Glens Journal

[GShorty1981]

Hey guys,it was about time i done this so i'm gonna start from scratch on how it went down.

OK

I kept tropicals for around 10 years then when i moved i sold up,i used to keep discus,malawis,oscars,standard trops...all kinds of stuff..

After a lot of persuading to the mrs after 4 years out she allowed me to get a small tropical tank. (£99.99 with light,heater,filter,stand)

I had this one for around 2 months and the curved glass decided it was going to split on me!

So i got this one from Watermarque (£89.99 for tank and stand plus £25 for the light)

After a while i got reading about Marines and realised i was proper bored of Tropicals so i sold up,sold the fish + snails + shrimp to my mate for £20 and the plants to another for £15

So i now had a empty tank!

I went to the LFS and bought a bag of Argonite/crushed coral (£3.90) and a bag of Live Sand (£15),4kg box of Tropic Marin Salt (£15) and one piece of base rock/ocean rock and one Hydro Korila Nano Power Head (£30),Hydrometer (£9),gravel cleaner (£3),API Marine Test Kit (£25)

Week later i added some fake coral (£5 x 3) and shells (already had)

Week later i added my led light air pump (£10) and got some T5 lights with blue LEDs when its switched off (£20)

Week later after some bad LFS advice from watermarque (was told i did not need Live Rock) i added 2 Ocellaris clown fish (£28 for pair) and 2 blue legged hermit crabs (£1 each) plus another fake coral (£5)

After a mad ammonia outbreak and a loss of one of my Clowns

i decided it was time to do this properly and bought 2 KG of Live Rock (all i could afford at the time) (£24 from TAC)

I then went down the following week and added another 3KG of LR (£35 from tac)

the other clown got a fungal infection and died within 24 hours

A week later i added another 5KG of LR (£58 Taunton Aquarium Center) 7 more blue legged hermits(£5 watermarque),2 turbo snails (£5 watermarque) and the day after that a Yellow Tail Blue Damsel (£6 watermarque) Tank started looking busier and better.

Left it to settle for a few weeks

I then got found a tank for sale in the paper a Juwel Rio 185 plus stand plus 5 power heads,filters,heater and 10kg of crushed coral for £50...no lights tho,but a bargain imo so i went ahead and bought it. (using lights from old tank)

I took the tank home,filled it up from my other tank and then loads of pre-mixed salt water on top to fill it up,i then went and purchased 8Kg of LR from TAC (£80) plus 2 kg of dead coral (£4) and 2 more pieces of base rock (£5)

I then sold my other tank and filter and stand to my mate for £40

put in my damsel and it looked like this

bought a bit more rock..

Some of the Zoas that are on my live rock

Hitchiker Blue Emerald Crab

my Yellow Tail Blue Damsel

Today i went to my LFS and bought 2kg of Live Rock,A cleaner Shrimp and a Red Star Fish

Bought a Yellow Tang off some guy for £10 (i know my tanks not ideal but will get rid when he gets big or may upgrade)

Had to rescape because the Damsel was so territorial it was beating the hell out of my yellow tang so i rescaped everything but its very cloudy now so will take pics soon.

will post some pictures up soon.


So...so far i have only lost my clowns which was well gutting!

my current stock is

1 x Yellow Tang
1 x Yellow Tail Blue Damsel
9 x Blue Legged Hermits
2 x Turbo Snails
1 x Red Star Fish
1 x Skunk Cleaner

Notable Hitchikers:

Blue Emerald Crab
5 x + Stomatella Snails
loads of Nudibranchs that i am constantly removing
loads of Feather Duster Worms
Apitasia Anenomes.....grrrrrr
Zoas/Zoos....tons of them
Mussels with long tounges ####! lol
Weird water flea like shrimpy things.

Weekly 10% water changes,tanks been running since the beginning of October.

I'm gonna put up a full price list of what i have spent,what i have lost etc soon to for people looking into getting marines.

 

[rocknurworld2006]

excellent work glen!!!!!!


how many hermits can u keep in a 10gallon?

 

[GShorty1981]

hmmm i'd say about 6 to be safe with lots of empty shells to stop them fighting and so that they get enough food,they dont increase the bio load so its down to space really.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Personally I wouldnt keept that many hermits in a 10g. I only have 10 in a 20g and they are more than enough (though I know some people go for loads of CUC).

Tanks starting to look like its getting into shape. Shame about the loss of the clowns though and unfortunately thats what comes about from lack of research before setting up (really cant always count on a LFS for good information).

Personally I would find a new home for the tang now rather then when its outgrown what space it has but thats just me.

Got some amazing Zoa rocks there The fake corals actually dont look too bad either.

 

[ben1987]

yeah i reckon a 4x2x2 is probably the smallest tank any tang could be kep in and thats pushing it.
Tank looks really nice though

 

[GShorty1981]

I know i know but he looks awesome so gonna keep him until i think hes to big,he spends more time grazing on the rocks than swimming about anyway!
My tank is 3 foot 3" x 24" high x 18" back,so its not far off.

Um 6 hermits in a ten gallon is not alot different to 10 hermits in a 20 gall barney!!!! lol....by one maybe!

Been looking at more stocking ideas and I'm definitely going to go with this now

1 x Clarkii Clown
1 x Strawberry Dottyback
1 x Humbug Damsel

To finish my fish stocking then for more inverts..

5 x Red Legged Hermits
1 x Fire Shrimp
1 x Peppermint Shrimp

then maybe a flaming scallop and a blue starfish.

then i want to buy

Ehiem External Filter
Protein Skimmer

Got RO sorted out with Seanie.

Gonna take soem new pics now.

 

[GShorty1981]

new pics of new scape and fish/inverts

 

[ben1987]

He is a lovely tang thats for sure. You will be able to tell when hes ready for a bigger tank. It wont act natural. It will swim the same route over and over or just up and down the glass

 

[GShorty1981]

Wish i drilled for a sump now,something i'll look into when i move i think....or that one will become the sump and i'll get a 6 footer haha!...not sure te mrs would be best pleased about that!!

The only thing that would put me off about a massive tank would be the water changed...what a mission! lol

Hey Ben do you think next week will be to early on the bioload to add my last fish? and do you think it would be ok to add the clown,dotty and damsel all at the same time?

Also what do you think of my new scape? i flattened the sand out a bit and rearranged the rock.

since rearranging i have had no aggression from my Damsel which is cool

 

[ben1987]

if i were you id leave it a couple of weeks. Last thing you want to do is lose somthing. Not worth the risk imo

 

[GShorty1981]

Any idea how to feed my Sea Star or what genus/latin name it is? i just bought it as a Red Starfish for a tenner. He is well mobile seems to be on the rock one minute then on my glass the next...do they feed like my Turbos do on the glass?

Those Flaming Scallops are only a tenner to,are they target feeders? if so i dont fancy the hassle.

They had green cleaner shrimp down watermarque,never seen these before,they were huge about 7" in length with huge long thin arms like a boxing shrimp with red spots all over and no green on them at all the dude said they are safe but i saw them snapping at a copper butterfly in the tank so i avoided them..ever heard of these?

 

[ben1987]

sounds more like a reef lobster to me. If thats the case then no they arent safe.

Not sure bout the star fish though...sorry

 

[GShorty1981]

Yeh just googled it,thats the bugger! green cleaner shrimp my *** lol

 

[ben1987]

They get sold all teh time on ther internet as 'reef safe' but they are not

 

[GShorty1981]

They aint anything safe by the looks of things lol

I was looking at Spotted Babylonia Spirata Snails,they look awesome,just looking into unusual inverts ow my Fish Stock is all planned etc.