River To Reef

[372xp]

I have been planning a marine tank in a Aquaone Nano 40. I bought a new one for 75£ at the weekend, then my wife won one on e-bay for 36£ with a stand. This one has been set up for fresh water fish and is somewhat overstocked. I plan to rehome the contents and use this one for marine and return the new one and trade it in for a TMC led tile. My question is are there any potential banana skins in doing this or will just a good clean with fresh water be enough before to get it ready?

 

[techen]

So long as you can keep up with a lot of water changes, I'd stuff a skimmer on there too as it can be quite hard to control smaller volumes of water in a marine and stuff can go wrong very quickly. 

 

[372xp]

Aquaone mini skim 80 hydor 90 and aquaone powerhead all ready to go in. That lot should cope, plus 10 to 15% weekly changes was what I was thinking.

 

[techen]

I would do 15% water changes and make sure to keep topping up with RO water as it goes down quite quickly! 

 

[372xp]

I am hoping the glass top on the aquanano 40 will keep a 'lid' on the evaporation. (sorry couldnt help my self). I will keep an eye on that.
Sand and live rock going in this weekend.

 

[techen]

Keep us updated, Would love to see

 

[372xp]

Right on.

 

[Donya]

My question is are there any potential banana skins in doing this or will just a good clean with fresh water be enough before to get it ready?

 
That's basically all there is to the first step. Any organic stuff that gets left over (such as in the hard-to-clean bits of a reused filter) will decay when the sw goes in, but your LR and cycling period will take care of that for you. 

 

[372xp]

Thanks Donya, I am only re-using the aquaone powerhead. The skimmer and hydor900 are new. As will be the flossy stuff in the middle.

 

[372xp]

Update; 36£ e-bay bargain
Live rock waiting to go. Rock and some sand Electric gubbins in place Thats it for today.

 

[techen]

Already looking good!


Also, Point your powerhead to the surface and not to the live rock. You want good surface movement.

 

[372xp]

Nice Techen. This is the sort of input we need. Its my wifes tank really and she has done lots of research but it dont count for owt. I have the protein skimmer in and running but I have no idea if it's right, I guess there is no protein to skim right now. The instructions were extremely vague (well done Aquaone) and there is nothing about it online. I will adjust the powerhead now. Thanks.

 

[techen]

Well, What you want is some foam being pushed up into the cup. But you'll need to adjust it as you go along (If it allows you to adjust).
 
As you said, There will be nothing to skim. If it's good grade live rock you bought and it was out of the water for no longer than a few hours or so they may not be any die off at all. You'll need to check your water stats every so often and if all seems clear you are ready for your CUC. It can take around 5 or so days before you can be sure but more than not you'll be ready for a CUC in no time.
 
Gives you something to watch.

 

[372xp]

It is cured Fiji live rock and was only out the water for about half an hour.
If by adjust you mean raise or lower it in the water, I can do that also I can adjust the air intake and thats about it as far as I can tell.
I will put some pics on tommorow and hopefully folks can give me some pointers.

 

[techen]

I bought my skimmer new and took over 3 weeks for it to start skimming and now looks like this.
 

 
You'll just need to play with it till you see something working.