Reef Log with Comedy

D

dingo_53

AC Members
Jun 1, 2007
39
0
0
2007-JUN-06_tank.jpg


I'm an Australian living in Southern China. I've just given my stingrays to a friend and decided to turn my 220G tank into a salty.

Now, I have no experience in marine tanks except what I have learned in hours of reading this forum. There are a few shops around here with very poor quality equipment and I can't communicate in Chinese at a level that will allow me to discuss much with them. Even if I could, I'm sure they would answer "yes" to every question I had that involved the exchange of money.

I thought it might be fun to post my progress and perhaps provide a laugh or two when I make some stupid mistake.

So far, I have a 220G tank. It has a lot of sand from when I had my rays which I have left in the tank. I have added the salt and have the salt level right.

The tank has two large existing cannister filters. Yesterday I went to a shop and got some live rock pieces which were smashed into small pieces in front of me. I gave them a quick wash and filled both cannisters with live rock.

My question is, at this early stage, can I put the 200 lbs or so of live rock in the tank or should I wait for skimmers and a chiller, the water is about 27c now.

I just got a call from the shop to say they are delivering 130 lbs of live rock on Friday. Slight mis-communication. I can get them to hold if I need to.

If it goes in now water will be okay, but 27C and only the two cannister filters running with about 150 watt halide light and a moon light which I assume is meant for nightime.

I have two remoro pro skimmers on the way from the states amongst other goodies, like a wave maker, power heads etc.

Please help me to move to the next step and decide whether to put the rock in now. I'm gonna take my time before I introduce fish and try to be sure everything us just right..
 
My question is, at this early stage, can I put the 200 lbs or so of live rock in the tank or should I wait for skimmers and a chiller, the water is about 27c now.
Click to expand...

Yes, get the rock in there now and get the cycle started. You may aswell make use of the running system. When the other equipment arrives, just connect up..

If it goes in now water will be okay, but 27C and only the two cannister filters running with about 150 watt halide light and a moon light which I assume is meant for nightime.
Click to expand...
How many halide light units are there on the lighting unit altogether?

This has the potential to become a beautifull and outstand reef and your cenrtainly off to a good with size....

One thing i want to make clear though...NOBODY will laugh at a mistake, if they do, i hope they can also laugh at their own mistakes....

We are here to help you through each step of the way with getting your system running to hopefully stop any mistakes before they happen...

Keep us up to date with your progress..

Welcome to AC and welcome to the world of marines...

Niko
 
Thanks Niko.

I really appreciate your advice and encouragement.

Ha, I had a dream the other night that the tank was pitch black and all I could see were two green eyes in darkness.

I'll post a photo when I get the rock in there.

I just have one small light and will have another the same tomorrow.
So there will be two giving a total of 300W. I think I need about 600W total for the tank but I was wondering if 300W is enough for the live rock to get started. The tank is fairly deep at 32 inches. How far should the halide lights be from the rock?

Thanks again, really appreciate your help
 
one thing to bear in mind is that each halide unit will cover 2 feet in tank length, so, i would suggest you need three lights all together...Distance from the water, well, anywhere between 6 - 8 inches is ample distance between water surface and halide....

Niko
 
Thanks niko.
How about the distance between the halide and the rock?
Is that important?

Thanks,
Dave
 
its not really the distance from halide to rock, its the distance between halide and water level....

its very important, a few reasons are the heat levels that will be associated with the lights being too close to the water for a massive ammount of evaporation, and also you have to bear in mind that old splash factor....

Hope that helps better Dave

Niko
 
This is going to be an awesome tank!
 
Thanks for all your help and encouragement.
Really appreciated
 
Where exactly in Southern China are you living? ShenZhen? You should be able to buy things with very cheap price due to there is no control on picking up things from the sea in China, and most of the corals you see in fish store in Southern China are from a place called BeiHai (North Sea).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom