Juwel Lido 120 Marine Conversion

[Aquascaper]

As its hard to determine the filtration capacity of live rock, etc. there's no real guidelines like in tropicals as its more to do with water surface area, etc.

Best way is to research some fish with their habitat requirements, compatibility, etc. and then post your 'wanted' list and people will help from there. Common sense will dictate a certain amount so it will only need fine tweaking if anything

 

[Xraymark]

And the spending begins. http/www.liveaquaria.com/ is a good web site for info. On fish and coral. Gobies are always good. You can get a goby which teams up with a shrimp which is entertaining. Clowns although common are great characters in a tank.

 

[wayne1421]

No kidding on the spending front, thanks for the link I'll have a read and probably come back with a long list,

 

[Aquascaper]

My last reef (160g system) was a DIY & secondhand equipment job but still ended up costing in excess of £3000

 

[wayne1421]

£3000, thats an impressive total.

Okay I had a good read through some of the information on the site linked, I basically picked out what I liked the look of and then limited by the minimum tank size to reduce the options, I know I cant have them all this is just a list of possible fish more than anything else. So many wondeful fish that are need a bigger tank, I knew that was going to be the case

Invertebrates - I'm unsure of if I need a minimum amount of these because they have a function in the tanks system
Cleaner Shrimp or Peppermint Shrimp
Emerald Crab and possibly a hermit crab(s) of some type
Cant say any snails really appealed to me but if I need them then I'll get some

Fish
Clownfish - I know it cliche but its probably going to happen
Dwarf Angel - I liked the Coral beauty or flame angelfish
Royal Gramma Basslet
Goby - I liked either the firefish or the clown Goby
Damsel fish - Was looking at the yellowtail variety
Blue Green Chromis
Dottyback

Looking at the compatibility chart on the same site only the Dottyback and Basslet are not compatible, so one or the other of them.

 

[Xraymark]

How's things here.Just get a mix of clean up crew up crew to cover all basis.  Snails are good. They will go over your glass.  Peppermint have a bit of a rap for chewing on coral but for many people this does not happen.  I suppose if their feed enough they will be fine.  They are also meant to eat aptasia( think of it like weed coral) but they can be inconsistent there.  Hermit crabs are cool as well.  Make sure to get larger empty shells in the tank or they may attack each other for a new home.  I got mine on the beech.  I got an emerald crab further down the line, not as initial crew.





Clowns are great characters in a tank.  I think a goby is a must IMO for this size of tank.  Check out practical fish keeping mag this month.  There is an article on gobies.  Get one that pairs with a shrimp for extra entertainment.  Flame angels are brilliant, maybe at the limit for the Lido but doable.  They are expensive, about £70 -80.  If you want a clam in the future dwarf angels can be nippers on them.  I have a pyjama cardinal which I think is cool.  Works the whole tank, out in the open a lot.  My green clown goby I hardly see.  Only introduced over a week ago so hoping its just a bit shy.





Edit. iPad spacing issues.

 

[wayne1421]

Kind of at a standstill until I find homes for a few tropical fish,

I guess with the stocking its a bit more difficult than with tropical where you can go by a certain cm of fish per gallon, just have to be careful with introducing fish, I would imagine I'll start with the clean up crew and a couple of clownfish and then go from there.

 

[wayne1421]

Okay Im now back at this, In the end I set up a new smaller tropical tank in my home office for the remaining fish.
 
The Lido is has now been emptied and cleaned (this took some time, especially what was behind the filter box), the filter box has been removed and the lights changed with reflectors installed 
 
I plan to paint the back of the tank black in part to hide the cables at the back, I'm thinking of painting it Blac, does anyone have any recommendations on paint that is good for going on tanks 
 

 
 

 

[wayne1421]

So my Rock arrived yesterday and is now sitting in the tank with the caribsea fiji pink sand, the tank is still a little cloudy but most of the sand has now settled, mainly it would appear on the live rock.
 
I put in 15kg of live rock into this tank, maybe a little more than was needed but the price was about the same for 15 as it was for 12kg.
 
Here is how the tank looks right now, this is taken using an underwater/aquarium setting on the camera so in reality everything looks a bit more blue as i'm using the juwel lighting so its one blue and one white light. Sorry about the quality of the photos I'm a terrible photographer 

 
A closer look at the live rock 
 

 
I'm keeping a close watch for hitchhikers and I noticed these this morning that look very un-rock like, no idea what they are mind
 

 
So I guess I wait for the die off to start pollution my water with ammonia to start the cycle 

 

[techen]

Don't worry so much about putting too much in, People love to make huge landscapes out of live rock
 
Live rock looks good though but no purple growth on the live rock? D: Where'd ya get it?

 

[wayne1421]

It doesn't show on the photographs but there is some purple growth on most of the individual pieces, not a massive amount but it is there.
 
I got  it online from liverock.co.uk I had read on a couple of forums positive reviews so I thought I would try them, In fairness they were good called me and asked about the size of my tank so that I would get sizes of rock best suited to my tank, arrived by courier first thing in the morning but obviously there is going to be more die off than if I had got them from a LFS

 

[wayne1421]

After about 5 days of having the rock in I wasn't sure if anything was happening because I wasn't seeing any ammonia appearing from the die off so i put in a small amount of ammonia ( 1 ml) and this had all gone in less than 24hrs although there was still .25 of Nitrite in the water when I tested, I'm assuming that this is the like topical cycling where  I want the Ammonia and Nitrite to read zero? Should I be adding ammonia on a daily basis to keep feeding the bacteria that is in the rock 

 

[Donya]

Assuming the branching fuzzies aren't dead coral skeleton with stuff stuck on it, my first guess would be some type of hydroid. Some people remove them as a precaution, but unless you are doing seahorses or some similar really fragile thing they might not be an issue. 
 
 

I'm assuming that this is the like topical cycling where  I want the Ammonia and Nitrite to read zero?

 
Yes.
 
 

Should I be adding ammonia on a daily basis to keep feeding the bacteria that is in the rock

 
 
In marine tanks it's actually better to literally feed the tank since the ecosystems are more diverse. Normally ammonia never needs to be added since the decay on the rock is what causes a cycle if one even happens. When ammonia and nitrite are zero and when nitrate is low (usually 10ppm or less), add some CUC animals (a few snails and hermits) and then feed the CUC periodically. Even when there is no CUC added, I've always preferred to feed the hitchhikers with at least pellets so that the nutrients start higher up the ladder to keep more than just the biobugs going.

 

[wayne1421]

Okay a month on there have been some additions
 
First of all some clean up crew members (or the ones I have been able to take photos of)
 
Snails

 
Hermit crabs
 

 
 
A blurry picture of an emerald crab
 

 
This is a cleaner shrimp but it has found the underside of a rock that it like to hide in 
 

 
 
And the latest  additions
 

 
 
The clownfish were a result of me getting a touch impatient but the water parameters were stable so I felt it was a time for a fish or two, the Zoa on the other hand was a gift from my dad for helping him out with a problem, obviously went into the shop and asked the LFS opinion on what to get. Not sure I would have put any soft coral in yet but it stopped sulking after about an hour and does look nice in the tank
 
Now I'll have to plan what to add in the future (slowly) fish and/or soft corals