Hi My Name Is Craig And I'm And Alcoho............

[Craig B]

Sorry, Wrong forum. Hi I'm Craig and I started my salty adventure at last on Sunday with a Betta Lifestyle 90, I've bought it second hand and although I've got a picture of it at the last owners house (which I will attach) I am having a few issues sorting my own pics out

Day 1.

So I collected it on Sunday and have a 2 hour drive home, all livestock is in buckets and they are cooling rather rapidly get home around 5:30pm and I start rushing around to get everything back in order, problem here is that until my FW set up is sold the nano is in our hall way temporarily (sp? my spelling sucks) so I'm mind full that we are going to have to move it again soon, Oh Joy..........

we refil the tank get everything back together and we are 15L + sort of water to fill it correctly, I know it wasn't completely full when I picked it up but I'm sure it wasn't that low after jiggling around the inlet for the filter we can get things back to normal (hopefully)

Now the second problem kicks in, the tank came with a Forttex TC10 temperature controller, All very nice and a technical wonder in aquarium temperature managment but the previous owner informed me that the temp probe can be a bit tempremental We've got a tank nearly full of very cool water but according to my super duper TC10 it's actually 57oC!!!

Disconnect the TC10 quickly, adjust the heater to 26oC and get the mercury thermometer out of my FW tank, It's just over 20oC but the heater is doing the business and the temp is rising slowly, I grab a spare heater out of the shed and fire that up to assist in raising the temp, now I know my spare heater doesn't switch off so I've just got to keep an eye on it and once things are ok I can just chuck it back in the shed, Phewwww

Temp rises to 25oC ish and I disconnect the old heater, it's done it's job

I've been transfixed on the tank since it arrived so the inital heater issue was quite welcome so that I could just sit in front of it for most of the evening ( with an excuse), it's about 9pm by now andd I'm just starting to notice the mess I've made placing the live rock. I've put one piece on top of a group of Zoa's and another on top of a mushroom the missus has sorted the 3 kids out and decided she's had enough of fish for one day and goes off to bed herself, so I decide to do a bit of a change around, the tank feels nice a warm and although the residents don't look perticularly happy there has been no light on them for about 4 hours or more and they been through quite a lot for one day.

The tank came with SOME coral life, a boxing shrimp and a firefish. I'd not seen the firs fish since he was taken out of one of the buckets but the shrimp is active and I've ID'd some of the coral life as a Mushroom, various small groups of Zoa's and a pulsing Xenia (i think that's right anyway)

Anyway, I've re-done the aqua scape (if you can call my attemp that) and the water clears up nicely, temp is now 27oC, so I need to keep an eye on that as the heater is still turned on, So I decided to switch it off adjust the temp a little lower and try again, Over the course of the next few hours I done nothing but mess with the heater as I refuses to switch off and the tank has gone just over 28oC, with the heater set to 23oC and it's still heating, it's now nearly 2am and with the Heater set to 20oC the temp appears to be stable at 28oC (well the heater is switching on and off anyway) so off to bed I go.


It's been a very long day...........

TBC

Day 2 etc... will follow (if you folks want to hear my ramblings)

Can't attach the picture as it is too large apparently, I'll try and photo bucket it

 

[seffieuk]

I always love this sort of journel - please do keep your ramblings going And you are with friends Craig, why would we worry about spelling!

Seffie x

 

[mutantbigman2000]

ramble away. And welcome.

 

[simonas]

welcome to the salty side!!

now wheres the next instalment!!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Welcome to the forum

Look forward to hearing more. Having just had to move our tanks in a house move I know how stressful it all is.

The lifespace 90 tank is really nice too. I looked at the larger versions awhile ago and they are pretty well put together tanks.

 

[Craig B]

Many thanks for the kind words, it's appreciated.


Picture as promised, This was of the tank whilst under the previous owners care. I will get pictures of the tank as it stands now as soon as I find the cable for my phone to transfer them.

Just a quick note to add before I start on day 2's fiasco. I went to my LFS about 6-8 weeks ago and saw a Red Sea Max 130 on display fully set up but with artificial corals, It looked amazing, sooo much more impact on the eye than the FW set up I started a few months before.
I have kept various tropical and cichlid tanks over the last 10 years with my last being Pigeon Blood Discus and Blue Turq Discus. I've had a 2 year break from fish since selling my Discus set up but since my job finished in May and being virtually unemployable due to a medical issue, I've been after an indoor activity to occupy my mind, hence the FW tank and then the Nano Reef.
After seeing the Red Sea set up at my lfs, I started to read about nano reefs and stumbled on SteelHealr's log on another forum, I read through about 60 pages and was completely hooked. SteelHealr had mentioned TFF in a few of his posts and credits Parker313 for giving him the confidence to make the leap to the salty side himself. I credit Steelhealr for doing the same for me,
I found Tff shortly after reading Steelhealr's log and found I was reading another 2 epic logs that semed to spur me on further, these were by Seffie and Trod, From that point on a nano reef was inevitable.

So a huge thanks to Steelhealr, seffie and Trod for giving me the confidence to leap over to the salty side myself

I will edit this post to add day 2 a little later, sorry but I've spent so long chuntering above that I've got to go out now but I will return later.

Day 2.

Ok, so eventually I get to day 2. I woke up really late, probably due to the very late night and pure exhaustion from the previous day. So it's nearly 12o'clock, I walk down stairs and check the temp on the tank, 28oC, not ideal but I'm happy that it seems to have stabilized, Stability is key in my eye's.
Water level needs addressing urgently and I also need to do some inital water tests. Right then Water tests:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0 or <0.1
Nitrate >160 or in other words off the scale for the test kit but the fresh RO will dilute this a little

SG 1.030 again but an RO top up should hopefully bring that down a fair bit.

So I decided to top up via a slow/constant drip feed so I don't shock the live stock too much and if the sg is still high after the top up then do daily 10% water changes with SW, the reason I took this approach was that it will reduce the Nitrates daily but also the SG is gonna be dropping every day but will get me to my desired 1.025 over the course of a week or so

I call the LFS and ask if he has RO and salted water available, "yep, the salted is sg 1.025 and £6.50 per 25L, RO is £2.50" he say's, "ok, I'm on my way". or something along those lines.

Now I've got no water containers, so to speak, but I do have the 3 25L salt drums that the previous owner gave me, so off I go on the 3 mile trip to the LFS. Around a mile or so into the journey the car breaks down, the clutch has gone, oh the joy of driving what I consider a classic car, some would say modern classic, my wife say's it's a crappy old Renault. It turns out the clutch Hydraulics have gone and that's why my shoes are a bit wet

I get home around 3:30 and the wife offers to go and get the water as she wants to pop to Sainsbury's (around the corner from the LFS) anyway.

I sit around for what seems like a life time waiting for my water, I have got the broken heater from the shed (remember that one ) to heat the RO and a spare pond pump for aerating it.

The missus returns at around 6pm and gave me 2 empty buckets and is holding a bag, "what's going on?" I ask, "oh yeah, he wouldn't put the water in the salt buckets cuz he wouldn't know whare 25L is as there's no marker or something, so I had to buy a water butt thing" she say's, "I've got water though?" "yep, it's in the boot but I only got the salt water as I hadn't got enough in my purse for the other water and a water butt after going to Sainsbury's, those water butt things are a tenner on their own" "Oh,........................ what's in the bag?" "I got you a surprise". Now usually I love surprises, who doesn't, but I really could have done without this one. "show me then" I ask all excited, "Say hello to Nemo and Marlon" she say's.


Now the next line is inner monologue "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhh"


"Oh, they are lovely but it's a little soon to be adding new fish sweatheart",I say being tactful. "Ben (my youngest son, who's autistic) loves them and I thought it would be nice for him" she replies

Now I won't name my LFS as It looks bad on him but believe me, I asked my missus what he asked before selling the her the fish and he asked the right questions and my missus (bless her) answered as honestly as she could but it would have sounded to you or I that I had a really old mature tank that was running fine, it was along the lines of:

LFS "Do you have a tank suitable for these fish?"
Wife "Yeah, he wanted a couple of these for this tank with corals he's got now"
LFS "ok, how long has it been running?"
Wife "years, it's quite an old one, It not as new as his other one anyway, it's quite old fashioned"



So now I have a tank that was set-up 24 hours ago that is 3/4 full of overly salty water is through the roof with nitrate's and although the temperature appears to be stable I have no trust in the heater at all.

I also have 2 Ocellaris Clown fish that I need to aclimatise, but aclimatise to what??? I was going to reduce the sg with the top up, hopefully to about 1.025 but now I only have 1.025 SW the LFS is closed and obviously adding 2 new tank mates is hardly doing my nitrates any favours.

So I decide to carry on with the top up, with the fresh SW (what other choice do I have???) via a drip feed, which could be better for the tank ultimately as it will slow down the drop in sg making it a far more gradual affair.

Ok then I heat the SW water and start dripping it in, all this time the clowns are still in their bag inside a bucket that I have filled with an old blanket to retain some heat.

Water is now at the desired level, I've put the filter inlet back to it's normal height which means the filter fills higher so I can use the UV and skimmer, hooorah!

give it 5 minutes to settle and start drip feeding Marlon and Nemo. I haven't seen the Firefish since I put him in the tank, so I fear the worst but can't find him anywhere. The shrimp appears to be fine and its business as usual for him, so it would seem.

Test water: Nitrate is still 160 ish maybe a little lower but not at 80 which is the next increment down on the colour chart, sg is 1.027 ish, I've still go roughly 10L of SW left and I'm the proud owner of the worlds most expensive water container, but hey....... things are just about looking up.

I acclimatise the clowns over about an hour and then plop them in the tank (via a net) and they seem to be fine, although I was, if I'm honest expecting them to be floating by the following morning

It's now around 9pm and again I sit in front of the tank for the rest of the evening and into the early hours of the next day total mesmerized by this wonderous eco-system I've created

I just wish it was less stressful, once again I am shattered and head off to bed at around 1:30am but I notice that this Marine lark is turning into a obsession already

As a foot note, I'm sorry guy's, I'll try and keep it brief
Financially we are not doing great, I have worked in sales for the last 10 years or so, selling welding products to local fabrication companies around the black country and it gave us a decent income and a secure albiet modest lifestyle (I like to think). However selling to industry in the Black Country during this recession was never going to last forever, and so it came to an end this May, exactly 2 days before we were leaving for our family holiday
We carried on with our holiday but it hurt us in 2 ways, Both financially and health wise, I had been working though some tough times at work, as I have not been physically 100% for over 6 years but during the holiday we encountered a few issues and by the end of it I was virtually immobile

So i was unemployable and at the mercy of our NHS

Now as I went to bed at the end of Day 2, I'm doubting I'll be in a possition to fund this venture into Reef keeping, I went to bed feeling quite sad at what may have to happen, give up on this project before I'd even started but I was truely hook already.....

onto Day 3 methinks

I will make future posts farr small, I promise, this post alone has took over an hour

I apologies to anyone who thinks I should get to the point, I don't translate well to print

 

[seffieuk]

You are most

Am looking forward to watching your progress and listening to your 'chuntering', I'm partial to a good chunter

Seffie x

 

[Craig B]

Thanks Seffie


Day 3

I wake up late again around 10am but I'm feeling good, The tank lights are on, the clown fish are waddling around as they should (which is nice) the shrimp is still active, my zoa's and ric are closed but the lights were off for a majority of the day yesterday but the xenia is looking great, happy days

I've got some SW left to do a water change and that's it for today

So anyway, after the water change I'm reading

SG 1.027 again
Nitrate 80 ish but looks lower than 80 rather than higher

I've been on ebay and ordered 2 digital thermometers, one for the tank and one for the water change bucket, I also order a temp sensor for the TC10 unit, a power head for the water change bucket, some Purigen and Milliput.

My car goes to a friend for repair, job done.




Day 4.

Missus goes to get SW again after Sainsbury's for a few bits

I can now do another water change but not after asking "HOW MUCH!!!" for a few bits at Sainsbury's

After the water change

SG 1.026 ish, I'm using a D&D Refractometer but the lines are very close together
Nitrate is 40

I've got another water change in SW, so I decide to give them a small amount of food, I've got frozen bloodworm ao figure this would be good as I'm yet to find a fish that won't eat it and it's easy to see, so I can remove and left overs.

I switch off the pumps and out pops the Fire fish He looks great, fantastic colour, no signs of damage and hoovering up the bloodworm nicely, I am soooo happy to see him

Clownfish also take some Bloodworm as does the Shrimp. also a few hermit crabs pop out and start working on any piece's lucky enough to get a sfar as the gravel. After 10 minutes there's no sign of any Bloodworm at all, so I switch the pumps back on. The Firefish darts under a rock and isn't seen again all day, oh well at least he's ok.



Day 5.

Surprise visit from my Mom this morning means I am doing family stuff all day, Wacky Warehouse, pub lunch and some quality time with the kids.

Due to all this activity the tank has a day off, not really a good thing in theory but the corals have all opened nicely and all the residents seem happy, I do another small, vary small feed using flake and again the Firefish shoots out when the pumps are off and shoots back when I turn them on.

I think the day's rest has been good for the corals though, I always said the less you put your hands in a tank the better, and I think that has made a differece today.



Day 6.

Start the day with a water change, results are:

SG 1.026
Nitrate 20

I think maybe the Purigen is kicking the Nitrates butt

I've run out of SW but my car is being returned today so I can get more tomorrow

Next upgrade will be submersible lights, 2 tubes and some Chaeto me thinks

 

[seffieuk]

I'm loving this journel

Seffie x

 

[Craig B]

Owwwwww shucks Seffie , I'm trying to be mindful that after just 2 posts it had a word count similar to War and Peace

Just to add, the temp probe for the TC10 arrived on Day 4 and was fitted without delay, Since then the temp never goes below 80.7oF and never above 81oF, it's a great piece of kit, well it is now anyway The replacment probe was only £4 too direct from Forttex

This also leads onto a little grunble regarding the Betta Lifestyle 90, well not the tank but the stand, It has nil storage space, there's no cupboard for your esential supplies to be hidden in, only a little thing but something to be mindful of as it's really difficult, well impossible really to hide all the cables, plugs and sockets that I would prefer was not on show

The hypocritical part of all this is that I was going to buy a Boyu Orca 550 after reading seffie and Trods journals but decided I would prefer a D&D Nano Cube as I didn't like the wierd shaped stand with the Boyu, I then went a bought a Betta with no storage space in the stand, go figure

 

[seffieuk]

I'm trying to be mindful that after just 2 posts it had a word count similar to War and Peace

You might even get close to my journel - did you see how many pages that had

Seffie x

 

[Craig B]

I'm trying to be mindful that after just 2 posts it had a word count similar to War and Peace

You might even get close to my journel - did you see how many pages that had

Seffie x

I read every word Seffie

and really enjoyed it too especially the banter between you and Trod

 

[Craig B]

Pictures at last, please ignore my so called aqua scape, its only temporary as like I said before I've got to move the tank into the lounge once my FW tank is out of the way (it's posted on Aquarist Classifieds under Aquatlantis Ambiance 101 btw )


Front shots:

Sides:

My Ric, Some of the Zoa's and a feather duster (I think???)

Mushroom and some red stuff???

Look what I've done to the hallway Wife is not happy

 

[mutantbigman2000]

My first rock scape was a continual work in progress.

Think I've sold my old tank and managed to bag a boyu 550 at the same time.

 

[Craig B]

My first rock scape was a continual work in progress.

Think I've sold my old tank and managed to bag a boyu 550 at the same time.

Yep, as you can see, I made a pile of rocks with a hole in the front, There is really good flow through it though, It just looks amaturish but as a neewbie I obviously have an excuse.

Good news with the tanks though Adam, wasn't yours a Jewel Trigon? I used to own a Jewel Delta, which is the older version, I had Discus in it, back in the day