So I found a tank, now what!?

Croaky said:
Any advice on cephalopods in a marine tank?
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:biggrin: copopods fella, amphipods those are the pods you want to start with.

jokes aside cephalopds are again seen to be harder to keep than normal reef tanks, you have a desire tending towards the difficult:)

lets see, so far tonight you would like to keep nudibranches, cuttlefish and sea horses....none of which i would dare to touch for a few more years:p

ona slightly more serious note, some dwarf cuttle fish are possible, but deep research needs to go into them first
 
I agree, stay away from the seahorses for a few more years. Even if you were lucky enough to find captive raised seahorses that were disease free and eating frozen food, they eat a lot, have a lot of waste, and require more water changes than the average reef tank. If you don't keep up with the maintenance, you are left with a hair algae farm.
 
So as in normal life, the pretty things are problematic...

It's a non-issue, I'll just have to get my aquarium skills up to where they need to be in order for me to be able to keep those creatures successfully!

Could somebody please give me the details of a reputable marine aquarium club in Jozi?

Can't I just have a bucket of wet sand brought up from the coast with live creepy crawlies in it?
 
Croaky said:
So as in normal life, the pretty things are problematic...

It's a non-issue, I'll just have to get my aquarium skills up to where they need to be in order for me to be able to keep those creatures successfully!

Could somebody please give me the details of a reputable marine aquarium club in Jozi?

Can't I just have a bucket of wet sand brought up from the coast with live creepy crawlies in it?
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MASA has a reefclub going on that part of the world - click on the forums link and then local reefclubs - You should tell Andreas to fill the six foot with live sand then send it to you - let him gym a little with the buckets of wet sand from the beach to the tank:lol:
http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/forumdisplay.php?f=169 and http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/forumdisplay.php?f=127 - Here's some links ....
 
Joined a club group on this forum, gonna see what meeting details I get and then follow through on that.

This is crazy, everywhere I look I find more information, I have about 36 bookmarked pages!

So sps need a low nutrient environment and lps need a higher nutrient environment?
 
As a beginner I would advise you to start off with not too difficult stuff to keep like some LPS corals, softies and easy to keep fishes. You can also keep some shrimps, snails, hermit crabs, etc.
Do you have a RO unit? If not, I would urge you to get one as you'll always need it.
 
Tobes said:
As a beginner I would advise you to start off with not too difficult stuff to keep like some LPS corals, softies and easy to keep fishes. You can also keep some shrimps, snails, hermit crabs, etc.
Do you have a RO unit? If not, I would urge you to get one as you'll always need it.
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Hi Tobes, I'm leaning towards pretty much exactly what you've suggested LS wise, not too keen on loads of fish though, more keen on inverts! (Having learned that nudibranchs, cephalopods and ponies are 'expert-level' and beyond has helped my choices!)

RO units make suitable water to topup tanks right? What size would I need for a 1.8m tank IYO?
 
Croaky said:
So without a doubt then, DSB and LR is the way to go?
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Well, lots of people will have different opinions as to what works for them, etc. But in my opinion I like a DSB, macro algae like chaetomorpha, good quality live rock and a very good protein skimmer rated for double the system volume.
A DSB, if done right, is more forgiving, completes the nitrogen cycle and creates a area for pods to grow, especially if you have some chaeto on top of it which also concumes nitrates.
 
Croaky said:
Hi Tobes, I'm leaning towards pretty much exactly what you've suggested LS wise, not too keen on loads of fish though, more keen on inverts! (Having learned that nudibranchs, cephalopods and ponies are 'expert-level' and beyond has helped my choices!)

RO units make suitable water to topup tanks right? What size would I need for a 1.8m tank IYO?
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Well, if you get a smaller unit it will just take longer to fill the tank initially before adding the salt. There after you need the water to top up for evaporation loss. Mine is a Waterboy Reefmaster unit and does roughly 15-20litres in 55min with our water pressure here. Give Marco a call, he is one of our sponsors - The waterboy - check in the sponsors forums ;)
 
Tobes said:
...and a very good protein skimmer rated for double the system volume.... Now that's the kind of info I'm after!

...A DSB, if done right, is more forgiving, completes the nitrogen cycle and creates a area for pods to grow, especially if you have some chaeto on top of it which also concumes nitrates.DSB, LR, skimmer and chaeto should be a good all round solution then, the trick would be to add LS benificial to the nutrient level I want to achieve?
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I'm copy/pasting the above into my thread on Beginners Discussions, please post your answers there too Tobes?
 
Will do!

So, I can't copy/paste a post and comment on another thread by Tobes, the gist of it goes:

When looking for a Skimmer, it's best to get one rated at double your tank volume...

And I decided that I'm going the sump, skimmer, DSB and probably chaeto route for biological filtration.
 
I moved the posts to your thread ;)
 
No probs man :)
From my side, go look at decent skimmers, tried and tested brands like Tunze, Reef Octopus, Reeftek, Aquamedic, etc
Bug the sponsors to get you prices on skimmer rated for 1300litres. You system is 650l not so? And that is the whole system, including sump?
 
That's just the tank... with sump it should go up to over 1000 I think?

I'll check with Andreas.
 
I think he used a Reeftek TS4, but can be mistaken.
 
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