Marine pics - a break from discus perhaps :)

[nicholas76]

guys and girls

a side hobby to discus,

i hope you enjoy them

[nicholas76]

A closer look at yellow tang

[nicholas76]

my male tomato clown calling it a night.

[nicholas76]

My baby butterfly.

Very tricky to keep maintain. Initially he wouldnt eat but ive convinced him to try my home made discus fry beef heart mix. ( its mixed with spirulina )

[nicholas76]

A group shot of sorts

that bottom right coral is called a sun coral . dont ask me for its technical name i cant remember.

anyway in the wild it only comes out at night and hates direct sunlight , hence why i have it in a cave.

this coral requires direct feeding whihc is a pain , but if you feed it the same time every day it will bloom on time like clock work. when its not in feeding mode all those pretty yellow flowers dissapear.

[nicholas76]

what are you looking at he says

[nicholas76]

My blennie in full camo gear sitting off that sun coral


im pictured out for now,, hope you like my fish.

[Proteus]

Nick, you are going to very much like some new Marine fish which will be available soon...

Stay tuned to the classifieds both here and on www.ausfishforum.com

:wink:

[nicholas76]

you telling me i need a new tank arent you RO

lmao

[Proteus]

Did you say at one point in time that you like Flame Angels?

:wink:

[nicholas76]

aah the lovely flame angels.


yes a fine fish and rather pricey. They currently sit at $130 at the two lfs 's i shop from.


Ro,,, do you know have they managed to breed these yet or they still from the wild?


thanks

:D

[Proteus]

Dont know about the breeding, but Nick, how interested would you be if I knew somwhere that had them for less than $100ea (approx $90)

:wink:

[Ben]

Great pics nick!
the colours of marine fish are second to none!

they look so happy and healthy too!

Cheers,
Ben

[DR.V]

nice tank, SLS is having a 20% on marine livestock... check it out in the classified section

[Fishpimpin73]

Have you tried live brine for the butterfly?

Almost all of the "butterfly" fish are problematic eaters.

I have had great success with LBS, and then once you get them eating, they are easy to switch over to frozen.

Awesome fish.

LOVE the "sun" coral.
They really are worth the effort.

Thanks for sharing

[Merrilyn]

How come no one told me about the cheap flame angels. Did you forget that I also have marine, Proteus :banghead

[kalebjarrod]

Hay nick

love the tank, marines are one thing i am yet to save my cash for :cry:

ladyred


Did you forget that I also have marine,

we know you collect everything that lives in water, how is the loch ness monster going by the way?

[nicholas76]

[quote="Fishpimpin73"]Have you tried live brine for the butterfly?

Yep sure did,, thats all i fed him before it started to get annoying.

what i also do is smear brime or frozen worm onto the live rock and he just picks of it.


Hi Ryan,

in comparison to discus marine is pretty affordable.

the live rock is $12 a kilo
sand was $ 70 appx
corals average from $25 - 100
i use an air driven protien skimmer that cost me $10 - not $400

and fish are anything from $8 for chromis $40 for that butterfly to $ 139 for a yellow tang.

salt water is free from the ccean lol or i pay $1.00 per 25 litres at my lfs as i am a member.

so every second week i spend a couple of bucks just toppping up the reserves


cheers all

thanks

[kalebjarrod]

so nick,

how big a water change do you do and how often?

thats my biggest fear, going to get water every week

[Merrilyn]

Hey Ryan, he and the mermaids get on just fine :wink:

[kalebjarrod]

lol @ ladyred

[nicholas76]

Ryan,

once the tank is estabilished you do bugger all water changes.

metal halide lamps do cause evaporation so you end up topping up with R/o water every few days. say 5 litres every 3-4 days. ( salt dosent really evaporate )

once a month I do a 30 % sea water change. In addition to this I add 5 ml of calcium and iodide twice a week for my corals and ananomies.

However if you plan on not keeping corals and want a basic rock and fish tank then your work is heaps less.

In comparison with discus i do 50% w/c 3 times a week. Its a misconception that marines are harder i believe. or maybe ive just been heaps lucky.


A point of ineterest - I have never lost a fish or experienced diseases. I have also never used tap water !!! interesting correlation perhaps?

Marines are heaps less work and the fish never scamper change colour or hide.

Regards

[chrissyoscar]

Fantastic looking Marine tank you have there Nick.
I've always loved Marine tanks but have been to scared to try it as I've heard they require a lot of work.
One day I will and if I can get mine looking half as good as yours i'll be happy.

Oscar

[kalebjarrod]

don't get me too excited about marine yet

i need more cash first :cry:

sounds all too easy though

[nicholas76]

After keeping discus

anything is easy!

[kalebjarrod]

do you use a chiller?

metal hallides or t5's

and how many power heads do you have?

[nicholas76]

do you use a chiller?

metal hallides or t5's

and how many power heads do you have?

I dont use a chiller

i use metal hallides. Ive examined every sort of lighting, but when crunch comes to crunch you need to M/h for the best results long term.

cheapest m/h lights are on a online web site called coral lights .com.

Im running a fluvol 404 fluvol 303 and an otto 800 and thats it. No sump like most people use.

[kalebjarrod]

any reason for no sump?

why not t5's why metal hal?

dosen't the metal hal heat the water to a temp that you need a chiller?

do you use a heater?

can i ask any more questions? (lol)

[nicholas76]

any reason for no sump?

why not t5's why metal hal?

dosen't the metal hal heat the water to a temp that you need a chiller?

do you use a heater?

can i ask any more questions? (lol)





A. no sump as at the time i wasnt planning on going coral crazy and kept a very basic system. everyone uses them, but they arent essential. You just need planty of live rock and a thick layer of sand.
the next setup Will have one!


B. Spectrum of light you get and the life of the M/H won me over t5's. You can go even cheaper and get power glo lamps whihc will cost you under $150 however the quality of light, the life span of the bulb is less. Long term go M/H

I personally love the blue tinge you get with m/h too!

C. Metals halides are kept up high over head, heat generated isnt enough to effect the temp. I live in melbourne so the external weather never gets that hot to bother it anyway.
Msot setups dont use cover glass due to the heat. Ive started using my coverglass coz of the massive evaporation. My lights are 30 cm away from the tank lid. No issues yet.

D. Yep the same 300 watt heater i had in a discus tank once.


E. As many as you would like lol

[kalebjarrod]

thanks mate

must be a exciting pasttime :wink: