finally beginning my 480g 5'x5'x30" SPS Reef Tank

Thank you jeff... awesome.

I went to STM this morning and was very happy to find some good quality equipment and livestock, finally. I will try to find some more stores this weekend when I have a little extra time.

Thank you very much, any local reefclubs that I can meet up with. I would really like to see some local tanks.
 
Glad you liked it Tom. :)

Did you buy anything?

Did they have any nice LPS in stock?

There are quite a few other local stores that sell corals too but not many are of the standards of STM.

There is Heritage Aquatics in Wallington (pricey and the main guy is slightly dodgey. Nice tanks though)

World of Fishes in East Grinstead. Never been in here but I have a friend who goes there pretty often.

Many garden centres sell them too including one in Morden. I went there last week and the selection of corals is pretty poor and many arn't in good condition. I bought a dying lobo there after bartering with the guy for £15 (probably a little too much but I knew I could bring it back to life).

LMK if you want any other store ideas to keep you going.

In terms of local tanks/clubs;

You're welcome to come round and see my (pretty poor) 2 foot cube anytime and I know a few other local reefers with much nicer tanks who I can get in contact with for you?

There is a local club that I will see if I can PM you details of. They meet once a month round someones house and usually have a BBQ, frag swap etc (one of the members has just moved from the US. :))


Jeff.
 
Thanks Jeff,

I just bought some more equipement, still have to wait another week before I give a coral a try. They did seem to have some nice LPS in stock actually but the owner told me that the time to go will be next Tuesday, they are getting in over 100 frags that are supposed to be exceptional, he's excited about it.

I have found a link on practicalfishkeeping.com that shows me all of the LFS in the area, its just hard seperating the crap from the good, but I'll go on a road trip tomorrow to find out. I am going to stay away from garden centers though, I went to a couple about a year back and it was seriously depressing, like going to most Petco's in the US. The people just don't know how to take care of the marine animals, especially corals, correctly.

I would definetly like to see you tank if possible, I'll bring the beer :beer: and would enjoy seeing some other tanks as well. Thank you very much for the offer.

Peace
 
Which shops are you considering going to?

Yeah feel free to come round anytime, not much to look at in my tank ATM but would be nice to talk reefs esepcially with someone with experiance of how its done across the pond. :)

I'll ask a few local reefers I know if you can go round and see their (lovely) tanks. :)


Jeff.
 
Jeff - I went out to heritage aquatics today, nice store, very nice equipment available, and that long huge tank in the back is awesome. Worth the trip. Between that and STM I'm pretty happy right now but still looking.

I would like to come by and see you tank sometime Jeff, and would definetly like to chat about how things are done here compared to the US. PM me and let me know when your free sometime.



Now some bad news, I got a new RO unit today that came with a TDS meter and I found that the house water is over 500ppm! That is over 4 times higher then what I got as tap water in the Florida. So I asked my father why the tap water was so bad and he told me that he no longer uses city water and pumps well water straight into the house without any prefilteres. SO, after a short convesation, I convinced him to at least buy some filtration equipement and a UV sterilizer for the house. So another test will follow on Monday afternoon.

The tank is coming along nicely, its cycling right now which is always annoying and I am itching for a larger tank. I saw a beautiful Deltec setup for sale today and I had to remind myself that this is all temporary and that I have a nice tank waiting for me. So its on to a larger sump then, more acrylic fun for me.
 
Before he does all that, look into whole house RO. There are some rather efficient ways to do this and then he can install a re-mineralizer for drinking water, coffee, ice, etc. PM for more info. on that.
 
update... nothing to do with me getting back or getting the tank up and running, that's still at an unfortunately stand still.

but an update on my UK born "nano" tank.

I have upgrade my water movement to 2x tunze 6101's with a multicontroller. They lasted all of ten minutes before they crapped out. Seems like there are some problems to work out of the new 6101's but otherwise I'm happy. Need to get some new adapters from Tunze and hopefully that will take care of it. Its fun to watch 12,000 L/h moving water in a basically round 160L aquarium, really moves and I don't think I have to worry about dead spots anytime soon. This is of course if and when they are working.

I have also dumped the V2 skimmer, piece of crap in my opinion, even after the mods I tried, and replaced it with a tunze DOC 9005. Looking forward to seeing what it can do as I have never owned a tunze skimmer before. Apparently works completely differently from most systems so I'm interested.
 
And....

Jonathan please fill me in on the house RO unit.

Jeff, I drove down to Paraquatics today and they have some NICE LPS in stock. Thought you would like the heads up.
 
I replied to your message...and am open for any further questions. I wouldn't consider myself an expert in the subject, but I certainly have studied it quite a bit. :D
 
Sorry for the delay. Im pretty busy ATM Tom but could possibly meet in a few weekends time. How long will you be over here for?

Thanks for the heads up BTW, I went there a few months ago and they had some nice stuff but it was pretty damn expensive. :(


Jeff.
 
Let see some pics of the other tanks..

Alright I am stuck away from home. I think I am going to play with sketchup. I might be hittin you up with a question.
 
Thanks jonathan - I'll do some research and I'm sure I'll have a few questions for you. Thanks for the help.

Jeff - No worries, this time of the year is busy around here. I will be over here for an undetermined period of time, but definetly longer then a few weeks. Just let me know when you have time. That place was pretty expensive and tiny but they do a good job for the room they have.

Eric - I'm still waiting to get a battery charger for my D80, I put an order in 2 weeks ago to a local shop and they still have not recieved it. Might have to just hope on Amazon and get it done. If you need any help with Sketchup let me know, I haven't played with it for a few weeks now but I'm happy to help.
 
So I made a pretty embarassing mistake with my sketchup work, and I'm not sure how I could have missed it until now but... it appears I was missing 6" of the height of my tank in the pictures. For what its worth here are some updates.

pic%201.jpg


pic%202.jpg


pic%203.jpg


pic%204.jpg


At least you all know what my tank would have looked like at a 24" height.

Still waiting for a battery charger and no visa progress...
 
I like the revised version. I feel like I have a really good idea how its going to turn out. I really hope you get everything sorted out in regards to your Visa.
 
haha... thanks for busting my balls Eric... :D

Sorry about the slow progress (or no progress really) Joshuab, thanks for tagging along.

Thanks for the words of encouragement Catherine, very much appreciated.


Update on my 120g, doing well and everything is holding on without me, seems like I've finally found some people who can handle the challenge and I can trust, very much appreciated.

Update on my "UK Nano reef", the tank is done cycling and I have added a 20g sump. The little tunze skimmer is really kicking @$$. I have also added a flame angelfish and 1" clown trigger (such a cool little fish I had to give him a try) and they are doing great. A little ich on the angel but I've worked that out and she's doing great now. I have also purchased another dwarf angel, which is currently unidentified and in guaranteed in the store. Looking forward to getting it home in a little over a week and figuring out what exactly it is.

Tomorrow I'm off to Sweden and Norway for the next week and a half, wonder if I can track down any LFS in Stockholm and Oslo. Then I get the chance to go to Mumbai, India in about a month and a half and I can't wait for that, I've never been and am very excited. So at least i have something to do while I'm stuck away from home, still fighting to get back though. Wish me luck!
 
Hey, when you get the chance, can you post a pic of the skimmer in action?

Good luck with your travels!! Mumbai? What are you going to do there?
 
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