I would say thats a pretty good evaluation!

In around 20mths, approx maybe £5000 or £6000, perhaps more, I would say has been spend on this one. That includes everything. Its going to get even more when the switch to hard corals takes place eventually. But still 'could' spent a hell of a lot more on it.

Intially, a lot of work is needed when setting it up and trying to get the water right. Can take months to cycle properly and thats a lot of water changes...and money for salt! But after you've sorted that its fairly easy to maintain. This just has the levels tested weekly and appropriate action taken if things need to be done, around a 25gallon water change every month or so and the polywool in the sump changing when needed..

This guy on Ultimatereef.com made me laugh. He just come on and said, 'Right I've got a budget of £13,000 for a marine tank. What do I need to get???'

That tank set up is a real credit to you slash, it must have taken a lot of time and effort by the looks of it. But its cetainly paid off. Please tell me one thing how do you manage to get the inside of the glass to sparkle the way it does, I seem to be fighting mine every day?

Thanks Sidtom

The glass on the tank hardly ever needs cleaning. I just use a razor blade to clean off any algae that appears usually once every one or two weeks which is still very little. Could possibily be your water quality?? Usually high nitrates and phosphates will cause a lot of algae build up on the glass but also all over the rest of the tank.

Night time! with the blue tubes and LED's on.

Halides are on for 8 hours each.
They go off 15mins after eachother which leaves 2 4ft white T5's at the front and 2 3ft blue moons at the back on.
These stay on for an hour after the halides go out and then the white T5's go off.
Finally, the blue moons go off half an hour later and then 16 blue LED's stay on throughout the night.

critter time

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yep!

Put in catfish pellets and around 20-30 Hermit crabs come out of nowhere and leg it down the live rock onto the sand and fight over them. Tiz funny to watch. Amazing how fast they move and how they know exactly where to find them, even if they are 6ft away.

Then eventually all the shrimps join the party.

Hey slash, see what you mean! your setup is incredible! but as you`ve already said, it costs to get something that good! I`ll stick with my trops until I win the pools!!!! LOL

i used to prefer it when the "moons" came on, used to sit for ages watching all the inverts etc

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Thanks

Forget the winning the pools, you'd need to win the Euromillions to be able to afford to get into marines!

An 8ft tank seemed a good idea at the time but may of had some money if I stuck with the 4ft!

If you are wanting to try marines in the future, you could always try a Nano tank. Obviously they won't cost as much to keep compared to a tank that size but they good still look amazing.

Yeah I prefer it too. Get the stool and magnifying glass out and have a look around. Its great because you discover something new every night. Also I love the corals flouresing until the actinics, beautiful greens and reds.