Piccys - not great but will do 4 now

Cleaner Shrimp, Dancing Shrimp & 3 Turbo Snails purchased!

Having checked all my levels and confirmed all was okay, I today went with the wife and her younger sister (11 yrs old) to RC&E and informed the shop owner that we were ready 4 the next level - he advised that we could either add further corals, purchase a damsel or 2 or get some clean up crew. We went 4 getting some clean up crew and some additional tank items - 1 Cleaner Shrimp, 1 Dancing Shrimp, 3 Turbo Snails, 25 litres of RO Water, an additional pump, magicleaner, and more salt.

All added to the tank with the usual slow and concentrated introduction required to a new fish home, all went in - light off, snails obviously settled straight in no problems at all, shrimp were okay a little nervous but a few hours later they were happily moving swiftly around their new home. Even being introduced to my hairy crab (can't remember the name) they got on great.

Just got to add my additional pump as recommended by my LFS tomorrow and then leave things to settle for about a week b4 purchasing a few gobys or damsels to start of my live fish stock.

Check back soon, for further updates

Time for the clean up crew..

Tank is now coming into its third week of being setup and all PH, SG, Nitrate, water tempt tests/levels are fine - am picking up 2 peppermint shrimps and 1 cleaner today as maybe a few crabs and turbo snails. Depending on what I am advised my my local Aquatics Centre http://www.ratscatsandelephants.co.uk

Crab found in live rock

Well chuffed, just found a hairy crab in amongst my live rock, rock has been in 4 days now and really is coming to life, but this is my best discovery so far, the crab crawled out just b4 lights out time, crawled out of a hole around a few rock ledges then nestled in to a small cave and started nibbling on the rock surface, wasn't a bit afraid of my ugly mug staring at it for 10 mins.

Live Rock Purchased

Purchased the Live Rock on Friday before heading off for a 4 day break in North Norfolk - added 6 kilos - 3 pieces - arranged it how we wanted then went off - arrived back today and already things are starting to happen. A few things crawling about and some strange things growing, I will investigate more tomorrow once I have unpacked from our short break. Buying some corals this weekend - then having left those to establish themselves we will be purchasing the first live stock.

Will be adding some pictures soon, once I get chance to setup my digi cam and pc etc.

Back soon.

Orca 450 - Nano Marine 13 Gallon N3M0 Tank

10/02/07

Purchased Orca 450 tank, salt, sand, hydrometer, thermometer,

Washed sand
filled tank 1/2 full
added clean sand
filled tank up to full
leave skimmer switched off - turn on all sockets, ie run pump - turn lights on - both sets - although not sure if I needed to?

Monitor temp - ie leave until next day - await temp in tank to rise to 76 o/f 24 o/celsius - basically leave tank for 24 hours after adding sand and turning on pumps etc

11/02/07 after 24 hours
check temp - should be as above - add half bag of salt and monitor every hour until level on hydrometer reads (adding a cup of salt per hour until this level is reached - 1.022 once this level is reached, leave tank alone for 24 hours, hydrometer reading should (but not always) rise to 1.023/1.024.
Open valve to set skimmer air intake - should see small bubbles appear in the 2nd from right hand side opening at the rear of the tank - the protein tank part = the circular area should approx be half full with small bubbles, any more than this is too much.

LEAVE THE TANK FOR 1 WEEK

go back to Aquatics store and obtain live rocks etc to starting filling up the tank - leave these to settle for a further week

2ND WEEK
Go back to the aquatics store to obtain more rock/corals as required

WEEK 3
Back to aquatics store to purchase a couple of hardy fish for introduction into your prepared tank - aquatics store will advise as to the best sort. Leave for...........