the-obstacle

That's practically my tank with a bit more depth. Mine is 10mm which is fine for 600mm high. Any higher and you'd want to move to 12mm. There's a safety factor calculator somewhere here.

Ask HFF if they've got an in line solenoid they can sell with the regulator to start with if you can't afford the pH controller at the moment.

I owe you some plants so I'll try to get out there tomorrow with some crypts. How many are you after? I'll drop a bag in the letterbox if you're not home. edit: It just so happens I have to head out that way this evening - I'll grab some and drop them off in an hour or so.

It's going slower than slow. I went to get some water today and on the way to the beach it absolutely poured down. When I got there the water was all murky from the runoff and I couldn't get a clean bucket of water. :facepalm: I'll be waiting for a while at this rate. In other news - I'm planning to DIY an algae turf scrubber for filtration and have it all sorted. Just need to put it together. I'm wondering if this will be beneficial or not to the cycling process? In theory any algae should grow in the scrubber instead of the tank. I assume that's a good thing but fear it may result in some of the good things that cycling brings not happening in the tank itself. If a cycling tank doesn't get algae growing on it in some parts of the cycle is it a bad thing? Are there critters that I need for a healthy tank that are going to miss out on the initial algal bloom to be introduced and therefore put my tank at risk later on? Perhaps I'm thinking too much. Anyway, the current status is: In planning phase. the next step: collecting clean NSW and buying rock to cycle. Might get the rock tomorrow and start working on the scaping so that when this rain is over I can get the water and put the scape straight in to cycle.

I think it's awesome without plants and I think p44 agrees but it just using his usual critique.

Fish Only With Live Rock and Natural/Normal Salt Water (harvested from the sea) I have no idea about any other acronyms in the salt water world though.

Do what you can to get as much light into the tank as possible. Those spotlights look like they could be good. The new style LEDs are all CREE based with high outputs. The spotlight looks good but if you search most DIY LED lights using CREE you'll find they use the high output LEDs but quite a lot of them per square foot. Don't change your plans though. If you've already got all the strips and ballasts then go ahead and put it together and see how it works.

I was here until 2:30am freaking out about nano reefs... :roll:

Oh, at that amount it'd be interesting to see what it can do. I think when I looked at the high output ones I'd have to have 3 or 4 strips side by side to get enough light to make it worthwhile and I just didn't have the space. Don't flag the moonlight - if anything I think you'll find the strip of blue will be more effective than the white but if you're just trying to illuminate to see then they'll both be fine. Like I said though, I wouldn't expect anything to grow based on the amount of light emited by the strips so I doubt it'll add to any algae problem.

Thanks, will keep on researching.

+1. Where are you, maybe there's someone on here in the area who can help out?

Ahh, so we have more salt than the tropics? That's interesting. Is the 10% rule a near enough rule or is it exactly what is needed? If I use NSW as the base of all water changes and have a big bottle of pure dew or similar on hand for top ups will I be on the right track?

Now I want to live in Austria...

the tunze products are awesome but they come with an awesome pricetag. To be honest that's not a bad price though.

If you're buying strips of LEDs you won't get enough light out of them to matter to the algae. Assuming they're the standard strips that can be installed for accent lighting / on cars etc.

Looks interesting... Maybe there are some out there that will fit after all. I'll do some more research.

The only ones I've seen have been HUGE for a little tank. Have you got any hints?

I always wondered why nobody used paint ball co2 canisters. They seem the logical choice.

I reckon it looks awesome as it is and there's heaps of depth in it.

Do it! Do it! Do it! you know you want to :thup:

Thanks guys. I popped into aquaworld this morning and they helped me out immensely. I completely forgot what they quoted for the dead rock (to cycle) but I've just sent an email asking so hopefully i hear back soon. I intend to get the rock tomorrow and some NSW for the cycle at least. After that I'm 50/50 about whether to keep going NSW or pure dew with salt additive. I guess I'll get the refractometer and see what the difference really is and weigh it up from there. The nano tank at aquaworld is awesome! The shrimp are amazing and the firefish was really cool too. Long term I think this tank will house a mushroom or 2 and an anemone on the rock but that will be in a year or so. Slowly but surely.

So, after much deliberation I have decided that i really don't want to do another fresh water tank and should take on the challenge of a FOWLR tank. The tank itself is a Blue Planet Classic 50L tank with built in filter box, light hood etc. The plan so far is to hopefully find a marine bulb to replace the current one to give it more of a sea/tropical feel. The next step will be to put some live rock and NSW in the tank for a few weeks for it to cycle and settle down. Once that's done I'll look to slowly add a cleaner shrimp of some sort, a pair of clowns, a firefish (probably purple) and once the tank has been running and stable for 6-12 months I'll look at adding an anemone for the clowns. Once the tank is cycled and ready to rock I'll be doing water changes with pure dew and salt. I need suggestions for a skimmer though. Any ideas? I'll be ordering a refractometer, a wavemaker and some other misc. items from fish-street.com in the next few days so if they have a nano skimmer that'd do the trick I'll go that way. As an absolute beginner I'd really appreciate any advice available on this setup. I'll start with a photo of the empty tank tomorrow. Thanks in advance. Dan

It's after midnight on a Sunday night and I'm thinking I'll go FOWLR after all. I just can't help but think that I keep doing these planted tanks and the whole point of this tank was to do something different. So, thanks for all the ideas. If the FOWLR hits a major snag I might not go that way but for now it looks the way I'm going. I'll start a new thread in the saltwater section for help over there and I'll also head to the reefkeepers forums to make sure I get everything right. As before - thanks heaps for the ideas. I've got a few I can fall back on. ...now to source some live rock that actually looks good...

Now that's a tiny fish! Could be cool - a bit temperamental in groups apparently (male on male aggression) but could be ok. Would suit the clearwater effect I think I'm going to get with the planted tank. Will see...

Sorted! Mosquito Rasbora, pygmy cories and maybe an otto or 2. Now, how to scape it... shouldn't be too hard I'm sure.