Marine aquarium setup help - Cosmo?! :-P - Corsa Sport - for Vauxhall and Opel Corsa B, Corsa C and Corsa D

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drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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18th May 10 at 06:35

quote:
Originally posted by MarkM
Expensive?

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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18th May 10 at 06:38

See, 12p a litre sounds cheap but for 800 litres you are talking about £96 for water, and a 25kg bucket of Kent salt is only £49. Our 100GPD RO filter was £35, then new cartridges for it are even cheaper so in the long run it works out a lot cheaper to make your own, plus you dont have to transport it from the shop. I can see the appeal though on a smaller tank because it's less effort

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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18th May 10 at 08:01

RO filter under the sink

Old tank and quarantine tank set up in the garage at the moment

Some of the corals that are going into the new tank

and finally, the new tank/sump ready to be set up as soon as the rest of the floor is put down.

corsa120

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Registered: 4th May 02
Location: Northamptonshire
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18th May 10 at 19:18

lovely tank......

800 litres alond of water on that floor???? have you thought/checked it can take it....?

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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19th May 10 at 07:47

Because the weight is spread out over the whole base, the pressure on the wood only works out at about 70 grams per square cm, and there's no worry about the floor underneath supporting it because it's solid concrete :-)

MarkM

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Registered: 11th Apr 01
Location: Liverpool
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19th May 10 at 21:47

Is the tank going in front of that window?

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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20th May 10 at 07:01

No it's just there temporarily so it's out of the way for laying the rest of the floor. It;s going in the dining room on the opposite site of the room to the windows. Fingers crossed the floor in the dining room should be down by this evening so we can start with the tank then!

Cosmo

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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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20th May 10 at 07:07

Just seen you're upgrading already - sounds like you got bit like I did

Just wait until you order a 7ft tank

Seems a bit pricey what you paid for the new tank, it is stunning though.

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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21st May 10 at 06:54

Don;t forget that marine tanks have weirds, holes drilled in for sumps, and the sump itself, then the pipework was almost £100 (surprising how it adds up!) and £95 for delivery. I think the tank itself with the stand, sump, hood and cover glass was £989.
They did have a 7ft tank for only £180 more but I honestly think that this new one will be big enough until I eventually have my own house that I intend to stay in for a long time, then I will be putting one in a wall :-)

Bart

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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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22nd May 10 at 09:39

DF, how often do you add fresh water from the RO filter?

corsa120

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Registered: 4th May 02
Location: Northamptonshire
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22nd May 10 at 17:31

im lucky my local shop does ready mixed salt water at the correct sg for only 10p a litre

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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28th May 10 at 09:40

quote:
Originally posted by Bart
DF, how often do you add fresh water from the RO filter?

I just bought an auto topup unit that will do that for me so all I have to do is fill the 10l bucket whenever it's getting low

[Edited on 28-05-2010 by drunkenfool]

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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28th May 10 at 09:43

Here's a quick copy and paste from the progress thread on UltimateReef, just in case anyone here is still interested!

We have pretty much just thrown the rock in there at the moment to keep it warm, wet and salty but we should hopefully have the chance to do the aquascaping this weekend when I have picked up another 33KG of live sand from someone in Bristol and a few more KG of LR that a friend who is closing down their tank is donating to us.

Here's a pic of the sump setup, we currently have the V2 1500 skimmer, a phosphate reactor, ocean runner 6500 circulation pump, two 300w heaters with the ATC 800 temp controller, (a chiller has been ordered and will be delivered next week because the temp went up to 28.1 degrees the other day when we had the hot weather)

There is a 27w LED lamp in the sump for growing cheato

but contraversially we have also gone down the LED route for the main tank lighting too, at the moment using 5 TMC aquaray 1000HD tiles - 3 marine white and 2 reef white.

We also have 4 of the aquaray 500 strips in the house which may be used at the sides, but it depends how it all looks once we have aquascaped it!

chloe16v

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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Rotherham
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3rd Jun 10 at 05:40

my ro unit atm is fed through my kitchen window to a bowl to give my dogs a constant suply of fresh water, i really want another marine tank

chloe16v

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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Rotherham
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3rd Jun 10 at 05:45

oh an DF i really wouldnt get a mandarin yet as it needs loads of copods to eat to suvive and these only live in fully established tanks that have been running for around a year, you can harvest your own copods to add to the tank though to start them off to establish them quicker or you can buy kits of them that you add every week/month

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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3rd Jun 10 at 10:12

Yeah we are going to wait a while to get the mandarin, but not a year. We will be culturing our own copepods anyway plus whatever life is found in the sump/refugium so it should be fine after a few months I would think!

Here's another copy and paste off the UR thread...

Another small update...
I decided to buy one more LED tile so we now have 3 marine white and 3 reef white - hopefully it will be enough to have quite a few corals in there eventually
We also had a go at the aquascaping after having added another 33kg of live sand, so this is how it's looking at the moment

I'm pretty pleased with the general arrangement of the island on the right (although the corals may need moving), but I think the bit on the left still needs a bit of adjusting - we will probably have another play with it on the weekend before any fish go in there!
We also got the chiller delivered today which you can see in that last picture, but still need to connect that up to the tank along with the UV too.

The 1st chamber of the sump is now also full of LR, along with a few more bits in the last chamber because it wouldn't really 'go' in the main tank!

************************************

Chiller installed and connected up to the temp controller, luckily it was delivered in time for the hot weather because it actually kicked in and started working already about an hour ago when the temp got to 27 degrees!

I also got a 2nd hand calcium reactor, ph probe, controller, CO2 bottle etc off ebay and picked it up last night, so I will hopefully get that hooked up by the weekend after doing (a lot!) of reading! The fish in the QT should be put in there on the weekend, and then we are off to Glamorgan on Thursday to go and pick up the male crosshatch triggerfish

and lastly, I bought a calcium reactor and controller 2nd hand off ebay too so that also needs to be installed and set up sometime soon. Almost ready to get some fish in there again though! :-D

chloe16v

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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Rotherham
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3rd Jun 10 at 13:06

the size of that plate

mwg

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Registered: 19th Feb 04
Location: South Lakes
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3rd Jun 10 at 13:17

That is a serious set up

Cosmo

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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: Im the real one!
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3rd Jun 10 at 13:33

Nice - shame its wasted on a marine set up!!

chloe16v

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Registered: 29th Nov 07
Location: Rotherham
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3rd Jun 10 at 13:49

quote:
Originally posted by Cosmo
Nice - shame its wasted on a marine set up!!

you couldnt get a better set up than a marine

Simon

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Registered: 24th Apr 03
Location: Oxfordshire
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3rd Jun 10 at 18:50

So much equipment! Very impressive and looking forward to seeing some fish in it. I do agree with Cosmo a little though. I've seen very few marine setups that don't look 'messy' I think tropical can look a lot more effective with good planting.

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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7th Jun 10 at 14:44

Well we got some fish in there now, at the moment it's just all of the ones that were in the tank before. We should be getting another orchid dottyback to replace the one that died, and a blue spot jawfish soon, but they will be going into the quarantine tank before going in to the main display. We are also going to pick up the crosshatch triggerfish on Thursday and he will have to go straight into the main tank as he is too big to keep in the quarantine, so fingers crossed he will be disease free. I know it's a bit of a risk but this is the only fish that will go straight in, and we dont really have much other choice! Here are the current pics now anyway...

and here's how the algae is growing in the sump with the 30w LED lamp. Considering the fish have only just gone in there, I'm already quite impressed with the lamp

drunkenfool

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Registered: 7th Feb 03
Location: Hereford Drives: Audi R8 V8
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7th Jun 10 at 14:47

quote:
Originally posted by Simon
I do agree with Cosmo a little though. I've seen very few marine setups that don't look 'messy' I think tropical can look a lot more effective with good planting.

I think this tank is stunning

corsa120

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Registered: 4th May 02
Location: Northamptonshire
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7th Jun 10 at 16:39

still dont get after all the money etc you put in you dont let nature take its course with the nitrogen cycle........... its the one thing nobody ever does and it pays to wait and not have fish in it....... they will suffer even if they dont look like it.....

you say about disease they will get disease as the tank cycles if your not careful as they will get stressed it can cause fin rot and all sorts the list is endless... you have such a awesome setup but you let yoirself down with poor knowledge unless i missed something

good luch though