Hey!!! I'm New.....

[SuperBlades]

Hi

I'm new to this reef lark. I'm 22, living in deepest darkest Kent. I have been keeping fish for around 15 years and about 3 months ago decided to take the plunge into marines. i've got a 70gal tank which i=mainly consists of live rock at the mo. ( these fish cost a little ). I'm striving to create a natural reef and WILL need your help. I currently have 1 button polyp colony, one toadstool leather, 50 odd hermits and 50ish Turbo's. 3 Chromis, 1 yellow tang, 1 tomatoe clown and a yellow tail damsel. All fish are doing well. Inverts are doing ok???? I use a internal deltec mc500 skimmer, but don't know of anyone else that does, it seems to work well, any comments would be appreciated.

Hope to hear from you all.

Will

[Eddie S]

Welcome to the board,
these guys here are great and since i discovered this board i keep coming back.

a few questions...

What lighting and timings do you use,
any substrate in your tank,

do you have any algae probs?

Good luck with it all,

Eddie

[Cudders]

Hi mate,

Welcome to the board. Best place for info and support around. Do I take from your user name your a Sheff United fan?

Mark.

[clegggs]

hi m8 and welcome :rolleyes:
mainly consists of live rock.. blimey you have more livestock than me :lol: tomato clowns are a bit agressive when they get older
is there a problem with your inverts??
and have you got any pictures ;)

[Jevs]

Hi Will,
Good to see you've moved over from reefs uk. There's a lot more action on this board m8.
Good luck and keep asking the questions
Andy
PS, looking forward to playing the blades next season :P :P :P ;) :lol:

[SuperBlades]

Hi,

Right....Priorities..ummm....football. Blades are going up on Monday, take my word for it. 3-1 win. Got my ticket. Cardiff here I come!!! Next...... The tank....right. Lights, at the mo I'm running of 4 flouro tubes, 2 blue and 2 actinic, will upgrade to MH's in the near future, but for the mo they do the job. In the morning I turn the blues on, have a cup of tea and then turn on the actinics. I have about, oohhh.....30kg Ocean rock, as a base and around 50-60kgs Live rock....I think. My main filter is a fluval 304 and a deltec mc500 internal skimmer which seems to work very well. I have a variety of 6 powerheads which run on timers to create different tidal movements. The substrate is coral gravel which seems to be constantly covered in a fine brown dust, which is slowly subsiding. Spent more money today on 4 tube worms and a boxer shrimp. Thought about a Flame Angel......then thought I'd wait a while, don't want to get all my fish in the first 6 months. Also fell in love with a Scarlet Hawkfish....Nice!!! Any info? only £20, is that good?? I'm still finding this all a bit daunting since I left the world of cichlids behind, but oh......Is it rewarding!!!! People who visit the house are fascinated, and I can't seem to stop reading about bloody reefs.

First question....Anyone know a good retailer in Kent. I mainly use Ark Aquatics in Canterbury, who are good, but limited stock. Canterbury Koi is another one with the same problem.

Look forward to hearing from you,

Will

[Preds]

STM in Sevenoaks are probably one of the most reputed retailers in the country, and they're doing a massive extension as we speak. It's rapidly turning into my local, and I live in Reading. ;)

Scarlet Hawks - I'd say £20 was a pretty good price. Great fish, but they have a tendency to eat shrimps. May be OK with a Boxer, but it's still a risk.

You say you have 2 blue tubes and 2 actinics. Actinics are blue tubes too, do you want a blue effect? If you do have 60 kilos of live rock, that should cover the filtration for a 70 gallon tank amply, making the Fluval somewhat redundant unless you use it for housing chemical media. If at all possible, I'd also suggest removing the coral gravel. It tends to work as a detritus trap, and can help to create algae blooms and adverse water quality. Many/most people here use a sand substrate, which will also house many small beneficial reef animals like bristleworms and copepods. These will help to remove any detritus.

Hope this helps.

[Jevs]

Hi Will

Just to echo a few things that Preds said.....STM are brilliant. Only been there once but VERY impressed and their new section will be awesome when built. Not too sure how far away it is but Rob's marines in Ipswich is also worth a look (see PFK this month....shop tour)

I had a scarlet hawk in my reef. Fantastic little fish and full of charachter. I had two pistol shrimps, a boxer, peppermint and cleaner shrimps with it and all were fine. They were however, big shrimps and hawks do have a reputation of eating shrimps given one small enough.

If you're going to buy a flame, put it in later rather than sooner as they can be on the terratorial side.

Make yourself a list of all the fish you want to add, then decide which order they're going to be stocked in.....and STICK TO THE LIST....don't impulse buy.

Good luck and looking forward to watching the footy on Monday. And hey Will, you live close enough to East London to support the 'ammers m8 :P .

Andy

[SuperBlades]

Howde

Had a heart attack this morning. As i turned the lights on, I saw what I thought was the shrimp, sitting on the gravel, looking a bit ill. After about 2 hours it hadn't moved and my damsel was pecking at it. I thought it had died, then I noticed the shrimp behind a rock, it must have shed its skin, claws, antenna...the bloody lot. Is this normal? On another point, on a trip to Notcutts in Maidstone I noticed a small aquatic retailer,
who were selling Anthias for £12.50 each, I haggled down to 3 for £30 which I thought was good, but already having a small shoal of chromis I didn't want another shoal upsetting the chromis formation. But I thought this was a good price.

Thanks for all the replies.

Blades 3 - Wolves 1. Put money on it.

[Preds]

Re: the shedding - that's normal. :)