So Its Begins! The Tank Is Empty And Ready To Go

[mark1979]

ive seen the live rock on UR for that mate,but as i live way down in the southwest,im very limited to what "used" stuff i can get.

ive been offered 80kg for £500,but i cant have all 80,and the chaps wants to sell it all at once. i only need 40kg.

i hear aswell that some chap sort of local to me (plymough) bought 25kg of live rock to add to his existing setup,and wiped his whole tank out as it had some kind of infection with it!! just to save £100.

that £100 he saved cost him all his fish which i imagine was alot of money!!

its a tricky one,i no TAC near me sell there LV at a high price,but its straight from the ocean.

2 powerheads will be another £150 +,then a sump,phosphate reactor,sand,400L of RO water,lol

so that £600 as you can see is easliy spent.

i want to get the tank going by the 1st 2 weeks of september,as im off for 2 weeks from work

 

[jtnova13]

Wow.. how is everything so expensive?

DIY Sump, it cost me 40 dollars total to make a 30 gallon sump out of a used breeder and some baffles.

Aragonite sand is cheap enough, look into modded maxi-jets... you can get them for much cheaper than 150UK for both. I built my maxi-jets for 35 bucks a piece and they get 1200gph.

for a cheap phosphate reactor, just put some rowaphos in a bag under a filter sponge in a HOB filter. That's what I'm doing and it works alright. You should really just buy a RO/DI unit, got mine off of fleabay for 100 bucks. It was going to cost me about 40 bucks to fill it in the first place, so it will pay for itself in a matter of months.


I've put together my 90 gallon tank doing as much DIY as I could and I'm well under $1000. I don't ahve any LR yet, but there are local guys who cure LR just for members and then sell it for like $1.25-1.50/lb. See if there are any local reefer clubs in your area. Someone at your LFS should know.

Needless to say, it should NOT cost you 600 UK to just put LR/powerheads/sump.

My main expenses were the tank, lights, and skimmer. After that, i think i spent about $150 on the sump, powerheads, return pumps, plumbing, rowaphos etc.

Since you have all the equipment minus a few powerheads, you can do it!

 

[Ian H]

why not buy second hand powerheads? i just got 2 1500 gph powerheads for £65.

Your always going to take a risk in buying anything second hand, but your LFS may have infections with it too, its something you have to take a risk with personally i would rather risk it on an empty tank, its not like your going to wipe out all your stock as you wont have any!

tbh i would say 80kg for £500 is a bit of a crap deal, thats not even £5 a kilo,for that amount of rock i would expect quite a big "discount" as such. I'm limited too, living in south wales. But im just gonna have to travel or wait until something localish comes up!

Dont need a sump to start with, dont need a phosphate reactor to start with (could diy one anyways) dont need sand to start with. RO and salt i feel the pain, im only 20L behind you so know how silly the cost is, im going for a RO unit as it will pay for itself quite quickly, if you were closer i would happily let you use it!

All im trying to do is get my salt,water and liverock sorted. That way at least my tank is maturing and im having time to buy the other bits i need!

Just dont put a deadline on it, like i said im hoping to have it done my next month, but in reality i know i cant really afford the £100 for RO unit, £50 for salt then around £150 -£200 for the 40kg of LR! not to mention the sand, skimmer, fish, foods ect ect. So just break it down into stages!

 

[TigerIssey]

If you are going for a sump it is far easier to go with it from the outset rather than having to strip the tank down to drill and add one.

You could DIY one with a second hand tank though. All you would then need to do is fix your baffles in place.

 

[Ian H]

sorry for some reason assumed he wouldnt be drilling the tank

 

[jtnova13]

It wouldn't make sense to drill an already established tank. Just build a HOB overflow, or buy one.

You don't NEED a sump, but you will have so many things hanging on the back of/in your tank you might wish you had gone with a sump

If you have alot of patience, just piece together the live rock bit by bit. just make sure you don't put anything expensive in there because adding new rock will cause spikes in ammonia and nitrite which could kill your livestock.

 

[mark1979]

just to add,i wasnt going to have the tank drilled. im going for a tunze overflow box into a small sump.

ive had such bad times on 2nd hand gear,i have to buy new,sounds snobby but ive been stung loads!!

well ive just sold my fx5 for £120 and my spare set of alloys for my CTR,so i have some cash to play with again!!

i have 2 magnum 6's at the moment,what else would you say i need powerhead wise?

im not making a sump myself as i would screw it up and flood my lounge,lol

 

[Ian H]

120 for a second hand fx5 is good going! maybe you should have sold your CTR instead of the alloys, who needs Vtec when you got nemo's?

you have 50 times turn over with those powerheads, your good to go with softies and LR!! Plenty of flow with those mofo's!!

A diy sump wont flood the lounge, its just a plain old boring tank (say 36" x 12" x 18") with baffles siliconed in, it wont flood if the baffles fail (which they wont)

Lets see some pictures then!!

If your buying LR next month i wouldt mind considering buying from some one inbetween us location wise, may get a better deal? although depends on if you can travel/if its worth it

 

[seffieuk]

you have 50 times turn over with those powerheads, your good to go with softies and LR!! Plenty of flow with those mofo's!!

Mark actually has 32.5 turn over with the magnem 6 x 2 - but I have always had a problem with Maths, so maybe it is me who is wrong! 6500 x 2 = 13000 / 400 = 32.5

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

Your maths is perfect Seffie as long as the magnums are 6500 turnover each.

What do you teach then Seffie??

 

[seffieuk]

Your maths is perfect Seffie as long as the magnums are 6500 turnover each.

What do you teach then Seffie??

don't do much class teaching anymore Tina, as I now specialise in Child protection and pupils with emotional social, behavioural disorders ( I run a specialised unit within a secondary school). I have taught PSHE (we call it drugs, sex and everything in between ) and English, oh and I once taught a year of History to a year 8 class (loved that).

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

It was PSE when I was at school, not sure what the H is for. I loved history at school, when we did GCSE the first year of it was the history of medicine, absolutely fantastic that was. (Bear in mind our year was the first to get the A*, you can tell now how long ago that was).

That sounds a difficult job, but also a very rewarding one.

So sorry to go off topic there Mark, I just had to ask.

 

[seffieuk]

H = health

apologies for hi jack, Mark

Yes can be tough but very rewarding

Seffie x

 

[Ian H]

i thought they were rated at 2200gph? 2200x2 = 4400/87 = 50.57

EDIT

just realised i'd taken the gph from an american site

 

[TigerIssey]

Yep its worked out in lph.