on liverock then purchase reefbones.. basically its dried out liverock and once added with living-liverock it will eventually reseed.

As for the livesand.. i dont agree. i have always used livesand.. whilst it might not be the wonder ingrediant that it says on the bag, it does have bateria growth in there and any helping start is a good one.

Dump the hydrometere and spend the extar cash on the refractometer.. you seriously wont regret it.

 

[maestro]

Hello, its good to see youve done some research and that your fish shop owner has a responsible attitude.

I cant help noticing that youve missed of your list the lighting and powerheads for water movment obviosly you need to look into these.

I know its difficult with everybody telling you different things put this is honestly what I think is best.

First of all, do you want to keep a fish only tank or a reef tank with corals?

You want to be able to get a decnt skimmer new for £90, it will probably be a red sea prism skimmer which arent very good at all, you can howver buy a very decent 2nd hand skimmer for around that price, either a deltec skimmer or a aquamedic, personally I would recomend the Deltec mce600, they hang on the back of your tank and are honestly a very good skimmer, I paid £110 for mine 2nd hand, I also purchased a 2nd hand red sea prism for £15 so that shows you how much people rate them if they sell them for that price.

Definately look into buyign reefbones, they will really be much better than lava rock.

You can buy refractometers for £35, they are made from the same factory so £45 sounds expensive.

Make sure you keep doing lots of research, read up on every piece of equipment before you buy, it sounds like your welll on your way to having a nice tank but definately need to make sure you get a good skimmer, good amoutn of live rock and good circulation, they are the key

 

[CluelessScot]

Exellent

I will see if its live sand or what next time im in
The lava rock seems to be out so ill go for reefbones (if the have it)
Deff looking like ill get a refactometer too
The lighting is T5's (i was told its 4 x T5?)
I would love to keep corals and fish but ill see what happenes when its all going huh?
As for the brand of the skimmer ect i didnt ask much questions as its the same filter/skimmer ect he is useing to keep his sea horse set up going and its working great. My lfs said that if he keeps sea horse then it must be good because they cant keep them alive, reason they dont stock them...

When its all added up it comes to about £400 which looks alot but really it aint compared to what ive seen some people spend?

Kev

 

[Tiggs]

bear in mind if you do want to keep corals £400 is a very small amount indeed.......so if thats your plan go in with eyes open.

just as an example of your budget:

you say 20 on test kits......i have no idea how much they are but i'd be surprised if you can test for amonia, No2, No3, PH, calcium, alk, po4 for £20......and you havent even tested for everything there (or replaced any kits that run out) just one exmaple.

and i would get enough LR in there on day 1 - dont hope your nice musroom comes on a free 5kg lump later on! i just picked up a few corals from a dealer at well over £200...not a single bit of rock!

 

[maestro]

Ill very much doubt that your lfs will stock reefbones, only a few places do so you'll have to order it from elsewhere.

4 xt5 will be fine so soft corals, you definatetely need to find out the make out skimmer, it really is a vital conponent and if you skimp on it you will not be able to have as many fish.

Seahorses are tank bred and not that difficult providing you feed them enough, I think your doing great researchign but It honestly is best not to overly rely on one persons advice or recomendations, do a search on marine forums on the different makes of skimmers and then you can see for yourself peoples experiences with them

Exellent

I will see if its live sand or what next time im in
The lava rock seems to be out so ill go for reefbones (if the have it)
Deff looking like ill get a refactometer too
The lighting is T5's (i was told its 4 x T5?)
I would love to keep corals and fish but ill see what happenes when its all going huh?
As for the brand of the skimmer ect i didnt ask much questions as its the same filter/skimmer ect he is useing to keep his sea horse set up going and its working great. My lfs said that if he keeps sea horse then it must be good because they cant keep them alive, reason they dont stock them...

When its all added up it comes to about £400 which looks alot but really it aint compared to what ive seen some people spend?

Kev

 

[CluelessScot]

Ill very much doubt that your lfs will stock reefbones, only a few places do so you'll have to order it from elsewhere.

4 xt5 will be fine so soft corals, you definatetely need to find out the make out skimmer, it really is a vital conponent and if you skimp on it you will not be able to have as many fish.

Seahorses are tank bred and not that difficult providing you feed them enough, I think your doing great researchign everything but I cant help thinking your relying too much on one persons advice or what one shop has in stock, if you want a great tank on a limited budget you have to shop around, find out makes etc and research them

I have been shopping around and asking other people for advice, just most of it seems to be crap
I went into the fish shop in town and asked about getting pre mixed water and he said not to bother, just get a big container and they will fill it for me for free. (was kinda puzzled) He told me they go down to the bay on a saturday night an hour before full tide and fill them up. They use sea water for all the tanks in the shop and also get for alot of other people. Was slightly confused by all this becasue i though the water would be crap and polluted?? He told me that its better as the waters more mature and it means you could add fish sooner. I wasnt very impressed by this so i said ill just mix it at home...
Another bit of advise i was horrified by was that i should get my marine fish as small as i could and that would stop them being to big for my tank... They will only grow to the size of the tank

So out of about 4 ~ 5 shops 2 shops gave me rather bad advice, 2 had no clue and one seems to know what they are on about. And also i have everyone here to help when they can

Thats mainly the reason im seeking advice from the one guy from the shop in the city near me and you guys n gals here.

As for th test kit for £20 im not sure what it does, it says its a master marine test kit.

So next time im in im asking,

1. whats the make of skimmer
2. what does the test kit test for (whats the answere im looking for here?)
3. If they could get reefbones

Kev

 

[maestro]

It is difficult I know, to be quite blunt I never trust the advise I get from fish shops, if they recomend a certain brand of whatever then I go home and research it, I didnt at first but ended up buying some crap stuff I really did.


There is mixed reviews on using natural seawater, I actually think its probably better but obviously needs to be from a non poullted source, also it may contain coldwater organisms that would be harmfull to the tropical fish we keep.

There a few studies showing the negative effects of artificial seawater.

 

[Chac]

Hi Kev

Where about in Scotland are you

Have you tried UDA

 

[CluelessScot]

Hi Kev

Where about in Scotland are you

Have you tried UDA

Hi im up in the north east, peterhead.

UDA in Dundee? if so then not yet, but planning to go very soon

 

[Chac]

Bit of a distance for it to be your LFS then

UDA is well worth the travel IMO, loads of good quality LR & Livestock, they get there Shipments in on Fridays & there staff are (IMO) very knowledgable & wont sell you anything that wont suit your tank,

Just a pity there arnt more LFS like them

pm'd

 

[CluelessScot]

its about a 3 1/2 hour drive (2 1/2 if i drive) from dundee to peterhead. Would i beable to transport LR from UDA to mines?
I was told it would be ok for transporting FW fish from UDA, i realllly wanna go, planned to go on sunday but think we are going next saturday.

Kev

 

[Chac]

You shouldnt have any probs moving your life Rock from UDA - Home as they will more than likely wrap it up in Tank wet Newspapers for you, so no probs there

They do offer overnight shipping on Live Rock & I am sure the carriage charge is incorpetated in to the cost

Also I have bought Fish, Corals & Inverts from UDA previously & IMO you would have no probs with that either