And So It Begins...

[shibby]

ive got round to buying my tank

its a juwel 180 bought for £100 from ebay! came with 2 extra bulbs, heater, powerhead, brand new spray bar and the internal filter was already taken out and holes ready for an external to be put in! also i got a free bag of substrate!

today i also went and got a fluval 205 external filter , visi-therm heater, 4kg of substrate coral sand and a digi thermometer that all came to about £80. i do love discounts

Here are a few pictures of it so far:

​

​

​

Still left to buy:

Background​

Test kits

Ro water

Salt

another powerhead

refractormeter

a blue marine light since mine came with 4 white bulbs

20 kg live rock​

If anyone knows of anything else il need dont hesitate to tell me! ​

 

[Filmoholic]

can't wait to see it come to life.keep the pics coming!

 

[kewskills]

looks good so far shall be following this story quite closely, good luck

 

[shibby]

il keep you all updated as i go along.

quick question now though! what do i need to take out/put in my external filter?
i heard theres some part u need to take out but i cant remember what

 

[KRZYSZTOF]

PROTEIN SKIMMER

 

[Ricey]

its generaly a good idea to put your sand/gravel in after you have put your live rock in.

you can do it the other way round, but just make sure when you put the rocks in they are pushed right down to the bootm of the tank. If they are just resting on the sand, they can subside over time and you could get a rock fall

 

[shibby]

cheers for the advice, a rock fall wouldnt really be the best start to marine life! since ive already put the substrate in il just ensure i get the rock right down to the bottem

 

[Matty P]

The tank looks lovely, like the finish. Have fun with marines!

 

[shibby]

quick query. at my LFS the guy who works there said i would need 4 powerheads for my 180 litre tank, i thought it may be a bit excessive, but id thought id check what u guys thought first before decieding on how many to buy!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Number of powerheads is not as important as total flowrate of all powerheads. You'll need somwhere around 900-1000 GPH worth of flowrate for a tank that size. You can have 2x500gph powerheads, 4x250, 3x300, whatever, just that the total needs to be up there in the 900-1000 range. You can go as high as 1500 for most livestock.

The best powerheads are Tunze and Seio (very reliable and output a desireable flow pattern), and it is beneficial to have at least 2 powerheads (in case one breaks so you're not SOL).

Also, always search online for prices on hardware, as you can usually buy hardware WAY cheaper from internet retailers or ebay versus prices you'll pay at the LFS

 

[shibby]

finally i made some more progress! 2 powerheads and a background have been added. and i went to get some RO salt water today! could only get 75 litres though since they only had 3 containers! so back tomorow to get some more!

and i also need to get a better powerhead for the left hand side.

should i get fully cured figi live rock for 9.99 a kg from there

or

should i get 20kg for 159.00 of uncured indonesian live rock from a website?

 

[SkiFletch]

Depends, if the rock at the LFS looks like its really high-quality, go with it, otherwise might be better to get the shipment. Does that 159.00 price include shipping?

 

[shibby]

yep its free delivery to the door.

 

[diet]

£100 for all that lot....... you've got a keener eye than me u lucky bugger,

Im going to be converting my rio 180 soon so will be keeping tabs on your thread!

Im putting in min 2 power heads around the 1500 l/h mark each, and then use my old external filter which is 440 l/h,
depending on the output of the skimmer i might put an extra small power head in for extra flow to bring it to the 3600 l/h flow rate that we need to get the 20 times an hour turnover.


Hope your as excited as me lol

Daniel

 

[shibby]

yeh il keep an eye on yours too!

ive got 2 aquaclear powerheads hit about 470 l/h each but for a tenner for both of them i couldnt say no! there both on the right hand said and im going to get a bigger one for the other side to match the other two so one about the 1000 l/h.

i think my external does 680 l/h and it has a spray bar connected which i hope will work and not fly off. and im not gettign a skimmer yet going to leave it till i deciede to get corals in a few months time!

and yep im rather excited, went to a new lfs fish store 7 miles away though! since the other 2 that do marine are pretty bad one got shut down last week cus to many things died, and the other had 5 marine fish in btu teh new one loosk great all healthy swimming and they had lots to look at, including a new in filamented flasher wrasse which is what i was looking for!

il keep thsi updated sud get pics tomorow of it finally full with water, and maybe live rocked up as well!