Decided my 3ft would be a better first marine than the little 30L nano...

did the switch the other night, got some more rock, modified my aquaclear 50 into a refugium, and dusted off my favourite powerhead and added a wide output nozzle to it.

Still waiting on some bits, hopefully getting a double T5 unit, and waiting on two skimmers to arrive to try out.

Spec:

90x30x30 Glass tank, 80L (20g long)

Aquaclear 70 powerhead with modified output. 1800lph

Aquaclear 50 filter modified into a refugium (AC30 impellor, basket cutup and used to create baffles with filterwool sandwidged in between, with the rest of the compartment for nitrate eating algae

Eheim Jager 100w

AL30 light hood with a 30w powerglo (hopefully changing to a GLO Double T5 unit running a 24w powerglo and 24w actinic.

A decent amount of uncured dead lava and coral rock.

Temp is set at 24 (probe digi thermometer), and sg is about 1.021. Not monitoring params until my test kit arrives.

Also waiting on a nano in-tank hydrometer

Stocking:

Pair of perculus or ocellaris clowns

Yellowtail blue damsel

Flame angel

Once ive mastered keeping the fish alive will look into soft corals.

Got my water storage and mixing equipment sorted. use 2x 20L drums to get DI water from work, and have a 45L container containing a powerhead for mixing and storing salt water (enough for WC for a month?)

Lemmme know what you all think.

Note the whirlpool on the surface. looks really buzzy!

mean!

you putting a wavemaker on there?

mean!

you putting a wavemaker on there?

Not at the moment, ive figured ive got enough flow in there already, and the tank is going to be a bit cluttered for equipment once a power skimmer goes in!

Might ditch the filter though. the refugium is a bit too small to do anything noticeable, and if i do weekly water changes i can do without mech filtration.

Looking good! I would love to start up a marine tank like this... so many sweet options out there, so little time/moneys :-? Keep us updated

Nice setup!

I would advise against having the damsel. They are really aggressive and will harass the much more peaceful clowns. I've seen damsels bite onto the fin of a clown and not letting go!

If your tank is covered, then consider gobies like the firefish.

thats sooo kool i always wanted a marine haha maybe in a few years i might sell my tank and get a marine

Update.

Looking a lot better now! got my 2000lph powerheads, power skimmer has broken in, and got 5kg of live rock.

T5 unit is fixed, just waiting on a new Marine glo tube. Like my little hydrometer?

Whatdya reckon to the scaping?

I like the scape. I think it is very practical in the long run.

Like the scape, but if I were you I would make sure none of the rock is touching the glass. Coralline alage will grow on the glass, and having rock placed closely to the glass will make scraping very tricky.

Like the scape, but if I were you I would make sure none of the rock is touching the glass. Coralline alage will grow on the glass, and having rock placed closely to the glass will make scraping very tricky.

Yeah will probably re-think it soon. Its hard to scape such a narrow footprint. Do you think i could get away with reducing the rock by 30%ish?

Not having it touching the back is the difficult one.

do you find those wavemaker pumps noisy ? i got one of the same ones its quite loud might buy a sunsun instead and trim the impellor down to reduce the flow. those wavemakers have a stainless steel shaft which is meant to be a no-no for marine too .

do you find those wavemaker pumps noisy ? i got one of the same ones its quite loud might buy a sunsun instead and trim the impellor down to reduce the flow. those wavemakers have a stainless steel shaft which is meant to be a no-no for marine too .

Nah quiet as. sometimes they get a loud hum after ive unplugged them and plug them back in, but i find just moving/adjusting makes the hum go away.

Rescaped it just now, looks pretty decent. When water clears ill take some pics. Took out a load of the uncured rock so hopefully thatll help with cycling.

I just leave the coraline algae on the back wall, my tank is too narrow to try and scape with the rocks away from all the glass, gives the cleaner shrimp something to hang on to when eating and annoying the fish.

If you don't plan to overstock (for 80L) I see no problem cutting down the rock by 30%.

Better eh?

Update.

Everything seems to be working and functioning well.

Water params are improving, ammonia has dropped a lot. PH and KH are low since I removed a lot of the dead rock.

PH 7.6

KH 6 deg

Am 0.25

Nitri 0

Nitra 10

Anyways, I am delighted that I have algae. And is that a tube worm or something in one of the pics?

Upgraded. Again. :roll:

Scored a nice 48cm cube for $40. All sides tinted glass except front. Looks pretty good.

Just waiting for the paint to dry on the stand, then hopefully I can get filling tomorrow. Then need to make brackets to hang my T5 unit on as its looks stoopid sat on top of the tank (its longer)

The kh and pH should not have changed in response to your removing rock. kh depletes gradually with time, and I think your low pH is the result of the low kh. Your pH is critically low at the moment so you better do something about that!

So you are going to have 2 tanks now? Or you transferring everything to the new tank?

ph 7.6 is fine, mine goes from 7.6 - 8.1 during the day.

The tank above is just been set up so ph/kh, does not matter,

Thanks guys.

Yes everything is being transferred to the new tank. The 30cm height and depth of the 3ft is a pain in the A, and is restrictive. Cube should be much better.

Getting wood to mount my lighting after work today, then hopefully can start arranging rockwork and filling tomorrow

Pics would be good,

Pics would be good,

Look up ^

Will post pics as soon as lighting is in place

Here we go. Got everything finished, put into position - will be hard keeping attention on the TV :lol:

Had to use my entire supply of ASW to fill. Just using two heaters to bring upto temp. Rockwork is ok, best I can do without using putty.

Pics of filled tank.

Hopefully it looks better tomorrow when its cleared, and ill probably siphon the debris left on the bottom, and make any adjustments that are necessary.

Then its back to the sitting and waiting game called cycling.

Next step is to let mature and add phosphate remover to bind phosphates and remove any organics before they get stored in the rock.

Also other trick is to reduce light to a few hours a day, it reduces the chance of major algae taking hold and give your tank time to build up good bacteria which will break down waste