My Marine Diary - Pic heavy

Well today is the 23/05/2009.

So what happened today well I finally decided to get some RO water and get it in the tank and start to get some heat going through it before I salt the water.



yes it looks like a bomb site and I think I shoulda moved the bag before i took a few snaps.



it sneaks its way into every pic.

Another Marine Diary - great!!!! . Look forward to a blow by blow account of what you are doing GD - with or without the bag

That bag as been disposed off...swapped it for an ASDA bag rofl!

That was known as the fishy box.

Tank now full of unsalted water - just getting it up to temp. Then its time so add the salt

However one of my K1 power heads the right one is making a buzzing sound, gonna get in touch with Hydor to see if I can get it sent off for a service. Its annoying as the other one is as quiet as a church mouse.



I have also Modded the lighting unit to house an extra 32 LEDS which look fantastic in a dark room, Later on tonight ill get my cam out with them on

Oh yay, another salty thread... ...we're so easily pleased.

lokoking forward to next installment G.D


dekker

Well first mod - I added 2 strips of LED moonlights heres the snap when it was rather dark





Heres a pic of the LED strips in the hood, dont they look snazzy



Well I went out and bought some lovely Live rock from a mate in Darlington at £5 per Kilo and Picked myself up around 6.5kilo

heres a pic of the rocks in so far



Left side view



Right side view (couldnt view camera so it was a pot shot!)



Rock under the LED



Top of tank shot (a few mods still waiting to be done)



Spaghetti junction (also bought a cheap small bedside cabinet to sit the main extension on to keep it away from drips etc)



Behinde the tank - I hate cables


Also notice no Farmfood bag no more lol!!

Thats really starting to look the business GD, well done

looking good dave keep us posted
trust me it doesant stay like that long
wait till the Diatoms start
if you find the skimmer too nosey as I have
in a small tank like that you don't need it.
there isan't hardly any protin in it.
I ran mine for 2 weeks and they was nothing in it.
just regular water changes will be ok.
I'm going to get another power head instead
use up the spare plug..lol

Sand came today - Carib sea stuff its weird - has water in the bag.

The skimmer I will only use a few days a week to remove protein.

Id personally rather have a skimmer on the tank, the water its chucking out the top has a slight brown tint to it. (must be doing summat good lol)

BLEUGHHHHHHH lol

When its cleared a bit that will look great GD. Soon be fishy time

Looking good so far, GD. I like the Live Rock arch...

hi dave if you are thinking of getting more live rock
I would get it now so it matures all together
when I got mine Everytime I added more live rock I ended up with a massive
Algae boom. and to be honest I am just seeing the back of it.
it sent my sand brown and only yesturday when I cleaned them out
I had to scrape the top of the sand off and chuck it to make it look clean.
all the back of my tank is covered now in Algae, and it wont come off.
if I was starting again I would build my rock right up nearly to the top
so you dont see the back of the tank at all.
or make one of these as malc did but this was for the orca..
its made out of lava rock stuck on egg create.
I would defenitly put something in like that.or build the back up
so you don't see the back of the tank, covered in Algae.
mine looks a right mess.

Aahh chez, sounds like you have had a bit of a battle on with algae. Do you think you are ovetr the worst of it now as the tank has all matured a bit more?

Bet you could have done without that on top of everything else that has been going on!

Getting there Diane.

theres a light at the end of the tunnel
well on saying that the electric bill has just come in £400
so just hit roof........................

Im going to take half the water down in marine tank
and put that backing in malc made to cover the mess up at the back
Glad it didn't sell on ebay.lol
I know it was for orca tank but it will cover alot up
Malc gone for the salt water now.
Salt as the salt seems to have drop to danger level

so will do it shortly,

thats what im saying if you can't get to the back to clean it,
but I used a scraper and still wont come off.
then try build the rock up to cover it... saves hassle in the end.
I hate a mucky looking Tank....
I even make E brush his teeth.......lol

May be of use if anyone else is reading this

Salt has dropped because of water changes? do you salt your own water?

My salt is at 1.024 and temp around 25 as low temp means less evap and less swing in salt levels. but im getting the hang on salting i add 100g a time and check approx 5 mins later.

Tank has cleared, I now need a turkey baster...i also found a hitcher its not a friendly beats its a crab with red eyes and can i hell catch it...so tomorrow its rock movement and adding last few kilo

Ill try and shift the rock slightly back to rear wall and stack against that and try and get it up however I have a plate coming to allow me to stick corals on it will look nice.

I got everything but test kits sadly...ill get some piccies tomorrow as im tired tonight after doing UNI work (dont ask)

looking better



loads of dust build up on tank so tomorrow its all coming off.

hi G.D thats all looking very nice mate your making a very good job of that
looking forward to some photos when you get your fish




dekker

Right I added a few more Kilo of Live rock today and totally rescaped I like it a lot! I also have some tiving thingiiiieee on the rock god knows and my pics aint too great as its a compact digi.









Any idea what these are?

that red thing seems to have a tube in the live rock and it pops out and seems to filter feed, then it will retract and keep doing this, I assume its harmless if I find out any more ill let you know.

The long thin things in the last pic I believe are spaghettii worms harmless too.

sorry G.D dont know anything about marine fish maybe chez can help you - but tank is looking great mate - you've done a greta job on it.



dekker

Havent a clue what the visitors are GD - could the red thing be some sort of anemone??

Chez is the marine expert so hopefully she will pop on later and put you straight on that. Its looking great though - when do you hope to get some fishies?

probs 4 weeks or so, I am awaiting my testing kits, however I have been told if all is well CuC (well a few of them) can go in within say 10 days.

here's where I show my complete ignorance - CuC???