My journal of my SW tank set-up

[spanair]

Hello guys,

as I said a while back I wanted to make my journal/diary of the process of me setting up my tank. I'm happy to say that i've already started to doit and i'm well chuffed , although it wasen't cheap i'm well happy already.

Anyways lets start from yesterday when I started to add stuff to the aquarium, etc.

8/5/04

Okay here I managed to get almost everything to get started, except enough R/O water. Apart from that I bought new bulbs, reflectors R/O water, salt bucket & substrate. I managed to add everything fine and added some salt but. The hydro still hasent moved yet.

That's about it for today.

9/5/04

Alright today I got to the LFS and got the rest of the R/O water that I needed to fill up the tank. I've started everything yesterday so theres alot of water movement in there for now. I mixed some more salt & water but it's still isin't enough. Hopefully all well going i'll start to get some Live rock next weekend . I still need to get a phospate remover, but I wont buy it untill I get the live rock. For now everything is running, the water needs to get to the right temperature and the salt level needs some adjusting as there isin't enough as yet.

Here are some pics of the progress so far

More updates to come as I keep doing stuff 8)

 

[ade]

Hi Span, looks like you're at about the same stage as me more or less.

Where are getting all your stuff from? I was going down to Home Marine for first lot of live rock today, but having spoken to Simon they only had cruddy bits in, so going next weekend instead.

Can't get over how expensive LR is - £10/kg (including dscount) - ouchie!!!

Rgds

Ade

 

[leanne]

I'm going to keep an eye on your diary. I'm the other one with the diary... Just added some fish. So excited!! I'm lacking in the photos though...

 

[spanair]

hehe I know who you are leanne




ade:

Yep getting all the stuff from home marine, I spent 130 quid with discount plus further discount just on the salt, lights, etc . Well worth it though.

I wont be getting all the live rock at once as I cant afford at the moment. But I will buy 50 quid here and maybe another 50 quid there 8) and so on. Wildwoods I think it's called going down the hill usually have some nice live rock too and they sell the boxes as well. But I still prefer the one at home marine.

They got a nice display tank at the entrance huh ? .

1200 gran just on the 2 metal halides . The manager is a nice fella always helps me, and I know 1 of them pretty good. Nice bunch of guys .


Oh by the way salinity is now at 1.018 so nearer now to the 1.022 point .

 

[leanne]

hehe I know who you are leanne

Oh really??

 

[ade]

Watch out Leanne - you've got a stalker! lol

Span - That is a beautiful display tank - could fit about 10 of mine in there! In fact their equipment underneath probably holds about 10 times the vol of water as my tank! lol Was planning on getting LR there this weekend, but having just looked at finances, might have to wait until after pay-day!

Their discount card is well worth having huh?

Rgds

Ade

 

[spanair]

Yep I sure know you leanne , from these forums that is

Ade:

I know it's gotta be one of the most nicest tanks around!, if it was mines I wound't put so many fishes though, even if I could I just dont like so many fishes running into each other. Like the underground at peak times . Reminds me of it some how lol.

Must of cost over 2k to do that, the lights alone are 1200 pounds, so imagine the end price. Faacking hell .

Yep had the discount card for a while and yep I saved over 500 quid on it already .

I will be going this weekend so I might see you .

Speak soon, and hopefully I'll get the salt level to 1.022 tonight

 

[leanne]

Good luck gettign the salt up - and keeping it there... Its not as hard as everyone makes out though...

 

[spanair]

Update:

I got the salt level at 1.022 right now been like that since yesterday.

Looking good

 

[spanair]

Another update from today:

I managed to cut a bit of the plastic hood to allow the skimmer to run, also because the motor was seating half way on the water and half way outside it didn't pump much water and was noisy. I've solved that problem by adding a little bit of gardening hose to extend it and is now under water.

Skimmer fully funtioning and salt parameters at 1.022 .

More to follow.

 

[spanair]

14/5/04:

I bought 61 pounds worth of good quality live rock, they came with some nice things on it. Cant think of any of their names as I dont have a clue sorry . It came with a sort of mushroom like thing and a the thing on the red circle, dont know what it is so if any one knows let me know.

I also saw a small starfish and a couple of snails around, I also think I saw another type of starfish but it had very thin legs compared to the other one.

I also did the hood so the skimmer fits nicely.

Tomorrow i'm going again to buy a powerhead, maybe 2.

Now for pics.

Mushroom thingy (it's still closed, in the shop it was open and it looked really beautyfull):

ID this one as I dont know what it is, but the guy at the shop told me but I forgot. Nice freebie though :

One overall pic of the Live rock, very beautyfull and covered in very nice colours, including alot of purple, green, black etc.

More Live rock:

And finally the hood modified with the skimmer on it, works a treat

Lots more to come!

 

[ade]

Looking good Span! Where did you get the LR from?

As for the tank at Home Marine, I'm reckoning at least 12k - there's one up at Japanese Koi, going for 8.5k just for the equipment. Prettier cabinet etc, but that's 8.5k before adding anything inside the tank! Wowwee!

Rgds

Ade

 

[leanne]

Looking good!! Your mushroom looks just like mine. Must get pics. Here's a tip - look around the base of it; there may be little budding babies. You can sort of tease them off. Then you can jam them in a gap in the rock. My baby has doubled in size already... Must get more pics...

 

[spanair]

Ade,

Yep bought the live rock at home marine, very nice pieces they had on friday, didn't go today because usually they sell it all on saturday morning sso I went yesterday instead. Hopefully tomorrow i'll be going to buy some powerheads too .

Thanks leanne, the live rock is amazing, it's full of living stuff on it, I saw a couple of starfishes but they are very thin and grey ish in colour, but I also managed to find a sort of starfish that is bigger and fatter, look in the pic below . The mushroom thing opened and it looks truly beautyfull it does. Here is some pics.

it opened and looks amazing :

Here is the thing that looks kinda like a starfish, but it moves around like one :

 

[spanair]

Also this thing, not sure what the guy at the lfs said it was so if any one can ID it for me it'll be great, looks really nice too!.

I also notice that a thing was releasing some sort of little white dots, about the size of sand grains kind of thing, not a clue as to what it is. I'll post else where as a help thread to see if any one can know whats that or whats happening.
It look like it came from that purple mushroom thing. Not sure what's called either