Stampos
Fish Crazy
Hi all,
Welcome to my nano reef diary
I have wanted a marine tank for absolutely ages. After having various FW systems including Malawi cichlids, SA cichlids and L-number catfish I now feel confident enough to try SW!
The tank I will be using is a River Reef 94l. I chose this as I felt it contained a lot of features at a reasonable cost. I particularly like the weir panel (after having a sumped 5ft tank I can't handle having heaters on show!) and the T5 hood and moonlights
I love the look of a system which is not dominated by fish, but by corals and I find the invertebrates absolutely fascinating. So much so I believe I may just stock 2-3 small fish and concentrate my efforts on producing a well designed reef.
After what felt like a lifetime my tank was delivered this morning
Very well packaged I must add, having never purchased a tank online before I was relieved to receive it in one piece!
I hate flat pack furniture, but the stand went together pretty quickly in about 10 minuts and seems pretty sturdy - I will use the limited internal space for food/test kits only as I plan to create a board of sockets which I can mount externally from the tank.
I then tentatively lifted the tank onto the stand
and tested the lights
Looks pretty good! I then proceeded to remove the various media contained in the rear chambers - impressively there was a large bag of carbon (handy) and lots of things like bio-balls etc. which I removed. Thanks to a tip I read on the forums I managed to find the second pump contained in the far right chamber! It was hidden in an "L" section and would have been missed otherwise!
I assumed these came with a 100w heater but found a 200w model instead, again great value for money.
After ensuring the chambers were empty I began the fill. I had purchased 100l of salted RO from my LFS in preparation, the salt is Red Sea coral pro which I believe will allow me to eventually house LPS coral with minimal additions required. What a nightmare filling was! I planned to use a spare pump placed in a bucket and pour the 25l container into that, but could not find the correct size pipe so had to fill manually. Knackering!
After filling:
I had to return the containers to the LFS and whilst there bought a powerhead, using only 2.5w and giving 1400lph of flow it won out against the Koralia Nano I initially intended to buy.
Fitted:
When it got dark I turned on the moonlights!
...........and that is where I'm at currently. The water is heating and circulating in preparation for my live rock going in tomorrow. I currently have 3kg purchased from my LFS, some nice pieces including a lovely plate which I intend on making into a Zoanthid shelf!
I plan on visiting another LFS tomorrow and purchasing some of their heavily coralined LR to make up the remaining 7kg.
All in all a very exciting, but tiring day. Who knew you could get so excited about salty water and rocks?
Thanks for reading,
Simon
Welcome to my nano reef diary
I have wanted a marine tank for absolutely ages. After having various FW systems including Malawi cichlids, SA cichlids and L-number catfish I now feel confident enough to try SW!
The tank I will be using is a River Reef 94l. I chose this as I felt it contained a lot of features at a reasonable cost. I particularly like the weir panel (after having a sumped 5ft tank I can't handle having heaters on show!) and the T5 hood and moonlights
I love the look of a system which is not dominated by fish, but by corals and I find the invertebrates absolutely fascinating. So much so I believe I may just stock 2-3 small fish and concentrate my efforts on producing a well designed reef.
After what felt like a lifetime my tank was delivered this morning
Very well packaged I must add, having never purchased a tank online before I was relieved to receive it in one piece!
I hate flat pack furniture, but the stand went together pretty quickly in about 10 minuts and seems pretty sturdy - I will use the limited internal space for food/test kits only as I plan to create a board of sockets which I can mount externally from the tank.
I then tentatively lifted the tank onto the stand
and tested the lights
Looks pretty good! I then proceeded to remove the various media contained in the rear chambers - impressively there was a large bag of carbon (handy) and lots of things like bio-balls etc. which I removed. Thanks to a tip I read on the forums I managed to find the second pump contained in the far right chamber! It was hidden in an "L" section and would have been missed otherwise!
I assumed these came with a 100w heater but found a 200w model instead, again great value for money.
After ensuring the chambers were empty I began the fill. I had purchased 100l of salted RO from my LFS in preparation, the salt is Red Sea coral pro which I believe will allow me to eventually house LPS coral with minimal additions required. What a nightmare filling was! I planned to use a spare pump placed in a bucket and pour the 25l container into that, but could not find the correct size pipe so had to fill manually. Knackering!
After filling:
I had to return the containers to the LFS and whilst there bought a powerhead, using only 2.5w and giving 1400lph of flow it won out against the Koralia Nano I initially intended to buy.
Fitted:
When it got dark I turned on the moonlights!
...........and that is where I'm at currently. The water is heating and circulating in preparation for my live rock going in tomorrow. I currently have 3kg purchased from my LFS, some nice pieces including a lovely plate which I intend on making into a Zoanthid shelf!
I plan on visiting another LFS tomorrow and purchasing some of their heavily coralined LR to make up the remaining 7kg.
All in all a very exciting, but tiring day. Who knew you could get so excited about salty water and rocks?
Thanks for reading,
Simon
