Morcs

Moving along nicely now. New light arrived today, 16'' Finnex Fugeray marine+ which is a nice mix of whites and actinics. First coral too, a wee zoo frag. Oh and a coral banded shrimp whom im naming Bogdan.

Glass cats like to be in groups I believe as they are quite a nervous and anxious fish, and more than 1 will be pushing your stocking

Awesome. Cheers! BTW your setup is awesome, but do you have a display tank?

Diatoms are starting to recede. helped it along with a toothbrush. Nitrates are staying around 10ppm currently which is good, and i managed to get my skimmer skimming - wet, but the weak tea like skimmate that it should produce. Change substrate to coral sand today. Now i had all my rock out sitting on a towel for 5 mins tops - this will be ok i take it? i would hate to have to re-cycle...

aquaworld have a pair. $600 Shoulda bought a car first 8)

Itll be fine doing a 100% water change!

Build list for anyone interested to see its not too expensive to get started as most individual items aren't pricey,can space out the purchases of non essential stuff whilst cycling. Live stock is a different story depending on how far you go, I'll cover that when its fully stocked with fish and soft corals. Aquanano 40 with stock 55w heater and 500l return pump. $139 Stand, used stand from trade me $30 Finned 16inch fugeray marine+ led light $90 Resin sk300 power skimmer $45 Egg crate for dig media rack $20 2 x seachem the bag media bags $25 500ml phosgaurd and 500ml purigen (heaps...) $60 Fluval sea hydrometer $20 7kg dry rock $80 4kg aragonite sand $12 Wp10 wavemaker $75 Glass thermometer $4 Small mag float $28 Api saltwater test kit $40 Foods $30 Long scraper tool $20 Filter wool $10 Puredew RO water for initial fill $35 2kg red sea salt for initial fill $22 (obviously didn't use all) Total $785 20l mixing container $20 400lph pump for mixing $20 50w heater for mixing $20 Thermometer for mixing $4 Water changing equipment total $64 4kg red sea salt (3 months of water changes at 10% per week) $35 Pure dew RO water for 3 months water changes $42 Pure dew RO water for top ups same period $42 Total water change cost for 3 months $129 = $11 per week Maintenance currently 10‰ weekly water change, siphon, clean glass, empty skimmer cup Top up every 2 days Cleaner skimmer, return pump and power head monthly.

Fluorite good as can use on its own, add root tabs for heavy root feeders. Clay type substrates capped with gravel can get really messy really fast if your not delicate with planting and moving things around. With fluorite range select carefully as the nutritional values vary. Some are heavier on iron that others and same for other nutrients. Oh and wash them heaps.

There's some on tm I think atm

WP10 arrived this morning! What a piece of kit for only $70! Power supply was no good so had to hunt for a 24v 1amp unit and cost $35.. Fish street offered to send out a replacment but I didn't want to wait! The different functions are awesome. Most are really strong in a tank this size, else mode is random and works great but almost pins the clowns down in one side of the tank! Got some good waves going on though! Check out my vid WP10: http://youtu.be/N6ahyCVfaME

I Cycled without light so that the algae part wouldn't start until everything else was stable.

Yeah just buy some new dry rock. Aragonite is fine. Go with enough to cover the bottom, I think i used 2kg in mine. Any deeper is pointless, unless you go full on dsb

Params had all settled nicely. with no fish you have to keep feeding the bacteria ya know lot easier to just have a small bioload whilst the tank matures. But with this much i never have to go through the hassle of recharging it, and then having to replace the bags! :bggrn: Not even using it yet, still waiting for a couple of 'the bag' to arrive from overseas.

After 5 weeks this is how it looks. Lovely diatoms Next update will be when new lighting and wavemaker arrive 8)

Mine took a few days i think. Was well packaged too.

For the egg crate I just used pliers to break it to make it the right size and cable tied it together! Works a treat! I run purigen and phosphate remover, and some rubble but the rubber is just because I have the spare space in my rack. Filter floss on the top and just change it weekly.

Stock pump is 500lph. Got a pic of that skimmer? cant seem to find anything on google for it? You'll need some egg crate to make good use of filter chambers (all supplied media is useless for SW), and if your skimmer will fit in the middle chamber, id look at making something to go on the back of the overflow wier to push water up higher through it - as standard it wont work like an overflow unless you ran your water level really low. You cant do this if you have to run the skimmer in first chamber obviously. Do you plan on running it without lids? Looking forward to progress, i love the aquanano

I still dont think an established root system on a stem is adequate... As for excel, you do it in one hit usually, seeing as though you have dosed already, do not dose anymore until youve done a few waterchanges, then do a double dose. Otherwise you can go round and just do some spot treating to add to the dosing youve already done.

Aakash for the size of your tank is a minimal expense. Pure dew from countdown is like $7 for a 10L and is RO water. Dont buy spring water Ive seen labels on springwater that state TDS over 200 :tears:

Love your handywork! impressive

Yeah pretty much just to add some colour. With new lighting should be OK

Heater comes with the aquanano as well as return pump. Don't think the dymax comes with a heater. Highly recommend the aquanano, great finish on them!

Get an aquanano 30 if you want small, or 40 is a great size. Much better and easier to work with, http://www.livingreef.co.nz/p/162/aquanano-aquarium $99 for the 30 is a steal, just needs lighting (which stock lighting is always useless anyway) and maybe a small powerhead and your sorted. As for the dymax, i researched them a lot as was looking at an IQ3. Heaters arent very reliable, the lights dim after 6 months, acrylic scratches super easily, and the skimmers arent very good being tiny air driven units.

With cichlids i wouldnt go with stems, youll end up pulling your hair out. Stick with crypts, anubias etc. Tiger lotus and amazon swords do ok with cichlids and they grow to decent sizes with good root systems - harder to dig up As for the BBA, given the amount you have, i would dose the entire tank with 2x recommended dosing, and cut feeding. Then after about 2 weeks start spot treating the stubborn bits with a small syringe - at point blank range. Itll turn red and die off really fast - just make sure when doing a lot of spot treating that you dont end up dosing the tank too much.

The only concern would be if you had a high PH but low buffering capacity - unlikely but worth testing for