Your current Fish tank Setups!

Unicorn · 10 Dec 2017 at 12:19

Logsi said:
Bought some Longfin lemon plec yesterday. Just got to grow them out in our smaller tanks before putting them in with the Discus.

Lovely longfin plecs are, All mine are normal and iv no more space for a longfin (Territory wise)
Got any pics? Also you will miss them from your smaller tanks when moved to big one

I sure did, my calico grew out in my nano then when he was moved that tank went to pot in algae

b0rn2sk8 · 10 Dec 2017 at 20:02

Unicorn said:
Any of you guys run an ro unit at home? At what levels does it become worth it 4:1 unpumped would leave me at 200l of ro cost at 3 pounds. Buying it in barrels 200l of ro costs me 40 pounds. Obviously units cost and filters etc. Then salt costs add on too. Thinking for such a small unit it wouldn't be worth it but maybe for when I upgrade and I'm dumping 40l of water a month?

I did some basic math with the above. If 10kg of salt roughly makes 300l and 10kg is 20 pounds ish. 25 pounds per 300l of salt water vs 70 from lfs.
Price of a good ro unit I ain't sure of but ebay suggests 60?

It makes ro and salt water from lfs look quite expensive.

If your serious bout keeping a reef then a RO unit is a must to be honest. It will save you a lot of money in the long run, but you need to factor in replacement RO membranes and DI resin if you use it. The downside is they take up a lot of space once you factor in holding barrels. Got mine set up in the garage, waste water goes onto the garden.

I run a pumped unit, I have never run a passive unit but I imagine the efficiency and output would be much lower.

Logsi · 11 Dec 2017 at 11:32

Unicorn said:
Lovely longfin plecs are, All mine are normal and iv no more space for a longfin (Territory wise)
Got any pics? Also you will miss them from your smaller tanks when moved to big one I sure did, my calico grew out in my nano then when he was moved that tank went to pot in algae

Here's a couple of pictures. Unfortunately phone pics. They're tiny at the moment. Probably about 2-3cm.

Dirk Diggler · 19 Dec 2017 at 16:56

I'm looking for a little bit of advice from you guys, please? I'm currently in the middle of a project and it involves cooling my PC externally via normal radiators, res, pump etc..

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/project-external-cooling.18799743/

It's working really well but I want to improve it. I'm thinking of doing away with the air heater and using a water heater instead (I won't bore you with the reason

)

What I need, is a submersible water heater that will kick in if the water reaches a certain temperature; say 10C. Is there anything you could recommend? Something powerful enough to prevent the water from freezing, basically.

Apologies if this shouldn't be asked in this thread, I just thought one of you would have experience with the type of heater I'm looking for.

Edit: you could post in the project thread if you don't want this thread going off on a tangent.

b0rn2sk8 · 19 Dec 2017 at 20:44

Could be a freshwater like a Fahaka?

But why post that? Its not exactly pleasant or considered good husbandry these days.

Spook187 · 19 Dec 2017 at 21:04

Accually pleased that post is gone with the live eating of fish, predator fish keeping isn't to my taste.

rebel rebel · 19 Dec 2017 at 21:13

Yeah fish snuff movies aren't really my thing either.

opstrat · 19 Dec 2017 at 21:31

250 has finished cycling. thinking about just waiting till christmas is over with before stocking. finish up on friday for 2 weeks so maybe 2nd or 3rd of january will give me time to get some stock settled in. doubt many lfs will have january sales on

b0rn2sk8 · 20 Dec 2017 at 21:46

opstrat said:
250 has finished cycling. thinking about just waiting till christmas is over with before stocking. finish up on friday for 2 weeks so maybe 2nd or 3rd of january will give me time to get some stock settled in. doubt many lfs will have january sales on

There is no margin in selling fish but you never know. Make sure you keep dosing the ammonia until you are ready to put the fish in, you can reduce the level though.

Unicorn · 24 Dec 2017 at 13:02

7 weeks in

Rocks have been scrubbed down of excess algae/diatoms, aiptasia has emerged from somewere so thats a job to kill off later on though its tiny at the moment. Diatoms are only existing in areas iv not cleaned now and my snails are SLOWLY eating them. Iv now got green hair alage instead so iv tuned my lights down to 90% white brightness and 100% blues. as i was on 100/100. If anyone can recommend a true lighting setup to aim for id appreciate it

All enhabitants doing well skimmer pulling gunk like mental but iv cleaned it fully once and it seems to of slowed somewhat so im guessing thats normal. Now were settling in im just killing off pests and things i do not want.

Equipment, can anyone recommend a vac to skim over the surface to remove crud/algaes etc? or a good diy setup? Ideally something which pulls gunk out, But dumps the water back in tank after going through a filter? As i don't want to wc every time i vac

Unicorn · 1 Jan 2018 at 16:49

8 weeks in, Im full of corals

So my local lfs had a sale and i got a big zoa colony on a nice rock chunk for cheap, A friend then asked if i needed anything more and proceeded to give me his Green star polyp which is growing nicely already, 2 feather dusters and some pulsing xenia

Aiptasia is getting out of hand a little and some came on new coral piece :/ So getting some redsea stuff for it or maybe a peppermint i aint sure yet.
How do you guys take good photos too? My blue in light pops colours in person but the camera will not pick up reds/greens and yellows which are visible to my eye in tank

Spook187 · 1 Jan 2018 at 17:13

Unicorn said:
8 weeks in, Im full of corals
So my local lfs had a sale and i got a big zoa colony on a nice rock chunk for cheap, A friend then asked if i needed anything more and proceeded to give me his Green star polyp which is growing nicely already, 2 feather dusters and some pulsing xenia

Aiptasia is getting out of hand a little and some came on new coral piece :/ So getting some redsea stuff for it or maybe a peppermint i aint sure yet.
How do you guys take good photos too? My blue in light pops colours in person but the camera will not pick up reds/greens and yellows which are visible to my eye in tank

Getting there son, the pulsing xenia try and keep it on its own rock away from any other rock as it will spread like wild fire and take over the whole tank, for pics if you have a latest Samsung use pro mode and use the sliders to get the colors of the Corals, aptasia is a on going battle for most reefers, just keep on top of them, I use Joe's juice now to kill the gits.

Unicorn · 1 Jan 2018 at 17:50

Spook187 said:
Getting there son, the pulsing xenia try and keep it on its own rock away from any other rock as it will spread like wild fire and take over the whole tank, for pics if you have a latest Samsung use pro mode and use the sliders to get the colors of the Corals, aptasia is a on going battle for most reefers, just keep on top of them, I use Joe's juice now to kill the gits.

The xenia is on its own rock at the top out the way. If it tried to get onto another rock it will be killed back. I looked at Joe's juice but it seems for the few extra pounds the angled needle with the redsea kit may work easier

Also iv got a Motorola so I'll try out some settings

Siliconslave · 2 Jan 2018 at 12:08

Unicorn said:
Equipment, can anyone recommend a vac to skim over the surface to remove crud/algaes etc? or a good diy setup? Ideally something which pulls gunk out, But dumps the water back in tank after going through a filter? As i don't want to wc every time i vac

Interested in this as well, seen a few on amazon but the reviews are mixed at best. I seem to be getting all the crap congregating on the section of open sand as soon as i clean it theres more there (seemingly from the water change

) I guess i could move the spray bar to keep it clear but that just hides the problem.

Unicorn · 2 Jan 2018 at 12:34

Siliconslave said:
Interested in this as well, seen a few on amazon but the reviews are mixed at best. I seem to be getting all the crap congregating on the section of open sand as soon as i clean it theres more there (seemingly from the water change ) I guess i could move the spray bar to keep it clear but that just hides the problem.

Well i actually asked my lfs, I was recommended the fluval provac, Its expensive for sure. But it does work i was given a demo in store and because its mains powered not battery its bloody powerful! It doesn't suffer like the earlier fluval vac or eheim vac does with fine particles either. But for my tank iv decided go with a cheap simple option of a turkey baister

b0rn2sk8 · 2 Jan 2018 at 14:24

I've not used the powered Fluval but the battery powered Vacs are garbage, don't bother I have tried them all at some point over the years. Any poop that you suck up just breaks down and passes through the fine mesh and clouds the water. Any sand that is sucked up also ruins the impellers very quickly.

The thing is you also need to take into account the amount of time it takes to clean and dry them properly after the fact, you might as well just use a small siphon and a bucket or as the above poster said a turkey baister works great. It's really no more work, much cheaper and helps maintain decent water quality. From what you describe you would only need to replace 100-200ml of water using a siphon, even less with a baister.

Debris collecting in one place is a water circulation issue, that area is a dead spot which ideally would need addressing. Moving the spray bar is exactly what you need to do.

Before you go and spend any money you should first try and play with the filter outputs if they are adjustable or moving decorations around in the tank to improve circulation. If I was going to spend any money it would be on fixing that rather than on a gravel vac. Once you have proper circulation you shouldn't need to gravel vac more than you water change.

opstrat · 2 Jan 2018 at 23:16

can the pro vac one be submerged? the battery powered one says it can but dont see anywhere about the mains one.

Siliconslave · 3 Jan 2018 at 09:03

b0rn2sk8 said:
Before you go and spend any money you should first try and play with the filter outputs if they are adjustable or moving decorations around in the tank to improve circulation. If I was going to spend any money it would be on fixing that rather than on a gravel vac. Once you have proper circulation you shouldn't need to gravel vac more than you water change.

its a spray bar, i've twisted it round a bit and improved matters somewhat but think i might drill some extra holes to give a bit more coverage

NoobCannon · 6 Jan 2018 at 18:42

Emptied my tank today and currently soaking my live soon to be dead rock in bleach.

Nothing was killing my algee bloom and for some reason the tank was smelling uncontrollablly despite 2 bags of carbon and daily water changes and as id lost 99% of my inhabitants anyway and the remaning ones are in a qt tank saw it as the perfect opportunity to start again.

Gonna clean out the sump tomorrow as had enough for today and ran outta bleach Anyway.

Things change I've changed · 19 Jan 2018 at 02:46

quick question, can I get away with using this as a moonlight for my tank?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bright-Col...516329165&sr=8-7&keywords=blue+led+light+bulb

I have an old tank that uses screw light fitting and don't really fancy buying another Interpet moonlight for £10 as they really don't last that long.