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Viewed: 273 -- Replies: 11 | ||||||||
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| Posted | What next? How do you set up a marine tank |
| 22-05-2006 17:12 by Rebecca Woodhall |
Right we have brought:
RENA 2 metre (6"6 inch) tank and cabinet, 2 x 300w heaters,and 2 x double light units with both tubes for tropical and marine. 2 x FLUVAL FX5 filters including ehiem substate pro media RENA flow 2000 powerhead RED SEA prism pro deluxe skimmer ALSO digital thermomiters and hydrometer. What else do we need? We are going to be setting it all up slowly. I want to keep fish and possibly some coral, but dont really want to use a luminaire or haide. What order should things be introduced and over what time scale? Sand ( do you have to include some live?) Rocks again do you have to include live? Filteration (i have heard to use biostart rather than fish, and does it need airating or just a few powerheads? Sorry for all the questions, but we are reading loads of books and they all seem to say something slightly different, would like to hear it from experienced keepers if you know what i mean. |
| 22-05-2006 17:23 by laura |
Hello there!
Right I will let you know how I would do it, although I am sure everyone has different preferences. I would put the sand in straight away. I would mix some live biosand with some of the fine grain aragonite sand. You also need to buy yourself a decent test kit, hagen to a very good kit thgat comes in a big blue box (£30 ish). I would take out the filter media from one of your cansiters and use it as a chemical filter, put things like rowaphos in there and carbon. Only remember to not keep the carbon in there permenantly. You do not need to aerate the water as it can cause embolisms in some fish e.g tangs. Instead make sure you have enough powerheads to completely circulate the water. It is important to make sure there are no dead spots. After a couple of weeks add your live rock. If you intend to keep corals do not skimp on the live rock. Buy a good quality rock, make sure it is encrusted with coralline algae. Leave it another week and trial it with one hardy fish. It is important you leave the tank to completely cycle. If you stock half way through you will have awful problems. Hope that helps!  |
| 22-05-2006 18:10 by Rebecca Woodhall |
thanks thats great |
| 22-05-2006 21:28 by buffyfan71 |
hi as above but eventually ditch your external filters and add more powerheads, at least 10 times your total  |
| 23-05-2006 08:13 by billysfc |
You really need an RO unit as tap water contains all sorts of nutriants that can feed an algae bloom. Not to mention chlorine that will kill your biological filtration.
I think buffyfan means enough powerheads to cycle 10 times the tanks volume of water per hour. |
| 23-05-2006 09:07 by yanton |
I ran several marine tanks for years without needing an RO unit
however, i would never do more than a 25% water change at a time |
| 23-05-2006 09:09 by yanton |
i also wanted to empasize the need for live rock.
get as much as you can and more. for starter fish, i personally recommend mollies. |
| 23-05-2006 12:35 by Rebecca Woodhall |
thanks, what order do you add things? |
| 23-05-2006 21:09 by laura |
Damsels or clowns are ideal first fish. However remember that damsels will be aggressive further down the line. Leave tangs and other large fish until the tank is fully established, otherwise you will suffer from whitespot problems |
| 24-05-2006 10:33 by Alan |
Green chromis are good a shoal of at least 6 they are as tough as damsels but no where near as aggressive.
Also will this tank always be a fish only set up? Basically absolutely no inverts none what so ever ever. If so live rock is not essential but you will have to be prepared to do weekly water changes of up to 25% depending on bio load. also get a good general book about marine keeping as most will have a chart detailing which fish can and can't be mixed or can be mixed with care it is far more complex than freshwater as fish with similar eating habits will often be intolerant of each other in the extreme. |
| 25-05-2006 14:52 by Rebecca Woodhall |
i think we are going to keep fish only as you are so restricted if you want to keep coral as well. I love trigger fish and really want one so i think yes fish only.
i have pulled numerous books out the library and plan a good read to find out more, its just useful hearing from those with experience, thanks, bec |
| 31-05-2006 08:44 by Alan |
Just remeber that means absolutely no inverts at all not a single invert otherwise the benefit of fish only is lost. |
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