Marine Tank

[PeachSlices]

i love going to st.george aquarium and just watch them swim around so interesting.

Simon

[Matt_95]

Yan,I have one of the guppy lights and have friends who use them, they are great, I wouldn't use the LED ones though, on another forum I use they said his LED's are not as good as he claims. I have a couple of HOB from them but wouldn't get anything expensive, they are chinese rip offs.

You have inspired me to start planning again. I've almost got mum to buy me a LED in a group buy which is really cheap, have my tank picked out and will probably set it up when I can pay mum back or get it for christmas I still have to persuide Mum and Dad to let me get a fourth tank though. I will be using my spawning tank which is a great little display around 40 litres. I will probably only stock coral and shrimp but maybe a small fish, would have to be small though, reading up on the nano forums now

If I ever set up a big marine tank again I would get another lionfish, we had two in a 6 footer although we couldn't put our hands in the tank to move stuff around as often as we liked. Would a mandarin goby be good in your tank? I know they need cocapods as food but a 4 footer would produce enough for one right?

[Neffy]

omg cow fish so awesome XD

[Yanagi]

My dad and I are actually looking to DIY some LEDs now. We'll see.

Glad I've inspired you, just don't get yourself into trouble, lol. Coral gobyyyyy, get a green coral goby! Or a few. They're so freaking cute.

I also have issues with the whole lionfish thing too. I have met more than one person stung by them but ugh, I'm paranoid about being just that little bit extra sensitive to any marine fishes venom. I'm already sensitive to salt water, one day I'll have to take a picture of what my arm looks like once it's been in the tank.

No mandarins for me until the stay is well and truly mature (at least a minimum of 6 months.. probably far longer than that!). They starve to death too often. We had one in a display at work and he was literally skin and bone. Caught him one day and we were moving him into several nano tanks every week or so to try and keep up with the pace he was eating the pods. He was also taking frozen food but just couldn't get any in the display so now he was able to keep his belly full but geez, he wasn't looking much better after several weeks of that treatment. A customer bought him on the weekend. ( WHY?! Surely can't be that desperate for a Mandarin.. go get a bloody healthy one!)

I would love one but no to mandarins when you own predators (the jury is still deciding that one) and no to mandarins in a new tank. :(

[Yanagi]

So. New fishies.

1 Freebie Fang Blenny who is extremely skinny. To the point of death skinny. Meet 'Slim Shady' the venomous blenny

And the most expensive fish I've ever bought, an inch long Flame Angel

And to show off the size of the zoo rock..

I had to place most of the zoos to the side/back because it wouldn't balance any other way and I can't sit it 'upside down' because there is more zoos on the 'top'! Argh. So nothing is getting much light and not really opening up the whole way. I think I need to split this rock into a few pieces... :(

[Matt_95]

Lovely fish Yan love the flame angel, wish I could get one

Well you have well and truly kicked my but into action, placed my order for the light, should arrive in July gives me time to work on my parents and save up Do you know of any places online that sell coral cheap?

[Fletch]

I love that tank Yan. Well done. I would love a marine tank but am scared #€£+less of them. No idea, myself. And I am scared about the cost.

What's the maintenance demands of this tank in hours? And what needs to be done daily/weekly?

Keep posting pics please.

[Yanagi]

http://www.oceanarium.com.au/index.toy

Unlike most places, they take photos of the actual coral you're getting. I find the prices VERY reasonable too! They ship all over. Haven't actually ordered from them yet because I'm saving my pennies (or meant to be, anyway) but they have very good reviews on a couple of forums.

http://aquariumexcellence.webs.com/

Not sure if they ship to QLD? I find the prices reasonable and got my BTA anemone delivered in good health.

Haven't really looked at other online coral places.. I can generally get whatever I want from work but I am putting a halt to spending money on coral at this point as all funds will hopefully be redirected to the 4ft. What light did you go for?

Thanks Busman. No need to be scared.. Oh wait. You meant the price? Yeah, be scared. LOL I've already shared my (future) expenses not including live rock and fish.. ouch. Oh, also, there's many many things in the marine world that can kill you. Or at least induce some serious pain. The salt alone burns at my skin but that's just a weird sensitivity thing I have, but many people if they get stung enough will also get tingling and burning sensations if they put their hand in a tank with the coral they're sensitive to. Oh and certain corals will try and harm you, like zoos. They sometimes squirt at you and I know of one person who almost lost his eyesight because of it. I won't even start on the fish LOL.

Anyyywayyy... second hand set ups are usually very well priced. I loved the red sea max as my first marine tank but I'm ready to move onto bigger and better things.

I am rather lazy with the tank. I test a few things once a week. Nitrate, Calc, Alk, pH, Phosphates, salinity etc. That is pretty time consuming, especially when you're hopeless like me and knock over the test tubes multiple times per test.

Algae cleaning is the most time consuming thing. I could easily do it once a day but I leave it go for a few days and then attack with the scourer, algae magnet and a razor blade. On a good day that takes about 10 minutes. I suppose if I was doing it daily it wouldn't take so long but I do enough algae cleaning at work, ugh.

I feed the coral with 'seafood' from aquasonic usually once a day, BBS every few days. Target feed the nems a once or twice a week or if I've got any new coral I'll usually target feed that for the first week or so it's in the tank.

I don't have a deep sand bed so I gravel vac once a fortnight, which obviously includes a water change. Usually about 20-30%. Top up once a week generally with tap water aged and treated with prime but I would really, really like to get an RO/DI unit and see if that improves the algae issues.

Empty the skimmer cup every few days. That thing gets pretty putrid.

Um, really that's about all I can think of right now. I honestly find my planted tank to be more work because I'm dosing more stuff more often. This tank doesn't need it at this point. I'm sure once I really stock it up with coral that it will get to that point but certainly not now. If you were to go with FOWLR (fish only with live rock) system then that would be even easier.

[Matt_95]

Thanks for those Yan I like the first one best but the fungias from the second I really like to Is it hard to find really bright coloured zoos? Most I see for sale are dull and brownish, I've seen oranges and blues while I have been on holidyas and I have seen a green and red one at an online store I cant find now si I know they exist. I know of only one local place with corals, will have to check them out to I think their morphs are %7.50 for a polyp.

I'm getting a light from a group buy from Asia through I reputable dealer. This is it. I am hoping it is bright enough for my tank, otherwise Iwill get a 30cm cube or something. The WPG rule doesn't apply for LED's does it?

Pual, I think the biggest cost is in the live rock, you live near the bay so you can collect your own water and catch your own fish, thats what Dad and Idid when we had the 6 footer, its completly legal to A mate of ours had a blue righ octopus come out of his live rock once, it got caught in the overflow so we could fortunatly release it (dad was going to kill it but I got angry). Its alot more dangerouse than freshwater lol. With a nano you don't need a skimmer or anything else really, the live rock does most of the filtering and you can have a refugium with macro algae to take up waste, the yneed a weekly waterchnge but they have such a small body of water thats hardly anything.

[Yanagi]

Nah, bright coloured zoos are far more common because no one buys the brown ones LOL. Oceanarium has some great zoos right now!

http://www.oceanarium.com.au/item.toy?iid=512156

http://www.oceanarium.com.au/item.toy?iid=512284 <- Very tempted to buy that one for myself!

http://www.oceanarium.com.au/item.toy?iid=512290

I think Aquarium Excellence doesn't really have enough blue light to really show off his zoos in photos but they are rather nice looking, especially the green and yellows. I am not certain his products are 'what you see is what you get' in terms of the photos though. Not to say they aren't nice coral, just that I'm not 100% certain he pictures the exact coral you're getting.

If you follow the WPG rule with LEDs then I am growing coral with 1.3wpg. 2.5w x 10. I would really like to know the specs of that LED light, especially for that price. It looks like they've copied the AquaBeam design almost completely. If I had a nano I would be rather interested in that light but without knowing the actual details I wouldn't be putting my money forward.

I'm not sure what area you're referring to with regards to collecting water and fish but it it depends whether or not it's a marine park or whatever they call it.. protected. There are also limits on fish including net size (although it's some ridiculous thing like nets must be under 2m long) and the amount of fish you can catch. I think it's 5 within 28 days and you cannot use any diving gear, I believe no more than a snorkel is allowed? I'm not 100% sure but if you're going to go in that direction you really need to do your homework because the fines can be huge and I believe there's the potential for jail time. You would also need a quarantine tank or be willing to risk everything any time you add fish.

BTW, I am quite certain you cannot release critters once they have hit your tank. The octopus should of been killed.

[Matt_95]

I really liked that one I like their blue morphs to

The LEDs work, didn't ask the specs though, there are photos from aquarama of nano marine tanks using those LED's. Meh if the yare crap its my fault.

Its legal to collect the water, we used to get ours from the wading pool. There is a club here to that collects marine fish, it does depend on were you are collecting and species ect. will try find it. Not going to be collecting for this tank anyway, I want perculas or onyx clowns some shrimp. I will try find the link anyway. In my defense I wass like 10 when the octopus thing happened, wouldn't do it now I'm more educated.

Here it is: In all areas other than green zones the collection of five creatures other than corals are allowed per 28 days and no two of one species,this is per person or ten over all per boat.

[Matt_95]

Yan, what is a good price for live rock? I called the lfs today and they sell it at $13 p/kg is tha ta good price?

[Yanagi]

Sorry for the confusion, I know it's legal to collect water, I was referring mainly to the fish part of the discussion lol

Depends on the quality of the rock.

We sell it at $ 16.95 p/kg 4kg for $60 but it's covered in red and pink coralline algae and usually has coral on it (see my zoo rock and the piece with what appears to be some kind of encrusting coral and an acropora). Most of it is also pretty porous and good shapes for building foundations as well as shelves for coral.

Most of the cheap stuff you'll find is just dull with nothing on it. Big boulders that you can't do much with, etc. You would have to go check it out for yourself. It might be cheaper up there even if it's of the same quality.

[Yanagi]

I could cry.. anemone went through the powerhead while I was at work.

I've come home to cloudy tentacle soup and don't have enough salt water on hand to do a water change. Fish are ok, a lot of the coral is closed up, one seems to be in distress.

This could very well nuke my tank.

And about very ready to smash the tank over my dad's head. He's been keeping beginner freshwater fish for 30 years so he clearly knows everything. Water changes fix nothing and what good are powerheads anyway?? Gee whizz. Thanks for your knowledge.

This coming from the same moron who will cover the entire surface of a tank with flake food at feeding time. Then throw in the chicken pellets by the handful.

Edited May 31, 2011 by Yan

[Yanagi]

Well tank seems to be ok but I am minus 1 fish who is no where to be found going on day 3 now. He must of gone carpet surfing then one of my cats or dog ate him... No corpse to be found. RIP Slim Shady the skinny fang blenny. I was proven wrong, he didn't last 10 days after all.

Flame angel is doing very well. Eating like she's only ever had frozen food and doesn't seem to touch any of the corals. Yet.

So. The 4ft.

Decided I will go with just T5 lighting. I can upgrade to LEDs should the need arise but I'm seeing a lot of people suddenly dropping these units very, very quickly. Dodgy much?! Shesh. Well, that will save me more than a pretty penny at $119.. But tubes need to be replaced. LEDs don't. The dollars will all add up eventually, sigh.

Quarantine... I've come up with what I see as the perfect solution to QTing marine fish. As it stands I don't have a QT tank which makes me a hypocrite to everyone I scold for not quarantining new fish, especially tangs.. lol

I am going to put a 2ft tank in the cabinet and connect it to the sump via pumps with taps. Any time a new fish comes in, taps go off, pumps go off and there we have it, a fully cycled quarantine tank with the exact same parameters as the display (sponge filter running at all times, of course!). Qt over, just open the taps, plug the pumps back in and away I go. The only flaw I see in this so far is I am likely to forget there's a fish in the cabinet that I need to feed.. LOL

This is moving too slowly for my liking. I got the 4ft about 3 weeks ago and all that's been done is the background was scraped off and repainted black. Boo.

List of stuff to do for the 4ft;

Cabinet needs to be roughed up, painted black.

Handles replaced.

Tank and sump cleaned up.

GET RID OF THE BARRACKS OMG I FEEL LIKE THAT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. TAKE MY FIIIIIIIIIIIIIISH PLEEEEEEEASE!

Buy a lot of stuff.

Cry over the cost of stuff.

Enjoy tank.

I think that's about it...

Cookies and Halfmoons to whoever bothers to read my blabbering. I'm mostly just using this thread as a journal now *lol*

[Fletch]

I'm loving it. Don't stop, please. I would love your fish and barracks but a bit far to go.

I can't wait for it to come together. Best part for me is it costs me nothing. Lol. Would love to have a go as well but not going to happen. Good luck and keep us informed. :-)

[Yanagi]

I've just realized the tank may not even fit in here.. We'll probably have to take the door off the hinges and even then I'm not sure it's going to fit... It will be a tight squeeze (between a tank and a dresser with a tank on it!) if it does.

And I wanted a bigger tank, originally.. lol! Luckily (sort of?) the parents said no to a 4 x 2 x 2 on the poor floor.

I brought home a pretty acan coral on friday, I'll take a pic if I can be bothered to clean off the algae after work. Fluro green and purple! Actually I think it's time for another FTS since the 'scape has changed again. Considering getting a starfish to eat the algae but I'm worried disgruntled crab might take a liking to this rare delicacy. Can only try, though.

[GoldenGirl13]

I'm with Busman, not only am I vicarious Betta breeder, I'm now a vicarious marine keeper! would love to help with the barracks etc., buuut.... <_<

[Yanagi]

Glad you guys are enjoying this, lol.

Barracks is sold I just can't get rid of it until the fish are gone.. But I have resorted to throwing the left over fish in guppy traps to float in my community tank so I can get rid of the bloody thing. I still need these fish gone though.

Lunch time at work, got two adorable little GC conures sitting on the chair behind/beside me!

[melbournebetta]

Madam Del,

LOVING this thread, please forgive the photo request, but these marine colours just make me all GOOEY with jealousy.

I want that shoe eel to happen NOW NOW NOW!

Setup just sounds beautiful!

xx

[forever_and_a_day]

XD lol. to counteract your forgetting-to-feed-the-QT-fish problem, hang an 'open/closed' sign on the cupboard and change it so it says

'FISH to FEED/no fish'

:lol:

[Yanagi]

you haven't been keeping up with the updates have you ness? tsk tsk. No more eel. Forces me to rule out too many fish and too much risk to my poor hands lolmt, I would totally ignore that sign after seeing it for too long, lmao. I am like that.. Please excuse any typos, poor grammar or auto correct, I am on my phone lol

[Yanagi]

Super reactive to the salt water today. Very weird. I need some motivation to stick my arm in that tank and scrub the bloody algae off so I can take pics..

edit- ok I sucked it up and went to work on the tank righting a few corals that disgruntled crab has knocked over, scrubbed off some algae and fed the coral for the first time in over a week.. Haven't gotten our order of coral food yet GRR. It was ordered last week!!!

It'll take a while for the tank to clear up BUT.. pics will come later tonight!! :)

Edited June 7, 2011 by Yan

[Yanagi]

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

I figured out more of the camera functions!

Hold onto your seats while I upload the rest...

[Yanagi]

^ With both blue and white LEDs on.. This camera makes it look REALLY blue, it's not that blue. Honest.

^ With blue LED on only! Still not this blue IRL. Or not this dark blue, anyway. lol

Not all the coral is open because of me moving some easier and the big clump of star polyps on the LHS bottom refuses to open more but a few polyps lately.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Yan