We're Getting.......

[Miss Wiggle]

a massive marine tank!!

i have a bloke re-homing Oscar for me to an even bigger tank than he's in now. so this weekend we'll take the catfish to the lfs and strip down the tank. and begin preparations (mostly saving up some money for the time being) and in a few months we'll have a 92 us gallon reef tank.

 

[Maximus]

Thats awesome!

Carn't wait for the journal

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah don't you worry, there will be a journal when there's something more to tell, we've only really made vague plans as re-homing Oscar was always going to be tricky and potentially take some time or even never happen. We're in no great rush though, the 30gal is ticking over nicely so we can just drain the big tank and turn everything off while we finalise our plans and get everything we need.

 

[SkiFletch]

NICE cant wait to see this one

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'll make sure we put up plenty of pics, don't you worry

now stocking suggestions, we currently have

1 eibli angel
2 pjyama cardinals
1 tail spot blenny
1 (can't remember the name of it but it looks like a bi-colour but it isn't one) blenny

initially we're not going to add any more fish, we'll just leave it running with the bio load that it currently has, gradually build up LR and CUC, but obviously i'm daydreaming of what fish can go in the tank now.

Ian will be wanting a mandarin goby at some point waaaay in the future but we need to leave room in the stocking
we want a tang although we're undecided which one, will there be problems with the tang and eibli?
we want a nice group of anthius
we're contemplating getting a decent sized group of clown fish too, they do look lovely with a big group of them together
how close to fully stocked would that be? I like to keep tanks understocked so I think it's not far off full at that point. what do you reckon?

and lastly i would like something unusual but reef safe to go in with this lot, any suggestions?

 

[SkiFletch]

As for the clownfish group, I'm not too sure how great of an idea that is... True a 92g is big, but longterm you might get into some aggression issues between clowns. Also if you do go this route, you'd HAVE to buy tank-bred all from the same lot to ensure that you don't have multiple mature males/females in the group that could turn on one another. Seems a bit like a headache to me, but that's just my oppinion.

A tang should play just fine with the Eibli in a tank that size

You of course know I'm gonna suggest my favorites, wrasses and anthias . Also perhaps a Genicanthus Wantanabei angelfish, maybe a Haliocheres Iridis, or a purple tielfish (Hoplolatilus purpureus)?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

As for the clownfish group, I'm not too sure how great of an idea that is... True a 92g is big, but longterm you might get into some aggression issues between clowns. Also if you do go this route, you'd HAVE to buy tank-bred all from the same lot to ensure that you don't have multiple mature males/females in the group that could turn on one another. Seems a bit like a headache to me, but that's just my oppinion.

A tang should play just fine with the Eibli in a tank that size

You of course know I'm gonna suggest my favorites, wrasses and anthias . Also perhaps a Genicanthus Wantanabei angelfish, maybe a Haliocheres Iridis, or a purple tielfish (Hoplolatilus purpureus)?

OK no go on the clowns then, was just an idea we were bouncing around, nothing we had our hearts set on

no wrasses, we have temp control issues with the tank in it's current incarnation (i think because of sunlight from the window) so it's going to have a big section that's open topped

would we be OK with one of the bigger angels, he wouldn't fight with the eibli?

google's coming up with nothing for Haliocheres Iridis and i've not heard of it, far be it for me to critisice the master but have you perhaps mis-spelt it or something?

the tilefish is pretty though, possibility

 

[SkiFletch]

May have mis-spelled the Iridis, more commonly known as the Radiant wrasse. Its the only of it's genus that does NOT eat corals/snails.

A Genicanthus Wantanabei is the smallest of the "fullsize" angels and does great in a 4' tank. And being from different genus' they should do fine together.

 

[BigIan]

No sump for this one unless i do an over head type.mounted to the wall some how....

Right the plan is for the hardware starting from the top...

1x 250w metal halide.
2x55w pct5.
1x30w actinic.
with 2 desk top fans blowing over the tank to keep it all cool.
Were going to keep the skimmer we have now and maybe upgrade or supplement it if we find we need to.
We also have a hang on the back fuge that were keeping.
and as its a triangular tank in the back corner were going to have a 2200 lph pump seated in a void built out of reef racking stuff.
were then going to get some dead base rock and then add our own live rock over the top of it, with the three 1200lph power heads we have currently blowing across the face of the Lr and we also have a second large pump sat in a cupboard that i`ll add some where giving us rougly 20x turnover, i`d like more but this is a good start.

Sound good to people???

Ill make sure i have lots of pics of the change over

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just been on an ebay spree getting ready for this tank

got a new tds meter (ours got flooded and died)
a refractometer (been using a rubbish hydrometer up until now)
a hydor koralia powerhead (turns over nearly 10x the new tank by itself and only uses 11watts, bargain!!)
load of rowaphos



now all we need is a couple of heaters, couple of fans and the marine ply and stuff for Ian to make the new hood and then we can set it up.

then just add LR as we go along.

 

[SkiFletch]

Nice

 

[BigIan]

I`m so not looking forward to the change over weekend. much shouting i think