Background :
Having kept tropical/freshwater fish for a few years, everything from Koi to tetra's/ Oscars to corydoras and spent a fair amount of time in LFS. I kept wandering over to the marine section and oohing and aahing at the massive variety of Marine Fish, invertebrates and Coral, and then always pulling myself away with the thought that keeping marine was just to complicated for me and I was better sticking to tropical. Well having received help on here involving my many tropical ups and downs, I decided that enough was enough and it was time for a Marine tank. But never let it be said that I can't apply my own #16##### backwards methodology to everything I do.
Mission :
I'm looking to put together a 400-600l reef tank on a minimal budget. The shoestring is a little inaccurate since even buying most of the stuff second hand from ebay and LR from ex-reefers I still expect the bill to run to about £1000. I would like to avoid buying corals and grow them all from frags if this is viable. I would also like to run a closed loop rather than powerheads but have yet to decide if this is viable for a tank this size. LFS said that closed loop would absolutely not work but then he also tried to tell me i need 100kg of LR for a 400l tank and that I absolutely needed live sand (sigh).
Tale so far :
As I said I have a tendency to do things in an odd order. So far I have managed to find myself a nice deltec skimmer, bought all the live rock I need (Who can resist Bargain live rock
), got my self a circulation pump and a few test kits and some rowaphos but I haven't actually sourced a tank yet 
So all the rock is currently in an old tank cycling.
Equipment :
D + D h20 refractometer
R-O Man 4 stage RO unit with DI
Eheim compact + 3000
Deltec MCE 600
40-50kg LR
26kg Salt
Salifert Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate,PH,KH/ALK and Phosphate Test kits.
Roawaphos
Vortech MP 40 W ES
32mm Piping and connectors for sump
Silcone
Updated gear list to reflect current state.
Having kept tropical/freshwater fish for a few years, everything from Koi to tetra's/ Oscars to corydoras and spent a fair amount of time in LFS. I kept wandering over to the marine section and oohing and aahing at the massive variety of Marine Fish, invertebrates and Coral, and then always pulling myself away with the thought that keeping marine was just to complicated for me and I was better sticking to tropical. Well having received help on here involving my many tropical ups and downs, I decided that enough was enough and it was time for a Marine tank. But never let it be said that I can't apply my own #16##### backwards methodology to everything I do.
Mission :
I'm looking to put together a 400-600l reef tank on a minimal budget. The shoestring is a little inaccurate since even buying most of the stuff second hand from ebay and LR from ex-reefers I still expect the bill to run to about £1000. I would like to avoid buying corals and grow them all from frags if this is viable. I would also like to run a closed loop rather than powerheads but have yet to decide if this is viable for a tank this size. LFS said that closed loop would absolutely not work but then he also tried to tell me i need 100kg of LR for a 400l tank and that I absolutely needed live sand (sigh).
Tale so far :
As I said I have a tendency to do things in an odd order. So far I have managed to find myself a nice deltec skimmer, bought all the live rock I need (Who can resist Bargain live rock
), got my self a circulation pump and a few test kits and some rowaphos but I haven't actually sourced a tank yet So all the rock is currently in an old tank cycling.Equipment :
D + D h20 refractometer
R-O Man 4 stage RO unit with DI
Eheim compact + 3000
Deltec MCE 600
40-50kg LR
26kg Salt
Salifert Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate,PH,KH/ALK and Phosphate Test kits.
Roawaphos
Vortech MP 40 W ES
32mm Piping and connectors for sump
Silcone
Updated gear list to reflect current state.
