RTBS

Reef and everybody else Thanks for the replies so far. Today we have set up the AR620T Santa delivered and Aquascaped and filled it up (Freshwater) so we will be transfering all the fishies we are keeping from the AR980 to it in a couple of weeks. Rest will be up for grabs in the local buy/sell Once I can get the tank emptied I am going to rip out the standard tubes from the hood and see it I can fit 5 or 6 3ft T5's in the space thats there while I wait for the skimmer to arrive. Any ideas on the mix of tubes to have would be good!! Now a question about water flow, How many pumps should I have?? Would just something like this be better although would take up a bit of room in the tank?? Looks like it would cost the same as 3 decent pumps. http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_wavemakers_wave2k.asp?CartId= I plan to keep a photograpic record of the conversion so if anyone want to see it i will make posts as I go.

I'll let my brother know the MC500 is OK and get it underway TM thanks for the phone call and advise, we hope to be down in ChCh maybe end of Jan and would like if possible to see some of your tanks, would this be OK. Does your friend have any Pictures of the T5 Retro fit or part numbers for the bits he used?? Thanks again to all those who have replied Mike

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Hey thanks for the quick reply, Do you happen to have any pics of the "lights under your hood" Might give me some ideas Mike

Ok Xmas has been and gone and now we back into it. Got the book and read it and again, and again and again, brought another and read it 2 After much discussion Santa brought a brand new AR620 at a knockdown price. All the freshies we want to keep are going to migrate accross the room a bit. The rest we are going to sell or give away to good homes. AR980 will become marine tank with a bit of a lighting upgrade I'm guessing and extra pumps and a skimmer for now and a 200l sump under the house later after I have had a bit, (wife says a lot) of practise drilling holes in glass!!!!! After much discussion we are going to start with softies and some fish Skimmer Question As far as a skimmer goes my brother has offered to get me one in the US, he live there, and send it out. We already have 110VAC in the house as we have lots of other 110 stuff, (as you do). He can get a Deltec MC500 at a LFS close to him but we don't know if this is a good brand, seems to be from searching here on this site, but it says 600l normal stocking / 400l heavy stocking and our tank will be 215l. Could we be OVER SKIMMING the book I have seems to indicate you need to get something speced close to you tank capacity. Price about $450NZ all up. is this cheap / expensive or can we buy local for similar price Lighting Does anyone know or has any one upgraded the tubes on their AR980. has 2 x 36inch and 1 x 30 inch tubes. Can anyone reccomend best power and type of tube for a marine set up. I am totally confused by this?? Can we fit T5 HO tube with out too much modification?? This is only to get started, we plan on maybe removing the hood and fitting pendant MH at a later stage but like the sump this will mean alterations to our house design to make things look right Thanks in advance for all the replies Have a happy New Year Mike

Feelers and everybody else who has replied, thanks for all the advise Am going to wait for the book to arrive before doing anything else. Yes we have looked at trademe, one of the other members here had a tank which looked awesome and what seemed like a steal but as it was in Hamilton and we are on the other side of the ditch not really a sensible option. I have found a lot of information about "Nano Reefing" here , http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/ and wondered if this might be an OK set up for say four fish and some softies however we are still not committed only comment my wife has made is that she is keen to go the marine way to BUT the tank MUST look tidy, no wires etc everywhere!!!!! She even suggested last night we find new homes for all out Platties, Guppies, Swords etc, then move the RTBS and some of his mates that we could not bear to part with to the smaller tank, (110L) and then Convert our AR980 to marine, me I would rather another tank but it is an option. Thanks everybody

Pies Thanks for the reply, Book ordered off internet tonight Like I said not in a hurry so will read the book and see if its really for me. My wife and I both love our freshwaters JDM Thanks also for you advise, sounds like my other hobby, buy one and buy right or you will be buying twice. Local LFS has Marine Set up s/h in AR620 for $799, no skimmer and only Filter which comes with unit, no fish. Been trying the hard sell on me but I am suspicious by nature.

Thnks for the replies,, Thing somewhere between 100-200 ltrs How does this sound is it realistic?? Do you know who stocks this book, I'm not in a hurry. Could you use natural sea water to begin with, and for water changes and top up with distilled water for water lost with evaporation. We were looking at 320l tank but as we live in the top of a 2 storey house there are some issues with weight.

Hi there just registered after lurking here in the forums for many months learning heaps I might add. My wife and I have always had pond gold fish and added fresh water tropicals to our home at start of 2006. We now have 2 tanks 110L, (std glass type), and 215L, (AquaOne AR980). Found them very addictive, first one tank then a bigger one oooooh the power bill has grown!!!!!!!!! (Wife wants AquaOne Windsor 88 but don't think the floor is strong enough for it) Now we think we might try a Marine tank am looking for help in selecting equipment and setting up. Looking for a smaller marine set up maybe 4-6 Small fish, ie couple clowns etc + clean up crew (couple cleaner shrimp) and anenome for clowns. So questions, What is the smallest size tank which would be practible for above set up? Is it possible / practible to use live sand / live rock as the filter system and do weekly water changes, ie no skimmer. Is it possible to get "live sand", can we just get some from the local beach, (Tahuna, Nelson) What sort of lighting / pumps would we need, Could we get by with not using metal halide lighting?? Is NSW, (which I assume means Natural Sea Water), better than made up. If Man Made is better how much can I expect to spend on salt and other consumables each month. Lastly what are the essential bits that are must haves, ie bits you cant do with out, I imagine a specific gravity tester would be one thing. Sorry for all the questions but it's like stating from scratch all over again and even though in the year we have been keeping Fresh water we have only lost 4 fish, all from same supplier, this would still be expensive in a marine setup. Sorry for the long post Cheers Mike ·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸ ><((((º> .¸¸·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸ ><((((º>

Hi there just registered after lurking here in the forums for many months learning heaps I might add. My wife and I have always had pond gold fish and added fresh water tropicals to our home at start of 2006. We now have 2 tanks 110L, (std glass type), and 215L, (AquaOne AR980). Found them very addictive, first one tank then a bigger one oooooh the power bill has grown!!!!!!!!! Smaller tank contain Guppies, Swords, Platties, 1 BN, 1 Fighting fish, Neon Tetras and 3 Albino Corys. Big Tank has one Red Tail Black Shark, (My favourite), 3 loaches ( Angelicus Loach, 2 x Botia Striata) Hope Spelling is right. 6 Glowlights, 3 Mountain Minnows, 2 Paradise fish, 2 large Angels, 1 smaller Albino Angel, 3 Tiger barbs, 3 Green barbs, 1 BN, 1 Blue Rameriz, spelling again. Angels and Guppies, Platties are breeding like mad, haven't managed to get Angel Babies though yet, Eggs keep getting eaten. We don't like to interfere 3 or 4 babies per "litter" is fine by us. Now we think we might try a Marine tank so will be posting in the marine section looking for help in selecting equipment and setting up. Cheers Mike ·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸¸·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸ ><((((º> .¸¸·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸ ><((((º>