Your current Fish tank Setups!

I really should give mine a trim :p

Quick before and after of the growth since I set it up.

beforeafterl.jpg
 
Hey guys,

Wondering if people can offer some non-biased advice on a Marine V Tropical pros and cons please?

Basically, I've just purchased what I would consider to be a 'proper' tank.

It's 4.5ft long, will total around 275L when full :cool:

I was going to make it tropical until someone (the better half :p) put the idea of marine in my head.

I've also spoken to a friend of mine who has a very large (6ft'er) marine tank, and its jaw-droppingly stunning. This is his if anyone wants to take a look.

So, now its even more appealing...but this is when it starts hitting the borderline of a past time project to something which is going to surely engulf your life :p

So can anyone weigh up the pros and cons of each for me? I've had tropical tanks before so its mainly geared towards the marine side of things :)

From what I can gather:

Whatever you think the cost is - double it and then add some more
It requires tremendous amounts of planing and effort with each bit you do, the slightest thing could kill your entire stock...especially if you're keeping coral (which I would like to do)
However the end result is extremely rewarding and simply incredible.

Can anyone off some advice? :) Where to start looking? Books to read? Website links etc etc.

Thanks in advance :)

Many thanks,
Jake
 
Monkeh said:
I'd love to get back into keeping marines too. To be honest the only advice you need when choosing is pick the one you like the most, with a qualifier of as long as you can afford the differences.

For advice I'd start with this:

http://forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread.php?t=44825
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Hey, what a fantastic guide and reply, thank you for the link :)

I spent a lot of time last night pricing up and researching and it looks like to get me setup I am realistically looking at £1000-£1500

I think my plan for now is to get a nice colourful tropical setup and then gradually buy everything i need equipment wise for a marine tank over the next year to 18 months then make the switch :)
 
I have kept tropicals for a while and was worried about marines for many of the reasons you state. Started the marine tank (100L nano) around 9 months ago and my reflections to date:

1. despite buying a second hand tank and doing everything as cheaply as I could (live rock from forum member etc), I have still spent a reasonable amount of money on water quality testing equipment. Dont underestimate this cost.

2. I managed for a while using water I sourced from elswhere. Eventually I bought a used RO unit and I should have done it sooner to be honest.

3. Timewise I was initially spending about 2-3 hours a week on the marine, compared to 30 minutes on the tropical. However, now it is established that is down to 30 minutes too (10% water change/week, 2-3 water tests, filter changes).

4. There is no comparison in terms of tropical vs marine in terms of interest and appearance. The marine tank is simply stunning to look at and has a much larger variety of coloured life compared to tropical.

5. Going away on holiday is more of a pain with marine due to the salinity changing via evaporation. You can add auto top up units but malfunctions can lead to disasters.

5. Overall I dont know why I hesitated for so long before trying marine.

Keep in mind both my tanks are ~100L so if you are talking much bigger the above will be less relevant.

Cheers
 
Once setup a marine tank doesn't take that much looking after, especially if you just start with fish and soft corals. It's only when you start to keep sps corals and you have to start dosing calcium, magnesium and alk that it gets complicated. Having a sump will make things a lot easier.

I would say if your thinking of having one go for it, they are 10x's more rewarding than tropicals.
 
Any Cichlid experts?

I'm currently in the process of investigating setting up another Mbuna Cichlid tank after I had to get rid of my previous one when moving to a smaller property.

I'm likely to be moving to a larger place in 6 or so months and will be much more settled, and would really love to have another tank, and am looking for some advice on set up and stocking...

Tank and Filter: I'm looking at going for a 240 litre tank (Fluva Roma 240 or Juwel Rio 240), with the Fluval 406 filter which, with displacement from decor, will see the tank water being cycled through the filter roughly 7 times an hour. I'll see how I get on with just that, but if need be I'll be happy to get a 2nd filter on the go. No such thing as over filtration, right?

Heater:Going to stick a single 300w heater in, set at about 26C. Will this be enough? I've heard using a higher wattage heater will result in more energy efficient heating?

Decor: I really love the look of the Black Tahitian Moon sand. Anyone used this? I'll be adding plenty of slate coloured rock to build lots of caves and tunnels. The pH around here comes out of the tab over 7, so I shouldn't need much buffering, but may still put some crushed coral / limestone in.

Now the hard part - Stocking:

I'm not overly keen on the idea of having a load of fry, but don't want an overly aggressive all-male tank. I've read that a Synodontis Catfish will take care of that?

I'm open to dwarf and non-dwarf species, and will likely be going for a 3-4 : 1 female male ratio with all of the species I eventually choose.

So far I have:

- Pseudotropeus Saulosi - 3F : 1M
- Iodotropheus Sprengerae (Rusty) - 3F - 1M
- Synodontis Catfish - 1

Are there any conflicts with the species I've already chosen? Any suggestions as to what else should I add?
 
A 406 will be fine for that tank.

300w will be fine, you could consider 2x200w for redundancy.

Best decor for cichlids is ocean rock and coral sand, it will help keep your PH right.

Syno's are very aggressive, they will 'take care' of that by eating the fry if that's what you want?!

As for stocking, make a list of exactly what you want before you start putting them in. Stock heavy from the start or you will find they will start fighting before you get enough in.
 
Ciphon said:
Decor: I really love the look of the Black Tahitian Moon sand. Anyone used this? I'll be adding plenty of slate coloured rock to build lots of caves and tunnels. The pH around here comes out of the tab over 7, so I shouldn't need much buffering, but may still put some crushed coral / limestone in.
arf species, and will likely be going for a 3-4 : 1 female male ratio with all of the species I eventually choose.
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I know bugger all about cichlids, but I've got tahitian moon sand in my iwagumi tank. It's great - the only problem is it's magnetic, so make sure you don't get fish that will kick big plooms up or when you're vaccuuming, otherwise it'll go in your filter and can stick to the impeller blades.

In terms of aesthetics though, it really makes fish pop. Looks real nice, will try and get you some photos at some point.
 
Ciphon said:
- Pseudotropeus Saulosi - 3F : 1M
- Iodotropheus Sprengerae (Rusty) - 3F - 1M
- Synodontis Catfish - 1

Are there any conflicts with the species I've already chosen? Any suggestions as to what else should I add?
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There are still lots of dwarf mbuna to choose from that would suit, it's down to personal preference. I'd probably only get one more species of 4 fish.
I personally like Tropheops Red Cheek, they are quite different to your chosen fish.
Also, consider Synodontis Petricola as your catfish (they're small so will suit your tank) and ideally you'd want a trio or more as they're social fish.

Look on Aquarist Classifieds for you fish. Fnd find a breeder near you, they'll be a lot cheaper than from a store.
 
Thanks for the tips guys.

I hadn't read anywhere that the Tahitian Moon sand was magnetic, so thanks for pointing that out! Cichlids are known for their digging, so maybe it wouldn't be the best substrate.

gort, so you think 12 (3 male, 9 female) Cichlids and 3 cat's would be about all I could fit in the tank?

I like the look of the Red Cheek too, so I'll definitely consider them.
 
Has anybody here had any experience of changing an old filter with a new one on a established tank? I've just changed my leaking tetratec ex1200 with an eheim 2224 and was wondering how long it should take for the new one to cycle. I've been running the previous external with a jewel internal which should be able to take up the slack for the time being. Just wondering how long I'm going to have to keep a close eye on my parameters should the internal fail to keep up with the extra workload.

Cheers
 
2-4 weeks most likely. Have you shut down the Tetratec yet? If not then I'd dump the live media into the Eheim, since it's the media that matters, not the filter.
 
gitbags said:
Just wondering how long I'm going to have to keep a close eye on my parameters should the internal fail to keep up with the extra workload.

Cheers
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As long as you put some or all of the old filter media into the new filter, you won't have to go through a cycling process. You're just putting the filter bacteria in a different home.

If you've chucked all the old media from the EX1200 then I would either a) wait a month or so or b) put the jewel media into the Eheim and take the internal filter out.

The EX1200 is great for flow and filtration but just rubbish build quality IMO. I went through three under the warranty period then moved back to Eheim!
........................

Ciphon, I'd leave it at that. It is likely that your fish will start to breed at some point and synodontis won't get every last fry. One or two will generally survive to increase the population.
BTW, synodontis aren't aggressive at all as mentioned by dfarrell. They will simply just prey on any fry they happen to come across (just like most fish will but synodontis are more efficient at doing so.)
Have kept several common species and they are peaceful.
 
gitbags said:
Has anybody here had any experience of changing an old filter with a new one on a established tank? I've just changed my leaking tetratec ex1200 with an eheim 2224 and was wondering how long it should take for the new one to cycle. I've been running the previous external with a jewel internal which should be able to take up the slack for the time being. Just wondering how long I'm going to have to keep a close eye on my parameters should the internal fail to keep up with the extra workload.

Cheers
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Throw the old foams into the new filter and insert new foams 1 at a time.
 
Has anyone had issues with Ammonia spikes? got a 64ltr tank, had 4 tetras in at first, it spiked then dropped quickly back to 0, left it another week then added 4 more tetras and two plecs, a week later, Ammonia level is at 4, have cleaned the gravel, done a water change and have swapped out the carbon filter (its an interpet pf2), so am wondering if theres an issue or if the spike is expected a week after adding the additional fish and i need to give it longer to settle?
 
I've always been interested in keeping a marine tank, obviously can't afford one at the moment but can someone recommend a good beginners guide that I can take a look at please?
 
dfarrall, MadMan-JaMeS, Makhaira - Unfortunately I can't reuse the old media ,I threw the tetratec out of the back door after breaking it down several times trying to find the source of the leak :o so I couldn't keep the media going whilst waiting for the new filter to arrive (not enough room in the tank). Although I did scrape the contents off of the floss I have in the internal, which I'd rather keep going due to the tank being quite heavily planted and slightly overstocked at 120ltr so the extra flow is quite nice.

And gort, I have come to the same conclusion. when they work their fantastic for the money, shame the design seems so flawed.
So I'm looking at about a month then? Mainly worried about my otto's everything else is quite hardy :(
 
Rob200sx said:
Has anyone had issues with Ammonia spikes? got a 64ltr tank, had 4 tetras in at first, it spiked then dropped quickly back to 0, left it another week then added 4 more tetras and two plecs, a week later, Ammonia level is at 4, have cleaned the gravel, done a water change and have swapped out the carbon filter (its an interpet pf2), so am wondering if theres an issue or if the spike is expected a week after adding the additional fish and i need to give it longer to settle?
Click to expand...

How long has the tank been running? How long had it been running before you added fish? I'd say the plecs might be causing you the problems, they can be messy little sods.
 
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