Hi this is my first marine tank, but I have had 5 years of keeping tropical/planted tanks, so when I write something wrong on here please be gentle with me. This is being written 12 days after initial set up.
Small aside, if your new to fish keeping the first thing I would say is find your self a LFS where you feel comfortable with the staff and their knowledge. This is because alongside forums they will be your saviours.
Ok here goes:
Equipment list:
Day 2
Small aside, if your new to fish keeping the first thing I would say is find your self a LFS where you feel comfortable with the staff and their knowledge. This is because alongside forums they will be your saviours.
Ok here goes:
Equipment list:
Red Sea 250 reefer (Tank, stand(white), plumbing and sump with auto top up system)
Evergrow IT 5060 lighting
Jebao DCT 2000 return pump (adequate and free) soon to be replaced by a Jebao DCT 6000(personal choice to increase flow rate and not to have to run at full power)
Jebao RW 8 wave maker
Jebao RW 15 wave maker(against LFS advice, should of listened it is slightly physicaly to big)
Nyos Quantum 120 Skimmer
Ehiem 200w heater
15kg sand
20Kg Rock (layout predesigned in LFS, more on this later)
8 Boxes of putty
230Ltr salt water
20Ltr RO water
ATM Colony
Initial Fish:Evergrow IT 5060 lighting
Jebao DCT 2000 return pump (adequate and free) soon to be replaced by a Jebao DCT 6000(personal choice to increase flow rate and not to have to run at full power)
Jebao RW 8 wave maker
Jebao RW 15 wave maker(against LFS advice, should of listened it is slightly physicaly to big)
Nyos Quantum 120 Skimmer
Ehiem 200w heater
15kg sand
20Kg Rock (layout predesigned in LFS, more on this later)
8 Boxes of putty
230Ltr salt water
20Ltr RO water
ATM Colony
1 x Cleaner wrasse
1 x Regal tang
1 x Royal Gama
Initial Coral:1 x Regal tang
1 x Royal Gama
Small Zoa garden + couple of frags
Pre-arrival checks
Made sure I knew where my tank was going to stand and made sure floor was as level as can be. My floor was concrete so I knew I would have no weightbaring issues, I would of hated to put 250kg+ on floorboards. Ensured I had adequate electric supply near by. Had buckets and towels to hand incase of problems.
Day 1
Being a working man and eager to set up my aquarium I called in at my LFS on way to work to pick up the stand. After 10 hours at work I returned home and started buiding the base. Looking back this was a mistake, I mean how hard can it be to put together a flat packed cabinet? Because of the, IMHO, quality of the stand it took a lot longer than expected but then again when standing 200kg+ of fluid on it you want substance to it, which this has.
Day 2
I was of work so it was back to my LFS for my tank, EXCITED muchly, Oh! boy! was it heavy. Luckily I was able to slide the pallet it came on into my car so I could transport it on a level surface, should I of paid for delivery? possibly. My brother-in-law arrived to help me remove it from my car, we got it out and removed the sump and all the parts from inside the box just to make it lighter. Once in place I began putting things together, I screwed the pipes into the weir holes, one was a little wobble so i got underneath and forcibly gave a little more of a tighten, this was a mistake which I will elaborate on later. So now I have my sump in place, all the plumbing done and sand in. All I have to do is wait for my wife to come in from work and put my three year old to bed then it will be time for me and the wife to rebuild our master piece we had designed in the LFS, sounds easy right? Oh no not even with all the pictures could we rebuild it. So 3 hours it took till we were happy with the new design. It was built on our kitchen table, tank right behind us, how hard could it be to move less than 5 feet and reassemble with putty, yes you got it, VERY!!!! at least we had the base stones and a small section we managed to putty together before we moved it. Another 2 hours past before it was nearly done, many "jovial" discussions were had throughout this period. One important piece of kit I didnt mention was a hammer, no not to hit each other but to reshape the rock.