Soldato
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Nice little setup, what have you decided to keep in it? Can't be many fish to choose from in a tank that small. I think a few Sexy Shrimp would look great in there.
Your current Fish tank Setups!
- Thread starter Malt_Vinegar
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Nice little setup, what have you decided to keep in it? Can't be many fish to choose from in a tank that small. I think a few Sexy Shrimp would look great in there.
Soldato
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Picked up some Discus on the weekend at Maidenheads half price fish weekend.
What a fantastic picture! I've never really took much notice of discus before, but this selection look stunning.
There isn't much choice but not fully decided either. Id like one clown with the intentions of later upgrading to a reefer 170 so it won't live in a tank too small for it although iv seen clowns kept in 22l and i wonder if thats technically okay?
Any recommendations?
Soldato
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I would probably be looking at the smaller goby varieties, the clown or panda may be ok. Or a tiny baby clownfish with a clear schedule to upgrade in the very near future. But as a warning I had a small yellow tang in a 30" cube that I fully intended to upgrade, but life and stuff got in the way, and I ended up having to give it up, which didn't feel great. I was honest with the people in the fish shop, and if they said not to put a certain fish in a tank I wouldn't.
Soldato
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Anyone here use a algee scrubber or more specifically a waterfall type?
Have read plenty about them but am looking for anyone with personal experience.
Ive bought a prebuilt one as dont have the time to mess about myself but it wont be put into action untill the christmas holidays.
Have read plenty about them but am looking for anyone with personal experience.
Ive bought a prebuilt one as dont have the time to mess about myself but it wont be put into action untill the christmas holidays.
Goby was on the list, a clown fish this is my issue on it. I definitely want to upgrade and I can see a clear path that I will upgrade but life is always the worry part what if I can't or don't will the fish suffer. I'd get it from a baby and I'd find the smaller variant of them iv seen there's so many types of clown or near clown and they greatly vary in sizes
looking for opinions guys.
looking to buy a red sea 250 with the following equipment
1 x Red Sea Reefer 250 in White
2 x AI Prime HD Marine In White
1 x Ecotech Vectra M1 Centrifugal Pump DC 2000 GPH / 7500 LPH
1 x Bubble Magus C3.5 Protein Skimmer
1 x Fluval E 200W Advanced Electronic Heater
1 x Skimz Monzter FM100 Fluidized Reactor
2 x VorTech Quiet Drive QD MP40w Propeller Pump
just under 2.5k for all that. but then i saw the max e 260 range that come with the equipment built in and quite a bit of a saving.
i know the equipment listed above is going to be higher spec than what comes in the max e range.
should i stick to the original plan?
cheers
looking to buy a red sea 250 with the following equipment
1 x Red Sea Reefer 250 in White
2 x AI Prime HD Marine In White
1 x Ecotech Vectra M1 Centrifugal Pump DC 2000 GPH / 7500 LPH
1 x Bubble Magus C3.5 Protein Skimmer
1 x Fluval E 200W Advanced Electronic Heater
1 x Skimz Monzter FM100 Fluidized Reactor
2 x VorTech Quiet Drive QD MP40w Propeller Pump
just under 2.5k for all that. but then i saw the max e 260 range that come with the equipment built in and quite a bit of a saving.
i know the equipment listed above is going to be higher spec than what comes in the max e range.
should i stick to the original plan?
cheers
Soldato
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Why not get the reefer 250 delux wich comes with 2 x ai hydra 26hd’s and the red sea bra brackets instead of paying extra for different lights
It works out about £250 more expensive buying that and the other items seperate. I am on complete aquatics looking at the bundle deal so there must be a discount applied somewhere.
Soldato
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Strange. Have a look at charterhouse aquatics
Also i dont like the bubble mag skimmers. Will recomend a deltec or a reef octopus tho.
Also I use the sane return pump and you will need the adaptor to connect it to the reefers return (for such an expensive pump it should come with it but doesnt)
Also look at mp10’s instead of the mp40s. I have the m1 and 2 mp10s and run both on less than half power or its far too much for my tank.
Soldato
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http://www.h2oaquatics.co.uk/water-flow/ecotech-vectra-m1-barb-screen-kit-copy
And u wil need some pvc cenent to glue it on
I have a reefer 250. I would recommend downgrading the powerheads to the MP10 (or cheap jebao equivalent if budget is a concern!), the MP40 will be too powerful and you'll end up running them on 10-20%. Be aware that the MP10 might have issues mounting on the back glass due to magnet strength (the 250 has 12mm front/back glass and 10mm side glass). Try to get a skimmer rated for twice your water volume - For bubble magus this would be the curve 5. I strongly recommend getting a temperature controller rather than relying on a heater with a built in thermostat. I use the simply aquaria dual temperature controller with a 200w aqua medic titanium heater. I would be a little cautious with that return pump, I've read about people having noise issues with them specifically on reefers due to the width of the return piping causing back pressure. The hydra 26 HD are great lights!
As to your actual question I personally would always go for the tank with the external sump. It makes maintenance so much easier.
Soldato
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Yeah, dead silent pump can't fault it tbh.
Not posted properly for a while, so a small update.
Over the last month we've added a blue-cheek goby (made sure he was eating pellets in the shop) a peppermint shrimp (spotted a couple of aiptasia which must have come from those coral frags) and a pair of carpenter's flasher wrasse.
All seem to be getting on fine, the goby is doing a great job of "redecorating", he's made some little burrows and the rocks have a very festive look with sand on them
Shrimp has been doing his job well, the 3 aips I had seen have all disappeared.
The carpenter's seem happy enough, scooting around the tank.
The toadstool leather appears to be growing daily, it's about 1.5 times the size he was when we got it now, full polyp extension every day, so he's definitely happy
The zoas appear to have died, they've basically shrivelled up to nothing unfortunately. The Xenia died, however there appears to be a tiny one growing in another place on the same frag, so we'll see how that one goes.
With dosing Salifert all in one in the top up water, the params are staying pretty consistent now:
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0.03
Hardness: 8
Calcium: 400
Mg: 1270
My only concern is the amount of algae we're getting, the glass gets to the point you can hardly see through it within 4-5 days if I don't clean it, and there's quite a lot of hair algae on the back of the tank and patches on the rocks. Is this potentially because of the salifert additive? In which case would I be better getting separate alk/ca supplements, e.g. the red sea ABC?
Cutting down on feeding a bit for now and reduced the lighting to try and control it a bit, along with frequent small water changes, will a full blackout for 3-4 days harm the coral at all?
Over the last month we've added a blue-cheek goby (made sure he was eating pellets in the shop) a peppermint shrimp (spotted a couple of aiptasia which must have come from those coral frags) and a pair of carpenter's flasher wrasse.
All seem to be getting on fine, the goby is doing a great job of "redecorating", he's made some little burrows and the rocks have a very festive look with sand on them
Shrimp has been doing his job well, the 3 aips I had seen have all disappeared.
The carpenter's seem happy enough, scooting around the tank.
The toadstool leather appears to be growing daily, it's about 1.5 times the size he was when we got it now, full polyp extension every day, so he's definitely happy
The zoas appear to have died, they've basically shrivelled up to nothing unfortunately. The Xenia died, however there appears to be a tiny one growing in another place on the same frag, so we'll see how that one goes.
With dosing Salifert all in one in the top up water, the params are staying pretty consistent now:
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0.03
Hardness: 8
Calcium: 400
Mg: 1270
My only concern is the amount of algae we're getting, the glass gets to the point you can hardly see through it within 4-5 days if I don't clean it, and there's quite a lot of hair algae on the back of the tank and patches on the rocks. Is this potentially because of the salifert additive? In which case would I be better getting separate alk/ca supplements, e.g. the red sea ABC?
Cutting down on feeding a bit for now and reduced the lighting to try and control it a bit, along with frequent small water changes, will a full blackout for 3-4 days harm the coral at all?
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API master test kit for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate/PH
Colombo for Phosphate/Calcium/magnesium
Salifert for hardness
Phosphate was a lot higher when I started, but I've had a bag of rowaphos in front of one of the wavemakers which seems to have brought it right down