Reef Marine Tank

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Reef Marine Tank

Just having a look again and you don't seem to have a filter or heater in that tank; are they not needed?
 
its a special type of tank where everthing is hidden in rear special compartments so you never see them ill post up pics soon as i have some new additions ;)
 
Very cool.

I just bumped into my neighbour a couple of days ago who was throwing out a beauty of a tank. Needless to say I took it off their hands and after 5 hours scrubbing it's looking pretty good.

[attachment=1:6ocljt32]24022012713.jpg[/attachment:6ocljt32]

I'm keen just to go for a tropical tank as it can take a bit of neglecting but the missus would prefer a marine so she can have clown fish (yes she's a big kid). Any advice on places to check out for the gear I'll need? I tend to just go to Pets at Home or the small place just behind the Northern hotel.
 
got an anemome now
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and some domino damsels see how they take to the water :)
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this is the hidden areas for filters and stuff
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Ryanfaescotland said:
Very cool.

I just bumped into my neighbour a couple of days ago who was throwing out a beauty of a tank. Needless to say I took it off their hands and after 5 hours scrubbing it's looking pretty good.

View attachment 2744

I'm keen just to go for a tropical tank as it can take a bit of neglecting but the missus would prefer a marine so she can have clown fish (yes she's a big kid). Any advice on places to check out for the gear I'll need? I tend to just go to Pets at Home or the small place just behind the Northern hotel.

you left some streaks tisk tisk
 
abyss113 said:
so what are you going for marine or tropical >>

Since I've only got the tank I need to go out and get all the gear separately so was sizing up what I needed for a marine tank today. Sadly it looks like it is a little bit out of my budget just now so think I'll stick with making it a tropical tank for now. Was also planning on watching how you get on for a bit too see how easy you make it look!

neeny09 said:
you left some streaks tisk tisk

I was exhausted by the end leave me alone! Besides they are on the outside, I can get them later :)
 
Ryanfaescotland said:
Since I've only got the tank I need to go out and get all the gear separately so was sizing up what I needed for a marine tank today. Sadly it looks like it is a little bit out of my budget just now so think I'll stick with making it a tropical tank for now. Was also planning on watching how you get on for a bit too see how easy you make it look!



I was exhausted by the end leave me alone! Besides they are on the outside, I can get them later :)

get it done! no woman would be able to leave it like that do it properly boy :p
 
youd be suprised the only difference in a marine and tropical tank is a protein skimmer really and those are only around 10-20 bucks its the contents that make it expensive

1. you cant use tap water so you have to buy water or make some up with aquasafe-£10 and reef salt £30 depending on how much salt you need
2. you need live rock for the coral and polyps and things to live on shops are around £10-£15 a kilo my tank will take around 80-100 kilos
3. the coral sand -£20 ish for 25kg
4.Ph buffers and stuff 10-50 depending on how the water turns out :)

the fish are also a lot more expensive but they live a hell of a lot longer than normal type fish think they go for about 15 years or so :)

but if your just going tropical you basically looking at 3 base items

heater . filter . and air pump pretty much thats it :) probably around 30 quid in total

but i bought a bulk lot off a guy around here lately so i have tonnes of stuff spare ill not use but ill have to go through it all to find out whats there if you want any of it :D loads of pumps heaters lights rocks bogwood and others to name a few :)
 
abyss113 said:
youd be suprised the only difference in a marine and tropical tank is a protein skimmer really and those are only around 10-20 bucks its the contents that make it expensive

1. you cant use tap water so you have to buy water or make some up with aquasafe-£10 and reef salt £30 depending on how much salt you need
2. you need live rock for the coral and polyps and things to live on shops are around £10-£15 a kilo my tank will take around 80-100 kilos
3. the coral sand -£20 ish for 25kg
4.Ph buffers and stuff 10-50 depending on how the water turns out :)

heater . filter . and air pump pretty much thats it :) probably around 30 quid in total

I haven't saw any heater, filter, pump combonations for that price, hell the filters alone that I've saw are around that and that's for the ones that sit in the tank. Looking around £100 for an external one. Do you get your stuff online or locally? I did see some good deals on Amazon but haven't really had a proper search yet.
 
pump for £10

ebay number 260797964078

filter or protein skimmer £13

ebay number 280783452624

protein skimmers are actualy air pumps aswell so dont need an extra air unit if you have a pump driven skimmer and your heater is around 10 aswell thats it to start with

then its all down to purifying tap watter if you are using that for the tank then tetra aquasafe does the trick nicely for me its about 6-8 a bottle then reef salt and some coral sand both around £30 each but i have around 15kg of 3mm coral sand spare if you decide the marine route :)
 
Hmmm I'd be wary about using cheap Chinese equipment. Last thing you want is for something to pack in and all your fishies to end up floating at the top of the tank! Then again if you've used it before with no problems then it certainly is good savings over the name brands.

I treat the water for the tropical tank so used to doing that although I normally go with the Interpet stuff just cause it was cheaper (although a smaller bottle so probably about the same price per 100ml).

I think I will go the marine route using the gear you have posted to and just not go mad filling the tank with lots of expensive fish. That way I can see how I cope looking after everything and how the equipment holds out until after the wedding when I'll have a bit more spare cash to spend.

So my plan of attack is to go on eBay and pick up a heater, filter, skimmer, air pump along with some nice air powered toys and tubing and some ornaments. Whilst I wait for them to arrive I'll empty the tank of water and give it a wipe down again cause I didn't really give it a good wipe out after cleaning with Flash then fill it up again to about half way in anticipation of everything arriving. Once the non-living stuff is in and the cycling is started I'll get some live plants and add them then after the usual wait I'll start on the fish.

Can I get away with gravel at the bottom if I'm going for a fish only tank? Never been that interested in keeping coral myself.

Anyway, how is your tank coming along? Everyone playing nice and no-one eating your coral yet!?!?
 
well if you want some named stuff i have replaced my water pump and skimmer now so can have those if you want :) much cheapness as in free :D they will just sit here now :)
its the BOYU stock stuff that came with the tank

i guess gravel would be ok its just that im not sure if the fish NEED the coral or not :D ive already gone through a 7kg bag of salt for water changes :D damn this stuff is dear hahah :D
just remeber though the coral is pretty much self sustaining so dont need much of it a little frag will do and it will happily grow itsellf and help filter the tank :)

best bet is go to http://www.mailordercorals.co.uk hes based in rosyth and get a few hermits maybe a turbo snail or similar :) only £1.50 each so if they survive long enough then your water levels are acceptable :) and they start cleaning straight away i just give them some brine shrimp to much on everyso often :D

but yeah 2 fish 1 anemone and 3 hermits still alive in the tank :D had a bit of a panic when we couldnt find a shell and seen a skeleton in the tank but found him and guess he just shed his shell :D
 
Oooo free you say? That's my favourite price! Will need to see when I'm next going to be in Dundee and take you up on that offer :)

I'm a member of fishtankforum.co.uk and going by their guide coral free tanks are fine but I might stick in a couple anyways just for good measure.

Hopefully once your tank has been sitting a while and balanced itself out you won't need to change the water as often.
 
yeah well thats what im hoping for :D
looks like ive managed to get another tank on the cheap hahaha :D
 
abyss113 said:
looks like ive managed to get another tank on the cheap hahaha :D

Oh noes, does that mean I don't get my free stuff now! ;)

The tank I'm getting from someone at work comes with a filter and maybe some other stuff so going to see what I can get from there then see what else I need to get. Spent a while looking at protien skimmers yesterday, looks like they are just a plastic tube with a little hole at the top and some bubbles blowing up them, pretty sure there is no need to spend silly money on that so will most likely get one from eBay.
 
yeah you get air driven ones or motorised ones so you dont need an external pump and all it does is take the organic crap out of the water and cleans it for you all you do then is pull it out once every so often and clean it out :) and you have no idea how much stuff i got the other day so free stuff still available :D
 
Well I took the plunge last night and spent just under £100 on the equipment.

Not sure if you can view it with this link but this is all I bought.

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayI...ch=positive&interval=30&_trkparms=positive_30

So filter, skimmer, pump plus hoses, salt checker, heater and a little LED bubble wall thing.

So that leaves me salt, decorations and testing kits to buy and I think that's me although I might be able to use my tropical test kit on this one, I'll need to check.

Cheers for the offer of the gear but in the end I decided it was easier just to buy rather than go to the hassle of finding a way to collect it although I'm getting another tank today from that friend at work so I might yet take it :)
 
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