Ikea Aquarium

[chris#1]

Hi, Im new here!

Just set up my new tank, its around 120litres after displacement.

Kept marine some 6 years ago before i gave them up when i went to uni.

So far have a couple of powerheads, 304 fluval extrernal running charcoal and bio media (dont flame me http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif ), no foam/floss, v2 400 Skimmer, 5W UV unit, rena heater on inlet to external. around 16kg live rock.

Lighting is T8 1 HO marine white, 1 actinic blue, ?35w each.
RO water with tropic marine pro reef salt.

Been running 4 weeks now, the tank never cycled as i expected, was an initial bit of nitrite the day after putting the live rock in but all levels at 0 ever since (presume the rock is doing what it should do) so after 1 week i put in a couple of hermits and a pair of tank pred percula's.

No detectable ammonia, nitrite, or even nitrate and testing everyday. Sg 1.023 +/-0.002, pH 8.2. temp 26 -27 depending on lights on/off. Clowns feeding well and hermits v active, rocks full of life.

The stand/hood is all custom made to match the rest of living room furniture (the stand used to be an ikea bookcase, the hood is actually 2 hollowed out ikea 'floating shelves') then a bit of black acrylic from ebay to trim the tank up make it look better. Here are some pics so far (have more live rock in then shown on pictures now)


http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/style_images/1/img-resized.png Reduced: 37% of original size [ 1024 x 768 ] - Click to view full image
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s144/calletson/27062009158.jpg


http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/style_images/1/img-resized.png Reduced: 50% of original size [ 768 x 1024 ] - Click to view full image
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s144/calletson/28062009159.jpg


http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/style_images/1/img-resized.png Reduced: 37% of original size [ 1024 x 768 ] - Click to view full image
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s144/calletson/05072009166.jpg


http://www.marinefishforum.com/forum/style_images/1/img-resized.png Reduced: 37% of original size [ 1024 x 768 ] - Click to view full image
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s144/calletson/09072009169.jpg

Will update as the tank evolves!

Any comments/suggestions welcome :-)

[Ven]

i like the stand mate very nice

[TerraC]

good idea on the stand and hood, nice start.. Welcome to the forum..

what are your stocking plans?

[chris#1]

Forgot to mention i have put in a bicolour blenny last week. Not sure what else to but in, maybe a royal gramma or firefish? Hard when the tank is so small!

Then will do some research into what soft corals will manage under the relatively low lighting ive got!

[Ben]

Give it a good month or so before introducing new fish.

A Purple Firefish would be nice, :)