First post for saltys brave or stupid????

Ok so I started my tank first week in Jan 08 and bought some live rock that was fantastic quality and my tank cycled in 11 days so I was ready for the next step a whole 3-4 weeks before expected!



Then I got sand and it started to look like a tank



and shortly followed clean up crew







now some corals

trumpets



hammer


bush coral and star polyps

Now the fish

clowns



yellow clown goby



And finally the full tank shot




Thats it so far hope you all like it.

I also have a firefish but its to shy to get a pic yet and also too RUDDY quick lol

WOW!! Hope you dont minf but I've got loads of questions! What is 'live' rock as opposed to..........what??

What is the maintenance of the tank like - do you have to do water changes, test the water for ammonia etc like you do with a tropical tank?

Does the coral have to be attached to the rock in some way - like I have read about people having to tie plants onto wood or rocks?

Sorry for the questions and thanks for posting the pics.

Lovely pics!! That tank is lovely and looks like it will mature nicely.

I used to clean out the marine displays at my LFS for a saturday job, it is a fascinating part of fishkeeping, but very different to FW i think. I will let the pro answer charley's q's!

Hi Charley as I said before I am no "pro" yet its early days but I will do my best.

Live rock is well rock that has life on/in it like little critters eg I have a crab and several tiny starfish that in a way eat fish poo,the rock is really porous and this filters your water in a salt tank instead of a filter like in fresh water (although some people do still use filters).

Maintenance is quite high I test for all the same as tropical but also salinity daily and ph calcium and phosphate every few days. I have an ro unit this is the biggest pain as it takes ages to filter enough water for water changes. I do water changes weekly but when I get a skimmer I may drop this to every 2 weeks. My corals have come on some small bits of rock but I will get some aquarium putty that sticks them to rock and goes hard. There are many ways to run a marine tank its all about trying them out IME I did not think skimmers were needed in a tank ths size but now I have seen the scum on the top of the water I will get one. The best thing is to read and ask questions some answers you will think yeh that sounds good some you will think what are they on about and you will just do it your way. Hope that helps a little feel free to ask all you need.

How big is the tank kelly?

Hi Matty the tank is 21" cube holds 100L of water with rock and sand in. It has 2 powerheads that pump the water through 5000lph a 150w halide. It needs much more stuff yet like some moonlights, skimmer and loads more coral but a £30+ a pop its a slow process lol

Kelly, thanks a lot or all the explainations - it is such an interesting hobby this, I love reading all about the different aspects of it!

Hope you dont mind me asking another question, but what is a skimmer and how does it work. You mention about the scum that it would remove (it should be called a scummer :lol: ), so is it a sort of filter?

Are you sorry you joined us now - we've plagued you with queries!!! :lol:

That looks great, Kelly and lovely clear photos. I love those spindly shrimp, they're real characters.

lol no its a great forum. You are right though it should be called a scummer it is a filter of sort. If you think of the sea and how white foam forms its the same as that air bubbles pull out the rubbish left on the tank that the rock cant deal with. Some people feel they are very important but others run a healthy tank without so again its a matter of your choice really. I cant comment yet as I have not got one. I am learning loads all the time in this great hobby stuff keeps growing on the rock and I have found loads of critters in the tank look up mantis shrimp on the net and see what I found in my tank! they are scary

kelly wrote:

Hi Matty the tank is 21" cube holds 100L of water with rock and sand in. It has 2 powerheads that pump the water through 5000lph a 150w halide. It needs much more stuff yet like some moonlights, skimmer and loads more coral but a £30+ a pop its a slow process lol

Quite a nice sized nano then. It will look stunning when you have filled it up. I have considered a nano many times but have decided not to at the mo!!

EDIT: Found a definition of protein skimmer to add to kelly's description : A protein skimmer is perhaps the most important piece of hardware for the salt water tank. It is a filter used to remove organic impurities from the water. Water is sent through a fractionating column where many tiny air bubbles are pushed through it. The air bubbles generate "foam", which actually consists of organic impurities. The "foam" is channeled out of the device and is kept in a collection cup until it can be discarded. There are three main classes of skimmers: counter current, co-current and venturi.

Thanks for that Matty much better than I could explain. Oh your so ready to get salty

!! Defector!!!

kelly wrote:

Thanks for that Matty much better than I could explain. Oh your so ready to get salty

I couldn't betray the freshies. (I might once i'm done with school though )

Diana wrote:

!! Defector!!!

No I am a gemini split personality!

Wow, nice marine tank the fish look really nice, I have never seen a setup from A house before

stunning tank & fish kelly

nice to see some marine stuff on here, thanks a lot

aquanovice wrote:

Wow, nice marine tank the fish look really nice, I have never seen a setup from A house before

Oh this is nothing some people have huge reef tanks they are something. Thanks for looking.

munchycarrot wrote:

stunning tank & fish kelly

Thanks munchycarrot I spend all my time looking after them and all my money buying them lol

oh how do I multi quote on here?

driver wrote:

nice to see some marine stuff on here, thanks a lot

No problem hope we get some more on here or convert some freshies

kelly wrote:

oh how do I multi quote on here?

I just use the quote brackety things which is [quote="username] [/quote] Just put inverted commas round their username. I didn't do it so you could see it

driver wrote:

No problem hope we get some more on here or convert some freshies

For example

I still dont understand how to do the multi-quote, so thanks for asking Kelly! I had been too to keep asking questions!

Could someone explain it again please?