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

I'd start the other way round, get your rock now and start cycling it, and worry about bulbs later. Your mostly better off having the lights off if anyway (unless there is good live on the the live rock that you want to keep going).

A skimmer does make life simpler, but on a tank that small it isn't completely necessary, doing 50% water changes each week is only going to be 20 odd liters so not a big deal to do and would be plenty yo keep your water parameters under control.

I'd also replace the contents of the standard filter with either chemical media (like a PO4 resin etc) and/or coral rubble.

There's a couple of auctions on trademe with synthetic salt mixes, I brought a bucket of Marinium salt for $80, makes 500 and something litres? Mix it correctly you don't have to worry about modifying parameters with NSW, as NZ NSW parameters are different to ideal tropical NSW parameters (Salinity, and a few other ones are lower than preferred I think..)

I agree with Suphew, it's better if you get your own rock and start cycling it now. Unless you were planning on getting pre cured stuff from someone elses tank? But i'd reccomend cyling your own still

And yeah, if you want help with setups, and have a spare moment visit Aquaworld in Albany, awesome store, guys are really knowledgeable, you'll be in the right direction after having a chat to a few of the guys there. Beautiful store also, lots of stock, impressive displays. Man I love marine shrimp. There's a nano setup there at the moment, but I think it's going to be moved soon. Running a HOB filter, not too sure what was in it though.

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.

could get a hang on skimmer

could get a hang on skimmer

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

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

This maybe?

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

for a FOWLR NSW is OK

I don't know where this thing about NSW water parameters being out comes from, they are all fine other than the salinity, and to fix that you just add 10% fresh water. Unless you do something silly like collect after rain or near a river mouth, NZ NSW will be 1.027

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?

10% is close enough, you only change a percentage of your tank water so if its out by a little bit it's out by even less by the time it's in your tank. And the important thing is the salinity of the tank, a lot of other things will change the salinity more

like evaporation.

The decision between ASW and NSW is about things other than the parameters being spot on. Even with synthetic salt the parameters change between brands and even between batches.

There have been lots of debates round the merits and risks of each, have a bit of a search.

10% is close enough, you only change a percentage of your tank water so if its out by a little bit it's out by even less by the time it's in your tank. And the important thing is the salinity of the tank, a lot of other things will change the salinity more

like evaporation.

The decision between ASW and NSW is about things other than the parameters being spot on. Even with synthetic salt the parameters change between brands and even between batches.

There have been lots of debates round the merits and risks of each, have a bit of a search.

Thanks, will keep on researching.

Just a silly question:

What does FOWLR stand for?

And NSW? I'm guessing New Salt Water?

Oops. Seems I was mistaken about NSW hah. I've only looked into synthetic mixes. Are there many impurities with Auckland NSW? I guess collection point matters?

Hovmoller - Fish Only With Live Rock!

Oops. Seems I was mistaken about NSW hah. I've only looked into synthetic mixes. Are there many impurities with Auckland NSW? I guess collection point matters?

Hovmoller - Fish Only With Live Rock!

Thanks!

Who would have guessed that :slfg:

Just a silly question:

What does FOWLR stand for?

And NSW? I'm guessing New Salt Water?

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.

going to use some of your black sand from the beach in there?

how its going any pics yet :thup:

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.

going to use some of your black sand from the beach in there?

any beach or silica sand is a bad idea in a marine can cause algae issues as some algae feeds off excess silica

is that why in so many of the marine tank photos people post have a bare bottom? (I always feel the need to use an emoticon for those last 2 words but I resisted)

not really a lot have sand too but use coral sand or aragonite sand instead the whole bare bottom thing is because its easier to clean and syphon than having sand also the sand gets covered in coralline algae (and perhaps bad algaes while cycling) im not really sure what it takes to maintain nice clean white sand i gave up after my first go

fear it may result in some of the good things that cycling brings not happening in the tank itself

all one system

im not really sure what it takes to maintain nice clean white sand

being obsessive compulsive helps

all one system

Ahh, good point!

being obsessive compulsive helps

There's a beginners guide on nano-reef.com that mentions hermit crabs, in the US of course, that spend their time cleaning the sand a grain at a time. I'm not sure if we can get tropical hermits here but I haven't read anything else that manages to clean like they do. edit: it seems you can get tropical hermits here.

I'm planning to go crushed coral/shell sand to increase the amount of bio filtration. Never going to be adding silica to the marine tank.