A few pieces of live rock to cycle the tank from B&C Aquariums. That heater is just a few millimetres too big to fit in the hang on back filter. Last night I impulse bought an even smaller 50W heater on eBay which I will be able to hide in the filter (which of-course will make the aquarium look much cleaner).
Trying to keep things neat, this cable tidy wraps 3 power leads into one.
A few fish from a local rock pool to help cycle the tank (I realise fishless cycling is the thing to do these days, but hey I’m old school and have always done it this way).
A few pieces of live rock from my old tank which I found in from a big foam box in my backyard.
So I’ve decided to go marine! I’ve got quite a lot of gear left over from my old marine tank so I figure it makes sense, and you know, nothing beats marine (once you go marine you can’t ever go back?!).
Yesterday I bought a couple of pieces of live rock to help cycle the tank. I didn’t expect any hitchhikers to survive as the water in my tank is so new. A coupe of turbo snails fell right off the rock when I put it in the tank (shocked from the different water parameters most likely), but last night, with a torch in hand, I spotted a large bristle worm, and unfortunately a few dreaded aiptasia (pest anemones).
Today I thought I’d do a bit of local rockpooling in search of glass shrimp (also known as ghost shrimp). I looked all over my house for my fish nets and failed to find them, so all I had was a tiny triangular nano tank net which I bought yesterday with my live rock. I managed to find a few shrimp, but failed to net them as my net was too small AND the wind was picking up so much that I couldn’t see past the agitated water surface.
I did get a couple of fishes though and also one goby. I acclimatised them slowly as the temperature in my tank (26) is way warmer than the water in the rock pools. It’s been 4hrs since they’ve been released in the tank and all 3 fishes are doing amazing. I’m dead set sure they will take to flake food tomorrow.
So the cycling has started and the tank will stay as is for at least a week. I’ll do some water testing soon. It shouldn’t be to long until I’ll be ready to stock the tank (with what I’m not so sure!).
Plans. I’m starting to geek out about this build already (no surprises there, right?!). And I’ve been thinking of a few set-ups. They’re outlined below.
1) FOWLR (Fish Only With Live Rock): No corals thus no need to upgrade the flow of the tank or the lights, so this would be the easiest and cheapest setup to run. Lots of different fishes to choose from, interesting crustaceans too. There aren’t too many amazing looking FOWLR tanks out there IMHO. The ease of maintenance, low cost and challenge to create something special with only rock and fish makes this option tempting.
2) Upgrade the lighting: Lots of people out there have modified these tanks with much more powerful LED lighting in order to grow fussy plants and corals. There are a couple of guys on eBay selling LED kits for these tanks (with the option to control the lights from your phone even!). If I upgrade the lighting I’ll be able to not only keep some hardy corals, but they should actually grow and thrive.
3) Go all out: My 6ft tank started life like this, then I went bonkers on it and in the end, thousands of dollars later, it was a work of art. I can see the same thing happening here to be honest. The wall behind the tank is made of gyprock. I could very easily punch a hole through that wall, throw out the current filtration and put an overflow box on the back and run all pipes through the hole into the kitchen (which is the room behind this tank) into a sump which would hide all the gear (heater, skimmer, filter media, automatic top-up unit, dosing units etc. I could literally run the same set-up as my 6ft, all hidden away behind the wall behind the tank.
I found this saltwater conversion kit designed and made by an Australian guy who’s marketing to the US. It’s designed specifically for my tank, but at $800AUD I’m hesitant to impulse buy it. I’m not suggesting it’s a rip off. By the time you add up all the items the kit comes with you can see where the money goes (amazing lighting unit and a great skimmer not to mention a custom design and more water volume too.
If I was to keep hard corals I’d need more flow too. The top of the line VorTech wave makers I had on my old tank are still around, but they’ve been refined and are apparently much more quiet now. That’s a good thing! At $400 for one unit (all I would need) it’s pretty pricey but they’re the best (a cheap China unit is cheap at $40 but it’s larger, uglier and nowhere near as programmable or effective).