aussie11
New Member
Hi to all
I have learnt a lot reading this thread and consider myself lucky.
I ended up getting my octagonal tank because a tropical fish retailer owed me money, & the only way I was going to get it was in exchange for stock. So I picked this octagonal tank which is 42cm front to back-side to side & 48 cm tall. I think it holds around 70-80 litres which is 17 gallons. I had no idea on how to keep any fish, tropical or marine, but being naive I decided I was going to have a marine tank because of the pretty colours. I often wondered why people went for tropical over marine..but as everyone keeps telling me now-after I went marine-that it is much more maintenance intensive.
I went to lfs & he said 1st thing I had to do was get some live rock & condition the tank for 4 weeks-which I did.
I got some grey 25mm pvc tube just shorter than the tank was high, & drilled around 30 small holes up and down the tube all over, then siliconed it to the bottom of the tank-I then drilled the live rock so I could slide the rock over the tube & build myself a tall rock wall & attached the inlet for the air from the cannister to the pvc tube.
I took a sample of water to him after that time-he tested and said it was fine-& that I could now go shopping. I headed straight for the clownfish tank & picked out 2 nemos, what is called ocellaris-I went to the anemone tank & picked out the biggest one which looks exactly like TheGrog's anemone in post 7-she was about 5 to 6 inches across-I was also steered toward a cannister filter-which I have now been told was a poor choice. It was at least 3 months down the track before I was informed that I must take it a part & clean it- & at this stage I was doing water changes every 2 months. At this point I decided to buy a water test kit so I could at least test the water, & I now know that I must do 15% water change every 2 weeks or 30% every 4. I do around 25% every 3 weeks. I have had trouble with red slime-which I treated with some chemical the lfs gave me, a new lfs opened very close to my home, so now I had the convenience of popping in & asking questions, unlike to other that I had to travel to-he suggested a strom snail to keep the red slime under control which I have-& have never had a problem since.
My anemone & fish are all fine & they are now 18 months since I bought them, how old they were when I got them I do not know..My anemone has doubled in size since I got her.
I saw some video footage the other day that I took a couple of days after getting the animals & I was gobsmacked at how much she had grown...you don't notice it day by day..so it was quite a shock-& because the tank is small-when she is fully open she takes up half the tank across wise.
As I read this forum, I kinda think my piddly 24 watt fluoro light is not ideal-but still everything in the tank is going strong-it was at least 8 months before it came to my attention that I should have a power head in the tank-which I now have.
I feed my clowns marine flake & in total I have feed my anemone 3 times in 18 months.
I live on the Gold Coast Australia where it is stinking stinking hot in summer for around 5 months..for 3 of these months I threw frozen 2 litre milk bottles in the tank to try and cool it down-then I got a chiller-I had no idea when I stepped into this marine tank idea, that all of this was required, & if I did know, I definitely would not have gone marine.
I have added a torchlight coral, a starfish, half dozen snails to keep the glass clean-& there is a shrimp in there as well..he came courtesy of the live rock-& I catch a glimpse of him every now & again.
So after reading a lot of info here, I can say I have been flying by the seat of my pants really-totally ignorant about all things marine-but everything is still going strong.
I am apprehensive about changing things-for example feeding the anemone weekly or fortnightly-she has survived 18 months with practically no feeding from me-if I change now-will I upset the balance?
If I am lucky that my animals are still alive I would put it down to 2 things...I interact with them-I pat my clowns and my anemone,( it's a girl thing )-when I walk across the room my clowns hastily swim the tank trying to follow-I sit at my tank every morning with my coffee and talk to them-and I use water straight from the ocean-I live 3 minutes from the best beaches in the world so I take advantage.
There is one thing that I can't get to the bottom of...I have these little red 'weeds' growing throughout the tank..mainly in the white pebble..but a couple of them have attached to the back of the strom snails shell as well & some are on the rock wall..they are small...very thin at the base...then sort of fan out toward the top..a bit like an upside down teardrop...any ideas? I manage to remove a few when I vacuum the white pebble..but they are always there & by the time I vacuum again the numbers are back to normal...
Thanks for any suggestions
aussie
I have learnt a lot reading this thread and consider myself lucky.
I ended up getting my octagonal tank because a tropical fish retailer owed me money, & the only way I was going to get it was in exchange for stock. So I picked this octagonal tank which is 42cm front to back-side to side & 48 cm tall. I think it holds around 70-80 litres which is 17 gallons. I had no idea on how to keep any fish, tropical or marine, but being naive I decided I was going to have a marine tank because of the pretty colours. I often wondered why people went for tropical over marine..but as everyone keeps telling me now-after I went marine-that it is much more maintenance intensive.
I went to lfs & he said 1st thing I had to do was get some live rock & condition the tank for 4 weeks-which I did.
I got some grey 25mm pvc tube just shorter than the tank was high, & drilled around 30 small holes up and down the tube all over, then siliconed it to the bottom of the tank-I then drilled the live rock so I could slide the rock over the tube & build myself a tall rock wall & attached the inlet for the air from the cannister to the pvc tube.
I took a sample of water to him after that time-he tested and said it was fine-& that I could now go shopping. I headed straight for the clownfish tank & picked out 2 nemos, what is called ocellaris-I went to the anemone tank & picked out the biggest one which looks exactly like TheGrog's anemone in post 7-she was about 5 to 6 inches across-I was also steered toward a cannister filter-which I have now been told was a poor choice. It was at least 3 months down the track before I was informed that I must take it a part & clean it- & at this stage I was doing water changes every 2 months. At this point I decided to buy a water test kit so I could at least test the water, & I now know that I must do 15% water change every 2 weeks or 30% every 4. I do around 25% every 3 weeks. I have had trouble with red slime-which I treated with some chemical the lfs gave me, a new lfs opened very close to my home, so now I had the convenience of popping in & asking questions, unlike to other that I had to travel to-he suggested a strom snail to keep the red slime under control which I have-& have never had a problem since.
My anemone & fish are all fine & they are now 18 months since I bought them, how old they were when I got them I do not know..My anemone has doubled in size since I got her.
I saw some video footage the other day that I took a couple of days after getting the animals & I was gobsmacked at how much she had grown...you don't notice it day by day..so it was quite a shock-& because the tank is small-when she is fully open she takes up half the tank across wise.
As I read this forum, I kinda think my piddly 24 watt fluoro light is not ideal-but still everything in the tank is going strong-it was at least 8 months before it came to my attention that I should have a power head in the tank-which I now have.
I feed my clowns marine flake & in total I have feed my anemone 3 times in 18 months.
I live on the Gold Coast Australia where it is stinking stinking hot in summer for around 5 months..for 3 of these months I threw frozen 2 litre milk bottles in the tank to try and cool it down-then I got a chiller-I had no idea when I stepped into this marine tank idea, that all of this was required, & if I did know, I definitely would not have gone marine.
I have added a torchlight coral, a starfish, half dozen snails to keep the glass clean-& there is a shrimp in there as well..he came courtesy of the live rock-& I catch a glimpse of him every now & again.
So after reading a lot of info here, I can say I have been flying by the seat of my pants really-totally ignorant about all things marine-but everything is still going strong.
I am apprehensive about changing things-for example feeding the anemone weekly or fortnightly-she has survived 18 months with practically no feeding from me-if I change now-will I upset the balance?
If I am lucky that my animals are still alive I would put it down to 2 things...I interact with them-I pat my clowns and my anemone,( it's a girl thing )-when I walk across the room my clowns hastily swim the tank trying to follow-I sit at my tank every morning with my coffee and talk to them-and I use water straight from the ocean-I live 3 minutes from the best beaches in the world so I take advantage.
There is one thing that I can't get to the bottom of...I have these little red 'weeds' growing throughout the tank..mainly in the white pebble..but a couple of them have attached to the back of the strom snails shell as well & some are on the rock wall..they are small...very thin at the base...then sort of fan out toward the top..a bit like an upside down teardrop...any ideas? I manage to remove a few when I vacuum the white pebble..but they are always there & by the time I vacuum again the numbers are back to normal...
Thanks for any suggestions
aussie
