Guest New_girl Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Hi, Yep, another newbe. I've just bought a 6 foot reef tank after nagging my husband for about 2 years. There are heaps more to this than meets the eye and lots to learn. I'm hoping to pick up handy hints and find the best places to get my livestock. It's ashame that we have to pay so much more than hobbyists in the US, particularly as most of them came from our own waters! Anyway, bye for now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Hi New_girl. Welcome to AAQ. We love piccies here. And I don't think there've been many reef tank journals on this forum. Might be wrong about that. It'd be great to watch your tank develop. What are you planning for it? Are you going to go all the way with live coral? What sort of filter you got? Are you planning on putting in a protein filter? What are you doing about lighting? Oh wait.... you're supposed to ask the questions Anyway welcome! Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 lol michael Welcome to the forum! I'm sure we'll all enjoy getting to knwo you and your new reef tank Good luck with it ~Stacey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ned Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 haha enough questions mike? hey hey and welcome to the forum!!! no no dont have a reef tank... a betta will love a 6 footer all to himself good luck with your project and keep us updated on how its coming along. Ned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 no no a 6 footer is perfect for growing out lotsa fry spawn Bettas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Or maybe a self-sustaining colony of wild bettas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figure_8 Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 great to have a bit of non-betta diversity on the board. welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Yeah... don't do bettas we wanna talk about something else Oooooh! How about seahorses? I looooooove seahorses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest New_girl Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Thanks for the wonderful welcome everyone. I'm a new mum so replies may not be very quick. Well, where to start? This is going to be quite long, hope your are in for a mini novel! Bettarazzi asked about the set up I have, so I'll start there. I've always wanted a reef tank and I've been searching and researching, all sources indicates that it's more work than the freshwater tanks but not unmanageable, especially with all these new beau equipment available now. And to buy the largest tank that one can afford becasue there's more room for error and the system is more stable. Anyway I've been looking at getting one for two years and I ended up buying mine second hand on ebay, at a steal, at the end of March. There are the specifics: TANK SIZE: 6 FOOT LONG 2.5 FOOT HIGH 18 INCHES WIDE LIGHTING: 4 x 150 WATT 14000K METAL HALLIDE , 1 HETO 6 FOOT HOUSING WITH TWO 3 FOOT BLUE TUBES. HEATING: 1 x JAGAR 300W HEATER AND 1 x SERA 150W BACKUP HEATER. PROTEAN SKIMMER: NOT SURE OF THE BRAND, ITS RUN BY A 2500LPH RIO PUMP. SUMP (FILTER): ITS RUN BY A 3500LPH EHIME PUMP IT HAS TWO SPINNING ARMS, ITS FILLED WITH BIO BALLS AND WOOL ON TOP. CHILLER / UV STERELISER: THERE BOTH RUN BY A 2500LPH EHIME PUMP AND THEY ALSO CREATE A SLOW MOVING CURRENT IN THE TANK. CHILLER IS A AQUASONIC EITHER 1 OR 1.5 HP WATER CHILLER. ITS ALL STAINLES STEEL SO I SHOULDN'T HAVE ANY CORROISON PROBLEMS. TANK INHABITIANTS: ONE YELLOW TANK (THREE ORIGINALLY), ONE CREAM ANGEL, ONE CORAL BEAUTY, ONE VOLITAN LIONFISH, ONE SADDLE PUFFERFISH, ONE TOMATO CLOWN, FOUR WHITE/GHOST RIBBON EELS, FINGER CORALS, ELEGANCE CORAL, FLOWERPOT CORAL, MUSHROOM CORALS IN RED, BROWN AND GREEN, GREEN PLATE CORAL, AND ~100KG OF LIVEROCK. THESE ALSO CAME WITH THE SYSTEM. THERE WERE OTHERS THAT CAME WITH IT BUT DIDN'T SURVIVE. ONE WAS A SNOWFLAKE EEL, IT DIED QUITE EARLY, AFTER ABOUT A WEEK AND I THINK IT DIDN'T GET ACCLIMATISED PROPERLY. THEN WE WENT AWAY AT EASTER, AND ONE OF THE YELLOW TANKS DISAPPEARED, WE THINK IT GO EATEN BECAUSE THE FOOD THAT THE AUTOMATIC FEEDER WASN'T ENGOUGH. A GREEN MANDARIN FISH ALSO DISAPPEAR LATER, WE THINK THE LIONFISH ATE IT AS IT WAS THERE ONE DAY, GONE THE NEXT. THE FINAL FATALITY WAS THE SECOND YELLOW TANK, WHICH HAD BEEN BULLIED BY THE OTHER ONE AND HAS BEEN COWERING IN A TINY CORNER. DESPITE OUR MANY ATTEMPTS TO GET FOOD TO HIM, HE SIMPLY WASN'T EATING ENOUGH AND FINALLY GAVE UP ON US YESTERDAY. We've added an external EHEIM 2280 canister filter to give it extra flow rate when it was installed. Since we've had it, we've had problems with nitrate and phosphate, which lead to algae problem. Dispite large (50%) water changes, it wasn't helping so we've had to resource to chemical aid. We've managed the phoshate by using Seachem phosguard granules in the canister. For the nitrate, I'm getting my husband to build a coil denitrifer (CD), which from my various researches are meant to take care of and requires no maintence ever, once it's cycled. Will keep everyone posted on that later. I've also purchased some snails, hermit crabs and an abolone to try and help with the algae until I have the CD working. Ultimately, we want lots of corals and invertebrates in the tank and maybe a few extra fishes, but that won't happen until we've got consistent good water quality, and extra cash! That's why I was lamenting on the cost of these beautiful creatures here, when I know how much they cost in the US and they are from our very own backyard! Anyway, if anyone knows anyone getting rid of their marine setups, let me know! As to keeping bettas, I've kept a couple in the past but they don't seem to like me. That's all for now, I'll post some pics later on and if anyone has questions, I'll try to help and I alway welcome advice. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettarazzi Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 That sounds amazing! But gosh.... I really struggling a to picture it in my mind... straining... straining... Nope. I think I'm going to need a picture. Pictures paint a thousand words anyway so it saves on typing :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother bear Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Howdy newbe & welcome You'll love getting into marine tanks they are spectacular when done properly, the wife and i have one it's only small 130lt but we have 4 seahorses in there and a blue star fish & a couple of hermit crabs and live rock no coral cause of the seahorses. Marine tanks are very tedious to set up i actually ran my marine tank for 2 months with nothing but water and the live rock this allows the tank to settle the bacteria to grow, it took 2 months to get the nitrate down from 40ppm to 5ppm thats when you add the fish so when you bought the tank 2nd hand even though it was established once you got it home you are basically starting from scratch again. also what are you feeding them because my nitrate spiked a couple of months ago and i found out that the packs of frozen brine & mysis shrimp are loaded with nitrate, so what i do now is put a cube or 2 in one of my fine mesh shrimp nets and rinse it under the tap until it is defrosted that gets rid of a lot of extra nitrate as well, but i now just feed my horsies live brine only it's much better for the tank and the fish pics of the horses are pending razza me ol' mate hang in there BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother bear Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 sorry me again, i just wanted to add that i have 10 fish tanks in the house, a 4500lt koi pond that i built and a new koi pond on the way that i have started which will hold 6000lt when i'm done BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother bear Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 here ya go troopers seahorse pics i hope you like BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
y2jdaze Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 aw i always loved sea horses :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callatya Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Other people with SW! Welcome Welcome! I cheat, its really just a FW setup with some salt water, but it kind of counts! Great to have some more people from 'the dark side' to chatter to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.