Bluecows new marine tank, being done very slowly

[bluebluecow]

Well I decided that although I dont have the tank yet I would start a journal, on my plans lol

I have on lay away (such a deadly thing for mts, a shop where you can buy a tank slowly at like £20-£50 a month opps) a Betta lifespace nano tank. Its between 90-100l, according to my LFS, so about 23US G.

The tank itself measures 18inch width by 18inch length by 30 inch high, so tall shaped with a slight bow front.

The tank is a all in one system has a section at the back thats seperate from the tank and contains the filters, UV and protien skimmer, and heater. It also has a variable outflow which can be moved from front to back of tank and any angle. It has 2 ligths think they are T5s will find out, and also blue lighting for night time.

I am planning a small nano tank, with live rock. My idea is to have the live rock in a semicircle design going from low level to about 2/3rd tank hieght front o back, with semi circle of sand/crushed coral substrate in middle free.

I would like to have some zoas and mushrooms.

Fish wise I am looking at 2 cardinals and a goby. I am also looking at shrimp crabs and snails. Love the sexy shrimp, but will read up more on them, and sally lightfoot crabs, but think they may grow too big for the tank

So thats it today, The tank and stand ws £250 and I have £100 left to pay off it, I have asked my family for vouchers for the shop for xmas, and live rock from my mum and dad LOL

Liz

[Northernguy]

That sounds like its going to be a nice tank!thumbs2:
I hope you get it soon!

[MCHRKiller]

Congrats BBC! Cant wait till you actually get your tank, the marine side of things is a fun place :22:

[Rue]

Sounds like you've done your homework! Way to go! :19:

[bluebluecow]

Thankyou all for the replies. I am so addicted already, spend most of my time planning and reading marine mags. I can see it becoming a very addictive tank. I love going into my lfs as they have some lovely fish, and great live rock, the rock had some lovely zoas znd mushrooms growing on it already. My other lfs has a coral tank with some great corals in it, can spend ages just watching them.

My tank is going at the end of the sofa so + can sit look straight ahead and see my 4ft trical look to the side and see my nano tank fishy heaven

Liz

[bluebluecow]

Yeah todys the day that I will be paying off my tank, so that means I get to find out when it will be delivered Yeah

Liz

[Neon]

CONGRATS for your new tank , looking forward to see pics and updates !!thumbs2:

[MCHRKiller]

Cant wait for pics! :22:

[bluebluecow]

Well next bit of news is, the tank is coming tommorow lunchtime , yeah will get some pics of it Im hoping dh will let me start it ticking over until xmas as thats when Im ment to get it

Liz

[sailor]

Sounds awsome..............can't wait to see it.

[Red]

ohh good luck with the tank!

[bluebluecow]

Yeah it came yesterday.

At 1st hubby wanted me to leave it like this till xmas


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish008.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish007.jpg

But I soon pursuadeed him to check the tank lol so pics

the tank and stand

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish010.jpg

[bluebluecow]

with lid open, the lid has 2 fans in it, a feeding hatch. It also has a ratchet on the side so can open to 3 different heights. It has 2 t5 lights and blue led lighting as well.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish011.jpg

This is the back of the tank it has in it 3 filter containers with different materials, 1 floss, 1 ceramic rings 1 bio balls, I can add more or change whats in them. It also contains the Uv light and also the skimmer. Also has the adjustable flow on it.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish012.jpg

I can also change all the intakes so if I want lots of sand I can move the bottom one it. It has an under gravel tray that can be removed if not wanted, trying to decide on that one.

Very excited now that its here it looks great and cant wait to be able to sit on the sofa and watch it. It 93L which I think converts to just over 20G, so a good size.

Now to wait till I get some sand and cruched coral substate and live rock, really cant wait lol. Oh and water lol. My 25l containers arrived yesterday too. no water yet but will get some when about to start up

Liz

[Rue]

Very nice! I wouldn't have been able to wait either!

I have the Red Sea Max...be sure you're able to fit your hands into the various spaces for maintenace now - before it's running...then it will be easier to make any changes or adaptations for later...

[Miltonic]

looking good, I wou;d remove the floss and bioballs from the compartments and put some live rock rubble and chaeto in there to make into a refugium but make sure you can get light in there for the chaeto to grow. I also wouldn't recommend crushed coral for your substrate instead get some aragonite sand.

[MCHRKiller]

I second the aragonite sand, there are alot of pre-packaged "live" aragonite sands not sure if they are truely that effective as I added a couple pounds of true live to mine but it cant hurt. Aragonite also has a huge buffering capacity and honestly will take many years to loose that ability, unlike crushed coral which will deplete in a few years. Im always wary of pre-boxed things but yours is a nice looking kit. Definatly adequate enough to grow some zoas, palys and shrooms at the least. Kudos to finally getting your tank :22:

[bluebluecow]

lesson learned must check here before buying. I went to lfs and brought some crushed coral and coral sand.

Anyway I wanted to check that everything works and although I have not got my rock in yet, I filled it with water, yeah everything works.

I know when I add the rock it will need some water out.

Pics to follow later

Liz

[bluebluecow]

Hi all

well I took 3 pics, but you can only really see the difference between the 2 t5s on and the blue leds on photos, in real life there is a slight difference between 1t5 and leds and the 2 t5s on.

All lights on (taken without flash)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish013.jpg

Just the blue leds (taken with flash)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/treeandfish016.jpg

Liz

[bluebluecow]

Well I am off to my LFS today. I have £50 in vouchers, so hoping to get the live rock with that. I am going to use some dead rock, for the base structure then cover with live rock. Cant wait, will post pics.

The shop doesnt open till 12, aghhh

Liz

[bluebluecow]

well I brought a mixture of live rock and ocean rock, came to just under £100s worth OMG

Anyway here are some pics

FTS

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine007.jpg

from one side, the side of the sofa, so the side I will see the most lol

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine003.jpg

and this hitchhicker?? that came on a bit of live rock, that the lfs wanted to put back in the tank, and sent it home with me in a bag of water

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine002.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine001.jpg

Liz

[bluebluecow]

Oh the white bit at the back has green like grass growing on its tip

[BigMac]

Cant wait to see it!
Tank looks great!

I'm waiting on rocks too.... its like drugs... we need a support group for people who cant get enough rocks ;)

[bluebluecow]

well last night my other half thought he had had a bit too much to drink when he saw a centipedey shrimp like thing move over the rock. This morning we have seen at least 4 others of these in different sizes.

Its facinating spend ages looking at the tank

liz

[MCHRKiller]

Marine tanks are fascinating, youll keep finding new life month after month that just randomly popped up. :22:

[labnjab]

I've had mine over a year (well technically) and I'm still finding new things. SW tanks are great

[Northernguy]

I am sooooooo jealous!!
What a beautiful tank!thumbs2: I want one!lol

Its a great Christmas gift!lol
I also wouldn't have waited.Its almost criminal to have a tank like that with no water or life in it!:hmm3grin2orange:

[bluebluecow]

Well while I am still excited about the tank, I will prob be posting lots sorry.

Spent a bit of today watching the tank and more hitch hikers have come out of hiding, as well as the shrimpy/centipedey things, we have seen today a small, hermit crab, came out of a big hole on the back of the rock with the leather on, came home in water that bit. A pink worm, a very small snail, also a polyp of some sort, had its feelers out today, but is on the bottom of the rock lol.

The shrimpy things seem to spend a lot of the time on the leather cleaning of any debris caught on it. The hermit is on the rock at the back and seems to pick at things.

Liz

[bluebluecow]

Hi all

well I have some more pics, I saw a friend who has a marine tank and he gave me a frag, here it is, in my tank and happy

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine026.jpg

also a pic of the leather, lost the shiney coat and looking good

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine027.jpg

Pic of the coral, hitchicker

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine023.jpg

and a full tank shot

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine029.jpg

Lots of little bugs on the tank glass now, and also I have at least 1 tiny snail

Liz

[rich311k]

Looks great! Nice corals and lovely photos.

[Neon]

Nice to see your tank in progress, it looks great !!! are Marine tanks more difficult to manage than freshwater ?

[bluebluecow]

More expensive and more testing, but so far not harder, More fun as new things every day

[Northernguy]

That tank is really coming along! thumbs2:
It sure looks like fun to watch!Nice to see you have got the hang of it!thumbs2:

[BigMac]

I want to know more about the polyp thing growing on the bottom of your rock.
Is it brownish? You need to watch for a couple of things, and aptasia is one of them. I found a little brown polypy thing in my live rock. Then I noticed it did not like the light.. I went to poking around to find out what it was...ohoh aptasia.

Make sure its not that... if it is kill it now.

[bluebluecow]

If you mean the 3rd pic, its bright baby pink

[bluebluecow]

Well I have had a load of brown algie, soI went to my LFS today and have come home with 4 turbo snails, who are cleaning the algie off well

Liz

[bluebluecow]

well another update and some more pics, Things are going well, I brought another coral and a hermit crab

the brown algie is disapering fast, and loads of new critters appearing

my 2 ended piece of coral at least 2 diff types on it

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine032.jpg

full tank

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine033.jpg


hermit crab

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine034.jpg

new coral

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine039.jpg

[bluebluecow]

turbo snail

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine040.jpg

my little hermit hitchhicker

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine041.jpg

snail, worm and big hermit lol


http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/fish%20tanks/NanoMarine043.jpg

liz

[bluebluecow]

Well the tank is doing great, Some of my corals are really growing, 1 Im not doing too great with but its hanging in there.

Went to my LFS yesterday and brought a clown fish and a bi coloured blenny. My Son Jakes face was a picture when he got home from school. He loves clown fish and has a soft toy one (proper clown not a nemo clown lol) that goes to bed with him.

Will take some pics and post later

Liz

[MCHRKiller]

Tank is looking great BBC! If you can find a polyfilter it might help with some of your algae issues as well...they pull nitrate and phophate out of the water :22:

[bluebluecow]

Wow have things grown and come on, I was just looking at past pics and cant belive how the tank looks now. I have had a little move aroung, the finger coral is like wice the size, and the toadstool leather that stared as a hitchicking square blob, is bueatifull. I still cant belive how much fun and interesting a marine tank is whish Id done it sooner

anyway a few pics

two toned blenny and clown in the background, part of the finger coral by him

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine064.jpg

almost fts

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine062.jpg

mushroom toadstool went from this(small white blob under the leather)

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine001.jpg




to this

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f50/obivader/NanoMarine063.jpg

Liz

[Bristley]

Nice pics and tank. Way to go.