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ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
Whats up folks, the names ken and im newbie over here. Its seems everything out there today when it comes to forums is predominantly reef based. Ivee been a ton of reading and spending time on youtube and it seems basically the same there. Ive been keeping fish since i was young, amd off and on my entire life. Always fresh water, always aggressive and or big fish. Currently running around 450 gallons of just that. I have two 150 talls amd a 120 with everything from arrowana to wolf fish, cats to oscars, and silver dollars to larger species of puffer fish.
I came over here to hopefully meet some new people, and get some insight and knowledge on setting up and maintaining larger fish only tanks. I had one saltwater tank many years ago, when power heads atop of an undergravel filter, with puka shells for substrate was kewl.lol
Things have come a long long way andlook forward to this next step in the hobby. Yall have a kick ass day and thanks for your time
Ken
The water Den
 
ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
ThewaterDen said:
Whats up folks, the names ken and im newbie over here. Its seems everything out there today when it comes to forums is predominantly reef based. Ivee been a ton of reading and spending time on youtube and it seems basically the same there. Ive been keeping fish since i was young, amd off and on my entire life. Always fresh water, always aggressive and or big fish. Currently running around 450 gallons of just that. I have two 150 talls amd a 120 with everything from arrowana to wolf fish, cats to oscars, and silver dollars to larger species of puffer fish.
I came over here to hopefully meet some new people, and get some insight and knowledge on setting up and maintaining larger fish only tanks. I had one saltwater tank many years ago, when power heads atop of an undergravel filter, with puka shells for substrate was kewl.lol
Things have come a long long way andlook forward to this next step in the hobby. Yall have a kick ass day and thanks for your time
Ken
The water Den
Click to expand...
As soon as i get this image size thing figured out, ill throw up some pics, and start a new thread
 
jay0705

jay0705

Well-Known Member
Welcome ken. Yes things have come a long way lol. With your current fw fish big tanks are a necessity, with sw they just make it easier. A great beginner tank for sw is a 75. Bigger is always better tho
 
ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
jay0705 said:
Welcome ken. Yes things have come a long way lol. With your current fw fish big tanks are a necessity, with sw they just make it easier. A great beginner tank for sw is a 75. Bigger is always better tho
Click to expand...
Thanks for the welcome, just started a build.thread, going with a 220 for this one
 
ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
Ok i get the picture lol. Ill tale some shots in the am. Been working on the stand for the 220 buold thread so that needs an updating as well
 
ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
Heres a quick one for you guys, momma Parachromis Manaquense sittin on a batch of eggs. Looks like the male didnt do a great job this round. Whats the biggest size i can use here? I cropped this one down to 200x200
 

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beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
IMHO most of the advances are actually aimed at corals and reef tanks, not fish only tank.

I recommend you do a sump/refugium with a very large refugium full of macro algaes. And get the marcos thriving right from the start. That way the tank will be balanced out and stabilized right from the start. The reason for the refugium is that most marine fish wat the macros so the macros need to be protected.

best tank ever.

my .02
 
ThewaterDen

ThewaterDen

New Member
beaslbob said:
IMHO most of the advances are actually aimed at corals and reef tanks, not fish only tank.

I recommend you do a sump/refugium with a very large refugium full of macro algaes. And get the marcos thriving right from the start. That way the tank will be balanced out and stabilized right from the start. The reason for the refugium is that most marine fish wat the macros so the macros need to be protected.

best tank ever.

my .02
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info!! Definatley planned on a larger refugium full of chaeto with a good light. Been dping a ton of reading amd it seems if i prpvide a better place in the sump for algae to grow, it will help keep it outta the display.
Do you reccomend starting the refugium while the tank is in the cycling process??

Ken
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
ThewaterDen said:
Thanks for the info!! Definatley planned on a larger refugium full of chaeto with a good light. Been dping a ton of reading amd it seems if i prpvide a better place in the sump for algae to grow, it will help keep it outta the display.
Do you reccomend starting the refugium while the tank is in the cycling process??

Ken
Click to expand...
Yes most definitely.

The algae will actually help the cycling process. Plant life like macro algae actually prefer to use ammonia for nitrogen not nitrates. But in established aquariums, aerobic bacteria consume the ammonia and the plants are reluctantly forced to consume nitrates.

But with the assumption the tank is brand new and bacteria free, the macros will consume the ammonia and thus prevent or lower the ammonia spike. But the bacteria will come and start consuming the ammonia so that after a while (~3 weeks or so) the algae is forced to consume nitrates, and you see a nitrate drop. So during cycle it is possible to see no ammonia spike, a short nitrite spike and an initial nitrate spike the drops to 0 after a few weeks. And the same thing happens when something goes bump in the night resulting in increased ammonia. Stopping the ammonia spike can actually prevent tank crashes.

And all that assumes no initial bacteria but what actually happens is the macros actually introduce aerobic bacteria to get things going. Not to mention the macros consume co2 and return oxygen as well.

my .02
 
beaslbob

beaslbob

Well-Known Member
ThewaterDen said:
Thanks for the info!! Definatley planned on a larger refugium full of chaeto with a good light. Been dping a ton of reading amd it seems if i prpvide a better place in the sump for algae to grow, it will help keep it outta the display.
Do you reccomend starting the refugium while the tank is in the cycling process??

Ken
Click to expand...
starting the tank with the refugium is best. You may have to use a sponge filter on the intake of the return pump to prevent macros in the display.

what I recommend is to setup the tank with refugium and macros. Waiting a week to get things started. Then adding a single male molly. Yep the common FW molly from your LFS. Don't add food for a week then start feeding a single flake per week. Once you get a molly to live 3 weeks or so then try the more difficult and expensive marine only fish.

I really like the red blue 50w spot led lights for the refugium. Last time I checked they were around $12 or so.


my .02

Gee am I repeating myself. LOL
 
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