New tank build, Again..lol

[sailin_home]

A few days ago while browsing Aquarist classifieds I found the perfect tank ready for my downgrade, rang the guy and to my surprise he still had it, a bargain at only £100.00 so today I drove to Barrow on Thames near Derby and picked up a used Boyu Orca TL-550 nano marine tank, comes with all standard equipment so now looking at upgrades for lighting, filtration etc. so after removing 15KG of small pieces of LR from my existing tank and adding 1” sand bed at the bottom, moved 20litres from my old tank, replaced with new mixed sal****er and added the other 100litres to my new tank, now turned all power on and going to leave it 24-48hrs running as it is, then test all water parameters.

now the hood has alot of room, but has 2 pl-24w bulbs 10,000. one tube white and 1 tube blue. looked for suitable alternative bulbs and there ain't any on the market, so looks like i'll be starting a complete rip out and replace job when i have the funds. here's a few pictures to get you started.

very happy that the water never clouded up either. :14:

[adam-silver]

Looks good mate!! Sorry didnt txt back been fitting a new staircase banister etc all day.

[ROB]

looking good did it come with the stand as well?,

Rob.

[cl0wn]

very nice, loads of potential for modifications.

[sailin_home]

yeah stand was included. my dad currently has the lid looking at lighting options.

[Gaters]

That looks great, i seem to remember some led lighting mods -it'll look great when you've finished it.

[Bradlowes]

Got some PAR38's in and LED UNITS. 60w 120w, but tank looks good! :)

[sailin_home]

bit of an update, bought a pair of bangai cardinals and a pair of clownfish the other day, they swimming around happy now. struggled at first to get the cardinals feeding as they wouldn't accept flake or pellet,so bought a bag of live brine shrimp and they it's now a feeding frenzy. find out tonight if i have got 4 aquaray 500 led strips coming, if i have i will be putting a pair up for sale in the near future, also ordered a temperature control module that should arrive in a few days time.

[sailin_home]

another update, and some more pics to drool over, led lighting now mounted under the hood. woop woop, a few corals gone in. loving it. don't know why i never got a nano sooner.

corals are:
pink chalice, large montipora and several zoa frags and a gold zoa colony.

[Tangman]

another update, and some more pics to drool over, led lighting now mounted under the hood. woop woop, a few corals gone in. loving it. don't know why i never got a nano sooner.

corals are:
pink chalice, large montipora and several zoa frags and a gold zoa colony.
Looking good Steve but dont be filling it with Tangs LOL Twiggy

[sailin_home]

arr, eric..i was gonna buy all them fish from wakeyblue.lol, my lfs said i can have 7" fish in it. rofl. i'm going with small nano fish, biggest fish i'll have is a mandarin, a couple of gobies, a firefish and that's about it. as well as the cardinals and clowns already in there.

[Tangman]

arr, eric..i was gonna buy all them fish from wakeyblue.lol, my lfs said i can have 7" fish in it. rofl. i'm going with small nano fish, biggest fish i'll have is a mandarin, a couple of gobies, a firefish and that's about it. as well as the cardinals and clowns already in there.
You will have to be careful with the Manderin as they neeed at least 40 kg of live rock to survive unless they are feeding on mysis or pellets. Most starve to death in small tanks without a lot of live rock and i would leave it out. Twiggy

[sailin_home]

the guy i'm buying it from has it feeding on mysis and brine shrimp, my bangai cardinals will only eat brine shrimp as well so shouldn't be a issue feeding it. he's keeping it in his holding tanks til i'm ready for it. i added some copods into my tank yesterday and hopefully they will survive and multiply in the rocks.

[cl0wn]

another suggestion of golden pearls artemia replacement. should be able to find it with google.

[bullock]

looking good m8 loving the chalice

[Coraline]

Hi I love the led's they really make it if u dont mind me asking where and how did u get them as I have the same tank and feel like getting rid cause of the lighting. Thanx

[sailin_home]

their aquarays aquabeam 500 version 2's, screwed into top of lid. there is a slight gap where the lid don't close properly but it's never been an issue and it helps with cooling and gas exchanges. i'm actually selling up n sold the lights yesterday, tank will be going up for sale tomorrow.

[Tangman]

their aquarays aquabeam 500 version 2's, screwed into top of lid. there is a slight gap where the lid don't close properly but it's never been an issue and it helps with cooling and gas exchanges. i'm actually selling up n sold the lights yesterday, tank will be going up for sale tomorrow.
Your worse than Jimmy you Steve, what are you doing now putting a 12 footer in the new house LOL. Twiggy

[reefergeek]

Hope the lights are better made then the t5 unit, got a right bat of it today cant complain woke me up lol

[sailin_home]

my old t5 unit? i never had any issues with it. maybe a wire come loose somewhere, i'm not gonna have a tank, well not for now anyway. got alot going on at work, n alot to do over next few months, so putting my money aside and will order my new tank when i'm ready, going cuba for a month soon so got that to look forward to.

[reefergeek]

Looks like the bare earth copper wire has rubbed through the neutral in one of the cable tie clips, Earth sheath is very cheap if you ever make one again and safer.

Its sad your selling up how long do you thing you will be out of reefing for was looking forward to your tank build

[sailin_home]

lol, i got rolls of the stuff in my dad's garage but never thought. oh, well, live and learn. not sure yet, kinda got alot on at minute, so need my life to calm down before i can get sorted out. maybe a 6 month break is long enough, lol. gotta sell this tank and all my corals first. i'll still be around, as i'm gonna be doing alot of research into different tank set-ups, and equipment. not gonna rush my next tank, just take it slow and steady.