evilknieval69

I use water straight from my tap, with no water ager at all. Your fish will be fine. Most people don't waste their money on water ager, as most of the time it is not needed and is just a hassle. I used to do 150L water changes on my 250L planted tank, and used to fill it up straight from the hose.

An air driven skimmer would not really be good enough for a 100L tank no. That link that wilson gave looks alright, and would be a good starting point, but as wilson said, needs a skimmer (which as i've said) you will need to budget around $400 for.

Has your sand got diatoms on it? Does it let out heaps of crap when you stir it? If the answer to either of those two questions is yes, then there you go. With a BB system the crap may settle on the bottom yea, but then what you do is have powerheads pointing everywhere which doesn't let it settle and it eventually gets pulled out by the skimmer. What good are worms in sand to a marine tank anyway?

Nope, not at all. infact i do know that sand does have other benefits, but in my opinion (and partially experience) it is much easier to keep the nutrients low in a BB system then it is a system with a SSB or a DSB. DSB's do work, but will crash unless looked after properly. BB is easy, and works. that is all

And that is it. I thought 'yea i can do it cheaply' but in the end, found out the hard way that i couldn't do it cheaply, and that i messed up majorly. I had a small tank, skimmer, HOB filter with carbon, powerheads, did water changes etc, but in the end, it came down to me not being able to afford test kits, supplements, good equipment, good lighting and pretty much everything else you need, and it crashed. I even managed to kill 5 frags that Wasp very kindly gave to me ( :oops: ) I still want to do a marine tank, but i will not be doing another one until i buy my own home, and have a spare 4 grand (at least) to throw at a marine tank. Next time i do a marine tank it is going to have the best skimmer i can get, gunna be as big as i can make it, and im not gunna skimp on anything, simply because i know that trying to do it realy cheap, is destined for failure. Wasp has a good point, and if i were you id take him up on his offer for the mushys etc, but remember, even to get a 20L going and to keep it going, with just a few small mushrooms, you are still looking at probably around $400-$500.

LOL! there ya go then :lol: Any kind of carpet cleaner should do :lol:

Skimmer - get the best you can find, for whatever money you put aside for one. as i said, budget three to four hundred dollars for a decent skimmer. Reef octopus are alright, and are probably in your price range brand new, otherwise look around for a second hand deltec mce300 or 500, even 600, or find out how much they are new. Deltec is pure quality, and you get what you pay for. Other things you will need will be a heater (any heater will do but i'd buy a brand new one, of a good reliable brand, because you do not want a heater to fail in a marine tank and cost you hundreds if not thousands!) powerheads. For a start, aim at around 30 times flow for the volume of your tank. Any powerhead will do realy, but if you want quality, again go for a tunze nanostream or two. the smallest ones are down around $100 now so aren't too bad. Lighting is a major part. Metal halide or T5. in a 3ft tank you wouldn't realy want to much around with T8's as they just aren't powerful enough. i think you can buy a double T5 ballast and end caps on trademe these days for $100 or so, which is not bad. then you need rock, which as wilson mentioned earlier (i think) you should get first and get it cycling. Put it in a barrel/container of saltwater, in the dark, with a string powerhead to keep things moving, and change the water weekly. this will start your rock cycling and help prevent a cycle happening in the tank which will cause all sorts of weird algaes (which you will get anyway mbut no as bad) Sand is your choice. either do bare bottom or use sand just for aesthetics. BB is best easier to keep clean. Um, thats about it realy. theres all the other things, but those are the main things you need to start with

I've use erythomycin many a time and i have never had it kill a filter. Im pretty sure heaps of others here have used it without killing the filters either. Interesting that you say it does.

Wilson, it *should* cost that much, because if it doesn't, then you don't have a good setup. The MAIN part of a marine tank is a skimmer. You need a good skimmer to have a good tank (yes people do it without skimmers but they have other forms of nutrient export - skimmers are easiest!) even for a small tank you should budget at least $300-$400 for a skimmer. Yea theres crappy air lift skimmers etc out there, but as i said, they are CRAPPY. Listen to this man! He is 100% correct. P.S. all of the above is my views, and i take no responsibility for anything i say :lol:

Do you have at least $1000 cash to spare dixon?

Yes, agreed with SBD. Get those 3 footers running so you can change your community tank from grossly overstocked to understocked, then start a marine tank once you have AT LEAST $1000 to throw away at once.

Why don't you listen to the people who have been there, done that, and know that it is extremely hard to do, and extremely hard to make it look good? If you are going to do a marine tank, don't even try doing anything under a 3 foot tank, preferably over 200L's. Yes people will say 'but i have this size tank and its fine' but its not easy to look after, and requires a lot of effort. Trust me, i tried to do a 60L tank, an even after spending $600 + it failed on me because i still didn't have the correct stuff. Answer this question - Do you have $1500 to dedicate to a marine tank? If yes, then go for it, but get a bigger tank, if no, then don't even try.

Yep, 18 isn't even enough :lol: Need at least 40

ohk i might buy some off him then, will feed it in very small amounts :lol:

That's an awesome price IMO. I saw them in hollywoods yesterday for $100, and they were small. At that price i'd snap it up quick!

Was looking at the spirulina flake that mad4fish (smcoleman) has on there, but stopped looking once i saw that his was 40% protein. What would be considered 'high' protein and what would be considered alright for dems/algae grazers? Im really paranoid about killing the poor things :lol: I will probably go buy some of the sera stuff tomorrow (if i can find any anywhere, had a look on trademe (where I've seen it once before) but there was none there)

Just wondering what all the people out there who have Dems feed them. Been feeding mine mainly on BBS and a sera food for Africans but have just realized that it is high in protein (40%) so im not gunna be feeding it very much anymore! Read that high protein foods can cause bloat in vegetarians, so im starting to worry now. Im gunna buy some Sera Granugreen which is for algae grazers, so hopefully it will suit them better. Looked at some spirulina flake on trade me but it was 40% protein as well. Is that high or am i just thinking it is? what does everyone else feed?

Couple pics taken 5 mins ago. Not very good. excuse the algae and water marks in the 2nd pic :oops: :lol: Does that first one look fat? Bloat? normal? Noticed a few of them have fat guts, bit worried now

Rule 1 of fish keeping: NEVER buy a fish unless you have researched about it, know what it can go with, know its water requirements and know what it is called! Rule 2 of fish keeping: Refer to rule 1 Rule 3 of fish keeping: Refer to rule 2

ahh so it was bryan. haha Nah, leave it bare man! It looks mint with the Coraline, and as you said, shrooms are already attaching so just let them cover it!

Looking good marko. I love your aquascaping.The little arch on the left hand side and the cave on the right hand sode look so awesome! well done! Just one complaint.... Get two nanostreams and ditch the seios! :lol: Some very nice looking corals in there man! And go the BB!! yeeehaaa 8)

ohk, do you change the filterwool regularly? Best to. So yea, just blast the crap out (you could just grab one of the nano streams and give it a blast) and it should be fine

Get a powerhead and blast all the crap out from under the rocks etc and then run some filter wool or something for a few days afterwards. It will help keep the caves clean. Also, dont have sand in places where you can't syphon and/or see. just put sand in the places you see to make it look good, but right in underneath the rocks etc, if you have sand it will just help trap the detritus. So yea, blast it out regularly, and then use some sort of mechanical filtration afterward to 'clean' the water

Yep that would be fine, as long as there aren't any holes big enough for the eggs or fry to get through, and small enough that the fish couldn't 'suck' the fry through the holes to eat them.

Gravel and plants with the fry would be alright, but a barebottom tank would be better. you can still have plants in with them though, just use some lead weights to hold them down, or let them float. The plants will actually be good for the fry as they will feel safe, and will eat all the little micro-organisms etc off them (the corys will that is lol) I raised mine in a margarine container with a ramshorn snail and a small amount of java moss until they were almost 1cm, then they went into a bit larger container, then i put them into my other tanks, but usually you'd grow them up a bit more in a tank, then sell them, but if i were you i'd just put them straight into a 25 or so litre tank and they'd be fine in there for a fair while. I raise a few fry in small containers (like my killies) as they can find food easier, and i just do daily water changes.