My Boyu Orca MT30

coswecanfly

coswecanfly

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Cape Town
OK so apparently my new tank is a nano... :lol: Let's try again:

I did it!!!

I finally went out tonight and bought my first marine aquarium. I like challenges (and I'm a sucker for hard work) so I went for a pico. :lol: A Boyu MT30, 25l of fun and games.

Anyway, now for the big cleanup (got it second-hand) and then on Sunday substrate, LR and water.

I've decided to opt for natural sea water and "fix" the parameters if they are wrong (but how wrong can mother nature be?) :blush:

Anyway, if any of you Cape Town guys can maybe tell me where to get some nice LR on a Sunday?

I'm going to try and upload some pics now and will keep you all updated on progress.

Thanx for listening (and helping)

Jacques

P.S. I need some advice on what to do with the three chambers at the back please? Where to put what, I mean... :whistling:
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I have the same tank, running now for a week, will take some pics tonight for you, i put live rock in the first chamber and filter floss on top of the live rock, added seachem matric to the secong chamber. Heater and up pump in the third cahmber, also added a bag of purigen but do not thing it is necessary if you do you weekly water changes.
 
I ran chemi pure elite in the first chamber with filter floss on top.(Replace with new every 3 or so days) Second chamber is heater. Third is return pump.


Lots of live rock.Good substrate.Regular water changes and a low bio load and you wont have any problems!!!
 
Probably going to get in trouble for this, but if you get live rock from an established tank and water also you should not really need to cycle, as evo r said also keep you bio load down. If you want you can pop round to my place i am closing down my large tank and there is only live rock and water left, we can talk
 
regis said:
Probably going to get in trouble for this, but if you get live rock from an established tank and water also you should not really need to cycle, as evo r said also keep you bio load down. If you want you can pop round to my place i am closing down my large tank and there is only live rock and water left, we can talk
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actually quite a few guys did that here ie transfering from an old tank to a new tank. Just keep the live rock in the water fully submerged. Use 50% old water and rest new. Then you could dose a bacteria like biodigest
 
Thanks guys but I kind of want to start from scratch. Live rock would be another story Regis...

Can I put the LR from Regis with my own water from the sea or will it kill things?
 
Rather take my water to fill the whole tank, my water is good. (tested)
and slowly change with water changes.
 
You can use LR and NSW.Thats what i did.

But just so that you are clear on this......there is no natural ways of skipping a cycle.You can however shorten it from say 6 weeks to 2 weeks.
And even if your system is a 100 years old, you can stil get mini cycles.All depends on how hard you are shocking the system.
 
Ill take the water and live rock. It will definitely shorten the cycle. This way you will have bacteria already. You can then change the water by doing some weekly water changes. I wont,even with the live rock and water from established tanks,add stock immediatly. you gonna get a cycle and the pods and microscophic organisms need time to grow in you substrate and all over the tank. Do the necessary water tests and if all is well add stock. But dont rush things. In the long run it will benifit you. Ill put filter floss in st chamber,change every 2 -3 days and some some purigen and phosguard if you keen, in the 2nd the heater{remember to keep the chambers full and not let the heater get exposed to air} in the 3rd Ill add return pump. Keep the bio load low. Ask the guy where you bought the tank from when the last time was he replaced the lights. If its been a long time or never,replace them. They not that expensive. this is just my 2 cents
 
The rock is where the bacteria is, there is less than 1% of bacteria in the same amount of water as rock. There is no such thing as mature water only old water. NEwly fresh mixed water is better than water that was mixed and added 2 hrs ago.

The one thing to consider though with regards to water is that you could kill off about 20% of you bacteria and other life when going straight from one set of water parameters to another. But the loss is minimal

Trev
 
OK. Tank is 'cycling' with some fresh water untill I can go see Regis tomorrow evening. Did a thorough cleanup and ran pump in some vinegar/water for about two hours. I'm so excited it feels like Christmas eve when I was like 6...
 
what i did not say you must add is a small airpump(smalles you can find) and a small airstone to one of your chambers. Its made a huge difference to my tank. Dont know if you will be running a skimmer but if not it will add oxygen to your tank. I added the smallest one to my tl 550.made a big differenve to my tank.
 
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