Any other fishkeepers out there?

pink.1970

This is our sucking loach who is now fairly big, he was like matchstick when we got him. I'm in the process of re-doing tank i'm going to add some more bogwood for our pictus to hide under as there seems to be a bit of pushing n shoving when they get near this piece.

craggs

ziffius wrote: »

The most important thing in a Marine tank is the protein skimmer, it removes a lot of the crap and puts it into a cup above the water. The big problem with fluvals etc is that they don't remove what they filter from the water until you clean them out, so it really is important to clean the filters out regularly. One you've had a protein skimmer, there really is no going back.

You can convert a tank to marine easily, but it really depends on how many fish you want in there, the less fish you stock it with the easier it will be and on the size of the tank.

For a light tank you should be able to get away with a simple air driven protein skimmer, the fluval might cope depends on the size of the tank. You will need retro fit the hood with t5 lamps (most tropical use t8). T5's will allow you to have a couple of basic corals, leathers, xenias, zoos. Those are generally cheap.

Some people drill a hole in the back of the tank, get some cheap plastic piping and plumb it in so that the water overflows into a smaller tank (sump) underneath the main tank. You can then put a skimmer out of sight in the cabinet, and use pump to return the water to the main tank.

You will need a couple of inches of sand on bottom, it acts as a filter. You can avoid the brand names and go for Underworld sand, seapets do it I think.

You need a few kilos of live rock, there's always people selling it on eBay, it also acts as a filter, it's great to watch the fish swimming in and out of it.

You need get a cheap plastic salinty meter. And also a cheapy PH meter from ebay, it can be a cheapy one, you only really need it for doing water changes so the ph of the water going in is the same as the ph of the water coming out. You can use bicabonate of soda & caclium hydroxide to raise the ph, white malt vinegar to lower it. You will need an extra heater, as you need match the heat of the water going in too, if you don't already do that with your tropical.

I used to buy the water test kits for nitrates etc but don't bother any more, If you get a cheapy pulsing xenia coral, they will usually tell you when to change the water as they stop pulsing.

If you put some plants if there, they will grow and absorb nitrates as they do. You then remove the oldest parts from the tank, and as you do you remove the nitreats that the've absorbed.

I paid £300 for mine on eBay, and that was for a high-ish end 3ft 270 litre aquamedic tank. That came with live rock, sand, salt, pumps, halide light luminaire, crabs, high end skimmer, couple of corals and a starfish.

If you hunt around, you can find cheaper shops. I brought a 4 inch lionfish for £20, was gutted when I lost it after a year as it was quite happy eating cheapy sainsburys prawns and never ate any of the fish.

You can normally pick up nemos for around £7-£10, kids love them and they breed.

I would suggets not getting a cheap salinity (swing arm meter) and getting a refractomter for the money they are more accurate at all temperatures,,swing arm are not very good,

live rock as your filterations,and use your external for chemical only,removing sponges and cermic rings from the external (providing you have live rock)as these cannot complete the nitrogen cycle,,so will promote nitrates in the tank,,live rock turns the nitrate into nitrogen gas and therefore keeps them as low as possible

phosphate is a problem in marins,promoting unwanted algae growth,,plants,,not sure if you mean caulerpa or cheato will absorb and lower the nutrients which in turn can will lower the nitrates to a certain extent and absort phosphates..but caulerpa can crash when the lights are out by turning a-sexual,,cheato wont.

Totaly agree,skimming is very important,,it does remove all the DOC (disolved organic compound)from the water,you can also wet skim to remove phosphates..i dont as i use a reactor...

Carbonate of soda will higher the KH/ALK nice to someone else using it for other than baking:D

calcium hydroxide (think you can get from B+Q cant you as builder lime?,not to sure) will raise ph but will raise the calcium in the tank aswell,,which you will need to test and make sure it doesnt go higher then 450ppm,but id recomend a good kalk wasser for calcium anyway

If anyone is setting up a marine tank,,10% water change a week,,i wouldnt recomend waiting to see if when the xenia stops pulsing,,i would test the water in marines,and maintain a 10% water change each week as a basic,(xenia also loves the addition of iodine).

I love to hear of other marine keepers..:D

gingin_2

Happy New Year

As our christmas pressie to each other we decided to treat ourselves to an aquarium. We are total novices to this and would appreciate any advice.

We are looking at the biorb, really because we want it to sit on our kitchen table and look attractive .

http://www.biorb.com/

are these good or is there a better alternative?

How many fish would 30l take and how many would the 60l take? We said would would spend no more than £10 per fish are there any hardy tropical aquarium fish you can recommend?

Thanks for any advice

maisy-mai

we've got a boorb 60litre looks really good and have little hardy fish in it dont pay more than £2 each . Tetras ,mollys the fish you first start off with are hardy .
its easy to maintain and clean find it better than our 3 foot fish tank we had but each to their own some shops do not recommend biorbs or sell fish to go in them .

pulliptears

Having spent my childhood with large aquariums I bought a 30L Biorb a few years ago, it was so easy to maintain and attractive I bought another one lol.

The one I have in use here is still clean and bright and hasnt been touched for about 3 months now. When I do change the pads in the bottom I just empty a quater of the water and replace the filter. It is possible to rinse out the old filter and reuse it again, but probably only once, wouldnt recommend much more than that.

I have 4 year old Tetra's in it, a few Ruby barbs and a fat catfish in there now, Im not replacing any stock now because we are hoping to move this year so it will be easier with an empty tank!

Like maisy I also found a few shops that groaned about the biorbs, one told me that under no circumstances could a catfish live in one, Hitler, our catfish is about 3 now!!

But for a novice I would completely recommend one.

basill

We have had a 30l biorb for a few years now, we keep a couple of fancy goldfish or shubunkins in there. It is a very nice looking and easy to maintain system. We upgraded our biorb light to an led one recently, it cycles from bright daylight to dim blue moonlight, very nice.
I have bought supplies from Charterhouse Aquatics they are cheaper than my local fish shop and offer free delivery.
MSEs can reuse the cartridges by replacing the sponges and activated carbon pellets.
There is a biorb forum here with an ad for the sponges, but the forum appears to be down now.

B

gingin_2

thanks so much to all of you for your advice...I think that's a definite yes for us on the biorb

pulliptears

Just as an afterthought, have you seen the biubes?



Quite fancy one of these myself!

gingin_2

pulliptears wrote: »

Just as an afterthought, have you seen the biubes?



Quite fancy one of these myself!

Too late , I ordered the biorb but husband was pushing for the biube, it is classy........hmmm, maybe I might be able to call them in the morning and change the order. Decisions, decisions!

How many fish in total do you have in yours? I just google imaged the Ruby Barb and they do look beautiful. I went for the biorb with the heater and led. I used Charterhouse as recommended by Basill as they were indeed the best value and next day delivery included. I am hoping we might be able to set it up this week (next day delivery) and choose our first fish at the weekend, if the water has had time to settle.

I really am grateful for all of your advice and very excited at getting out new fishies. I do have a 2 1/2 year old goldfish in a bowl, am not sure if he will be suitable to add?

roddydogs

Goldfish=Cold water!