Setting up a tank

Oi_itz_blake96

Well hello all I want to set up a small saltwater tank
To put coral and 2-3 clown fish
I have a 98l 2 ft tank
So I'm looking for some help to set it up and were would be the best place to buy suff from of the Web
And just some tips thanks and the LFS has Nothing about saltwater tanks and all her fresh water tanks are disguising
So at the the point of time I only have the tank and stand and heater
Thanks Blake <!-- s:biggrin: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_biggrin.gif" alt=":biggrin:" title="Happy" /><!-- s:biggrin: -->

liquidg

The LED lights from 365sunnyled in china,90 watt 90 degree 3 watt diode cree fitting for some inverts and mostly fish,120 watt 60 degree 3 watt diodes for corals and fish.

For products( the age of aquariums),get other prices and they will compete.

Much of the bio filter you can build your self,mine is 2 foot as well.

Oi_itz_blake96

So I need to get a protein skimmer, chiller , wave maker and
Whats a bio filter and do u have any pics for your set up
Thanks

liquidg

I build my own systems and always have,this one I designed to run up to two,four foot tanks,so it will run my tubs and two 2 foot tanks to sustain perfect water.

It is a natural waste management system no skimmers or any other mech filtration parts.

My complete build is in our clubs forum and the link will not show up here sorry mate.

The tank at 0 nitrites at July 24th and then all that in there is bleached and boiled dead coral for no unwanted pests.

Every thing gets added along the way and grows onto the dead coral.



This is the tank as of the 6th of March 2012.



The rest is at aandtsociety.org.au,click on forum,then journals,then my first glass tank in 2 years,that’s mine.

jacobraven

It all depends on money and time |
Skimmer is not essentail althought helpful you could use a product like Purigen or Macropore to filter those wastes
Wave maker.. in a 2 ft one or two powerheads would be sufficent to move the dead flow areas
LEDs a good but are a large outlay will last longer and use less electricity then T5's
Bio is the removal of Ammonia and Nitrites like a Freshwater setup and require about 6 weeks to build up the essentials before adding fish.
You can start this cycle by letting a dead prawn degrade in the tank.
You can run it on a
- Canister
- Protien Skimmer
- Chiller

Oi_itz_blake96

"jacobraven&quot wrote:

It all depends on money and time |
Skimmer is not essentail althought helpful you could use a product like Purigen or Macropore to filter those wastes
Wave maker.. in a 2 ft one or two powerheads would be sufficent to move the dead flow areas
LEDs a good but are a large outlay will last longer and use less electricity then T5's
Bio is the removal of Ammonia and Nitrites like a Freshwater setup and require about 6 weeks to build up the essentials before adding fish.
You can start this cycle by letting a dead prawn degrade in the tank.
You can run it on a
- Canister
- Protien Skimmer
- Chiller

So all I really want is 2 clown fish and a Longnose butter flY fish
With the chill do I still need to get one if i don't want coral
Well these be good
-AQUA ONE G216 PROTEIN SKIMMER
-EHEIM CLASSIC 2213 W/ BIO MEDIA
-Resun SP1200 700lph
Is there any good cheap chiller out there
Thanks blake

Doug

2ft marine tank will be tricky to keep stable. I would be over doing everything to make it as stable as possible.

Oi_itz_blake96

Well one of my LFS has a set up it's has
It's 3x3x3ft with stand and hood protein skimmer or
Wait for it $1000
But I only want a little set up and my other LFS said just get a Otto filter and I light and some salt <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->
So I might just stick to the 2ft
But I have a 4ft that is not in use
So would it be better if
I set up the 4th then the 2ft but I want it to be a good but cheap set up
Thanks for your help <!-- s:king: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_king.gif" alt=":king:" title="king" /><!-- s:king: -->

liquidg

Its easy to have everything in a large tank or tiny tank perfectly stable at all times with lots of fish and many corals all flurishing!
There are 12 fish,23 shrimp,many corals,etc etc,all spot on allways.
Good luck,see yah.

jacobraven

liquidg i dont think ive seen you post a single helpful thing. :S

as for the tanks i would use your 4ft with an overflow box and the 2 ft as the sump this shld make you total water volume bout 3 times larger
less things to go wrong you need a chiller...depending do you live in a enviroment 24 degrees and below all year round ? also i forgot a heater hope that was pretty self explaintory. if you sump it you can hide heater protien skimmer etc in the bottom.
if you use a 2ft only id be putting a lot of purigen in a fairly large canister like 2217. But you still need a chiller on the return and heater in the tank
Purigen will remove the need for a skimmer but you will need too refresh it in bleach a fair bit. so you wld need twice as much for conveince.

Doug

based on what you want the 2ft would be ok but I would go with a large cansiter. Marineland C-series filters are good for this, or the big eheim Pro3 filters. I wouldnt be going with an internal filter as it will take up tank space, canister will add water volume and be better looking.

liquidg

"jacobraven&quot wrote:

liquidg i dont think ive seen you post a single helpful thing. :S
quote]


How do you explain quickly the ways in which you make a very successful marine aquarium with building it all your self!

Relying on ways of natural filtration flies in the face of what you marine keepers will be convinced to buy.

The person would have to be talked through each step of the way with a lot of type and there would be heaps of people like yourself that will have to buy it to save face as you would not understand it and the info out there is always directing you to buy and preach that natural ways do not work, they do, far better than what you could put together!

Firstly a simple but fine pre filter cleaned each day of a large volume of surface area that takes 2 mins to clean each day.

Algae trimmings are put back near here after hot water kills it totally to realese all of its content and break the remains down via the nitrite cycle upon it.

An algae area on a false floor supported at 25 mill off the base of a cheap tub from bunnings with calcium media in it at the right sizes and porus ness to be aerobic and anaerobic internally as well for the caulerpa to attach and do its work.

Ten watt LED blue-white diode tubes run this.

The tank has 3 watt cree diodes of 90 degrees for this depth of water over it,resistance lighting is useless in comparison!

The right algae used takes away any needs for a skimmer at all,three types of caulerpa via osmotic ways, meaning it extracts through their membrane all substances out side of the nitrite cycle and convert to amino acids,harmless carbons,strontium,vitamins and glucose of course that the plant/algae uses more than anything else.

You place lots of calcium media that does more aerobic and anaerobic in line to have the co2 when lights out occurs to dissolve some of it releasing calcium,strontium,magnesium and so on.

The lights over the tank have to be on when this areas lighting is off!!!!!!

You use a separate cascaded waters section to blow off co2 and balance carbon dioxide while absorbing oxygen balancing the hydrogen-oxygen molecules of 2 to 1 helping to reduce the gap between the acid and the base, which is PH!

Then a few external deep sand bed style of filtrations,with two pre filters before them to make it last many years at full swing.

Oh and there is a chiller,not much sense in trying your hand at a marine set up with out one.

To the bottom plastic tub to a return pump that returns to pressurise a spray bar to circulate in the right ways and keep the tanks sloped floor to the front,clean and all life flourishes with so much bio filtering that the tank is jammed with fish, personalities matched of course to avoid in fighting and the stoney,soft,stags,acans,brains,tubustria corals and more all do very well and allows for 10 to 50 feeds a day of a homemade food,nothing else,as the type of filtration handles anything thrown at it!

There is much more to this style of filtration,but there is only so much time to bother putting words about something that will be put down for,who knows why,oh that’s right,there is no money in it and what does it all mean!

The rubbish thrown at most marine hobbyists over the last 15 to 2o years to enable sales is a bit sad,its nearly as bad as the rubbish tricle filters sold back in the eighties,these mech forms of filtration do work to varied degrees that are sold to you,but hey a pile of sand and a rock will become biological to some degree and do something, do you understand all that,not likely!

jacobraven

Im pretty sure he asked for how to setup a small saltwater setup. Not how you did your project fasinating as it is, this is not what he asked for and without saying how you did your project how was he even meant to accomplish this. As intresting as it seems you still provided no detail to help him.

A typical marine setup follows the

The rubbish thrown at most marine hobbyists over the last 15 to 2o years to enable sales is a bit sad

with the rubbish only improving in the last 5-10 years before that little was known about the SW tank.

A lot of what you preach can be accomplished in a sumped marine system with a refuguim cause the live rock creates a bacteria rich environment that will increase the transformation of ammonia to less dangerous compounds, unlike bioballs which produce nitrates.

The creation of a DSB will allow a low oxygen enviroment perfect for the growth of nitrifing bacteria.

Micro Algae a horror in a display, a wonder in a sump to lower phosphate levels and the algae will feed the coral in turn feed other inhabitiants this can be lit 24/7 or when the display tank is asleep.

All this combined with a protien skimmer are adequate ways to run a marine system.
Foam fractionation being a very natural way to filter marine water have you never visited the beach to find that rough seas have created a foam like layer on the water and the beach sand

liquidg

Nitrite is oxidised to nitrate, plastic does not oxidise anything into nitrate, you may mean that the balls/cubes do not have any porus content to them, that would have allowed some anaerobic beyond the aerobic environment to exist, lets hope that’s what you meant.

I remember a nitrate reactor for sale at a reputable retail business for marine aquarium equip sales a while back housing bio balls, you know, the nitrate in there becomes nitrogen, of course that was because the design was for a very slow flow to enable this to work.

The 5 to 10 years you speak of has provided the expansion of some expensive toys in the market for the hobbyists, functional toys, sure, well with in reason!

You think a current days average design of sump can replicate pristine waters, not likely, especialy with the way you perceived what I typed.

The common sump and polluting popular style of refugium,that are what most copy are not completely useless, not completely and no problem right away!!!
White spot and velvet have a right to survive as well!

Algae,and its macro not micro, over the long term should not be illuminated for 24 hours a day, this is detrimental to the algae’s full functions.

Have I never been to the beach----,that’s an attempt at humor,right?

You think the beach foam is a major contributor to the oceans needs, I suppose phytoplankton is nothing really to be considered,hey?lol.

You need to read the words you are putting down and actually understand them,which you do not!

Comparing a NWMS to an average sump design around the place makes no sense, you may think it sounds the same but it is far from it!

The hobbyists in question could be talked through it,as any one could be,they don’t have to understand it,just appreciate the wonderful results as they build it and save heaps and have far better out comes at very low costs compared to what you are on about, but that’s the way it is.

The tech you promote looks different but its results are not that dissimilar to what results many hobbyists were getting when I started in 1980.

Keep it up,its not a total lose, the shops need your comments.

See yah.

jacobraven

Well second time round seeing i lost the first reply

Nitrite is oxidised to nitrate, plastic does not oxidise anything into nitrate, you may mean that the balls/cubes do not have any porus content to them, that would have allowed some anaerobic beyond the aerobic environment to exist, lets hope that’s what you meant.

Well I thought that would be assumed maybe I expected to much

I remember a nitrate reactor for sale at a reputable retail business for marine aquarium equip sales a while back housing bio balls, you know, the nitrate in there becomes nitrogen, of course that was because the design was for a very slow flow to enable this to work.

Yes Very slow flow you replicate in a refuguim... althought the DSB has side effects if disturbed one would hope a person wouldnt do this.

The 5 to 10 years you speak of has provided the expansion of some expensive toys in the market for the hobbyists, functional toys, sure, well with in reason!

One would call these Aesthetically pleasing for a household loungeroom unlike a NWMS

Algae,and its macro not micro, over the long term should not be illuminated for 24 hours a day, this is detrimental to the algae’s full functions.

Have I never been to the beach----,that’s an attempt at humor,right?

Both spelling mistakes was meant to be ''Have i ever been to the beach....

You think the beach foam is a major contributor to the oceans needs, I suppose phytoplankton is nothing really to be considered,hey?lol.

Nope just merely saying that a skimmers involment in a Marine system is of a natural nature

You need to read the words you are putting down and actually understand them,which you do not!

Hmm no its just i cbf proofing it. Takes me couple of mins to write this then i need a mod to approve it i reread what i wrote after your reply

Refuguims do enough to remove nitrates in the aquaruim probly not enough to provide food to corals as it would need a massive amout of plankton which wouldnt be availalbe in such a small enviroment. With DSB requiring strong lighting for the caulerpa or thinner bed depth. but these results are even debatable depenging on how good ones prefiltering is.

Ich n Marine Velvet are almost always caused by spikes in Ammonia n Nitrites.

Keep it up,its not a total lose, the shops need your comments.

Of course they do your ways still havent been spoken for very well expect your own over detailed explantion like you said

The hobbyists in question could be talked through it,as any one could be,they don’t have to understand it,just appreciate the wonderful results as they build it and save heaps and have far better out comes at very low costs compared to what you are on about, but that’s the way it is

liquidg

The nitrate factory rubbish is not just directed at bio balls, it is directed at many forms of bio media classed as nitrate factories, nitrate is some what controllable via water changes, nitrite is not that easy and some hobbyists don’t have much of a clean dead spot to take nitrate to the finish of the nitrite cycle-nitrogen, your comment was just another saying something just makes nitrate that novices will take to heart as they may not realise that the nitrite cycle ends at nitrate with out a clean dead spot.

Plus a tank with any nitrite at all,it was done all wrong!

Caulerpa combined with the deep sand bed?Now there is the polluting way people try a refuge!

Refugiums will remove the nitrates?Any clean dead spot will oxidise nitrate and a refuge/algae combo is in no way clean!

The beach was not a spelling thing, it was funny as I have had a lot to do with the ocean/beach of 40 plus years now and some of what skimmers are attempted to be used for now,is funny!

A NWMS in cupboard under tank is not aesthetically pleasing, as in unseen?Interesting!I would have thought most hobbyists would like spot on out comes for a few hundred and not as much as $2000,or more, behind cupboard doors!

Marine parasite out breaks are caused by Ph issues,in fighting,fear and attitudes!

Fear,the most commonly unknown stress causing tank issue,is that fish do not sleep,they lay in Waite for what my hunt them,or touch them in the dark,scaring the hell out of them,touching stinging corals,which is a skeletal anemone any way,bumping something sharp and quite often,oh hell what just touched me and out they jump,or get knocked senseless on the glass!

A night light is part of the NWMS.

I should know better after all these years then to exchange words on the in home marine eco system with shoppers.

Getting into these exchanges of words is not that unlike when I was getting a water change many years back,an old lady came over and said,once I said I was getting some sea water,you cant do that it will lower the ocean,she was serious and angry????

Answer how you like,I really shouldn’t give a dam how some ones marine hobby turns out,I don’t know them and most attempts don t work out that great, to much time is wasted on this.
This will make you happy,By.

Brengun

If you are looking to buy stuff online, probably ageofaquariums is good as they have a flat rate $7.50 postage. Thereefshop is good too but you got to watch the freight on some stuff.

There are a couple online stores for the fishes and stuff but you need to be near an airport or be on overnight expresspost and marine stuff doesn't really like freighting much so make sure the tank is well cycled and stable so they can quietly recover.