What I'm currently reading

I thought for a quick post this week I'd share what I'm reading there is a lot of books out there some better than other but the two I have are Aquarium Manual by Haynes & The New Marine Aquarium Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide by Michael S. Paletta.

I've had the Haynes book for a while and it has been a help with getting set up helping with cycling the tanks I have but it ttys to cram too much into one book so it isn't able to be so detailed. I remember walking around Jumble sales as a kid where someone always had a copy of a Haynes manual for something like a Mk2 Escort or Renault 5 and loved the exploded diagrams but this isn't one of these classic although helpful I would say its better to purchase a dedicated book for marine aquariums. 

 The New Marine Aquarium Step-By-Step Setup & Stocking Guide is my favourite, not the biggest book but packed full of info. Using a mix of up to date and traditional this book covers all the basic point. The bit I love most about this book is its helpful check lists from parts required, maintenance to the set up process. Book even covers stocking guides for different sizes so you don't run the risk of over stocking your aquarium which is usually the mistake people encounter.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog 

My budget

Well its been a bit of a search for me trying to find an aquarium I liked, I wanted a a rectangular one with the filter on the back with a nice look something a bit modern an sleek and bot is there a large choice depending on what you want to spend. So I now I think have found the right one for me its the Fluval Reef M-90 Premium from the sites I have checked for price it is about what I wanted to spend with the bonus if including a lot of the hardware I need and they are selling this with a stand so no extra cost there.

M-90 Premium

Description below taken from Fluval Aquatics web site
Designed with clean lines and a contemporary finish, the Fluval Reef aquarium comes equipped with everything you’ll need to recreate a successful marine reef enviroment , including Fluval’s widely popular Marine & Reef Performance LED. This high-efficiency light features 6 unique LED band widths with essential actinic blue wavelengths for full spectrum coverage that will drive photosynthetic activity and coral growth, while also offering an accurate viewing experience. The 102 L (27 US gal) aquarium includes an integrated rear compartment (34L  or 9 US gal)  that discreetly houses a Fluval Sea Protein Skimmer, in addition to an integrated drain valve with drain hose that will permit convenient water changes by connecting to a simple valve system. This will allow the user to change up-to 20% of aquarium water volume without exposing sensitive corals to air. The glass aquarium features a unique frosted rim frame that keeps unsightly water lines out of view. The aquarium also comes equipped with a compact and submersible M-series heater and effective CP Circulation Pump.

so far from my list this tank ticks off the Tank with stand, Powerhead, Heater, Light, Protein Skimmer, and a pump to get the water back from the filter and all for £600.  Next is adding 1kg of live rock per 10 litres (maybe a bit more) roughly £150 and  another £26 in live sand.
why use Seneye to monitor your aquarium?


Im going to make my life a bit easier by purchasing water with the salt already added my local in 25 litre tanks which works out to another £45 to get started.

in addition to the above I will get a tank monitor as reading test kits can not only be difficult at times they can be hit and miss you can get some very expensive ones there are also people out there using a Raspberry Pi setup but I have been pulled towards the Seneye reef.

Why the Seneye reef?

We buy a fish tank to hold water, then a heater or chiller to keep the temperature constant, filters to keep the fish from becoming poisoned, along with lights for illumination and plant growth. Then we spend a fortune on fish, coral, plants and décor which we become very attached to. The next step is to cross our fingers and hope for the best or spend half our lives testing and checking is all okay. There is an alternative, let seneye protect your loved ones.

http://www.seneye.com/why.html

And the grand total is over £1000 before live stock thankfully I'm in no real rush I can't move the cold water tank for a few months so I have enough time to save up.  

Im going to need a bigger tank

Planning makes all the difference

The one think I learnt after setting up my first cold water aquarium is that nothing is as easy as it seems. You think its just a case of walking into the shop getting your aquarium grabbing the fish and going home and setting up. Sorry but no its not as easy as that, a good aquatic store won’t let you just just do this and any that do have only one thing in mind, that's taking you money as you will be back when the fish you just purchased turn belly up.

So why does planning help with this? its simply that you will be prepared for the work a head and the costs, at this stage I will go though what to budget for and locating a tank.

There is going to be one person who is going to be your best friend over the time you have any sort of aquarium and that's your Local fish shop (LFS) staff. The reason I bring this up there is only so much you can learn but the staff in you LFS will be a great source of support, advise and even getting you started in many cases. So before you start find your local one I’m fortunate to have one within 5 miles of my town its a Maidenhead Aquatic’s store but there are a couple in my area but this one is my personal choice.

Once you have found your store one that is able to supply the fish and equipment you need ,some will only supply tropical free water or cold water. You then need to work our how much space you have

 this will be determined by the location of the tank (see below for advice on locating) and decide what type of aquarium you want. With tropical marine you have three options fish only, Fish with live rock and reef. On the hardware side I’m going to focus on reef tanks but will out line the pro and cons of the three options in another post. The three hard packages I’m going to cover are Nano reef no fish, Nano reef with fish and High-tech reef aquarium for stony corals each of these have their own hardware requirements.

 Nano reef no fish.

This is possible the simpler option of the three as with out fish you are able to use an aquarium of smaller volume as you are only going to stock invertebrates likes shrimp, crab’s, snails and coral polyps. The up side of this will be these are ideal for desktops small rooms or strong shelf's, without fish to feed with out having  protein skimmer (I’ll go into specifics on hardware in there own little blog). Below is a list of required hardware but this is based on the tanks bio logical filtration being felt with by live rock and live sand (I’ll explain more about this in its own post)

Tank (your LFS should be able to recommend a tank that fits what you want to do)

Powerhead (for flow, offering ten times volume turnover per hour)

heater (a must in the UK but some countries you may get away with out one ask your LFS if in doubt)

Compact light (in marine spectrum and offering 1w per litre of water)

Test kits (your LFS will help you get the right ones to keep your tank in best health and advise how to read them)

Hydrometer (for measuring salt content)

Live rock (1kg per 10 litres 2kg is best)

reef sand or live sand (LFS can advise how much you will need for your tank)

Thermometer, cheap stick on one that looks like a strip is ok but the can look un sightly but I suggest getting a digital one where the reading can be seen from the outside like this one digital thermometer

     

Nano reef with fish (the option I’m working to)

So this is where things get a little more interesting and you need to take more more into account. The first thing is that when you add fish into the equation you need to think of their welfare, fish require enough space to exercise and a volume of ware that is stable enough to cope with their waste. This is the same with any animal, if you have a dog regular walks and clearing up their mess is important for their health and applies to fish also. Its recommended that a tank for 45 litres or more is used for a reef with fish but remember some fish require more space as they will grow larger so consulting with your LFS on stocking levels is key. In addition to a large volume tank you will need some nutrient removal system like a protein skimmer so this is the main difference. this can be scaled up to any size tank containing soft corals ad is the basis of the Berlin system which I’ll explain in my post on filtration.

There are a couple of things you could add these are purely options although these may be things I add or you decide to add your self

UV (optional, but useful for controlling marine white spot in surgeonfish)

External Filter (optional for packing with chemical media suck as phosphate removal media or carbon media) Remove all biological media as this filtration will be done by the live rock.

High-Tec Reef for stony coral’s

Im not going to go into this option to in to much detail as at the moment my depth of knowledge isn’t great but as a basic over view this where things get very technical and the list of required equipment get a lot longer and more expensive.

Many of the corals in this type of tank require special intense lighting, strong flow of water, are the least tolerant of high levels of nutrients and and temperatures.

 

so here is the list that you will want a small truck for.

Tank

large flow pump

wave maker

High-powered metal Halide lighting

test kits

refractomter (more accurate than Hydrometer)

Protein skimmer

uv

sump

refuguim 

calcium reactor

co2 system

chiller

phosphate reactor

automatic top-up system 

reverse osmosis unit (RO unit) for topping up or making salt water for changes 

Although would be nice for all three set ups your LFS can supply this normally in 25 litre jerry cans and this is the option, I will be going to use as they should be able to get the salt levels right making my life a bit easier.

Selecting location of the aquarium there are a few things you should keep in mince. It should be away from heat sources like radiators, where temperatures can fluctuate like kitchens or in direct sunlight. I would also recommend making sure that there are enough plug sockets where you want the tank and that its not to far from somewhere you can dispose of the waste water. Remember with setting up and water changes that a 10 litres of water will weigh around 10kg a flight of stairs or a long walk to the bathroom/drain in the garden may be more of a work out than you really want.

So what does my budget look like so far? Well you'll have to have a read of my next post

Intro

I thought i’d start a blog about my journey through setting up a marine aquarium. I hope over the next weeks and months I can share my challenges and advice I pick up through the process.

But before I go into the process of getting started a little about my self and why I'm diving into a marine aquarium. I’ve always been fascinated by fish and trips to local aquariums as a child just made my love for aquariums stronger. 

In 2013 I was at local funfair and won a gold fish, he (I named him Rasputin) came home and I said if he survives the first 2 weeks I would treat him to some decorations and plants for his bowl. At the time I knew very little about fish keeping I knew a fish bowl is wrong to keep him in but I didn’t know why. After a bit of research its size and lack of filtration, well after a few months of nearly losing my fish to fin rot, upgrades to larger tanks I took the plunge into tropical. This is the point I think all things went down hill and I got a bad case of MTS (Multi Tank Syndrome) and anyone who is reading this who owns more than one aquarium will understand this illness at the time of writing this my living room has the following in descending order of my love:

120 litre mixed tropical tank. 

Although this is my dad he pays for food and live stock I'm the one that get the maintenance jobs lugging buckets so see this as part of my collect.

19 litre small breeding tank. 

After setting up my first fully planted tank (more on this tank in a moment) is was forced in to a situation where I need to set up a breeding tank. My Crown tail Siamese Fighting Fish (Crown tail Betta) decided to blow a bubble nest. Being interested in a seeing if I can get them to breed I got him two females unfortunately one died but they went on to provide me with a small batch of fry which are currently growing in this tank. 

30 litre full planted tank.

This was my first challenge to my self after setting up the cold water tank I wanted a fully planted tank and my original plan was to change the 60 litre cold water tank to a bigger planted tank but my local fish shop (LFS) made me think about going straight to saltwater so this has changed.

60 litre cold water.

This is currently my gold fish tank although and I'm having to give up to move to salt water. We have limited space for tanks in the house but  want to get the tank I’ve wanted since a child I need to make sacrifices. I’ll be sad to see this go, my gold are a such characters waiting for me to come home and always great me with what I call the feed me wiggle. Ive worked hard on this from nursing a fish back from a complete loss of tail fin which I'm told is very difficult, developing an understanding of how filters work and livestock management. But it won’t be long before my fish out grow the tank and I don’t really have space for a bigger one my thoughts are only for the best for my live stock.

Rasputin the day he moved into his 30 litre tank 6 months before moving up to the 60 litre

So my reason set up a marine tank? I think its the same of everyone’s watching finding Nemo too much and the fact the bright colours always look inviting. Yes tropical fish have bright colours and a well planted tank can be as fulfilling as a marine tank but I think three tropical is enough.

thank you for taking time to read my intro and I hope you continue to read my blog as I share with you my first attempt.