Think im converted

Been thinking about going salt water for a while and got a boyu 550 128ltr cheap, saying that aint getting tank to hopefully next week. Also seen a marine tank breakdown and got some live rock outta it which ive got in a tank at the moment with a wavemaker and heater running, theres wee bits of polyp showing which surprised me and hermit crabs. So will i need to do anything other than the water flow and heater to keep these ok till maybe another couple of weeks untill we get the tank running ?

Put a post up the other day asking this but deleted it by mistake.

hi mac all I would do mate is a weekly water change about 10% and feed the hermit crabs but only enough that's eaten I'm only new to the marines my self I'm sure there's more experienced members on hear that can help you out

looking forward to seeing some pics, Andrew should be able to help

Aint got a clue what im doing. Live rock is in a tank on the floor and ive spent way to much time sitting on the floor watching whatever appears outta the rock, its fascinating. Cant wait to get it into tank with lights etc to see what appears.
Can see a bigger tank here getting changed over in time.

Doh ignore my other post in Adamnicholls thread; just seen this.

Put rock in tank asap; the more life you see on the rock the better quality it is apart from hair/red algae. I assume you going for berlin system? I would have wavamakers;lights(around 8 hours a day) and most importantly skimmer since you got a lot of life forms and corals on rock already. Dont feed until cycle is over. Good luck !

Thanks for advise. The rock was more or less out of the other guys tank and straight into our temporary tank so hopefully not to much die off. Ive been testing the water daily and the ammonia has been sitting at .025 and everything else 0. All the life forms came out within an hour or being moved so i thought that was a good sign.
The tank has built in skimmer, but its next week before we get tank.
Been checking out internet for info and one says black the other says white so i think its better sticking to the advice from the one person who knows whats right and wrong. Once again thanks for info and no doubt you'll be bombarded with questions in the coming days/weeks.

Oh and what do you do to get the rock so clean /tidy again ?

Hi. You are most welcome! :)

WHen tank is finished cycling; get a clean up crew which comprises of snails;hermit crabs; urchins and etc. They will 'clean' unwanted algae and debris. Then add herbivore eaters like yellow tangs who will also help pick at rock.

In your case the less die off from liverock before you move it to proper tank the faster tank will finish cycle. Take your time with it; go slow

Even though the tank sits on the fish house floor its near a shame to move it as the amount of life in there already, 2 turbo snails 2 red legged hermits and a turbo boosted black/white strippy legged crab plus all the bits and pieces growing outta rock. Really fascinating to watch even though you have to get on your hands and knees to see it at the moment.

Hope the transition to the permanent tank next week will be a smooth one; keep us updated ! :)

Just a few pics of my new pet rock.

I'm going to set up a tank with live rock only at some stage, I love the weird stuff that comes out of it
You might want to get rid of those aptaisia though Alistsair, they can cause real problems and be very difficult to get rid of

Thanks Patrick thought it was aptaisia but we wer'nt sure. So will do the needful before the tank setup.
Cool looking things pity they wer'nt such a pest.

As with most things around here nothing goes to plan  
The guy with the Boyu let us down so we are converting a trigon 190, getting a good flow round this shape of tank seems to be a challenge but you can only but try.

Thats unfortunate but hopefully with a bigger sized tank you can get better scaping with it

The rocks are just stunning with bits and pieces just appearing.
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We have the tank setup and running just needs a few rocks moved about to get it looking ok, will get full tank shot when i get the tank moved around a little.
As for my water tests they are looking like a mature tank. I know i was very paranoid when getting the live rock home and into tank to limit any die off but sort of expected a spike of some kind. Or should i be saying nothing yet.

NIce pics; lovely star polyps and green hairy/ricordea mushrooms you have there

Cant seem to see one or two pictures...maybe just me..

hi mac good luck with the salty adventure im also doing saltys myself and really starting to like it myself give us a shout if you need any help or advice !!

Cheers cichlidguy, its all new to me and loving it and that aint happened for a very long time with the fish as i could cheerfully get shot of the lot of them.

  lovely, keep us up to date on your progress and how your finding it.

Been checking my water each night and have been waiting for the water to go silly on me, but nothing happened so i thought my test kit was up the left. So today got a sample over to Grov to get them to check and was told your waters perfect so start stocking, happy days.

Looking great so far just take stocking very slowly and think about things carefully as marine is very unforgiving even moving a rock can cause ammonia spikes but so far you see to be getting there rightly! I would advise getting true peppermint shrimp to help with apitasia as the treatments will never completly rid you of them as it only takes one wee sneaky one lol also build up a good CUC befor thinking about fish its a long process but one that's well worth it I really miss my salty tank :(

The stocking so far, CUC 2 red legged hermits 2 turbo snails 2 Cowrie snails another hermit with black white stripped legs and a banded boxing shrimp. A powder blue tang that came with the tank and from what i was told should have died within a week of the move and i'm proud to say is still very much alive and stunning and a pair of clarki clowns.

I'm in two minds of a tang there nice fish but just don't know if there worth the risk as there very prone to whitespot which I'm sure you know is an absolute nightmare to treat in marine tanks unless is fowlr

Have to agree about the tang but this fish became a challenge for me as so many people told me it will die. But moving on with the tank the tang may well have to go as i dont know enough to take a fish like this on long term. Pity though as its a total beaut, always in your face and my four year old grandson stares at the tang with the tang staring straight back.

Some pics.




















Not very easy getting pics as they really never sit still.

I'd say keep the tang Alistair, marine is nothing magic, just common sense.  Marine fish die for the same reasons as freshwater fish, all of your freshwater experience will stand you well.
If it were something like a batfish or a moorish idol that are hard to feed I'd avoid caution but if the tang is doing good then I'd leave well enough alone.

Next time you visit seahorse aquariums bring your wallet, some amazing marines there at the moment..

Patrick the tang is such a character, such a in your face fish if you put your hand in the tank its over watching your every move. Just needs a bigger tank. I had thought of going salt for such a long time but was always put off as it scared me with what id been told but i agree i think there used to be a bit of snobbery in marine as i was told this that and the other was going to happen with this tank of mine and nothing bad has happened at all, maybe a lot of luck but as you say common sense goes a long way. But without a doubt there's a bigger tank planned for the future.
Plus a visit to seahorse is a must, anytime we've been in we used to spend more time looking at the salt water than the fresh. Plus we've credit with them.

I have to agree marine is nothing special and no where near as hard as some peopke make out though some things are slightly more awkward and a lot mores at stake if theres a disaster but well worth it :) have you a qt or hospital tank?

Nice pictures there. The button polyps you have is really nice, came with the tank? Looks like a nice big colony there!

andrewo wrote:Nice pictures there. The button polyps you have is really nice, came with the tank? Looks like a nice big colony there!

We bought the polyps as we seen them and there are 3 different colours on the rock so hopefully should look better when it starts to spread.

As for a hospital tank, at the moment we have a 3ft tank running with extra live rock which would do but the plan is we are converting a 6x2x2 to salt and the 190 trigon will then be run as the qt /hospital. Hopefully making any mistakes with this tank and gaining as much experience before going bigger.
I know i said i dont think salt is as hard as its made out to be but i think ive had it to easy so far so i aint getting to cocky as already been said mistakes or getting to sure of yourself with salt can be expensive and very unforgiving.

Great purchase there. When you use LEDs over them your jaw will drop. :D They are drop dead gorgeous.

I'm sure you will be fine as you are doing much research before jumping in. It's a natural progression for a salty keeper from soft to hard corals. It's the latter which can be quite heart breaking sometimes.

Just a few updated pics.





Just a pic with the new leds on night time setting






One thing i dont like but cant really find a way round  in this tank is seeing the wave makers. Maybe in a bigger tank you could find a way of getting them hid a bit with rock around them, i like the natural look and seeing wave makers just gets me.
As andrewo said seeing the colours shine with leds is amazing, i just cant get a pic to really show how amazing they really are. Wish i had taken a before led and after led pic.

Nice!

Re: Wavemakers,  I can't remember the brand but I recall seeing wavemakers that were much smaller but equally powerful.
The design was such that the bulk of the powerhead was outside of the tank, the impeller was inside the tank and a powerful magnet was used to spin the impeller through the glass. Great idea, I'm sure you'll find them if you Google and I'm sure they'll be expensive ;)

Are they clarkii clowns? I used to have a huge pair of them that would attack my arms when I put my hands in the tank to do maintenance.. Vicious little buggers.

Some pulsing xenia would be a nice addition.

I think its the vortech wavemakers that are like that 2poc and there scary money lol a good powerhead to check out for your big tank mac is the jebao wp40 there an impressive bit of kit and cheap as chips in comparison to similar wavemakers on the market :)

That's the one Adam. Very cool

Yeah that's vortech ecotech marine wavemakers there around £200-£400 each depending on size lol

They have got a very cool design though and would definitley make things a lot tidier in the tank I'm not a big fan of big ugly wavemakers but unfortunately there essential :(

Thanks folks for all the tips a lot to think about for the bigger tank.
Patrick those clowns are clarki not very big at the moment but have loads of attitude.
With the bigger setup i think the rockwork could in some way be arranged around the sides to help in someway hide the wavemakers i hope.

Tank is looking well there. Dont worry too much bout the wavemakers as most marine keepers have it; its that vital!  Most usually have 3 or 4 wavemakers in there.

In saying this I have no regrets in getting one of the vortechs; they are neat and powerful. Also check out the Jebao WP models; equally as powerful but at a fraction of the price.