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I have been toying with the idea of aquiring a salt tank for a few years now and this bargain turned up:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7759962785&ssPageName=ADME:B:BCA:UK:31

i have a 400 mile round trip to pick it up but the whole setup is soooo cheap i couldn't resist. If you could have a look at the listing just to give me some feedback that would be great. I listened to the bigger is better advice so this is about 150 UK gallons (200ish in US) and i know i will have to uprate the lighting too but all will work out ok!

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

Good luck with the pickup. For sure you will need a few people to help. If you are transporting fish and other livestock(looked like he wanted to include them) I'd consider getting buckets to take as much of his water as possible and premixing some(if not the entire tank volume) water at your house to fill the tank so you don't have to transfer all 200G of water 200 miles. It would be much easier without livestock, that way you could get the tank home and then worry about mixing salt water and everything else....just a thought.


Though a good deal...it will be a lot of hard work for ya. I'd go ahead and get your mixing vat(s) (probably want a 150G vat and large pump to mix), RO unit(at least 100gpd) for pure water to mix with the salt and for topoff.

The two halides are a good start for lighting, more wouldn't necessarily be needed unless you were looking into high light corals. I'm pretty sure that it's recommended to have one halide every 2 feet on a tank, so you may have a shady spot in the tank, but you could work with it. Say build up two piles of LR under each halide, leaving a shady area in the center, or a large pile in the center, leaving shady areas on either side of the tank. They looked like HQI type bulbs, so those should be sufficient for the depth of the tank, if you want low-medium light corals. Might be able to do more, I've never used halides. Somebody else might drop in and let you know. This is all assuming you want to go reef...if not then that lighting is overkill for a FOWLER tank.

IMO that's not enough live rock for a stable reef tank. Even though that's 100 lbs or more, I'd probably double it. The picture makes it look like there's more, maybe there is. In a 200G tank I'd look at having 250 lbs of LR or more.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Thanks for the advice, once the main tank has cycled again (i'm keeping the sump running independantly with fish & LR in it as a holding tank) i will start thinking about some more fiji LR from the LFS and start building my cleanup crew. Just out of interest if i get some cleaner shrimp what kind of fish would be safe to keep with them? I was thinking of getting a clown goby as my first addition to the tank after i reintroduce the existing livestock.

For people who haven't seen the item i have bought the tank is a 5' X 2' X 2' with a 3' 30G sump. The livestock are 3 X Electric blue damsels, 1 X White Tailed Damsel and 1 brittle starfish. The soft corals are 2 X Pulsing Xenia and there is also a good amount of caulerpa.
Also there is 5KG of live fiji rock and 40KG of grotto & ocean rock.

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

OK i have got the tank now!! Just waiting to install it today, unfortunately the guy i was buying the tank off had a major stock loss due to transferrence problems with his new 9 foot tank so i have NO fish but he did let me have an anenome (not sure if it will last though) and the live rock is being kept in a 10G bucket with the skimmer running so hoprfully that will be ok for a few weeks until the main tank is cycled? It's all a bit of a disaster!!!!

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

The LR should be ok in a bucket, keep it heated, and the water circulated. At least this way you get to pick the fish you want, think of it that way. The damsels can be a bit aggresive. If you are going to get LR go ahead and get it while the tank is recycling. There is usually some die off from new LR anyways, might as well get it all over with at the same time.

There are lots of fish that are compatible with a reef type setup and inverts. Some wrasses, most clowns, tangs, most anthias, cardinals, some blennies and gobies, etc. All fish that you are thinking about getting should be researched individually though. I'd get Scott W. Micheal's book titled Marine Fishes. It's a good book for general info on lots of fish.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

YAY i got the tank filled (jeesh took a while!) and got the salinity and temp right (25 degrees i decided on) and have added the non-live rock. I am now gonna give it a few days to settle before i put in the live rock/sand and hopefully i'm on my way to a cycled tank! Just out of interest i am going to put a deep sand bed in my sump - do you recommend i also do this in the main tank (cost is restricting me!)

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

Ok got the tank set-up completely now (minus sand still-waiting for an order to come in) i was just wondering if the following lighting will be enough:

2X 150W metal Halide pendants
2X 5 foot T8 58W each 1 white 1 actinic
1X 3 foot T8 38W on 24/7 in the sump

Any replies would be appreciated

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

Tell me what corals you want, and I'll tell you if that's enough light.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

ok not sure on the specific species yet but will only be soft corals not stony corals.

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

You'll probably be able to grow just about any soft coral you want.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients