My New Marine Tank From Week 1

cheers ck1 have to say even thou theirs not much stuff in it yet it still is much more entertaining than a fresh water setup and the kids are loving it even more, and their more interested which is cool and yeh added bonus having a nemo, you wanna make ur mind up quick xmas is over in 5 days and thats ur excuse haha

never mind the clowns wait until you get right into marine you can get some stunning fish , scooter blennies etc ...but that is way down the line, it took me 2 years running my tank to get a scooter to live on just the live rock,.. the enjoyment of marine, also I noticed you are running external filters...keep an eye on them they seem to be nitrate factories if not kept in check, after a good few months you will be able to turn them off and just use the live rock and skimmer for filtering but make sure you have plently of flow.

well done mine is still interesting after two years changes every year! and all i have to do is water changes.

ps to keep them nitrates and phos down use the red sea NOPOX it works using it two years now .

cheers, ah yeh sure it will take a long time to have it perfect and im sure il have my ups and downs, i now only have floss in the externals to keep it spotless get good flow and to run a uv and yes im using nopox its great stuff

Udate:
I added a Firefish and a Banggai Cardinal today will get pics. up 2moro

Ive found the live sand im using very fine and sometimes looks like its snowing in the tank so i added some bigger grained coral sand and its perfect now also added some different size shells i got from beach for the hermit crabs to move into as they get bigger looks better with them all in different colours, love the white shells they look cool with the little blue legs sticking out (if anyone is going to do this make sure you boil the crap out of them first) anyway here is a few photo of how its going for now

Coming along nicely mate

Have decided to add corals at any stage?

Just before you go buying fish you know what you want and also if you will add corals at any point as this will show if the fish you have are ok with corals and so on

Did you get the peppermint shrimp for a reason?

As these are mostly got if you have aiptasia in the tank

Keep us updated if you are adding anything else looks very well

Sean

Thanks Sean

Going to keep it fish only for a while bit paranoid about getting ick and if i have corals in their i wont be able to treat it so im getting the fish i want first wait for a while and then start to addd corals also will be getting all reef safe fish

The peppermint shrimp came with the clean up crew i got their handy to have if that nasty aiptasia does start growing somewhere

Im looking to add 3 small tangs next il get around 2yrs out of them before i upgrade the tank
the 3 im getting is Yellow, Kole/Yellow eyed, Naso was told the naso is a really slow grower and should get 2yr out of him in my tank but hop to have tank before then

and id say thats all the fish i will be adding

Jeff how are you,

I know what you mean about the white spot but in marine keeping you have to expect this the main thing is that you can control it

Even adding a new fish to the take can bring on white spot and have all fish stressed but as i said once it does not spread you are laughing.

If you do get it and have to dose copper it will also kill your shrimp not only corals.

Not all peppermints will eat aiptasia they say that wilds from Florida will only eat them but again this is not the case at one stage i had aiptasia in the tank very bad i done everything to get rid lemon juice in a syringe also hot water nothing worked, so best way i found was to get the rocks i could that they where on and take them out and dry the rock out

As i could not do this for all them i got a file fish and have to as he done the job one less then a week,

So the 4 wilds from Florida that i got from Seahorse did nothing even though they stayed right beside some of the aiptasia.

Yeah the tangs sound good but i would think about about the Naso they really are a lovely fish one of my top i think in all marine fish but you would have to get him very small to have him in the tank for that long and also could reduce the chances of him getting to full size just once you give him good feeds a few times a day should be ok just keep an eye on your PO4 and NO3 when doing this

Sean

Looking the business Jeff well done. So have to asked the other half are you alond get a big ten footer tank yet


Mark

SpiderMonkey wrote:

Looking the business Jeff well done. So have to asked the other half are you alond get a big ten footer tank yet


Mark

Mark i think anyone who asks the boss can they get a 10 foot tank would get a slap i know i was very close to it when i got the new tank in and said i should have went for a 10x2x3

Sean

Ha ha i hear you Sean if i asked for a nano id get a punch in the head!
Why do they hate fishtanks so much... I wonder

Mark

SpiderMonkey wrote:

Ha ha i hear you Sean if i asked for a nano id get a punch in the head!
Why do they hate fishtanks so much... I wonder

Mark

I think its cause we are spending all our money on the tank and not them they are all just jealous

Sean

BlueRam wrote:

Jeff how are you,

I know what you mean about the white spot but in marine keeping you have to expect this the main thing is that you can control it

Even adding a new fish to the take can bring on white spot and have all fish stressed but as i said once it does not spread you are laughing.

If you do get it and have to dose copper it will also kill your shrimp not only corals.

Not all peppermints will eat aiptasia they say that wilds from Florida will only eat them but again this is not the case at one stage i had aiptasia in the tank very bad i done everything to get rid lemon juice in a syringe also hot water nothing worked, so best way i found was to get the rocks i could that they where on and take them out and dry the rock out

As i could not do this for all them i got a file fish and have to as he done the job one less then a week,

So the 4 wilds from Florida that i got from Seahorse did nothing even though they stayed right beside some of the aiptasia.

Yeah the tangs sound good but i would think about about the Naso they really are a lovely fish one of my top i think in all marine fish but you would have to get him very small to have him in the tank for that long and also could reduce the chances of him getting to full size just once you give him good feeds a few times a day should be ok just keep an eye on your PO4 and NO3 when doing this

Sean

sound cheers mate

SpiderMonkey wrote:

Looking the business Jeff well done. So have to asked the other half are you alond get a big ten footer tank yet


Mark

Thanks mate, haha ten footer il have to wait till i have the same amount of money sean has

jeff wrote:

SpiderMonkey wrote:

Looking the business Jeff well done. So have to asked the other half are you alond get a big ten footer tank yet


Mark

Thanks mate, haha ten footer il have to wait till i have the same amount of money sean has

Lol Jeff I think your right, Sean either won the lottery or he's still spending the communion money


Mark

haha and wait till the first esb bill comes in he'll be spending his conformation money too


@sean you will have to take a pic of the wife's face as she opens the next bill.... and then she can take a pic of you legging it out the door screaming im sorrrrrrrry

Me winning the lotto that would be the day wishful thinking from my end ha,

As for the bill have being keeping an eye in this from the meter end of it and doesnt seem to be using much more from the other setup

Now when i add the new 3 x Radion's with each of them running 140Watts then i will be running out of the house

My elec bill is actually not that bad at all over the last year even with the tank's, but when it comes to my gas bill nearly a 700euro bill i got last month which i don't have a clue why the S**T Bags ha

Sean

Jeff looks good How much did the change over cost you?
jim

@sean dont talk to me about gas bills the make me sick their a joke if i lived on my own id never use it

@jim cheers mate it was around the 700 mark and i swapped a few cichlids for stuff too

Update: Got my Tangs, Went with the Naso, the Yellow, and a Square tail bristletooth.

I was expecting a small war at the start, but they have amazed me with being very close so soon you'd swear they were raised together, so happy days no stress

Not going to add anymore fish now thats it, Will start on corals in a few wks.

Here is a few more pics.

lookin good jeff

Thanks jim

All are eating well now and no aggression at all, delighted with the tank now jasus the difference in the marine fish the hole family is obsessed with the tank

Just had to have one it was annoying me so much that i finally gave in and said feck it if he can do it and he can do it i can do it

so come on uv show me what ur made of keep that dirty filthy rotten ich off my ich magnet

and he will be getting garlic food for breakfast lunch and dinner

got him last week and he's doing great next 8wks. are going to be doggy but im happy now i have all the fish that i wanted to get so thats it fish wise deffo no more going in

I suppose i better tell yeah what i got, Haha, a few of you have probably already guessed

So here is my Blue Tang

very nice jeff. Do you notice much of a price difference with marine besides the price of fish

Jeff,
I am amazed how far you have come with the marine tank.
The fish and setup looks great.
Are you dosing with NOPOX or using Coralline grow?
How many hours of lighting are you using on the fish only tank.

My own 5 foot marine tank is coming along.
I have 4 Blue chromis and 2 clownfish so far and the cleaning crew including shrimp.
Getting some green hair algae growth in the tank. I need to look at clearing this as I do not want it to get out of control. To help I plan to reduce my lights on from 10 hours to 5 hours for now.

Greg

Thanks lads,

@ck1 once i set it up its costing feck all to run less than €30 a mt. and its less work than keeping cichlids, just have to do more water tests but thats nothing, but yeah big difference in fish price

@ghart no nopox or coralline grow i stopped using the nopox when i was getting a reading of zero about 4 5 wks. ago and its staying at zero so dont bother with it anymore il use it if i see my readings rise
lights wise i have the blues on 12pm to 10pm and whites on 1pm to 9pm
dont have any probs with algae at all, nothing

you should get some pics up of ur set-up
dont understand how ur getting hair algae if you have the clean up crew (have you got a few turbo snails) they love the stuff

what is ur clean up crew

Jeff,
I have been using NOPOX daily for a month now but Nitrate reading staying at 4ppm
My tank is 400L so putting in 8ml each day.

My cleanup crew consists of..
Cleaner Shrimp
6 hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
8 snails

I have 34KG of live rock.
Should I increase the cleanup crew.

Greg

Nitrate of 4 is grand so id stick with what ur doing when u add corals they will need it to be between 2 and 5

cleanup crew is way to small mine is double that and other stuff too, and its only 200ltrs. of water

i dont think you have enough l/r you should be at least over the 40kg

Thanks Jeff.

I will look into what you are saying.
I have room for more rock ok. Waiting to see a nice piece or two to add.
Will also get more cleanup crew.

I will post picutres of my setup soon under a separate article.

Greg

good man the right amount of rock and the right clean up crew is going to save you alot of hassle in the long run i know its a pain spending more money on something you will hardly ever see but this is what will keep your tank looking better and running better in the long run

looking forward to seeing ur set-up in a new post and its good for urself to see how far you have come from start to the future

Can anyone with tang experience tell me what food you were feeding them

Is the food im feeding ok for a long healthy life as im bit worried about my naso who still after 2mts wont touch the flake food even after only feeding this for 4 days in a row

So here's what they get in a week - New Era Marine Flakes, Frozen Brine Shrimp + Garlic, Frozen Krill Pacifica, Artemia Brine Shrimp, Green Marine Algae + garlic (they get lots of this and love it)

Now i have to say the all have nice round bellies not fat but well fed very healthy looking, but are the getting enough nutrition especially the naso who wont touch the flakes for me