unheatedtank Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 Hi all I sold my fish and my daughter cried after comming from school without seeing her nemo ;( so I decided to restart with no fish tank to ler her care for it for awhile here is the tank with left over rock and 2 snails, 2 tiny shrimps and 2 star fish question is that can I remove external skimmer and run only the built in filter with weekly water change? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cam07 Posted December 3, 2015 Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 Can't see why not, ran tanks for years before skimmers came along, be minimal waste so water changes should keep up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2015 Thank you, will try Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 4, 2015 Report Share Posted December 4, 2015 (edited) A skimmer is for when using minimal bio media and media that will become chocked in time, the skimmer is supposed to take out as much as possible of organic material like pooh, tannins, urine, rotting left over foods and life that has died as it breaks down. This is so that these caught by the skimmers bubbles wont go to ammonia, phosphates, nitrite then nitrate reducing the amount of bio media needed to be in action! If your live rock and media else where is kept clean always and there is enough of it along with regular water changes, then the skimmer, along with phos/inorganic reduction processes, will be only for tannins to keep the lights colours reaching your corals, so if no corals or delicate photosynthetic life are in the tank, a skimmer is a waste of space, time and money! Oh and lose the sand! Edited December 4, 2015 by liquidg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2015 I want to start to look at soft coral, easy ones first of course So I hook the external skimmer back and now is the time for Air con ;( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 4, 2015 Report Share Posted December 4, 2015 Morphs are good, plenty of colours as well, plus acans, serailia and peltata are all very easy to keep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Liquidg, do you know where I can get some cheap soft coral or morphs or acan, and any easy ones with color? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Look on face book, heaps in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Considered restacking rock so that its more like a house of cards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 How to stack them all to get max light? I removed some and throw away as the lower ones became white Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 More to get better waterflow and prevent debris building up. Yea coraline algae looks nice.... but good live rock doesnt need to be covered in it. In fact I prefer to start with dead white base rock. You have some good looking rock already, just a personal preference but I like to open up scapes more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny@ageofaquariums Posted December 5, 2015 Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 (edited) Dam double post bug Edited December 5, 2015 by Donny@ageofaquariums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2015 Thanks Donny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 6, 2015 Report Share Posted December 6, 2015 How to stack them all to get max light? I removed some and throw away as the lower ones became white I always say to reefers that barren base rock is best, as Donny has typed as well and not that many years ago I would cop much flack for running down the use live rock by supposed gurus, so the lower reaches that were less coloured up of yours, is natural and good. Rock that is covered by corallines or what ever, these areas are less inclined to house beneficial bacteria and protists that carry out the nitrogen cycle. If you use base or live rock to carry out your cycle, then the oxygenated waters have to reach all of its surface area to take your water to concentrated nitrate, then inside your rock is supposed to carry out nitrate to nitrogen. Loose your sand mate, at its best, it will pollute your waters assisting in hair algae and diatom growth and provide homes for marine ich and velvet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 [MENTION=3166]liquidg[/MENTION] if I still want a little, can I have 1cm black sand? Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 7, 2015 Report Share Posted December 7, 2015 Its up to you mate, just keep it clean! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
african-cichlids Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Worst mistake I did was use live rock as everywhere I researched on the net was saying use live rock. Well it caused nothing but headache for me and I wish id listened to some members on here (won't mention them lol) but seriously when I start my 6 foot up it won't have 1 piece of live rock. I started my nano with live rock and it prolonged my first coral and fish longer than I expected. I won't go into detail but base rock I totally agree with and choosing porous rock is beneficial Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Thanks, will replace by 1cm of black sand layer, kid holidays are in highest priority now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 12, 2015 Report Share Posted December 12, 2015 Yeh the first time I was on a forum with really bad grammar and spelling and no computer skills at al,l I disputed the use of live rock on "that forum" like I tried using several times from 82 to 85 and nothing but heartache came from it, don't get me wrong, there were corals and all kinds of cute things come from it, but so did mantis, nasty crabs, all types of good and bad worms, colonising anems like aptasia, carnivorous sea stars, coral eating flat worms, rubbish algae species like hair algae to name just a few pests, then you have the toxins emitted by the sponges, worms and more as they settle in and that can take one to two years even by the gurus standards to stop poisoning your tank, so you are left with, why did that die? Fish let along inverts drink heaps each and every day of what they swim in and the others leach toxins into it, this kills so many of our reef pets its not funny and most reefers have no idea why "what ever died!" You drink a tiny amount of poison each day for a few months to a year and you will either just die or your immune system will become so compromised that parasites, well for humans, microbes will literally eat you alive, so for the reef life like fish, the once healthy immune mucus coating that was helping to keep white spot and velvet from getting out of hand on their bodies, is getting so weak the weakest fish is now a parasite factory for the rest as they follow and get weak as well! They use to annoy me by saying stupid things like live rock is needed to start a tank, geez that is not just silly it is out right dumb or a complete lie! From one cup of fresh sea water or that cup from another reefers tank or one tiny bit of sand from some ones established tank or a bit of wet base rock from a tank or shop is more then enough to get a very good start of bio life, even with all your water made up, any of these added along with natural diverse ammonia will create a great start to a wonderfully matured tank, no worries at all! as just on example of fighting what live rock puts in, you could put in peppermint shrimp to eat pests like aptasia because they eat any and all small animals, like small pretty fish, small red line shrimp and so and so on, you see what I mean, introducing one thing creates quite often another problem to other things, remember the Cane beetle and cane toads introduced to eat them, lol. With peps, all lysmata of which they belong to, do the same thing, both sexes in one and eat any one that stands still long enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 But is it easier for beginners to start with live rocks with less maintenance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smicko Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 Live rock doesn't mean less maintenance, it can shorten the cycle. I used some live and some base rock to start my tank but if i do another I won't use live, there is too many variables some liverock can leach nitrate and phosphate which your fighting algae from day one, then your have the hitch-hikers from crabs that eat coral and fish, worms and shrimp. You can be lucky and get good ones but most of the time they are bad, i had gorilla crabs and a baby blue swimmer come with my rock. Even scaping is harder, with base rock you can take your time but with live the longer it's out if the water the more die-off and larger ammonia spike. I don't even trust natural sea water after getting a bacterial bloom from a waterchange that wiped out my whole tank overnight, artificial is easier than carting buckets of water and there is a guaranteed analysis on what's in there. Alot of natural needs the salinity tweaked and needs to be dosed to have enough calcium, magnesium and other elements for good coral growth. Cheers mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 But is it easier for beginners to start with live rocks with lessmaintenance? When I type something it is usually directed at the beginner, we, that have been doing this for some time already know better on many aspects of the hobby, you do not! With live rock you will most likely have to maintain hair algae it introduces, extra diatom algae, more toxic shock to your fish, when rock is barren and just for your biological system there is near nothing else to maintain. When you have live rock with surprises coming out, your future maintenance just potentially went through the roof. Give it a go if you want to, 2 out of 10 times it is not an issue at all, you may end up in that 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unheatedtank Posted December 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 Hi liquidg, I am totally newbie here so what I questioned would not really count. However, one thing I learnt in this life was that the selective process would kill the less effective and less economical ways, more effective or more commercial benefitial ways would win and grow. Not at this marine but just saying should be open minded with no wrong and right just from personal experiences. Look at the camera, all personal experiences got forgotten with technologies, so maybe someone will workout some disruptive ideas to help us keep fish only with love and fun, without a needs of maintenance or years of exp Yeh the first time I was on a forum with really bad grammar and spelling and no computer skills at al,l I disputed the use of live rock on "that forum" like I tried using several times from 82 to 85 and nothing but heartache came from it, don't get me wrong, there were corals and all kinds of cute things come from it, but so did mantis, nasty crabs, all types of good and bad worms, colonising anems like aptasia, carnivorous sea stars, coral eating flat worms, rubbish algae species like hair algae to name just a few pests, then you have the toxins emitted by the sponges, worms and more as they settle in and that can take one to two years even by the gurus standards to stop poisoning your tank, so you are left with, why did that die? Fish let along inverts drink heaps each and every day of what they swim in and the others leach toxins into it, this kills so many of our reef pets its not funny and most reefers have no idea why "what ever died!" You drink a tiny amount of poison each day for a few months to a year and you will either just die or your immune system will become so compromised that parasites, well for humans, microbes will literally eat you alive, so for the reef life like fish, the once healthy immune mucus coating that was helping to keep white spot and velvet from getting out of hand on their bodies, is getting so weak the weakest fish is now a parasite factory for the rest as they follow and get weak as well! They use to annoy me by saying stupid things like live rock is needed to start a tank, geez that is not just silly it is out right dumb or a complete lie! From one cup of fresh sea water or that cup from another reefers tank or one tiny bit of sand from some ones established tank or a bit of wet base rock from a tank or shop is more then enough to get a very good start of bio life, even with all your water made up, any of these added along with natural diverse ammonia will create a great start to a wonderfully matured tank, no worries at all! as just on example of fighting what live rock puts in, you could put in peppermint shrimp to eat pests like aptasia because they eat any and all small animals, like small pretty fish, small red line shrimp and so and so on, you see what I mean, introducing one thing creates quite often another problem to other things, remember the Cane beetle and cane toads introduced to eat them, lol. With peps, all lysmata of which they belong to, do the same thing, both sexes in one and eat any one that stands still long enough! When I type something it is usually directed at the beginner, we, that have been doing this for some time already know better on many aspects of the hobby, you do not!With live rock you will most likely have to maintain hair algae it introduces, extra diatom algae, more toxic shock to your fish, when rock is barren and just for your biological system there is near nothing else to maintain. When you have live rock with surprises coming out, your future maintenance just potentially went through the roof. Give it a go if you want to, 2 out of 10 times it is not an issue at all, you may end up in that 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquidg Posted December 13, 2015 Report Share Posted December 13, 2015 Your question counts, you are a hobbyist and we all count and we all learn from each other! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
