MARINE SET UP

What are the pit falls of seting up a marine tank.
Where can i purchase live sand and live rock.
What is a good SILENT make of submersable pump for a sump.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of setting up a marine tank. The main ones being the Huge set up from Freshwater, a very small margin of error and of course the cost of setting up a reef.

There are two types a reef system and a Fish only sytem. Reef containing corals, soft or hard, with reef safe fish, ie that wont eat your corals. But you will also need to go into the metal halide scene to grow them successfully. The other is a Fish only system or FOWLR system(Fish Only With Live Rock, as you'll see on the net) this contains basicly live rock with your substrate with little or no coral growth. The reef is a hell of alot more expensive, than the FOWLR, and is less forgiving to the beginner and allows the progression to a reef at a later stage. For a decent sized tank your your going to be looking into at least 1200 quid. But thats for the whole works(albeit it minimum).

Any of the Eheim Sump pumps, would be a good choice, but of course your going to have to either get a system built or drill your tank in order to use a sump, although its a huge benefit, but extra cost.

Although we dont do marines at the moment, we can get in live rock on request. I'll make further inquiries if you wish.

Cheers.

Thanks Dave, the next time i'm up in the shop i will talk to Ian or yourself about the live rock.
I was thinking of an Ehime pump myself.
The tank wont be a problem, i will make and drill it myself at a cost of about 350e for a 100-150g.
I was thinking along the lines of live rock,soft corrals and T5 lighting to begin with.
the fish may be a secondery choice.
I just need to price all the bits and pieces and soak up all the info i can before i start.

Yep just ask about live rock, should be able to quote.

To be honest, unless you have some powerful T5's(the long tubes, not the power compacts) you may struggle to grow them, although some of the leathers and the likes should do ok. Next time your up, bring a list of equipment, skimmer, pump etc up and we should be able to quote.

We can also get in a large range of marine fish aswell, but because we have no holding facilities for them, collection after arrival would be preferable.

Hi Dave:

Do you own a LFS??? which one?

Cheers
Pablo

Don't own one unfortunatly but I work in one. Aquatic Village in Dublin.

www.aquatic-village.com

I'm doing a FOWLR system as I dont want halides just yet.

1. lots of live rock, added 4 pieces so far, 12 planned.
2. Two powerheads, one currently installed, add the other when all rocks in place
3. not yet decided on choice of skimmer, so testing with some platies (straight from freshwater tank - doing fine bar one casualty who has disappeared, ah well, will be good for the initial cycle)
4. Temp 24.5 degrees
5. RO water -> this is important, yet rarely used in Ireland.
6. T8's (blue spectrum)
7. Nemo!
8. Hermit crabs & turbo snails, maybe a cleaner shrimp or two.
9. I purposely removed the built in (jewel tank) filter as its no longer required.
I have added a freshwater (small) filter, rinced in old water to clean off debris to have some immediate biological filtration - experiment of mine.
Eventually I'll remove the sponge and use only carbon & phoszorb (zeolite is useless in saltwater)
Here are the first pics, work in progress, will update as it changes:

www.discuskeeping.com/Marine-Jan-2006/index.html

10. Bought 600 litres worth of Instant Ocean, just add RO water and your off :-0

So far so good, no probs with tank, smells lovely, like the sea !

Take out the platies. This is just crule.
Go get yourself some live sand. this will put Autotrophic and chemolithotrophic bacteria into you tank.
have you enough live rock (1lb per gallon min)?
You dont mention what size tank you have.
Were are you buying your marine stuff as i'm working on one myself.

platty252 wrote:

Take out the platies. This is just crule.
Go get yourself some live sand. this will put Autotrophic and chemolithotrophic bacteria into you tank.
have you enough live rock (1lb per gallon min)?
You dont mention what size tank you have.
Were are you buying your marine stuff as i'm working on one myself.

Getting the stuff from www.fishantics.com (Dun Laoighre), and I would normally agree about the platies, however, the tank was simply drained of freshwater (barebottom at the time), immediately coral sand was added and filled with RO salt water, and a "live" filter which contains active bacteria so its denitrfying straight from the beginning. I will remove the filter once the live rock has had a chance to cycle (its quality rock, ready for addition to reef tanks) so i reckon another week and we're laughing.

The tank has a total water capacity of 101 litres, specific gravity of 1.022 - calculated and verified. I reckon 8 pieces of live rock is required, but since there is much debate on the web and elsewhere about live sand, I've decided to hold off on that one. So I'm going for 12 pieces instead.

What cha think?

I've been researching this for a while, and the addition of a small filter will prevent amonia & nitrite build up. There is no foam build up yet and the water is super clear.

Since platies are actually brakish water or even salt water fish anyway I'm not too worried. The missing one was being pecked at by another female, they are exhibiting aggressive behaviour which is bizarre. Females are getting more plump by the day (preggers) and dorsal fins are erect.

As soon as I find where I put my test kits I'll let you now what the params are. I just smelled the water, and that missing platty is starting to decompose, but I cannot find it! Off now to have another look.

later
Conor,

platty252 wrote:

Take out the platies. This is just crule.
Go get yourself some live sand. this will put Autotrophic and chemolithotrophic bacteria into you tank.
have you enough live rock (1lb per gallon min)?
You dont mention what size tank you have.
Were are you buying your marine stuff as i'm working on one myself.

OK, so you reckon I need 26 pieces of rock? 101 litres of water is 26.68 US Gallons from my calculations. Sure where would I fit the fish?

Check out a close up, I cannot imagine fitting 22 more of those rocks fitting the tank, whatcha think?
www.discuskeeping.com/Marine-Jan-2006/slides/DSCF0552.html

saltaquarium.about.com/cs/filterselection/a/aa111901_3.htm

I have now doubled the live rock, added 3.5 kilo more today. (why does everyonr still quote in imperial, thought there was an EU directive against that :-0 )

I recon thats enough (live rock) as I only plan on keeping two nemos and possibly a pair of sea horsies.

I just threw the rock in for the moment so will arrange it and take pics soon.
I have now spent €230 on rock and still have not bought a skimmer.

Maybe the lads at aquatic-village will give me a good deal on one? Dave?

When buying live rock it is usually priced per lb. unless you are buying by the box load which i think comes in a 25kg box. This is proberly why people still use imperial.
I think using a skimmer on such a small system (even though it's bigger than my nano 12g) would remove to much from the water. you may want to check this out before you buy one.
seahorses? wouldent be my choice for starting off but i'm sure you have looked into it.
All in all sounds good. Keep us up dated with your progress.

Update on the situation.

The NO2 rate is now negligible, less than 0.1PPM down from 1PPM a few days ago.

I still cannot find my ammonia test kit, however, this is not an issue since the nitrite is almost gone which indicates that all is well.

I may have to bite the bullit and buy a new nitrate test kit so I can see how the live rock is coping with getting rid of it.

I reckon tomorrow is finding nemo day, but I will change 30 litres of the water first (currently playing mix the salt, add RO, more salt, more RO etc until it reads EXACTLY 1.022 specific gravity. I do not use a air pump to mix the salt water, I prefer to use a powerhead, seems to mix it up almost instantly. Still 12 hours is the absolute minimum prior to adding it to the tank.

I am not convinced that I require a protein skimmer at this time, I truly believe that changing a third tank water every week is far more beneficial to the fish & invertibrates.

I still have one very happy molly (male, females exploded and I let them decompose along with their babies). Mr Crabs (hermit crab) seems happy, but is growing rapidly and will need a new house soon.

Off to the LFS tomorrow! :shock:

If you get a kitchen weighing scales to weigh your salt you can save yourself some time mixing the salt.
1/2 cup of salt--1 us gallon of water or 400 grams of salt--12L.
You will be able to calculate how much salt you need for each water change more quickly.
I agree about the proteim skimmer. I wouldent go out and buy one just yet.
At the next fish club meeting Feb.14. Sean Connolly will be the guest speaker. Currently living in spain he has many years marine experience. You should come along.

Lads, fishantics in Dun Laoighre do approx 25 to 30 litres for a tenner. RO water already preheated and mixed. Just siphon and replace. Sweet.

(edited due to inaccuracies in price).

Its cheaper to make your own really, think I just got a god price the first time round. Only paid 2 € the first time.

Stupid question all...what is RO water?

RO = Reverse Osmosis, water that has pass through a special filter to remove ALL impurities. I don't have one or know much more than that, but I am sure someone on here will give you all the details. They are usually used with Discus and Marines.


Daragh

See section marked Reverse osmosis