Luc's 250g Build

Thanks OP ;D

Well my gf loves corals and reef stuff. Just finished cycling a 23g cube thats going to be 'her' reef tank. Gonna wait till we move it to the new house to start adding any livestock.

I on the other hand am not such a big fan of corals and stuff. Im more of a fan of the big impressively coloured marine fish. So thats why i want to have a FO.

 

wow man thats awsome!!! i have a 180 full reef and now im jealous of ur tank lol. I plan on getting a 220 standard tank when we move into our first house, the 180 will stay the reef and the 220 will house some awsome looking fish. I also have a 150 thats not set up which i will make a aggressive tank!

 

mentalist - Alan Partridge , classic

sounds good Luc - I mean all the tanks you will have not the part about having an unfinished home

Steve

 

GOD IM TIRED!!!

But finally the house is finished! Woohoo! House warming party round mine. Bring a bottle!
lol.....anyway

Progress: I have cleaned all of tank. Its all plumbed in now. Have setup all the equipment - skimmer, UV, return pump etc.

On list to do tomorrow: Going to get some base rock and some epoxy and try to create a nice aquascape. Fill with sand. Add add water


I have 2 questions:

1) I know that the majority of advice about marine tanks is to not use tap water. However, in china everyone ive asked all uses tapwater and people look at me strange when i mention R/O water. Also im only having a FOWLR system, so does using tap water matter as much in that case? My other concern is the size of the tank....It would take forever to fill the tank with R/O water. Also i use R/O water in my small reef tank. But that is currently plagued by green hair algae, so im guessing that R/O water isn't 'magical' after all.

Summary: Should i use tap water in this tank?

2) As im going to be using base rock and 'dead' sand. I will most likely be cycling with the fish method. I dont want to use the typical damsels, so would i be ok if i used a few blue/green chromis instead? I know they are essentially damsels...but are they as hardy as the yellow tail damsels etc?
I also like them because they are peaceful and schooling. Which seems rare in a marine tank

Summary: Should i cycle my tank with a few blue/green chromis?


Thank you guys. I'll post pics of any updates to come.

Luc

 

Well, due to the outstanding response i got from my last update post. I decided to include pictures in this one.

The tank has now got water in it, and salt and is up to 1.024 sg. So its all going hunky dory! Just need to wait for the water to settle and clear up as its currently a bit cloudy.

Just for fun: Anyone wanna take a guess at how much rock there is in the tank (in kg's). Winner gets karma.

Anyway....blah,blah,blah...pics!!!

Progress shots:

Here i am, all 6'3" of me in the tank cleaning it


This is pretty much how i kept the final aquascape


Here is an arty farty shot of the tank

These next two pics are how the tank currently stands.




View from both sides. NOTE: Cloudy water




Finally here i am enjoying a soak in my new jacuzzi with a beer after all my hard work

(People with a nervous disposition, heart problems or pregnant women look away now )


All in all im very pleased with the way the tank has turned out. The dreaded sump/overflow system i was having nightmares about has turned out to be the simplest of things to operate. All the cheap chinese stuff is working brilliantly. I was also pleasantly surprised with my aquascaping skills. to think i was actually going to hire a professional to aquascape my tank :S . Lol. So glad i didnt waste my money now on that.

Sadly....im going on holiday to Thailand on wednesday. So no more updates for a short time. But hey....i dont care! IM GOING ON HOLIDAY! WOOOHOOO!

Wat you guys think so far then?

 

im loven it . it looks awesome lucbb .

 

it is looking awesome! I'd say you have about 85Kg of rock in there?

 

Thank you for comments guys!

nctinter: X - incorrect. But keep guessing though

 

200lb of rock Luc?

looks good, - chromis not a bad way to cycle IMO - but a single YTB Damsel would also do the trick , the large tank would equal a very low amonia, nitrite spike before bacteria kicks in , meaning the polution that the damsel is exposed to is minimum and a single YTB does not significantly reduce the total number of fish you can eventually keep in there

leaving you with more free water space for the fish you do want, rather than the hardy fish you chose to cycle the tank just my 10 penneth

Steve

 

ive always wanted a stank in your style lol and love the rock work