The conversion!!!

[Nic]

Gday guys.
I have an empty 10gal tank in my room and have decided i would love to get bitten by the marine bug! :)
I was just wondering if some of you experienced folk could write up some step by step guidelines for me, and maybe others to follow. (this is for setting it up..water parameters, any extra equipment i need, water change methods etc.) Also some suitable fish for it would be great too!
Thanks heaps
Nic

[simmo2302]

i was looking into starting a marine tank, b4 i got my discus. i was talking to the specialist in the local marine shop. a few things that i can remember are


the bigger the tank the better (4ft preferred)
a sump filter, with coral rubble from local beach for biomedia.
good protein skimmer.
water changes are done with just seawater from local beach, no need for tapwater, prime, artifical salts. (the local marine fish shop actually has a water truck and can truck seawater to the local area if u have a 1000L storage tank and live too far away from the ocean to get it yourself)

alot of other thiongs were siad and i did have a good idea on what to od, but thaqt was over 6months ago now and i've been discus crazy for a while now so have forgotten most of the other things.

your best bet is to research at marine fish sites.

[nicholas76]

Gday

in brief;

instead of writing it up the best thing I can honestly do is direct you to a marine thread http://www.masa.asn.au/phpBB2/ - check out the beginner threads

In relation to your poject 10 gallon is pretty small. Id say that effectly rules you out for a predator tank.. Research "nano tanks" for ideas.


A good size sump is highly encouraged. Research "refugiams" for the appropriate setup.


A skimmer that is double and more the capacity of your tank is strongly encouraged as well. I would have a look at the reef octopus range for starters.


You need to consider other factors prior to setup such as.

- lights to be used
- pumps to be used
- additional equipment such as phospahte reactors, kalk or calcium reactors.
- what type of subsrate.
- live rock
- fish


Start a tank journal and lets see how you progress!


Regards

Nick

[Robdog]

There are so many ways to skin a marine cat. Best way is to follow Nicks link to MASA and have a good look there.
Find a few different setups that have worked and base your tank around that.
Nano's are fun and can be a good place to start but personally a bigger tank will probably be easier.

Good luck with it all and let us know how you get on.

[Nic]

Gday again guys,
Thanks for ur great advice, unfortunately i dont have the room for a 4ft :( but im up for the challenge of a little one.
Ill get the journal going for u guys and ill let u know how i get on!!
Cheers
Nic

[Tommo]

Gday again guys,
Thanks for ur great advice, unfortunately i dont have the room for a 4ft :( but im up for the challenge of a little one.
Ill get the journal going for u guys and ill let u know how i get on!!
Cheers
Nic

Nic , please do not be shy i asking any questions , as there are a few people on the forum that can help you if you need it :)

First question is
Do you want to keep corals ? Or fish and live rock only ?
As if you feel the need to keep corals "the goal post changes so to speak" if not ,well all you need is live rock and you can get by on a cannister filter "although i do not recomend it " you can.
Kind regards

Andrew :)

[Nic]

Hi andrew,
Thx for that, im sure ill be asking questions left right and centre! :)
First one is.....
Im running two two T5 bulbs in my hood at the moment. Will that be enough to grow corals??

Im starting to cycle at the moment also....so exciting!
Ill have some piccies up asap also for u guys to have a look at.....not that its anything special at the moment! :D

Cheers
Nic

[Nic]

Hi andrew,
Thx for that, im sure ill be asking questions left right and centre! :)
First one is.....
Im running two two T5 bulbs in my hood at the moment. Will that be enough to grow corals??

Im starting to cycle at the moment also....so exciting!
Ill have some piccies up asap also for u guys to have a look at.....not that its anything special at the moment! :D

Cheers
Nic

[Tommo]

Hi andrew,
Thx for that, im sure ill be asking questions left right and centre! :)
First one is.....
Im running two two T5 bulbs in my hood at the moment. Will that be enough to grow corals??

Im starting to cycle at the moment also....so exciting!
Ill have some piccies up asap also for u guys to have a look at.....not that its anything special at the moment! :D

Cheers
Nic

Hi Nic , what are the dimensions of the tank ? Also what kelvin rating are the t5 tubes ?

Look forward to seeing some pics :)

Cheers

[Nic]

The tank size is only a little tacker really. Its a Jebo R380 so its around a 30cm square and probably 40-50 high. The lights are only 8W each.....im hoping i havent made a mistake deciding to go sw!!! :?

Thx,
Nic

[Old Dave]

Im starting to cycle at the moment also....so exciting!

I assume that you live near the beach to be able to cycle for your water.. :lol:
Sorry!

You will need to watch the temp too.
Different fish from different areas have different requirements, just like in freshwater.
Your biggest problem will be keeping the tank cool during summer.

Might I suggest some rockpool exploration or see the local kids for suitable starter fish. That way you can put them back if they grow too big!!
Might need to check out the legalities first... :oops:

hth, jmo,

Old Dave

[Tommo]

Never put fish back into the ocean.Not a good idea that :(

Are the lights 8000k ,10,000k 18,000k ?
Also i would just keep a few fish for awhile before adding corals.
Also have you got yourself a skimmer ? or are you using a cannister filter ?
And have you got live rock in the tank at the moment ?

[Nic]

the lights are 10000k....i wasnt going to dive straight into corals, thought id get a bit of experience first, although an anenome for a clown or two would really make my day i think :D
i dont have a skimmer as yet, the tank is an all in one unit so im unsure where to place one, or how they work!
the filter is a wet/dry trickle through a 600lph powerhead.
2kg of live rock at present.

[Nic]

Gday again guys,
thought id run by u guys my proposed stocking list.
Im unsure where to start so some more advice would be tops :D
Im thinking about:
x1 black and white clown and x1 normal (orange and white)
x1 vampire goby
x1 bicolour blenny
and possibly a couple of cardinalfish

this is just my thoughts. the tank is only 40 litres so im unsure what will be suitable.

Thanks in advance
Nic

[Tommo]

Nic , could you post a pic or 2 of the set up so far ?

[Tommo]

Nic

Any luck in posting the pics ?

[Nic]

Hi again guys, i havent had a chance to whip come piccies up on the net yet...ill try and get them up in the next few days...looking good tho! :D

Cheers

[Tommo]

Good to hear Nic :)

[nicholas76]

the lights are 10000k....i wasnt going to dive straight into corals, thought id get a bit of experience first, although an anenome for a clown or two would really make my day i think :D
i dont have a skimmer as yet, the tank is an all in one unit so im unsure where to place one, or how they work!
the filter is a wet/dry trickle through a 600lph powerhead.
2kg of live rock at present.

Id strongly advise you against am anenome, unless you plan on installing metal halides.

fundamentally your skimmer is an essential item and i wouldnt be going further unless you can get this sorted mate

look fwd to the images :)

[Tommo]

Sorry Nicholas

But i tend to disagree.Because many people keep nems with out metal halides .

But as for keeping corals in a tank , i agree with you.
You should have a skimmer ,some people do keep corals without one don't get me wrong.But they suffer from high nitrates.

[nicholas76]

I suppose we should clarify firstly what type of anemone nic is planning on keeping, this may assist us in pin pointing lighting requirements of that species.

My gut feeling is , he is aiming for one of the bigger monsters like yours! lol ( post a pic bud ). Those 40 litre setups wouldnt cut the mustard for sure!

[Tommo]

I suppose we should clarify firstly what type of anemone nic is planning on keeping, this may assist us in pin pointing lighting requirements of that species.

My gut feeling is , he is aiming for one of the bigger monsters like yours! lol ( post a pic bud ). Those 40 litre setups wouldnt cut the mustard for sure!

It does not matter what sort of nem it is , as people grow bubbles , mags,carpets .it all depends on how much light "not what type ;)"

Hence thats why i asked for a pic ;)

Agreed ,a 40 liter is far tooo small for any nem really.But like most people they fit them in some how !

[nicholas76]

How much lighting is spot on.... hence why i would always go metal halides overa row of bulbs everytime..... with the exception of those species that simply dont need it....

Overall I think we both agree a bigger tank is the better option!

Nic fyi on easy and hard keeping Anemones. lighting requirements good and bad etc

http://fins.actwin.com/species/anemone.html

[Tommo]

I would rather have t5's over metal halides , but ..... the problem is too mant tubes to worry about , i think getting different kelvin rating tubes gives you a better lighting spectrum.

A bigger tank is always the better option.LOL


Anyhow ,Nic post some pics :)

[Nic]

Thanks for the info guys, much apprieciated. A new tank would be ideal of course!!!! As i am a student the budget doesnt quite allow for that!! :(

Im having a bit of difficulty getting the piccies from the camera to the computer so youll have to bear with me guys im sorry.

Also, with my live rock...i am getting a rather dramatic increase in that dreaded green hair algae. The rock has almost a 'washed out' look with bits of that crap algae.
Any tips for removing it altogether?? Or is it just part of keeping a sw tank??

Thanks
Nic

[Tommo]

Also, with my live rock...i am getting a rather dramatic increase in that dreaded green hair algae. The rock has almost a 'washed out' look with bits of that crap algae.
Any tips for removing it altogether?? Or is it just part of keeping a sw tank??

Thanks
Nic

A few things it could be , High posphates,long lighting time,over feeding,lack of flow.

But i think it will die off as your tank set up is new , give it a few weeks yet and see how it goes :)

[Nic]

Thanks Tommo,
ive been keeping the lighting very minimal over the last few days just to see what happens. What would be the best way to conquer the algae do u suppose??

[Nic]

hi again guys....
another quick update. Im really struggling with the camera at the moment, computer troubles id say :(

The good news is though that i have put my first fish into my marie tank :D

hes a spotted mandarin fish and trust me....as soon as the computer is good again, he will be on display :lol:

i also have around 3kg of live rock in there. on this i have found some unexpected visitors
with it i have found 2 crabs a very, very long red worm of some description and a very wacky looking starfish :lol:

hopefully pics will be up soon

cheers
nic

[Bad Inferno]

Nic,

I have done the same thing a 40litre nano. Can I suggest looking at nano-reef.com Specialises in small marine. Mine is running fine after about 9 months. Mandarines are great looking fish do they eat frozen or dried food. I was always told they will die in a nano as they feed on copods which only accumulate in a large aged aquariums.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=182691

rob

[Nic]

oh nice...i love my mandarin, hes just got so much character about him :D
thx for that ill check out that site then

cheers

[Robdog]

I had a mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus) that fell on the floor 3 times when he was collected and he ate frozen foods straight away so that would be contrary to a lot of peoples advice regarding mandarin fish.

I now look after a Moyers dragonet (Synchiropus moyeri) that won't even look sideways at frozen foods and spends his time grazing the LR for pods etc.

I guess you win some you lose some :? :wink: