My Plans

[Fishobob]

Gday All,

Well let me start off by saying that I am from Australia and here down under we are some what limited in aquarium stuff compared to you guys over in the US and other places.

I'll apologise now for my long post:blush:

Well here are my plans for my new nano(well I'll call it a large nano shall I):

A 24inch long by 20 inch high and 20 inch wide. It will incorporate an in tank refugium 6 inches wide at the back so the tank will really be 14 inch wide with a 6 inch wide refugium. In this refugium I will have a DSB, LR, Macro Algae, hopefully lotsa critters and equipment I wanta hide from the main tank. I will have 2 holes drilled in the glass with 2 600-800l/h powerheads in the refug pumping into the main tank for circulation. What do you guys think of this for the basic tank setup?

In the tank I am going to have a DSB, I am one who believes DSB's are beneficial in all tanks, but as yet I am not sure what sand type it will be. Over here we cannot get lots of different sands, in melbourne I can only get coral sand or marble chips of which I will use coral sand if I have to. Is this ok? I'm not sure but I might be able to get arogonite sand sent over from Western Australia but it will cost a lot extra, is it worth the extra money to use fine(.5-1.2) arogonite instead of coral sand? Also we cannot get live sand here which is a bummer so I'll have to make do with a couple of cups of sand from different lfs, which by the way there are only 4 marine stores in the whole of melbourne! Will my sand slowly become 'alive' just using dry sand, some cups of sand from lfs and LR? I am thinking of a 5 inch sand bed in the hope that it will support more critters, have better capacity of nitrate removal/breakdown and will look pretty cool. What do you think?

I am not sure about how much live rock I will need. If it is 1-2 lb per gallon then by my calculations I will need about 25-30 kg for my main tank and not too much for my fuge part. Do you think this is about the amount I should aim at. I'll get it at wholesale price cause I work for a store that is getting into aquariums but if the wholesale LR i can get isnt good quality I'll get better quality stuff and pay full price. Our LR is nowhere near as good quality as your american stuff that I have seen on the net! I might get a few extra pieces from each lfs in the hope that it will increase my critter diversity.

Over her we cannot get sand started or detrivore kits so I'm not sure what to do about that..maybe just try and get more cups of from the lfs? Anything else you guys can think of?

I'm going to run skimmerless and do weekly water changes because our skimmers over here are not as good as yours and we dont have much of a selection..our best skimmers are turbofloater 1000 for $700 or prism and prism pro skimmers..or custom. I'll run with a 150 or 2 100 watt heaters in the fuge section of the tank. Maybe use activated carbon for a few days a month but not sure. No mechanical filtration though im not sure about that either. Circulation will be achieved by the two 600-800l/h powerheads in my fuge pumping into my main tank. This should give me a 10 times per hours turnover rate which should be sufficient. Thats about all of that really, what do you think?

Lighting I'm still not sure on:| Over here we cannot get PC or VHO loights so I can only use MH or NO fluoros! I dont want to run with MH because I think I will have a heat problem and because we have very hot summers here..temps regularly over 40 degrees celcius. Also I think my bedroom will become too hot and my tank may overheat:( So that leaves we with NO fluorosX) So I think that I will be able to fit maybe 3 or 4 double reflectors over my tank giving me about 120 or 160 watts of lighting. Remember one will be over the fuge section of the tank so main tank will have 40 watts less. I Will run with 1 marine white to 1 blue actinic tubes on the main tank and 2 marine white tubes over the fuge section. What do you think of this lighting plan? I would love MH and a actinic fluoro but I seriuosly dont think I can:*(

So What do you guys think of my plans so far? any good or does it suck?

Now for the tank inhabitants:P :

Fishies-

1 Pair of Ocellaris Clowns

1 Falco Hawkfish if suitable

and maybe 1 goby of some sort..green clown goby?

I think that will do for the fishies..I love the clowns and I really like the flaco hawk though im not sure if he would be suitable:| And not sure about the goby, we dont have much of a selection

Corals-

I will leave this to when I get my lighting and see what I can keep

Inverts-

2 Sleaner Shrimps if I can get some( really hard to get here and like $80 dollars each when they are available) or a pair of small coral banded shrimp..brought my girlfriend one the other day and he is really cool

Would love an anemone though I'm not sure if my tank is big enough. Probably a green bubble tip, purple magnifica's are really cool though too big for my tank, leave them for my big tank

A purple urchin, girlfriend has one and I really like them. I have studied them in biology at uni and find them really interesting!

A small red Sea Star, brought my girlfriend one and they look cool

A mix of trochus and turbo snails, they are the only snails we can get here! Maybe about 10 or 20, not sure yet, though they are 5.50 here so maybe just 10!

Hermits if I can get them becuase like cleaner shrimps they are really hard to get over here, havent seen them yet though one lfs said he gets them occasionally

A sea cucumber for the sand cleaning. I know they aren't recommended for small tanks because of their toxins when they die though I reckon my tank is big enough to keep one.

Cant really think of any thing else at the moment

 

So there you have it, my plans for my new nano or should i sat large nano. What do you guys think? Any advice or criticism? Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Once agian sorry bout the long post:blush:

 

Cheers Fishobob

[Dave ESPI]

I'm going to run skimmerless and do weekly water changes because our skimmers over here are not as good as yours and we dont have much of a selection..our best skimmers are turbofloater 1000 for $700

 

damn dude. make a list of what you want, Ill sell you a turbo flotor fer 400.00 and save you the 300.00. Ill even throw in free shipping. (YES they are indeed good skimmers) I can send you oolitic sand too, but shipping might be a tad pricey. you seem to be on the right track, but yer not really planning a nano. Its more like a 40 gal breeder tank size, but we allow peeps to have big tanks too and be members. Please out line your speciffic NON REPETE questions so it is easier to read your post. realing some threads and doing a few searches here will help with planning.

TTYL. HTH

[tinyreef]

get the mh.

 

jk NO's are good too (depending on your livestocks' needs).

 

just pick inverts that have low light tolerance. you might want to try and retrofit vho ballasts later and then go nuts.

 

dry sand will do fine as it eventually becomes 'live'.

 

prizm is very good imo. tricky motors but good overall design.

 

four stores? are you sh!tting me? don't you guys have a marine institute there at the univ? ??? there goes my dreams of retirement. X)

[Djm9288]

wow that was a long post!

[Fishobob]

I Know it was a long post..Sorry

Dave I have done a lot of searches for about 2-3 weeks here looking up stuff and decided it was time I asked my own questions. Sorry if I have repeated some questions posted here, but I tried not to repeat the ones I have already seen.

Actually we have 5 stores here in melbourne that stock marine stuff and only one that specialises in marine stuff which is reeflections which is a good store.

So any more comments?

 

Cheers Fishobob:P

[LakerFan]

Order Online from Marine Depot ( board Sponsor) They'll ship it to you in Austrailia, but you just have to wait longer:P

 

Even with the extra shipping costs, it will still be less than what you'd pay to get it locally. (I'm guessing that the $700 you posted was in AUSD which converts to $415 USD, I work for a bank!) Talk to the MarineDepot Guys they're really nice ( I know I used to work there!)

 

Other than that, watch out for Dave.... he gets a little harsh sometimes. Dave are you okay? The holiday season must be getting to you. That's about the nicest response i've read from you