hi this is my first attempt at saltwater! i have been keeping freshwater tanks for serveral years and the lack of diverse life, ie. invertibrates has lured me over to the salty side. so in addition to 7 freshwater tanks of various sizes i have started up a nano reef tank, to get a grasp on how marine tanks work. planning to make lots of mistakes along the way, as it seems like the only way i can learn things these days is the hard way. At least i have fairly sound knowlege of how aquariums work in general, and with copious amounts of reading i think i can apply this to a marine setup with some degree of success.
if it seems like i am explaining things in a detail that you probably dont care to know, please assume its for my own benefit! because it probably is
the current tank is a standard two footer, about 50 litres. this will be changed soon to a slightly larger, 2x18x18 tank.
for lighting i have a 2' fixture with 4 T5HO globes. filtration is currently via some old freshwater filters i had laying around, 2x fluval 4 plus. they are the internal cannister style filters with large sponges attached. i realise they are a bad choice for many reasons but for a temoray fix they arent too bad i will be getting the little vortech powerhead once everything is moved into the larger tank. and once i can afford it!!
i have no skimmer, no sump, no fuge. i have an old aquaclear 300 filter that i could turn into a hang on fuge, but im doubtful how effective this will be. a hang on skimmer is a definate possibility, but for now the wallet says NO
tank was filled on 01/05/2010 with NSW. placed a couple of pieces(0.5kg) of live rock from the LFS in the tank along with some substrate i commandeered from one of my freshwater tanks. i rinsed it REALLY well in case you were wondering. i threw in a cube of frozen food once a day for the next few days. probably not the best way to cycle a tank i admit, but you get that.
more live rock(1.5kg) was added and i started finding some amazing hitchhikers in my tank. bristle worms, brittle stars, feather dusters etc etc etc. this is what is missing from freshwater... a diverse ecosystem bursting with life! they all seemed to survive the initial ammonia spike which was nice. on 08/05/2010, the tests indicated no ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate at 10ppm. diatoms had begun to bloom at this stage. i added a small zoo colony to test if it would survive... heheh... so far so good.
more live rock(4kg) went in, this time i think it is uncured stuff, as it has all sorts of dying corals and things on it. so added more cured stuff(0.5kg) to perhaps assist in case of another cycle. i also added some random snails to help eat up the diatoms. so far they are doing a good job so im happy more snails are definately on the cards if the paramaters are holding nicely.
this is where i am at so far, waiting on my new tank to arrive so i can set that up and keep building up the cured liverock. once the tank is pretty stable i will be adding a box of uncured liverock into the tank. this is both exiting and scary since it will contain alot of life but will surely test the biological filtration i have been attempting to sustain. only time will tell tho
so far the inhabitants that have unintentionally come in on the liverock include..
tons of filter feeding type things
several bristle worms
two brittle stars (small, brown and white)
a small crab (smooth body, hairy legs, green/brown coloured)
a WIERD small creature with six legs, that looked very 'chunky' for lack of a better term. it walks very slowly and purposefully!
lots of tiny pods (got to be a good sign)
several brain corals
two orange acropora corals that i hope will survive!
a strange coral that has small, stony, star shape tubes with masses of clear tentacles that fluoresce green! a bit worried about this one!
here is a FTS, please excuse the disgusting state of the tank... hehehe... the glass is so scratched i never bother to clean it!
if it seems like i am explaining things in a detail that you probably dont care to know, please assume its for my own benefit! because it probably is
the current tank is a standard two footer, about 50 litres. this will be changed soon to a slightly larger, 2x18x18 tank.
for lighting i have a 2' fixture with 4 T5HO globes. filtration is currently via some old freshwater filters i had laying around, 2x fluval 4 plus. they are the internal cannister style filters with large sponges attached. i realise they are a bad choice for many reasons but for a temoray fix they arent too bad
i will be getting the little vortech powerhead once everything is moved into the larger tank. and once i can afford it!!i have no skimmer, no sump, no fuge. i have an old aquaclear 300 filter that i could turn into a hang on fuge, but im doubtful how effective this will be. a hang on skimmer is a definate possibility, but for now the wallet says NO
tank was filled on 01/05/2010 with NSW. placed a couple of pieces(0.5kg) of live rock from the LFS in the tank along with some substrate i commandeered from one of my freshwater tanks. i rinsed it REALLY well in case you were wondering. i threw in a cube of frozen food once a day for the next few days. probably not the best way to cycle a tank i admit, but you get that.
more live rock(1.5kg) was added and i started finding some amazing hitchhikers in my tank. bristle worms, brittle stars, feather dusters etc etc etc. this is what is missing from freshwater... a diverse ecosystem bursting with life! they all seemed to survive the initial ammonia spike which was nice. on 08/05/2010, the tests indicated no ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate at 10ppm. diatoms had begun to bloom at this stage. i added a small zoo colony to test if it would survive... heheh... so far so good.
more live rock(4kg) went in, this time i think it is uncured stuff, as it has all sorts of dying corals and things on it. so added more cured stuff(0.5kg) to perhaps assist in case of another cycle. i also added some random snails to help eat up the diatoms. so far they are doing a good job so im happy
more snails are definately on the cards if the paramaters are holding nicely.this is where i am at so far, waiting on my new tank to arrive so i can set that up and keep building up the cured liverock. once the tank is pretty stable i will be adding a box of uncured liverock into the tank. this is both exiting and scary since it will contain alot of life but will surely test the biological filtration i have been attempting to sustain. only time will tell tho
so far the inhabitants that have unintentionally come in on the liverock include..
tons of filter feeding type things
several bristle worms
two brittle stars (small, brown and white)
a small crab (smooth body, hairy legs, green/brown coloured)
a WIERD small creature with six legs, that looked very 'chunky' for lack of a better term. it walks very slowly and purposefully!
lots of tiny pods (got to be a good sign)
several brain corals
two orange acropora corals that i hope will survive!
a strange coral that has small, stony, star shape tubes with masses of clear tentacles that fluoresce green! a bit worried about this one!
here is a FTS, please excuse the disgusting state of the tank... hehehe... the glass is so scratched i never bother to clean it!
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