New Marine Setup(almost)

[johnnyjtaylor]

Every time I go to the various LFS around here I'm always struck by the beautiful marine tanks(not literally) cunningly placed where I have to walk past and look at them! Their evil plan to make me want a marine tank has worked and now they're rubbing their hands together in anticipation of prising even more of my precious cash from my pocket(still me and the missus can live on beans and toast ,its very good for you ,honest )
Anyhow after a bit of fish relocation between my tanks, getting rid of pesky fat plant destroying gold barbs and a lonely molly I was left with an empty juwel rio125 to change to marine!!!!
I just need a bit of advice on whether the stuff I've gathered is ok and where I can go with what I've got. I've read a fair bit on here(the 'so you want to start a marine tank' section ), other bits and bobs on elsewhere on the internet and I even looked for a book at the LFS but they all seem to have been published in 1827 and dont mention live rock and things.
So far I've cleaned the tank out to a spotless condition, took out the sponges from the corner filter and stuffed it full of filter floss for mechanical filtration with the original power head(600 l/h) and left the heater in there too ,put about an inch and a half of coral sand in , 2 additional power heads for circulation(one 500l/h the other 950 l/h), changed the freshwater tubes to one t8 24" arcadia marine white and one t8 24" arcadia marine blue actnic(is this enough light?) and fitted a second hand Deltec mce 600 protien skimmer(a bit large for this tank maybe?).
I've filled it with RO water from LFS and made the salt up to 1.022 on the hydrometer(salty enough? The LFS guys were a bit vague on this). Its been running for a couple of days with all the power heads going and is nicely up to 25 degrees C with every thing working fine.
If all of the above is o.k would it be alright to get live rock tomorrow? If so how much and do I need to get all of it at once or can it be added at say 10 kgs a time?
Also I'm a bit confused about stocking it(eventually,don't worry I'm not putting anything but LR in at the moment) and don't really trust the LFS's advice on this(the more I buy the more money they get! stock that is not LR).What I would Like to end up with is a tank with small fish such as a pair of clowns maybe a couple more fish if possible, shrimps,hermit crabs,snails and most importantly some soft corals(the main reason I'm doing this!) Does this sound feasible in this tank?

Advice would be greatly appreiciated and sorry for such a long post!
thanks Johnny

 

[boshank23]

hey bud, sounds like a nice little setup you have there.

your salinity could use buffering up to about 1.024-25. with the live rock its best to add it all at once, if you add more later on it could start a mini cycle and kill any stock you have in there.

bit of advice on the powerhead front, it may be worth investing in a seio M620 or tunze nano stream and pointing it at the surface of the water. this aids gas transfer and helps stabilize the PH to a level 8.2.

also it no good teasing us with word.....we need pics

 

[SkiFletch]

I agree, kick your salinity up a notch, and in the meantime, save up for a refractometer. Hydrometers drift up over time (months) and become inaccurate. To raise the salinity, just topoff with saltwater instead of freshwater as you evaporate

Lighting will be ok for soft corals, but nothing stony, keep that in mind. I also agree with boshank that a powerhead like a seio or tunze is definitely the best, especially in a softy tank where you want a really diffuse flow.

What are the tank's dimensions btw?

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Thanks for the replies glad it sounds o.k. I've raised the salinity to between 1.024/1.025. The dimensions of the tank are 31" wide, 13" deep and 18" tall about 125l. Would it be a good Idea to have one of the power heads flow breaking the surface then?
I'm off to get some LR this morning guess after what you said boshank I'll have to bite the bullet and get 20kgs!(£200 )
The other thing I need to know is if there is any difference between fresh and saltwater test kits?(I already have an api master FW and the pictures of the bottles of the saltwater kit look just the same).

Thanks again Johnny

 

[boshank23]

unfortunatly the FW test kits can't be used, sucks i know! and yeah it would be a good idea to have at least 1 powerhead disturbing the surface of the water, you would be supprised how just gas transfer keeps your PH nice and stable.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

unfortunatly the FW test kits can't be used, sucks i know! and yeah it would be a good idea to have at least 1 powerhead disturbing the surface of the water, you would be supprised how just gas transfer keeps your PH nice and stable.

Bummer guess I'll have to get a saltwater master test kit then, are the api ones the way to go for saltwater?
I scored myself a seio m620 yesterday but the flow out of it doesnt seem that much compaired to the 950l/h it has replaced, is this just because the output nozzle is so wide or do you think I picked up a lemon?
Anyhow I got 20Kg of live rock yesterday (grade 'A' indonesian) which is teeming with critters brittle stars,tube worms,bristle worms(biggest we saw last night was 6") , 2 little mushrooms and two of these things! What is it???

When to add fish? LFS said to put a couple of clowns in tuesday if theres no ammonia/nitrite. Sound advice or not? (bit worried about the bacteria in the rock having enough to 'eat' until then)

Cheers Johnny

 

[boshank23]

pic looks like some kinda nudibranch, have a butchers on google.

i would give it at least 2 weeks before adding fish, if your worried about the LR bacteria eating just add some flake twice a week.

the reason the seio looks underpowered compared to your 950LPH powerhead is its designed for flow not pressure. it puts out 620 gallons per hour rather than the 210 gallons per hour that your other PH put out. i'd say 2 of those would do your 125L perfectly.

anyway what about some full tank shots?

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Cheers for the lead on the critter, after a spot of googling I came up with it being a 'Scutus snail' http/rfbolland.com/okislugs/scutungu.html

anyway what about some full tank shots?

O.k here you go

Full frontal

Side view

Skimmer on back with the return going into corner filter(to hide it)

The biggest of the 'hitchiking' mushrooms

and finally with me other tanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, great work

 

[tmreynolds]

Nice setup.

I have a Juwel Vision 180, so my tank is similar to yours.

I'd recommend doing the following with a Juwel tank

Replace the T8 lighting unit with an Arcadia i-bar, which will give you 2x T5 high output tubes, then screw an extra actinic tube onto the rear flap. I've done this and it increases the lighting significantly and also the range of corals you can keep.

Remove all the filter media from the internal filter, I just have a bag of carbon and a bag of rowaphos in there. I strongly recommend having Rowaphos in there from day 1, to stop algae.

I see you have the Deltec MCE600 skimmer, which has a media chamber so you could put rowaphos/carbon in there and get rid of the internal filter in the corner of the tank completely? If I could start from scratch that is what I'd do and just have the Deltec MCE600 with a couple of powerheads, Tunze nanostreams or seio's.

Great start anyway

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Wow, great work

Thanks

Nice setup.

I have a Juwel Vision 180, so my tank is similar to yours.

I'd recommend doing the following with a Juwel tank

Replace the T8 lighting unit with an Arcadia i-bar, which will give you 2x T5 high output tubes, then screw an extra actinic tube onto the rear flap. I've done this and it increases the lighting significantly and also the range of corals you can keep.

Remove all the filter media from the internal filter, I just have a bag of carbon and a bag of rowaphos in there. I strongly recommend having Rowaphos in there from day 1, to stop algae.

I see you have the Deltec MCE600 skimmer, which has a media chamber so you could put rowaphos/carbon in there and get rid of the internal filter in the corner of the tank completely? If I could start from scratch that is what I'd do and just have the Deltec MCE600 with a couple of powerheads, Tunze nanostreams or seio's.

Great start anyway

Thanks reynot. I'll upgrade the lighting at some point(when the wallets recovered!) but the trouble with a rio125 is they're only 13" wide so with the skimmer and stuff on the back a third tube would have to go on the front flap which will be a bit awkward when I want to get in the thing- but thats probably what I'll end up doing(I would like one of those nice over tank jobbies but then I'm sure my cats would be doing a spot of fishing ).
I'll get some rowaphos and put it in the skimmers little compartment for it. I toyed with the idea of chopping the filter out but decided against as one day I might get a bigger tank for marine(the missus will soon want more than 4 marine fish ) and put this one back to FW in which case I'd want the filter in there(people knock the juwell corner filter but I like them).

Cheers Johnny

 

[sianeds]

You could sell the cats to fund a lighting upgrade and then you can have the lovely pendant lighting you would like

 

[boshank23]

WOW very nice little tank.

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

You could sell the cats to fund a lighting upgrade and then you can have the lovely pendant lighting you would like

WOW very nice little tank.

Thanks.

 

[sianeds]

You could sell the cats to fund a lighting upgrade and then you can have the lovely pendant lighting you would like

Sorry... am not a cat lover

Can you tell?