Paul's 50G fish only tank

[pmartin]

Hello all, let me introduce myself

I am Paul from Dublin, Ireland and I decided to post my tank journal online because since I started using the site, Talkingreef, I found everyone so helpful and non-judgemental, which makes a huge difference when stepping into the unknown.

I have been keeping fish for about 7 years now. It started when my wife’s work place closed down and the office fish tank was left parent less so I adopted three Lionhead fish which I name Axl, Slash and Duff. I had the fish for 2 years and when the Gn’R 3 headed for rock n roll heaven (separately there was no R n’ R massacre) I decided to step it up a gear and to keep African Cichlids.

For the last 4/5 years I have been keeping the Cichlids with varied success. One of my favourite fish, Bellers, turned out to be a bully and killed 12-15 fish in a year. I found out later that this was mainly due to two things, having a tank that was too small and receiving poor advice on the compatibility of fish. So I got him a new friend, a blue lobster called Pinchie (the first Lobster i got climbed out of the tank dropped down the press crossed the room and hid under my guitar amp and died Rn’R).They appear to get on well and now the stress levels in the tank have decreased dramatically.

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Bellers & Pinchie

About two months ago I bought myself a 50 Gallon corner tank with the intention of filling it with African Cichlids. That was until I discussed it with a LFS (freshwater only) owner who informed me that Bellers would always be a bully regardless of the size of tank he was in. He suggested keeping Marine fish instead (which I secretly always wanted to do but thought it best to wait until retirement when I would have more time)

So I went to the Marine fish store for the next couple of weeks, got on the net, downloaded the Talkingreef podcast (which has been of huge help and a credit to Rob and the rest of the guests) and read a great book “The new marine Aquarium” by Michael S. Paletta - a great step by step guide and is very simple for €25.

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After all my research I set up my Juwel “Trigon” 190 litres / 50 Gallon bow-fronted corner tank. The tank has an internal overflow with a heater, filter and power head (600l/h) which cost me €600/$780 from the internet including free delivery, this was nearly €150 cheaper than any shop I visited, who incidentally also refused to deliver!!!!!!!

I then went to my LFS to buy my start up kit which consists of

1. Salt (instant Ocean) €40
2. skimmer (in tank) €130
3. Powerhead (Maxi jet) (1200l/h) €50
4. sand €80
5. Hydrometer €25
6. Tap water filter €100
7. Marine lab €50

Total € 475 / $620

I did a leak test first, then drained the tank and replaced it with filtered tap water, which was a slow process as the flow rate through the filters quite low.

After filling the tank, which took nearly a day in total, I turned on the heater and as soon as the temperature levelled at 24°C / 77F I added the power heads and salt

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I left the tank for a week, monitoring the salinity regularly to make sure it was a constant 1.024. Once that was done I got some live rock (Fiji reef rock) for €350 for 20kg/ $450 for 48lbs and headed home with my now empty wallet.

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Along with the live rock I added an in-tank skimmer, carbon filter (Rowa Carbon POI=1,3 and Rowa Phos PO4 & SiO2 absorber to the tank).

With everything now set up I started to keep a Marine log - something I would highly recommend to any beginner - with the following sections:

Dates of purchases etc,
Record tests for the cycling of the tank,
Conversion chart (salt measurements per gallon/litre etc),
Maintenance record (Rob’s 3 week rotation of power head and skimmer maintenance),
Shopping list (because I always arrive home and I have forgotten something) and
A single sheet calendar so I have an idea of what I have to do on a weekly basis

At present I am doing my Marine lab testing for the Nitrogen cycle and waiting for my ammonia to rise (nearly 2 weeks now and no changes)

pH 8.2,
Alkalinity 2.9,
Temp 25ºC/77ºF,
Specific Gravity 1.023,
Salinity 31,
Ammonia NH3/NH4 ppm 0.25,
Nitrite NO2 0.2 &
Nitrate NO3 7.0

I have also added a new glass thermometer with 0.2 ºC increments as my strip thermometer that came with the tank is not that accurate.

The water movement around my tank is 1800l/h about 10 turnovers per hour, however due to the fact my 600l/h power head is on the flow side (the filter will restrict flow when clogged) so I plan to buy another 1200l/h.

This will be a fish only until I get to grips with the tank and then I will upgrade the lighting etc.

So here is the latest picture of my tank. The shining light at the top you see is my skimmer cup. I thought about modifying my skimmer cup by reducing the height of it so it wouldn’t be popping up through the tank lid (and after some great advice from David) I plan to modify the casing of my skimmer and place it in the overflow unit within the tank thus removing the filter and allow the live rock/live sand to do my filter work for me. Coming from a freshwater set-up it is hard to imagine a tank without a filter but I am willing to take the experts advice.

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So now I have started my research into what fish types I hope to purchase.

I hope my tank will be half as good as Carmie's 54 Corner (check it out if you haven’t already)

Thanks for reading my tank journal and I would welcome any suggestions or feedback you may have.

Thanks a million for all your help so far and stay tuned for more updates.

Paul

[pmartin]

Hi there Paul

I really enjoyed reading your tank journal. It's great to have someone with such enthusiasm on the site.

Keep up the good work.

Elaine

[iglowce]

welcome to TR paul.. my pleasure to read your journal.. keep us updated and more pix

[Seahorsedreams]

You put all that info in one post! Brave man! With my luck the computer would have burped on the last word loosing everything.

Your tank looks like it will be sweet!

[lanesreef]

Great journal. The book you mentioned is probably the best out there! I used the same to get my tank going. Keep us posted with news and pics!

[CarmieJo]

Hi Paul,

Thanks. Your tank is looking good already. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy mine. Here is a link to a Yahoo Widget that I have found helpful for reminding me of my maintenance tasks.

[Danamck]

Nicely done, Paul. I'm looking forward to many more post and many more pixs.

[Reefbaby]

Welcome to TR Paul! It's wonderful to have you on board!

I love the look of the bowfronts and can't wait to see how yours will develop. Sounds like you've done your research and have thought everything out carefully. You can be an example to all!

I couldn't tell from the pictures whether you have a deep sand bed or not? It looks like it's not - have you thought about starting from the get-go with a DSB? You'll have much more stability in the tank. I would highly recommend going with a fine grain of sand. (I'm just thinking that if you want to upgrade at some point to corals, then you want to have as pristine water quality as possible).

Also...I can't see if this is the case or not, but try to not lean any of the rocks against the back wall. It makes it really difficult to clean and can eventually scratch up the glass.

Looks great!

[pmartin]

Hello again and thanks for the messages of support.

Since my last post nothing too much has changed my tank is still cycling (even though I think it would just love to speed things up)

I have my tank up and running since January and my live rock has been in the tank for over 5 weeks now with no great changes.

There is a lot of hair algae starting to grown in the tank and I have been taking my toothbrush to it with no great effect. I need a firmer brush I think.

I know it’s not a great photo but here is a picture of a green spore that suddenly appeared over night. I thought this was brilliant but I had to brush it off.

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Reefbaby thanks a million for the advise (all comments are very welcome)

I am going to have a deep sand bed in my tank but the book I am reading has advised that the sand should be placed in the tank after the tank it has cycled.

I have place the rock away from the glass with enough space for my magnet cleaner to push through but I haven’t left enough space between the wall and one side of the glass which will make it a little difficult to clean the inside of the glass but I will get over it by getting a algae scraper.

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I have added an additional maxijet Powerhead to the tank. This is to improve the circulation as it is bow shaped the water was not being pushed through the rocks. So now I have a 1200l/h and a 900l/h maxijet powerheads and along with this there is a 600l/h pump on the flow side of the filter. This gives me 14 water circulations/movements (?) an hour, which is above the recommended 5 to 10, but I don’t want to be reliant on the 600l/h Powerhead as when the filter gets clogged the flow will be reduced (as advised in one of the podcasts)

So tonight I am going to do another water test and hopefully there will be some change in the ammonia levels. It has been 5 weeks since I have put the live rock in. there has been an increase in hair algae so hopefully that Is a sign that things are beginning to speed up.

My LFS has told me that I can put in a peppermint shrimp and a couple of snails as the ammonia levels are quite low but I am gonna stick to my guns and wait for the tank to cycle.

Thanks again for all your posts of encouragement.

Paul

[Reefbaby]

Paul - if you put sand in later, you might have another cycle anyway....especially if you're covering up the sand that you've got now. Since you're at your cycling phase, I would go ahead and do it now. You'll get your sandbed all rich with the right bacteria and in your beginning phase of your tank (after you've cycled), you'll actually have a better denitrification buffer with the deeper sand bed.

How are your nitrite/nitrate levels now? If they're tapering off, I would suggest starting with a clean up crew. They'll help you keep the unsightly algae under control. Snails/hermits are both great choices for the beginning janitors. I would wait just a bit with the cleaner shrimp.

By the way, are you testing your phosphates?

[pmartin]

So I tested my water again and there seems to have been some action over the weekend. Woo Hoo in your face Ammonia.

pH 8.4,
Alkalinity 2.9,
Temp 25.2ºC/77ºF,
Specific Gravity 1.024,
Salinity 33,
Ammonia NH3/NH4 ppm 0.25,
Nitrite NO2 0.05 &
Nitrate NO3 1.0

Could I have missed my