Over the weekend!

Everything seems to be happening at once which is great! Found another crab on Saturday before going to watch palace beat Luton 2-1.

The hole above the one i have circled house a small crab as well so i think i have about 4/5 crabs in the tank at the moment, maybe even more. All freebies with the rock! Happy Days!

This is my favorite photo so far, spot the little crab on his own rock! He wasn't scared at all with my big ugly mug up against the glass staring at him although as soon as he got the chance (when i wasn't looking) he did a runner and im yet to see him since but still i managed to get a cracking shot of him!

All of my levels are absolutely bang on now, PH, Ammonia, Nitrite, nitrate, SG, it's all spot on so im going to leave it for a couple of more days just to make sure it's stable then im going to put a couple of Peppermint Shrimp in to eat the Aiptasia. It'll still be a few weeks or so until i get any fishes though. But it's all abou patience which is something i have had to learn in the last two weeks. I usually hate waiting for things but this doesn't seem to be so bad, possibly because it's so interesting.

Not long now!

The last few days have been pretty fascinating and having worked out how to take close up shots with my digital camera i thought i'd share some wicked shots with you, all of which taken of my tank!

I happened to spot this little guy eating away at all the algae and carefully venturing out once in a while but as soon as i moved to get the camera he shot back in so this was the best shot i could get of him. Not bad though!

I came home from work on Friday to find that one of the crabs had got very adventurous and actually shed his skin/shell (whatever it's called) you'll probably need to enlarge the photo to see it properly.

Test Results 2 weeks on

Having come home from a pretty busy day in the office a tank gazing was called for, after about half an hour of staring at rock and watching my freebie crab eating algae i decided to do some tests on the water to make sure everything was going to plan.

SG - 1.022 - Good
Nitrite - 0.1 - Good
Nitrate - 5 - Good
Ammonia - Less than 1.2 - Not good but getting better
PH - 7.5 - Not good needs to be a bit higher so may need to get some buffer.
Phosphate - 0 - Good

All in all things are on the up, just got to get the ammonia down and the PH up and keep everything stable then it's time to add some live stock! Im hoping to get the levels sorted by the end of next week so i can get a couple of peppermint shrimp in there to take care of the Aptasia pest!

Until next time!!

All is not as it seems!

An update to my followers and all tank owners. The "Button Polyps" are actually Aptasias as discovered by Stone Cold on the FishKeeping forum. These pest anemones reproduce quite quickly apparently and can be a right pain in the arse if you are looking to keep corals, which i will be eventually. They have a sting in them that will cause a lot of distress to Coral and eventually kill them.

Obviously im not looking to keep these little gits so have two options on getting rid of them, i can either wait a few weeks until the tank is cycled and get a couple of peppermint shrimp who eat Aptasias but this will increase the risk of them spreading as i will have to wait or i can venture out to my local fish shop and get some Joes Juice which you feed to the pest to kill it off then safely remove it from the tank. I'm not entirely sure what im going to do at this stage, i think i'll go down the route of Joes Juice as Peppermint Shrimp aren't reef safe shrimp so i wouldn't want them in there once they have done the job i want them to do which would be a waste. Hmmmmmm

1 week down!

Well, the first week of the cycle process is now over and i'd say it's been a pretty lively week! 2 Polyps, and a couple of crabs!

I say a couple because over the weekend we found another one. Buried in one of the holes in the rock, he started to get a bit adventurous and started to come out of the rock whilst searching for algae on the rock to eat. I tried getting a picture of him which i will post later on but it wasn't a great shot unfortunately.

The brown Algae is starting to clear up a bit on the rock but just keeps getting thicker and thicker on the live sand, the tank is longing for a cleanup crew but thats going to be a few weeks unfortunately!

Not much to report but i did find........

.......out the name of the two bits of coral that have sprouted out of my Live Rock, they are Button Polyps. I got home from work last night to find the smallest of the two had packed up his tentacles and moved home to the rear right corner of the tank and had made home on the substrate, although about an hour later i checked back and he had moved again and is now residing on the back of the right hand side rock. Life in the tank goes on........................

It's all gone brown!

The great thing about setting up a marine tank with Live Rock is that you don't know what to expect. Every day i get home from work and every morning i go downstairs something different has happened! It's Great!

I got home from work yesterday to find that my tank had grown a lovely brown algae over 80% of the live rock and some at the front of the tank on the substrate. Looks wicked!! All part of the cycling process!

I currently have two of these little things growing on my live rock, quite interesting things as well. As soon as the tank light goes off they close up, as soon as it goes on they open up. It's not a gradual thing either it's immediate and quite quick. Im thinking it's an Anenome but im not 100% sure so i have the guys at fishkeeping.co.uk on the case!

It's proof that there is life in the rock though, can't wait to see what else comes out of it over the next few weeks!

Day 2! Live Rock Day!!

Knowing that i wouldn't get another chance for a week or two to actually go and get some live rock i decided to run about trying to get some on the Saturday, onyl the second day of me having my tank setup.

I traveled up to Ipswich with my younger brother only to find the shop (which will remane nameless) sold the worst live rock i have seen. No wonder it was cheap! We phoned about a few more places in Essex/Suffolk but were unable to find anywhere that sold it apart from Swallows Aquatics in Colchester. Unfortunately they were selling it at £14.95 a kilo but i needed to get something so i went with them.

I got home and put the Live Rock into the tank as you can see it looks awesome!

It's been 4 days since the rock has been in my tank and i have already come accross an emerald crab and some small bits of coral which i think are Polyp's, i'll try and get a picture soon. It's amazing watching it though even if there isn't much in there at the moment!

My first post

On Friday 9th February 2007 i purchased everything i needed to setup my very own Nano Marine tank. The Orca TL-450 looks the part, is the right size and is ideal for a beginner. After getting back from my mums birthday dinner at Midnight i cracked on with setting everything up! The tank was taken out of the box, put on the stand, cleaned and had the live sand added!

The amount of thought anf research i had put in to this decision was immense and with the help of all the guys at fishkeeping.co.uk i was able to get a tank and know exactly what to do in order to keep a marine tank and fish!

Cheers Guys!

So as Friday night disapeared and it became Saturday morning i started to mix the salt and RO water to get the correct SG level. Buckets and water everywhere, constantly trying to stop the dog from coming along and drinking the water whilst the salt was dissolving in the water and trying to play Uno on the 360 with some mates. Not Easy!!

Anyway, the salt eventually dissolved, the dog fell asleep, i won at Uno and at 2am the water was ready to be poured into my lovely tank, everything got a bit cloudy but i was expecting that! Time for Bed!!