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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

Setting up a marine tank

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15 May 2009 14:30 #1 by alkiely (alan kiely)
Hi all,

Ive got my new rio 180 for my marine setup......:woohoo: :woohoo: :laugh: :laugh:

Just a few things,

Ill be buying the saltwater dont have time or space for mixing it myself, so how much does it cost...?

Im getting live rock (20kilos) and live sand, dont no how much ill need for a 180l tank...?

Also will i need to buy calcium and magnesium supplements if im buying the water ready made...?

Will i need to buy chemical removal products...? If so what do i need and how much...?

And finally...... I have a TetraTec Ex600 so what filter media will i need for it and my internal...?

I know there is alot of questions :blush: but just wanna make sure i have all bases covered before i get the tank up and running

Alan

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15 May 2009 15:12 #2 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Id of personally gone with the EX 700 for a tank that size.
Gavin

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15 May 2009 15:30 #3 by newrossman (newrossman)
Water costs say 8 Euro per 25L, but €4 for RO water and say €30 for 200 liters of salt, no brainer for me.
20K of LR is fine but make sure the water is in a good 24hrs before you always should have a bag of salt for minor adjustments as most stores like the level to be around 1.021 and you need it 1.025/26

If you do at least 10% per month water change your levels would be fine but depends on livestock.

Media to get Phosphate removal is a normal one charcoal maybe again depends on livestock check the box for amount.

Regardless your going to get the standard blooms after 1 to 2 weeks in anyway as the slime algae is really bacteria and will bloom from silicates in new sand, don't worry looks bad but goes quick.

Dont use the internal as a filter but as a pump, or even small bits of LR in both. The external would be good to have LR and the chemical removers. NO SPONGES/BIO BALLS or anything that will trap stuff and allow to rot as this creates Nitrates. Look up Nitrate factory.

But with all marines is FLOW and more FLOW, you want to be moving at least 10x the water volume in your tank via internal or external.

Best of luck.

Reef 55 Gallons

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15 May 2009 15:56 #4 by alkiely (alan kiely)
Thanks for the internal pump idea with live rock in it:P

I didn't know that they level it at 1.021 sure its no big deal.

Also what is the best test kit to get...?

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15 May 2009 22:08 #5 by Dave (Dave Fallon)
Fishowner wrote:

Id of personally gone with the EX 700 for a tank that size.
Gavin


Why?

EX600 is rated up to 120 litres. With a max turnonver of 600 litres an hour. The internal pump IIRC is 400lph, so the OP is half way to the min recommended turnover of 1800lph, a good decent powerhead or two should see him to that goal. Bear in mind, a Rio 180 is going to be closer to about 140litres rather than 180 once 20kilos of live rock and presumably 20kilos of sand have gone in also.

Although I'd agree bigger is better, undoubtedly the filter is going to be used primarily(eventually) as a mechanical filter as once the live rock matures he should have more than enough biological filtration in 20kilos of live rock.

As regards test kit, theres many on the market, just avoid the strips, there useless. There's some ridiculously expensive ones aswell. Avoid them unless your looking to test for other specifics like calcium magnesium etc. Interpet do a good 4 in 1 for around 45 quid.

On a side note, If you are going down the invert system, I have a 150 watt Metal Halide that I used on a similar sized tank and a EX1200 and UV15 watt Sterilizer plumbed and ready to go, should you want to add more 'umph' to your filtration.



Dave

Qui Vivra Verra.

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