Boyu Tl 550

[charlie2005]

Please to meet you all
I've been sitting on the sideline for a while deciding wether or not to take the plunge and begin keeping marine fish again after several years break from the hobby but this time on a smaller scale, as last time i had a 6ft fit filtration tank.
I visited my LFS with my better half to try and temp her to start up the hobby again hoping that the bright colours of the fish and coral would win her over which they did . She caught her eye on the Orca TL450 and instantly feel in love with it, me on the overhand had my eye on it's big brother the TL550 .
After several days of discussion she agreed and i placed an advert on Aquarium classifeds and within a week i recieved a phonecall from a gentleman offering me a TL550 + stand, V2 120 Skimmer and a nano pump (all 3 months old) all for a reasonable £150.00.The only problem the tank was in Portsmouth and i live in Newcastle! Not fancying the journey down to collect i decided to use the works carrier service to collect for me which of course didn't cost me. .
Tank came yesterday well packaged and all intact.I'm not gonna jump straight in and begin i'm going to take my time and do it bit by bit and of course there's the factor of overall cost and my timing couldn't be any worse with Christmas being round the corner, so the plan is to buy everything that is needed first and start over the Christmas break can't wait .
Does anyone have any information on the TL550 any reccomendations etc?Also any info on the filter system.
I'll keep you all posted and i'll upload some pictures soon.
Keep up the good work

Cheers

 

[seffieuk]

Hi there and welcome to the Salty side

If you read my thread and several others you will find all you need to know about setting up the orca/boyu 550 - please feel free to ask as many questions as you like, we are a friendly bunch

Seffie x

 

[charlie2005]

Hi Seffie,
i have been following your thread amongst many others very interesting, Did you get any literature with your tank? The tank needs a good clean should i just use clean water, and i dont want to start pulling out the filter parts until i clue myself up on it.

Cheers

 

[SkiFletch]

I'd use water and/or vinegar charlie

 

[seffieuk]

to be honest the book that came with it was next to useless - we got most of the help we needed from the forum

Anyways as Ski said, give it a good clean and then we can start from there

What have you got in the tank and where? I mean heater, pumps and skimmer?

Seffie x

 

[charlie2005]

Hi again Seffie,
From left to right looking down on top of tank:

1st chamber spray bar
2nd chamber heater
3rd chamber bag with what looks like hula hoops
4th chamber skimmer

Now i know there is a UV in i think but without taking all items out im unsure, like I said i don't want to dismantle incase i dont know how it goes back together.

Any help would be good
Thanks again

 

[seffieuk]

1st chamber spray bar - yes same as mine
2nd chamber heater - yes me too
3rd chamber bag with what looks like hula hoops - they are called noodles, take them out you don't need them they will just collect cr*p - you will put LR in there and probably a bag of rowphos
4th chamber skimmer - me too, the uv is in there as well

Now i know there is a UV in i think but without taking all items out im unsure, like I said i don't want to dismantle incase i dont know how it goes back together. - that was exactly how I felt

the moonlights are the button on the left in case you haven't found them yet. The daytime lights are those on the right.

Exciting isn't it

What are your next plans?

Seffie x

 

[charlie2005]

Well firstly give it a good old clean would like to remove spray bar etc to do this.Next i guess is to fill with water make sure all is in order and all things are functioning, (will council pop be ok for this)?
It seems like there is amillion things to learn it wasn't this hard seven years ago or was it or am i just getting on and the old brain isn't as sharpe as it used to be.
I figured the lights out shame they weren't on seperate plugs so i could use a timer on them both as from past experience the moonlights come on before the main lights go out and vice versa is that right??

So much too learn figure i need to jot down my to buy list and to do list.

 

[seffieuk]

Well firstly give it a good old clean would like to remove spray bar etc to do this.Next i guess is to fill with water make sure all is in order and all things are functioning, (will council pop be ok for this)?

Council pop will be fine for testing for leaks etc and even good enough if you are not going to have corals - however it seems to me that most people who say they are not going tot have corals end up getting them - so I would say when you are ready to go for the real thing fill with RO water less likely to get algae problems as well

It seems like there is amillion things to learn it wasn't this hard seven years ago or was it or am i just getting on and the old brain isn't as sharpe as it used to be.

Know how you feel

I figured the lights out shame they weren't on seperate plugs so i could use a timer on them both as from past experience the moonlights come on before the main lights go out and vice versa is that right??

Yes moonlights go on before turning off the main lights at night

So much too learn figure i need to jot down my to buy list and to do list.

Oh yes, so much to buy, never seems to end a few things to start with:

You will need an extra power head - i have got a Koreli 2 (can't remember how to spell it, but it is in my thread) - off ebay
Don't buy a small box of salt, it is a false economy, buy the big bucket to start with, about £45 - 50
Refractometer - get it off fleabay
another cheap power head - for mixing your salt
a cheap heater for heating the salt when mixing it
a bucket
A siphon tube
testing kits - people on here recommend the sailfert (spelling - sorry cant be bothered to look in my cupboard!)) ones, a tad expensive but reliable - to start with you will need, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH
Thermometer for tank
your sand - dont buy live sand, most say it is just a gimmic (sometimes you can buy from a tank being broken down)
your live rock - I started with about 14 lbs but now have more as you have to remember some corals come on LR (try to find someone breaking down a tank in your area, must cheaper and better - look on ebay, Ultimate reef.com and
[URL="http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/"]http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/[/URL]
If you are going to do RO water, it is so much cheaper and easier to buy a £50 unit from the RO man on line

Anyway, thats enough to scare you for now -

Seffie x

 

[charlie2005]

You will need an extra power head - I got one with the tank its a nano 1500 l/h good???

Don't buy a small box of salt, it is a false economy, buy the big bucket to start with, about £45 - 50- Initialy i will buy pre mixed at LFS £1.00 per gallon


your live rock- Was going to buy 2 or 3 kilo of uncured to start cycle then buy cured at a later date, with it being christmas and all figure its probably the quickest way to get my tank up and running.

I'm going to start to clean tank tonight ill post some pictures of it later.

Once again Seffieuk a big thank you.

 

[seffieuk]

You will need an extra power head - I got one with the tank its a nano 1500 l/h good???

You will need another for the tank

Don't buy a small box of salt, it is a false economy, buy the big bucket to start with, about £45 - 50- Initialy i will buy pre mixed at LFS £1.00 per gallon

Remember you have to buy 26 gallons to fill the tank which will cost you £26, then you will need to have some extra for topping up say another £5 then fairly swiftly you will have to do a major water change of 40% so, say another £12 - then a weekly water change of 20% .....starts to add up quickly doesn't it oh, don't forget you will need a food safe water container - best to get from a camping store ..................when you could of bought your own RO unit and it pays for it self within two months
your live rock- Was going to buy 2 or 3 kilo of uncured to start cycle then buy cured at a later date, with it being christmas and all figure its probably the quickest way to get my tank up and running.

The quickest way to start your tank is to get pre cured rock - you don't really want to add it bit by bit, because you are likely to get several mini cycles - look for a bargain on line - where do you live?

I'm going to start to clean tank tonight ill post some pictures of it later.

Fab. looking forward to seeing it

Once again Seffieuk a big thank you.



Seffie x



PS just had another thought - how old are the lights?

 

[charlie2005]

Right i'll look on tinternet for another nano
I see your point about the water an RO unit would be the best route.
I live in Newcastle Tyne & Wear and again i'll search the net for a bargin nearer the time, and the lights i figure are the original that were in the tank from new so they are around 3 months old that is if the man i got the tank from has told me the truth.

I eventually plucked up the courage to dismantle the filter system of the tank, surprisingly enough it wasn't that hard ( he says as the contents are in a carrier bag awaiting to go back in) no seriously i have a note of what goes where.
MY TANK IN ITS BOX AWAITING THE CLEAN






I half filled tank with no leaks and all pumps are working fine a couple of things i found:

1.The 4 suckers that are on the return pump had started to perish as when cleaned there was an awful lot of black dust coming from them so they ended up in the bin.

2.The weirs on the right hand side can be opened and closed any reason why?

3. When the uv is turned on i can't see the light on is this because it is a sealed unit and do they need replacing?

Thanks again.

THE ADDITIONAL SKIMMER AND NANO


ONE THING I DID NOTICE THAT THE SILICONE HAS STARTED TO COME AWAY WILL THIS CAUSE A PROBLEM?




THE FILTER MEDIA WILL I NEED ANY OF THIS??





THE CONTENTS ALL CLEAN



Sorry for the dodgy pictures cant quite figure out how to attach more than one at a time

 

[CageUK]

I have the 450tl

I didn't use any of the filter medium in mine. I also took out the sponge that surrounds the UV in the right hand chamber. I'm not sure if yours is the same layout.

If you are putting another powerhead in the tank it may be an idea to put one in the left hand chamber fitted to the outlet hole there where the spray bar is currently attached to. I used a maxi-jet 600 in mine although I also upgraded the stock one in the bottom of the right hand chamber. It would save having another powerhead in the display.

From what I can see of the silicone I wouldn't worry about it. It just serves to hold the filter chamber partition in place. You can always put some more on it while the tank is empty if you are concerned, maybe from inside the chamber if you can reach, but I wouldn't bother unless the partition feels loose.

Nice clean tank though sounds like you got a deal.

Look forward to seeing it develop.

 

[charlie2005]

Thanks for the reply Cageuk

There was no sponge suttounding the UV and it is in the left hand chamber (looking from the front of the tank)must be different?
In the TL550 the stock power head is connected via a green tube to the UV which is connected to the spray bar

As for the silicone i only noticed when i applied pressure so I think i'll leave it alone.
All in all im happy with my purchase and can't wait to start it.

Thanks again

 

[seffieuk]

Right i'll look on tinternet for another nano

I see your point about the water an RO unit would be the best route.

I live in Newcastle Tyne & Wear and again i'll search the net for a bargin nearer the time, and the lights i figure are the original that were in the tank from new so they are around 3 months old that is if the man i got the tank from has told me the truth.

They will need replacing at about six months i believe

I eventually plucked up the courage to dismantle the filter system of the tank, surprisingly enough it wasn't that hard ( he says as the contents are in a carrier bag awaiting to go back in) no seriously i have a note of what goes where.


I half filled tank with no leaks and all pumps are working fine a couple of things i found:

1.The 4 suckers that are on the return pump had started to perish as when cleaned there was an awful lot of black dust coming from them so they ended up in the bin. will not be a problem

2.The weirs on the right hand side can be opened and closed any reason why? Trod, can you answer this, as I don't have them?

3. When the uv is turned on i can't see the light on is this because it is a sealed unit and do they need replacing? Yeah, it is inside, you can't see it
Thanks again.

THE ADDITIONAL SKIMMER AND NANO
Ah, he haas replaced the original skimmer with a new one and you already have the power head i suggested

ONE THING I DID NOTICE THAT THE SILICONE HAS STARTED TO COME AWAY WILL THIS CAUSE A PROBLEM? Can't see that would cause a problem


THE FILTER MEDIA WILL I NEED ANY OF THIS?? Ditch all of it - the only thing the balls are good for is playing with the cat!


Sorry for the dodgy pictures cant quite figure out how to attach more than one at a time thought they were pretty good


Good fun isn't it I'm sure my sister, Trod will be along soon - she will help you out with the weir thing - mine is slightly different, i don't have the openings going all the way down the right hand side - just got the one at the top - so I suppose that in it self says it doesn't matter if they are closed!

Seffie x