Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
clean up crew for a barebum tank
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Now here's a question, it's 180 litre basic bare bottom setup! There's 15 - 20kg of live rock and a few pieces of ocean rock!
I won't need any sand sifters etc (there's no sand)...... but what's good as a cleanup crew?
I started with nice clean dry rock (fully purged and cleaned out) so not going to have any critters as yet! Can someone give me a few ideas?
Thanks
Neil
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- tetdiscus (Maritess McCarthy)
- Offline
- Junior Member
- Posts: 91
- Thank you received: 0
Are you using a sump or canister filter...what about a protein skimmer? Keep us posted
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
I would assume crabs would not be happy in a BB tank but your rocks all well packed together so they would probably just keep away from it, probably better of with snails Jeff would be the best for giving you advice.
Regarding the rocks well, how did you clean them?
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Tetratec ex700 and ex1200
Not adding a skimmer at this stage, if it's needed in a few months it'll be easy enough to add!
Believe it or not there's lots of spaces and routes between the rocks! It looks alot tighter packed than it is really
I cleaned the rocks with a light brushing then in a tank with lots and lots of water changes, finally ending with RO water and phosphate remover in a filter
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
Tank is looking great btw, not a fan of BB tanks, mostly because the restrict me from putting certain type of fish!! otherwise they look great
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
I repeated the cleaning process probably more than was necessary, but you know yourself that you can never be too careful when setting up! More work in the beginning saves problems later!
I understand that bare bottom is not everyone's cup of tea! However this is a decision that took months to finally decide! It is not a decision that was made overnight or taken lightly
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
All 3 of them look great, I'll experiment a little with the layout for a while until I'm happy with it, then I'll secure it into a shape I'm happy with!
Might have to get a couple of flatter pieces!
It's at this stage you can see so many possibilities and potential
Just have to make it work out now with a fair bit of experimentation and hard work
It's a new learning curve for me! Looking forward to learning more
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Becarefull gluing the Rock..you may find that you want to move the rock around when you add corals.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Just wondering?I've a few little colonies ...zoas,xenia and button polyps...looking to move them on but there we'll attached to rocks and seeing as ya may need more rock was wondering if ya would be interested????
All came from from a good source too...came from Jeff tank and have done really well..
Maybe 5 kilos of live rock there attached to.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Im not totally sure what way I want to go with coral cause Im not sure how good these lights are, and at the moment I cant afford anything better!!!!
It will be another week or two id say before the tank is ready to take life without killing it straight away!!!!
are ya in a hurry to let them off?
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
supposedly they are fairly good, but compared to aquarays or some of the more expensive led kits i dont know how they will perform to be honest
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
if they work out, all well and good........ if they go bad, move on and learn from the experience
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
trying to work out the KH....
Got the redsea kit and the instructions dont really tell me what im doing as such
going to have to get someone to show me i think
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
I'll show ya it's quite straight forward once ya get the hang of it.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- carlowchris (chris)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 640
- Thank you received: 70
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
The normal one is quite easy to use, just add one drop at a time until the color changes.
I recently had to throw away all my test kits (well most of them) because they had expired, some of them 2 years ago which is weird because I only got them around 1 year ago... but I learnt my lesson, next time I will make sure to check the expiring date!!!
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Plenty of time left before expiry on them thankfully
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Worked it out by re reading the instructions with a open mind!!!!
Tested everything tonight:
Kh 13 (4.6)
Ph 8.2
Nitrate 5 ppm
Ammonia 0.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.05
Have started using reef mature pro kit aswell
So should hopefully have my tank ready for life in 3 weeks or so
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 540
- Thank you received: 54
What are you using in your filters?
I started using micro balls and floss as well as filter mesh and in the end removed it all and just put some rocks in it. I do have some floss rapped around my phosphate reducer and carbon but thats about it.
KH is a bit high maybe you should cut down on Coraline Gro?
You should aim anywhere in between 9-11 (specially if you want to grow coraline algae)
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 633
- Thank you received: 60
Shrimps and snails are your best bet i think for CUC maybe a serpant star fish.
Look forward to folloing your progress
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
Micromec (may change to bio nitrate ex)
Filter floss
Thats all!!!!
I need to get a phosphate test kit soon
I had the end of a mates one while I was purging the rock but thats finished now!
I'm also down to 1 filter! The ex1200 has the age old leaking head problem!!!!! So it's either stick to having 1 filter or replace the dodgy head......(bastard thing)
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
- Topic Author
- Offline
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 1204
- Thank you received: 184
If needed I could put a second set of the lights over the tank too!!!! But that might just be overkill
I'll see how the corals react and the make adjustments if needed!
Haha the only thing wife is insisting doesn't go in the tank is snails.......... she will shit a brick when a couple of turbo snails appear tho
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 633
- Thank you received: 60
In filter is Carbon (triton carbon)
Micromec (may change to bio nitrate ex)
Filter floss
Thats all!!!!
I need to get a phosphate test kit soon
I had the end of a mates one while I was purging the rock but thats finished now!
I'm also down to 1 filter! The ex1200 has the age old leaking head problem!!!!! So it's either stick to having 1 filter or replace the dodgy head......(bastard thing)
I am using Purigen , chemipure , filter floss and live rock rubble. I will also have chaeto running in my back compartment under a diy light.
DD phospate kit are meant to be the best. I have salifert and was told they are not as good. Interested to see how you get on without a skimmer.
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
- Offline
- Premium Member
- Posts: 633
- Thank you received: 60
Only thing I wish my lights had built in, is a timer so instead im putting them o. Socket timers! Need to work out a lighting regime that will work!
If needed I could put a second set of the lights over the tank too!!!! But that might just be overkill
I'll see how the corals react and the make adjustments if needed!
Haha the only thing wife is insisting doesn't go in the tank is snails.......... she will shit a brick when a couple of turbo snails appear tho
What about buying a led lighting controller and doing some DIY ?
mine hates them too but loved the narrius snails because they hide and come out lol.
Please Log in to join the conversation.