CoMan
Fish Fanatic
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2010
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My journel TL 550
The beginning
So for about a year I had this unhealthy obsession with having a marine tank. At first, like with all my hair brain ideas I thought it would just pass and in a few months I would be crazy about starting sky diving lessons or something. A whole year past and in that time I had read loads on the internet and visited my lfs once every few weeks and asked almost every annoying question, until I saw this pic on the internet
It was then I decided to go nano. I found my tl 550 on the Internet (flee bay) it was used for a year by a young guy in Guilford and I put a bid on it for about £170. To my suprise whilst at work I check my iPhone and I had won it for £130. Sweet!
Wish I could show you some setting up pics but they were taken on an iPhone that got lost in a messy night out in London.
So once I had bought the tank it sat in my living room for about two months before I read enough on the internet to feel confident enough to put salt water in.
In the meantime I fitted some new blue led lights in the lid. As the old ones were dead. Was really easy just unscrewed the metal reflector and plugged them in. I also replaced the t5s. As I managed to break them when removed them to fit the LEDs! Dow!
Setting it up
Now I was ready for water. I used ro water from the lfs. (two journeys) and red sea coral pro. I mixed it up in the tank and turned on the pumps to get it circulated. The stock pump in my version of the tl550 is at the bottom of chamber 4 and it connects to a uv (which I also replaced with a new bulb) that then connects to a spray bar at the top of chamber 4. I also put in a koralia 2 from flee bay new for £32.
After about three days I was happy the salt level was steady at 1.023 (using a V2 refractormeter, It's so easy to use! One of the best bits of kit I bought. Found it on flee bay £22). I then placed in some live rock. I could only stretch to £60 worth which was 6kgs and a bag of fiji pink live sand (about £25). I read that live sand was the way forward and I also read it's a waist of money?!? I couldn't make up my mind so just bought it anyway.
I placed the live rock on top of some egg crate I got from flee bay and poured in the live sand. A cloud that I though would never clear eventually did about a day later and I spent the next 24 hours with my hands in the tank making every possible combination of aqua scaping with my limited live rocks.
Eventually I got this:
With LEDs on
I then added some rowaphos and carbon on top of some live rock rubble in chamber two.
The cycle
Within two days I began testing for ammonia nitrate and nitrite using a nutrafin test kit. In the first test I saw the spike in these that I had read about and watched them fall within another week or so.
In this time I saw heaps of things growing on the rocks. From algae to worms and even a tiny small brown mushroom type things. The rocks started turning dark purple and bright green and I saw a starfish thing on the glass.
Some more time passed and My tank was ending it's cycle, i did a 20% water change and I added some morr live rock and cuc. Two red legged hermits and two turbo snails.
Adding cuc
I was told that red legged hermits are less aggressive but don't eat as much. They seem to be doing a fine job (at night mostly) I named them Hanabal and The Herminator. I read that they should have extra shells to change into so my lady and I took a trip to Whistable and looked for shells on the beach.
I took a few and placed them in the tank, that night Hanabal ditched his current home and upgraded to a bigger one that I had added. So cool! The turbo snails seem happy to work all day long with sort breaks. One day I saw red legs and claws floating in the tank and I couldn't find Hanabal anywhere. I honeslty thought he was a gona. A few days later he appeared, I read that they often shed there outer skeleton. Cool!
Adding fish
Another two weeks passed and I took some water into a lfs. They did some tests and told me what I was ready for fish.
I chose two clowns. I was so excited and got them home asap and aclimated them over about 30 mins dripping in small amounts of my water in the bag slowly.
I named them Tango and Cash
I bought frozen food a mixure of everything pretty much. But to be honest they would only eat the brine shrimp so I bought some brine shrimp in garlic and I mixed them up with the other foods and sucked it up in a small syringe. I fed small amounts throughout the day about 3-4 times a day.
The first week went well but then something bad happened. Both clowns were covered in a white glaze/film. Within 48hours the bigger one, Tango died but the smaller one Cash managed to shrug it off and he is still doing well today.
Not sure what tango had. We think it could have been a disease called Brooklynella. But to be honest it could have been any number of things and I'll probably never know if it was something I did or if he was on his way out when I bought him??? Sad times.
Brown stuff
Soon I notice my lovely colourful clean rocks and beautiful white and pink sand was turning a dirty brown colour.
I believe this is due to newly forming diatoms. To combat this I have reduced my lighting cycle down to 8 hours and recently introduced some cerith snails which are munching away.
Today I also added another hermit. He's a little feisty as he went for my finger when I placed him on a rock. I've called him Quinten "The Rampage" Jackson after the cage fighter.
Future plans
I've had ups and downs starting this nano and I know I've got a long way to go. My plans are to add a cleaner shrimp and later a mate for Cash once I'm happy that he is truely fit and well. I'm going to wait till he gets a little bigger and I'm going to add a little clown in hope that Cash turns into a female and they couple up.
I def want corals and have my eye on a toadstool coral at my lfs, but really don't want to rush things. So I'm going to hold out until my rocks are clean again and Ive successfully buffered my ph to 8.3 and my salt is 1.026. I will also start testing for phosphates etc.
As for other fish i'm open to suggestions. I want colour and a peaceful tank. Your thoughts please?
As for hardware I want to replace the stock pump to a maxi jet 1000 or 900 not sure which. Then I will put the stock pump in the back bottom left corner of main tank aimed the rock to help with circulation there.
The tank today 2/02/10
I've move the rocks around for the last time and I'm leaving them be! The cerith snails have worked magic in just 24 hours. I witness the blue hermit change shells and change back. I conducted a water change and added a little more salt than usual to try and bring my level up but it did nothing to the overall salinity of the tank. Guess I will have to heavly does some or water and add it slowly over a few days? Any thoughts on this
Also I went to the LFS to enquire about buffeting the ph. The dude there said to buffer the kh and the ph will follow. I left more confused. So could anyone help me out? Cheers
The beginning
So for about a year I had this unhealthy obsession with having a marine tank. At first, like with all my hair brain ideas I thought it would just pass and in a few months I would be crazy about starting sky diving lessons or something. A whole year past and in that time I had read loads on the internet and visited my lfs once every few weeks and asked almost every annoying question, until I saw this pic on the internet
It was then I decided to go nano. I found my tl 550 on the Internet (flee bay) it was used for a year by a young guy in Guilford and I put a bid on it for about £170. To my suprise whilst at work I check my iPhone and I had won it for £130. Sweet!
Wish I could show you some setting up pics but they were taken on an iPhone that got lost in a messy night out in London.
So once I had bought the tank it sat in my living room for about two months before I read enough on the internet to feel confident enough to put salt water in.
In the meantime I fitted some new blue led lights in the lid. As the old ones were dead. Was really easy just unscrewed the metal reflector and plugged them in. I also replaced the t5s. As I managed to break them when removed them to fit the LEDs! Dow!
Setting it up
Now I was ready for water. I used ro water from the lfs. (two journeys) and red sea coral pro. I mixed it up in the tank and turned on the pumps to get it circulated. The stock pump in my version of the tl550 is at the bottom of chamber 4 and it connects to a uv (which I also replaced with a new bulb) that then connects to a spray bar at the top of chamber 4. I also put in a koralia 2 from flee bay new for £32.
After about three days I was happy the salt level was steady at 1.023 (using a V2 refractormeter, It's so easy to use! One of the best bits of kit I bought. Found it on flee bay £22). I then placed in some live rock. I could only stretch to £60 worth which was 6kgs and a bag of fiji pink live sand (about £25). I read that live sand was the way forward and I also read it's a waist of money?!? I couldn't make up my mind so just bought it anyway.
I placed the live rock on top of some egg crate I got from flee bay and poured in the live sand. A cloud that I though would never clear eventually did about a day later and I spent the next 24 hours with my hands in the tank making every possible combination of aqua scaping with my limited live rocks.
Eventually I got this:
With LEDs on
I then added some rowaphos and carbon on top of some live rock rubble in chamber two.
The cycle
Within two days I began testing for ammonia nitrate and nitrite using a nutrafin test kit. In the first test I saw the spike in these that I had read about and watched them fall within another week or so.
In this time I saw heaps of things growing on the rocks. From algae to worms and even a tiny small brown mushroom type things. The rocks started turning dark purple and bright green and I saw a starfish thing on the glass.
Some more time passed and My tank was ending it's cycle, i did a 20% water change and I added some morr live rock and cuc. Two red legged hermits and two turbo snails.
Adding cuc
I was told that red legged hermits are less aggressive but don't eat as much. They seem to be doing a fine job (at night mostly) I named them Hanabal and The Herminator. I read that they should have extra shells to change into so my lady and I took a trip to Whistable and looked for shells on the beach.
I took a few and placed them in the tank, that night Hanabal ditched his current home and upgraded to a bigger one that I had added. So cool! The turbo snails seem happy to work all day long with sort breaks. One day I saw red legs and claws floating in the tank and I couldn't find Hanabal anywhere. I honeslty thought he was a gona. A few days later he appeared, I read that they often shed there outer skeleton. Cool!
Adding fish
Another two weeks passed and I took some water into a lfs. They did some tests and told me what I was ready for fish.
I chose two clowns. I was so excited and got them home asap and aclimated them over about 30 mins dripping in small amounts of my water in the bag slowly.
I named them Tango and Cash
I bought frozen food a mixure of everything pretty much. But to be honest they would only eat the brine shrimp so I bought some brine shrimp in garlic and I mixed them up with the other foods and sucked it up in a small syringe. I fed small amounts throughout the day about 3-4 times a day.
The first week went well but then something bad happened. Both clowns were covered in a white glaze/film. Within 48hours the bigger one, Tango died but the smaller one Cash managed to shrug it off and he is still doing well today.
Not sure what tango had. We think it could have been a disease called Brooklynella. But to be honest it could have been any number of things and I'll probably never know if it was something I did or if he was on his way out when I bought him??? Sad times.
Brown stuff
Soon I notice my lovely colourful clean rocks and beautiful white and pink sand was turning a dirty brown colour.
I believe this is due to newly forming diatoms. To combat this I have reduced my lighting cycle down to 8 hours and recently introduced some cerith snails which are munching away.
Today I also added another hermit. He's a little feisty as he went for my finger when I placed him on a rock. I've called him Quinten "The Rampage" Jackson after the cage fighter.
Future plans
I've had ups and downs starting this nano and I know I've got a long way to go. My plans are to add a cleaner shrimp and later a mate for Cash once I'm happy that he is truely fit and well. I'm going to wait till he gets a little bigger and I'm going to add a little clown in hope that Cash turns into a female and they couple up.
I def want corals and have my eye on a toadstool coral at my lfs, but really don't want to rush things. So I'm going to hold out until my rocks are clean again and Ive successfully buffered my ph to 8.3 and my salt is 1.026. I will also start testing for phosphates etc.
As for other fish i'm open to suggestions. I want colour and a peaceful tank. Your thoughts please?
As for hardware I want to replace the stock pump to a maxi jet 1000 or 900 not sure which. Then I will put the stock pump in the back bottom left corner of main tank aimed the rock to help with circulation there.
The tank today 2/02/10
I've move the rocks around for the last time and I'm leaving them be! The cerith snails have worked magic in just 24 hours. I witness the blue hermit change shells and change back. I conducted a water change and added a little more salt than usual to try and bring my level up but it did nothing to the overall salinity of the tank. Guess I will have to heavly does some or water and add it slowly over a few days? Any thoughts on this
Also I went to the LFS to enquire about buffeting the ph. The dude there said to buffer the kh and the ph will follow. I left more confused. So could anyone help me out? Cheers
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