New little slice of ocean

S

Snoop

Joined
1 Apr 2012
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Location
Cape Town
Hey guys and girls.

A couple of years back I use to have a marine system. As I was a student i could not afford to keep it running as i would have liked to. Seeing thou that has changed i decided to take the plunge again and set up for the second time. Its only a small system as I don not want a massive system like the previous one.

The specs are as follows: DT 600 x 450 x 450 and ive got a very small sump 300x300x300 that houses my Reeftek TS1 and titanium boyu heater and return pump.

Ive bought 13 kg of fiji live rock which i think looks absolutely amazing and with my skimmer, hopefully is enough filtration wise. Any input on this will be greatly appreciated.

As for substrate I've bought 10 kg of crushed coral. Looks way more natural to me than arragonite. Personal taste and way cheaper :thumbup:

As for lighting, I am currently using a light fitting that was over a freshwater tank of mine. Will have to upgrade it as I add coral. Lighting unit contains 2 x 14w 10000k t5 and two blue actinics. Maybe thinking of going LED but I dont have any experience with them. Maybe even halide as i want too keep a few sps corals but all this will be revealed with time.

As for circulation I have 2x SEIO prop 320 (1200LPH) and one SEIO prop 530 (2000LPH).

Now for you pic freaks as I see you love them so much::yeahdude:

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Tank has been cycling for about two week snow. Did a couple of test earlier and everything seem to be on track as cycling goes. Ammonia basically on 0 and nitrate and nitrite also very low. Going to give it another week and then start stocking the tank. :1:
 
looking good man! You say you want to keep sps later on, so you should consider a NP reactor or zeovit reactor to control your nutrients as you dont have the space for biological filtration
 
Very cool, Snoop. Love how it looks so neat and tidy - congrats!
 
Thanks guys. Hopefully the tank will be cycled soon!! Cant wait to start stocking the tank.

Ive been thinking of stocking options and cant make my mind up. There is one very important question that i would like to ask everyone! Can i keep one or two evansi anthias in this size tank. I had four of them in my previous setup and loved them but that was a very large tank. So any insight here would be greatly appreciated.

Second i was thinking of popping in two black Percula clownfish and a biocolor blenny or a Royal gramma baslet. As for corals ive got no idea?? What do you guys suggest for a new tank???
 
Was thinking green star polyps Some zoanthids And some mushrooms for the bottom layer of the tank. For the higher parts of the rockscape i will add some monti and acro, but only later when the tabk is more esthablished.
 
O yes!! Forgot one of my favourite corals, Sun polyps under the little over hang i made to the right!!!
 
Tremayn said:
looking good man! You say you want to keep sps later on, so you should consider a NP reactor or zeovit reactor to control your nutrients as you dont have the space for biological filtration
Click to expand...

I will look into these as soon as i think my tank is esthablished enough to handle sps but thanks for the input!! :thumbup:
 
when stocking start with a couple of softies and leave it for a week then add a cleanup crew and then add your clowns. dont add blennie or gramma first as you will have territory issues.
 
mandarinman said:
when stocking start with a couple of softies and leave it for a week then add a cleanup crew and then add your clowns. dont add blennie or gramma first as you will have territory issues.
Click to expand...

Thanks you!! Looking into clean up crews for my size tank. Some snails and hermits should be enough and maybe a cleaner as i dont want to have a cleaner wrasse?? Maybe a sand shifting star as no goby will be in the tank. Had a bad experience with one. Not going down that road again.

Also looking into upgrading my lights. LED seems to be very nice but im not a diy person so im shopping around. If anybody knows about a good and not too exspensive unit please let me know.
 
Is this normal? Bought a titanium boyu heater and bubbles are forming on it all over. Its been doing this since i bought it.

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I also want to know if this is some sort of coralline algae? Its blue in color and googled it but it does not seem to pop up anywhere. I know there are many colors. Forums that has had the same question said it might be a sponge but i doubt it???

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Hey Snoop,
To help with the cycling process, and general bacterial maintenace, you should consider using a product like Special Blend (Or similar) very helpfull in maintaining and starting a tank!
Sponsors on this forum sell the stuff ;)
 
Hi

Nice size tank, like your aquascaping.

I have seen new heaters doing that before, so would not worry to much.

The LR looks like dead Heliopora (Blue-Ridge Coral), the blue color comes from iron salts it uses to build it skeleton. Some people have reported them to regenerate from these LR.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Brentv ive used stability in my tank so thats covered. Thanks len. Love this peace. Hopefully im lucky and get some regeneration.

As far as the tank goes. I added two black percula clowns but ive got bad news. The one jumped out of the tank last night. :( the other one is very happy. He is very active and is all over the tank. Also added two big hermit crabs. They have cleaned off my live rock. Bassically eaten all the hair algea i had. Im not sure if they are algae eaters but im not complaining at all.

As for corals. Ive added a bigish greenish leather and red shrooms and also a sun coral. All open and doing great. Thats it. Going to upgrade my lighting at the end of the month so i can keep sps later. This is where i want some advice.

I can either by two odyssea quad units each with for 24 watts t5 and led moonlights ( which i like) or i can get a single 150 watt halaide unit with two 24 watt t5s. Im also gonna go the np reactor way as i dont havea dsb and limited space under the tank.
 
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