1st Marine Tank Diary

Keeping Tropical & malawi cichlids for the last 3 years, it was time to take the plunge and enter the unknown world of marine,

So sat 22nd march i went out to my lfs to pick a decent sized tank that would fit perfectly in my alcove, so many to choose from what size, what shape, i Finally decided on a 248litre 50 gallon rena aqualife 200 which came complete with filstar xp2 external cannister filter, 200w rena heater,2x25watt bulbs,tub of trial fish food and stress & coat zyme, this would fit perfect and leave ample room for water changes, maintenance etc etc.









So started the building of the flat pack stand & positioning of the tank unit.

 

Sun 23rd march tank & stand are in position, another trip back to the lfs to get some substrate, I came back with 16kg of argonite sand this gave me about a 1 inch layer on the bottom of the tank, as well as this i set up the external filter, heater, and being the newb i am filled the tank with tap water fingers crossed.I then added the first treatment of stress coat & zyme to help with the cycle.







Lighting Shot
The light unit can be slid over with ease and just lifted out for water changes etc etc.




This little cut out with slideing door is so you can add a rena automatic feeder.

 

Tues 25th March
By now the heater had been on for a good two days and the temperature was at a steady 25/26 degrees so back down the lfs to get some marine salt, in the meantime i ordered a refractometer off ebay £30 with shipping & quality, after a quick chat to the lfs guy i came away with a 8kg/17.5lbs bag of instant ocean.



wednesday 26th march yaaaay my refractometer turns up.pre calibrated may i add





I added the salt couple of cups at a time untill i got to a nice reading of 1.025 sg there's probably 2 cups left in the back, thats alot of salt it soon all melted lol.

 

weds 26th march

Today i added the ocean rock from out of my old tropical tank untreated water may i add, and put it in the new tank, using it as base rock not as porous i know but ok, then back down the lfs and purchased 3 kg/6.5lbs of live rock, damn that stuffs expensive £11.95kg.

I added the rock to the tank, should help with the cycle,gonna get a bit at a time.









Just placed them in at the mo will have a go at some aquascapeing when i get a bit more lol.

 

Cool pics, keep them coming. LOL;D

 

31st march
Today i went down the lfs and purchased a blue, yellow tailed damsel,i got home acclimatised the little fellow and popped him in to aid the cycle, the fish was very shy at first but after a few hours seemed realy curious & well.

Found himself a nice hole in the ocean rock to hide.



Great piece of live rock,loads of nucks & crannies ready for the clean up crew.



Speaking of clean up crew, i have witnessed a few living things within the rocks one of those being a bristleworm but its never around long enough for me to snap it.

the circled bits in the photos are snails i think 1 is white in colour the othere is like a bumble bee shell.





Aswell as these something circled on this rock anybody any ideas what it is?

 

1st april
My Hydor koralia 2 turned up today yaay



I put it on the left side of the tank, i will pe purchaseing another for the other side some time.



3rd April starting accumalateing a bit of browny coloured algae now on the sandbed, the fish is looking well still and is getting braver every day lol

water parameters are sg 1.028 a bit high i know but working on it, ph-8.2, nitrate,10ppm, nitrite0.25ppm, ammonia 0ppm, Phosphate-3
Going good tank looks like this so far.

 

looks good for a start I would say keep thoes lights off for now so you dont get as much algea , I say as much because you will get it ,thats just a given when cycling.

 

nice thread! keep the pics coming

 

Yeah, nice pics. I think the first thing you circled may be a Christmas tree worm. Hard to tell for sure from the photo. Not sure about the other one you circled. I am thinking about getting that same size tank. Congrats on your tank! Should be very nice.