Yet Another Turning To Marines

[Ian H]

Well what can i say, seems LOADS of people latly are turning to the marine side! I was planning on having a nano tank, but have since decided to use my 380L FW tank which sadly means i have to get rid of the fish that are in there

The plan is to go FOWLR to start off until i can understand the needs of coral and to save up for some new lights then it will be a reef with softies (may move on to hard corals later but no plans as of yet) There will be no sump as the stand wont take one and dont fancy making my own, there will be a skimmer but not for the first month or 2 (again due to spending money on one :doh: I've been on UR and gotten loads of advice off there but just thought i would start a little journal type thing on here too

So far all i have is:

Tank (always handy )
big bin for mixing saltwater
heater for said big bin
refractometer (well ordered it, waiting for it to arrive)

Next will likely be test kit and a new heater (they still work in my tank, but the lights on them dont so no idea when they are on or not!) also on the look out for some powerheads

After that it'll be an RO unit and some salt. Didnt realise how much salt was! its gonna cost me LOADS just to fill the tank for the first time

Should be all good then, just have to keep an aye out for someone breaking down a tank for some LR as i dont fancy spending £10 a kilo to fill this tank! Oh and some sand will be purchased some where along the line too!

My plan for water changes will be to use a fluval 3 to empty the water from the tank and to outside and then use the same idea to mix the salt and pump it back into the tank.

stocking wise i want:

2x common clowns
~5 blue/green chromis
1x yellow tang
1x flame angel fish
1x one spot foxface
1x blenny or goby, undecided yet
1x orchid dottyback
2x skunk shrimp

Been told that should be fine, what do you think? obviously adding them over a good couple of months and a skimmer will be added after the first month or 2. CUC i have no idea on though, any suggestions?

Sorry that was a bit of a ramble

 

[Musho3210]

Well, a welcome is always in order, and you seem to have everything under control. Chromis or Clowns would be a good first adition to the tank. The tang could probably go in next, I dont know enough about the other fish to comment, except the goby can probably go in at any time (after the cycle of course). I'd put in the cleaner shrimps a little bit before the tangs so they get accustom. And make sure you have a quarantine tank set up! Especially if you are going tang because they are very prone to Ich, even if you have no tang I would quarantine everything before going in.

For a tank that size I would go with a wavemaker if you have the $, if not, then I would go with a few Tunze powerheads and add a wavemaker controller to it once you start dabbling into reefs and or when you have the money. Stay away from linear powered powerheads (powerheads powered by an impeller), you want to look for a powerhead powered by a propeller. Koralias and Tunze are two companies who do this, but I'm a bigger fan of Tunze (even though i use a Koralia). I'm pretty sure all the fish you listed are reef safe, so you will probably go into reefs a little sooner than you would expect.

Next up, your CUC, I hate snails, i used to use them, and they didnt do jack for me except die, so i changed my approach and went with an Urchin, the Urchin decimated my algae and keeps my rocks clean of hair algae (too bad it doesnt touch my cyano ). So, I would cycle your tank, add a few tropical (not temperate) snails, you'd be surprised to find out how many temperate snails are sold as tropical snails (kj surprised me) so make sure you look into that. The snails should keep things a little tidier than before, add your starter fish (school of chromis or clowns), wait a while, algae growth should explode, which is when I would add the Urchin. Just one thing, make sure you keep your rocks firmly stuck together, if it seems a bit loose some epoxy would be great as urchins are very strong and are known bulldozers. Urchins also eat coralline, good for me cause i hate it, but maybe you like it, so keep that in mind. I have a tuxedo urchin in my 65 gallon and it keeps algae at bay, but doesnt decimate its food source to the point where id have to feed it. Also you will have a tang which will also eat algae. So a pincushion urchin or a tuxedo urchin would work fine for you in the beginning. Its a personal thing but i love the way they look with all the spikes etc. which is why I hold them to such high standards .

Stay away from live sand.

So, uhh, any more questions?

 

[ben1987]

exciting stuff....sounds like a good tank size. looking forward to seeing what you do with it

 

[seffieuk]

to the salty side - sounds like you hve done your research well, an excellent start just lacking one thing, photos

Seffie x

 

[Ian H]

thanks for the welcomes

No photos as of yet seffie, nothing to take a photo of other than my almost empty tropical tank, a bin and a spare heater

i was planning on using around 4xkoralia 4's and then use my aquaone cf1000 with LR ruble and phosphate remover in it, should have decent flow in the tank then! Don't really like urchins for some reason

Wasnt going to bother with live sand either, although not sure on what i should be using

Anyways im off to my LFS to have a bit of a chat and see what goodies i can find there

 

[rabbut]

I'd give the flame angel a miss if you plan to keep corals eventually. Some will nip corals, not all, but as with any dwarf angel the potential is always there so be careful with them in a reef setting and watch them like a hawk if you do add one.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[mark1979]

hey ian

i see you defo going for it now then

i see you are on UR wanting lots of gear,lol

as for the live rock,same here,i need 40kg,so balls to paying £10 a kilo for it!!

 

[Buddyboy67]

Stocking list is fine...leave your yellow tang, flame angel and dotty back to the very last as they are territorial and will cause less trouble if the other stock is established first...If going fowlr you will have no prob at all from your flame..mine is in a full mixed reef and gives me no trouble at all !!!!
Cuc could be added at very start once tank is cycled and would consider mixed snails, your shrimp and perhap a few hermits or even an emerald crab to help control algae....
Welcome to the salty side mate !!!!!!!

Ps,...dont worry about a few nips at corals from your flame mate......They're worth it anyway!!!!!!

 

[john.o]

Wasnt going to bother with live sand either, although not sure on what i should be using

1st off hello and welcome to the forum!!!!
As for the live sand I would save your money m8t, just go with the regular sand from your LFS it will become seeded quick enough from the live rock,
Or then again better still if you manage to get your rock from a tank break down you could ask them about the sand as well as most people just bin it so you could save a good bit of money there as well m8t {just a idea it worked for me }
Hope this is of some help to you john,o
PS looking forward to seeing this one progress

 

[Ian H]

hey ian

i see you defo going for it now then

i see you are on UR wanting lots of gear,lol

as for the live rock,same here,i need 40kg,so balls to paying £10 a kilo for it!!

yep going for it now, was actually your thread that gave me the push! Yeah after LOADS of gear

I'll be looking for 40kg+ too so im in the same boat, dont really wanna spend £400 on bloody rocks!!

Stocking list is fine...leave your yellow tang, flame angel and dotty back to the very last as they are territorial and will cause less trouble if the other stock is established first...If going fowlr you will have no prob at all from your flame..mine is in a full mixed reef and gives me no trouble at all !!!!
Cuc could be added at very start once tank is cycled and would consider mixed snails, your shrimp and perhap a few hermits or even an emerald crab to help control algae....
Welcome to the salty side mate !!!!!!!

Ps,...dont worry about a few nips at corals from your flame mate......They're worth it anyway!!!!!!

Good to know, i got advised to leave the tang, foxface and angel until last so will add the dotty back to the list too. With the flame i'll more than likely add it and just keep an eye on it, will be sad if it does eat everything though

Wasnt going to bother with live sand either, although not sure on what i should be using

1st off hello and welcome to the forum!!!!
As for the live sand I would save your money m8t, just go with the regular sand from your LFS it will become seeded quick enough from the live rock,
Or then again better still if you manage to get your rock from a tank break down you could ask them about the sand as well as most people just bin it so you could save a good bit of money there as well m8t {just a idea it worked for me }
Hope this is of some help to you john,o
PS looking forward to seeing this one progress

Thanks, what should i be looking for in my LFS? obviously wont buy it until i've got some LR though.

Also i think i may have found a free supply of egg crate for myself so that'll be another thing off my list.

 

[john.o]

There are many types of sand to choose from on the market and one choice of many aquarists is aragonite by CaribSea and that would be my personal choice, I would also go for the aragonite dry and not the live as I see it as a waste of money myself as the dry sand will eventually becomes live over time have a look at this link and see what you think of this stuff there’s a little chart there to help you out.
http/www.caribsea.com/pages/products/dry_aragonite.html
ps yes put the rock in 1st on top of the egg crate then just put the sand around the front of the aquarium and rocks where it can be seen you don’t need to cover the hole floor of the tank if that make sense

 

[Musho3210]

Find a small grain aragonite sand thats dry, thats the type of sand you should want for a reef. Stay away from large grains such as crushed coral. I used sugar sized grains (0.1mm grains). Personally i think it looks better aesthetically but you can probably do fine up to ~0.5mm grains. I don't suggest mixing small and large grains as they will develop their own levels over time.

Of course, always consider a bare bottom tank system (easier to have high flow levels and arguably easier to clean), but then you may need to change your stocking list a bit.

 

[seffieuk]

I like the carib sea bahamas mix - fine sand along with shells

Seffie x

 

[Ian H]

http/www.coralculture.co.uk/shop/product...a969j6vllcle8k7

this one looks ok? would HATE a bare bottom tank so need to have some sand. How much would i need for my tank? i know it would alter with how much LR i have but say an inch deep (or is that too deep?)

 

[rabbut]

Try to avoid a depth of more than 2", as you can create an in-tank DSB if you go deeper. Many sight tank crashes being as a result of live stock disturbing such beads (though I'm sceptical of that...)

The sand bead depth should not make much difference to live rock quantities

All the best
Rabbut