rollergirl

I have a little 2 foot tropical tank which has some serpae tetras, longfin zebra danios, hi-fin platties (which are really awesome looking fish), a bolivian/chinese(depending on which shop you go to) ram, and a few guppies... They all get on well and tend to occupy different levels of the tank which makes it look pretty cool. The ram is my favourite simply because he's so cute and has a worried look all the time,and so much character!. I would definitely suggest a dwarf cichlid of some sort once the tank is a bit more established with your peaceful inhabitants, they are choice to watch and very interactve with people too.

Hehe, loved your story that was hilarious. Good on you for managing to raise the fry despite all of the challenges

This thread made me want fish n chips so bad I went and got some for lunch from the chinese takeaway Now I feel all bloaty and full :-?

Wow, thanks everyone... Just got back to a computer after the weekend and have to take a bit of time to digest all of the replies!! In regards to the skimmer I think I will try out the Weirpro that Steve is offering and see how that goes, and then make my decision from there. Our upgrade is as far away as our new place is, and like someone said if I spend all my house deposit money on kitting out the baby tank now, it's just going to make getting the big one further away. Once we have a house that type of stuff can be put on the mortgage anyway lol I am rather lucky in that I can test for alkalinity, calcium hardness, ph, ammonia, total hardness, nitrate and phosphate at work on the photometer (just discovered this the other day and it is going to save me a bit of money!!) As I work in a spa and pool shop where water chemistry is also a big part of things (although in my case the point is to try and keep stuff alive, not kill it.....). With regards to the blue tang I am now too attached to her to even contemplate giving her up. She is only 1 inch so there is some time to go before she outgrows the tank I hope... :-? Anyhow, thanks to everyone for all their replies, I will keep you posted on how everything is going in the tank and put soem pics up soon.

Sheesh... You caught me at work, away from the tank, at a guess I would have about 25cm to work with. If you can imagine what the top of a hex tank is like with the cut out at the back for wires etc this is what I would be putting the hang-on part in. There is also another panel across the lid that acts as a backstop to the glass lid, this is about an inch wide, but I could cut it out with a razor under the silicon to make room, so the size of the part the water flows out of wouldn't be an issue, just the width of the unit. My god, I hope that makes sense, I can't think of any better way of putting it. I can hardly understand it myself. :oops:

Just though I'd introduce myself.... The name is Tash I'm new to this reefkeeping stuff, Have recently (about 2 1/2 weeks ago) set up a 110l hexagonal tank. Started off thinking it was going to be FOWLR, and then saw a couple of tanks with corals in them and changed my mind completely (Thanks Wasp & Jetskisteve for ensuring all my spare time and income is sucked into the tank for the next god knows how long, My friends all think I've gone mad... 8) ) So far I have about 6 or so kgs of live rock, a via aqua powerhead and external canister filter, started with a double-tube aqua one lighthood (it had a pink and a white light in it but very low output). This didn't bother me at first as I didn't plan to keep corals(except for the couple of mushrooms attached to the rock) but Wasp then kindly donated some frags (pink monti, star polyps) which started looking a bit sad after a week.. Well the monti certainly did! Since then Wasp has given some more frags (hydnophora, mushrooms, candy cane coral, and pulsing xenia), and came round to have a look at the tank. The lighting situation was pretty dire, so yesterday I grabbed a marine blue and white 15w actinic tube and replaced my ones with those, Hopefully this should spark the corals up a wee bit, as I can't really afford or concieveably fit a halide over the tank at the moment. I also started thinking I could run it without a skimmer but as time has passed, I've realised that the skimmerless option is just not going to work! Have noticed some cyano bacteria has started taking over the previously pristine white aragonite sand and I'm told vodka dosing only works with a skimmer. Thankfully, my previously cynical partner has now become possibly more obsessive over the tank than me, so I'll be able to enlist his help in financing one!!! My current dilemna however is how to fit one, tank being hexagonal and all, and with no sump to hide the thing in (If I had thought this thing through logically I would have had a tank custom made, but logic and I were never too close.. ) The only HOB one so far that will fit is a Jebo 180 (went into Hollywood's and they have a tank with pretty much the same dimensions as mine, so I could see it was going to work). But I don't really know anything about the things, this one is within my price range, and I'm thinking any skimmer must be better than none?But maybe it's crap :-? Anyone is welcome to share their thoughts here!!! Wasp is a big advocate of the Deltec but I don't quite know if I have that type of money yet. (Keeping in mind that when my partner and I get our own place, we plan to set up a much larger custom-built reef tank and just keep this one as the quarantine, so will be upgrading in the future) Hmmm.. what else.. Oh yes, we have our first gorgeous fish, a blue tang that we have named Midori, she seems to be content nibbling algae from the rocks and with the nori that I give her every couple of days She is very shy however and I have to keep explaining to visitors that she will hide if you come right up and stick your face on the glass!! Anyhow this should be a long enough post to keep everyone occupied for some time, it's kept me occupied typing it at work for the last 1/2 hour!! I will post some pics as soon as I am able to (When my flatmate lends me her camera). So stoked I found this site,what I have gathered from lurking in the forums so far has helped me heaps already Looking forward to heaps of fun and challenges in reefkeeping!!

Have Pm'd you....But unsure if it worked,new to the forums:-) Let me know on here if you didn't get one from me