I Am Very New To This Wonderful Hobby

[Grahammc]

Hi Peeps

As you have guessed i am new to this hobby, only been setup 8 weeks and in need of some good advice.
I have a juwel rio 300 with a arcadia series 3 70cm lighting unit which i don't feel is enough. I tried to leave the old lighting unit on with 2 blue lights one but i felt as though i was looseing white light from halide. If anyone has any suggestions it would be gratefully recieved,


Graham.

[clegggs]

hi grahammc and welcom to the board :D what are you planning on keeping (livestock) and what wattage is your halide

[Grahammc]

Hi Ian :)

I am planning on something really simple for the time being as need to learn lots yet. My Tank has been up 8 weeks now and i have got 3 Green Cromis and a lovely Bristle mouth Tang, I have got but just a few soft leather corals like a Toadstool, Finger coral that was given to me. It looks like i might have sorted my problem with my lights as i have been in contact with somebody i know and have listened to over my 8 weeks experiance. I did however liked Edds Photo on one of the other pages feeding on romanian Lettece and that is how i would like my tank to look. :), How long have you been keeping Marine for and what do you have in your system.

[clegggs]

hi graham gled you got it sorted :rolleyes: ive beed keeping marines for the past year and have mushrooms,toadstools,xenia mixed,fire coral,galaxia,yellow tang ,scooter,sulpher golby,manderin,bicolour blenny,pair off black clowns,firefish

[Grahammc]

Hi Ian

How hard is it to keep mandarian's as i think they are wonderfull fish?. I have dabbled in this hobby before but gave up as we bought a undulas trigger and it ate all my stock :angry: So this time i am going to take it real slow.

[clegggs]

hi grahham mandarins are not hard to keep but do require a mature tank with loads off liverock with abundence off food for them i only decided to get my manderin last week but have waited for the past 10 months for the tank to mature more :blink: so please wait for your tank to mature and get plenty off live rock to make the chapie happy :P ps the wait made it more pleasurable when we eventualy got him

[Grahammc]

Hi Ian

Cheers for that i will wait for the little beauty. Can't make my mind up what to get next as in fish not sure if i should go for clowns or bi-coloured blennies or should i just put another 3 chromis in and leave it to mature. I have put a pic on members tanks but its not very good pic as its been taken from camera that came with my phone. Need to get a digi cam next i think.


Ps if you have any sugestions please advise.

Thanks
Graham

[clegggs]

hi graham i dont know the Bristle mouth Tang never seen one so you will have to do abit ov reserch as to what it will get on with i have a bi colour blennie and they have got plenty of caricature need a hole or to :P but i would take it slow introducing fish your system is still new how long ago did you last add to your tank the longer you can leave it the better imo 2-3 weeks min

[Grahammc]

Hi Ian

Added fish 2 weeks ago so maybe i should wait another couple off weeks. Just checked out your pics and they look really nice. Is it a juwel tank if so who made the hood for you?.

Graham

[clegggs]

hi graham yep my old tank is a jewel 400 and i have the original hood but i knocked the one on the photo up so i could sit my halides on the tank in the last picture is the new one im currently installing.
as for waiting thats cool theres no rushing in this hobby :P just keep up the testing :)

[Grahammc]

Hi Ian

Was it easy to knock up the hood ?

[clegggs]

hi graham hoods have to be the easyist to do but if you are sitting lights on and your not sure about your handywork then be carefull ;)

[Garry thomas]

Hello gra welcome m8, are you doing all your water tests? It's a good habit to get into.

[Grahammc]

Hi Garry

Yes doing all my water test and everything is ok at the mo just wondering when things are going to go wrong as they very often do with me.

[Garry thomas]

Graham head and chin up m8, as that guy said with the cape (no not batman) use the force luke or was it graham :lol: :lol: :D :)

[Grahammc]

Hi Garry

The chin is up m8 i just want your tank. Don't even want to know how much that cost to put together. I tried to put an updated pic on last night but it kept saying file was to big. Need to find a way of reducing the images on digi cam as you know last pic i put on it was poor quality. How many hours aweek do you spend on your tank? As i must spend 2 hours cleaning mine aweek. I have got one question i bought a sleeper goby the other week and i can't find him anywhere in the tank have you any ideas? I looked at a book i bought yes after i purchased the fish ( idiot !! i know ) and it doesn't reckomend keeping sleeper goby's coz they hide and die, but all my test are ok. :(

[Garry thomas]

Gra i'm afraid i dont know anything about them gobies m8, fish are funny, he ma7y turn up in a couple of days/weeks plenty of time yet. Tank maintenance MMMMmmmmmmm i suppose if allowed i could make it into a full time job :lol: but i normally spend around 2 hours a day. Personally i think that the time and effort put into a tank, will reward you one day with a splendid look, just be patient gra you'll get there m8.