Starting a Marine Tank III

Starting a Marine Tank III

Written by George J. Reclos Wednesday, 29 May 2002 00:00

PDF | Print | E-mail

After removing the freshwater inhabitants to their new quarters, the tank has to be prepared for its future marine inhabitants. We have photographed the whole procedure for this presentation so future newbies may follow these steps.. after reading the diary to make sure we were successful. The procedure was carefully planned two days earlier so everybody knew what he had to do, saving time and being more efficient since we were able to work with different things at the same time. A big piece of paper was on the wall and each one checked the tasks accomplished.

 
 
 

First thing was to stir the sand, wash is thoroughly, put is back and wash the tank 5 times, to make sure anything that might be lying in it was removed. The two hoses were able to fill or empty the tank in less than 5 minutes.

 
 
 

Johnny was checking the stones he would use to decorate the tank and cleaned all of them removing any piece of freshwater algae that was attached to them. Since this was done in the end of January you can imagine that the water temperature made our work a bit more difficult. The fish species that would go in there had already been decided and after reading some books about it we knew what the aquascape should look like. Since neither of us was happy with the growth (and survival) rate of the macroalgae kept in the other tank we decided that this would become a "Malawi" type tank, which means lots of sand and rocks (and some live rocks on top, closer to the lamps).

 
 
 

Johnny making another tank "design" - as he calls it. Working with very cold  water was a really painful experience. We had to stop every five minutes to warm our (actually: his) hands. We decided that the "planted" background on the side would have to be removed too, since it wouldn't make any sense after the fish were introduced in the tank. One of the strange things about this particular tank is that it was the first tank which was setup and decorated to be viewed from its short side and not from the long one. The dimensions of the tank support allowed only one tank to be positioned normally.. which was the first marine tank.

After placing all the elements in place we refilled the tank with water. A small container was placed under the hose to avoid stirring the sand which was carefully levelled. After so many years working with cichlids, this time we are expecting the sand to remain in its original position.

 
 
 
The tank, half filled with ice-cold water.
 
 
 

After the addition of the salt, the water became hazy so we had to stop working inside the tank and started working on the outside which was a mess.. which means collecting all the hoses, buckets, water spills, salt etc..

 
 
 
Next day the water had cleared enough (the filter, the air pump and the skimmer were running all night) therefore we could go on with our work. The air pumps, light ballasts, some of the cables and switches were placed on the wall to free some - desperately needed - place around the tank.
 
 
 

We said "some" of the cables, not all of them.. Next, we removed the old "freshwater" background and replaced it with matt black cartons. This would bring out the colour of the fish and the landscape much better (taking good quality photos is always part of the job). A shelf-made aluminum foil reflector was placed over the 7 fluorescent tubes to increase the amount of light entering the tank AND reduce the light level in the room. This allows for a better observation of the fish since you are not too visible when entering the room.

After 24 hours we were able to see the results of our work and make some final adjustments.
 
 
 

This is the way the tank looked after installing everything. After a couple of days (when all the debris have been collected by the filter or the skimmer) part of the water will be removed and replaced with water from the "old" marine tank. One of the "matured" internal sponge filters will also be transferred to this tank.

 
 
 
The final touch is the addition of 3 actinic blue tubes.

 

Photos by the author.

 

In the following galleries you will find more photos and information about the animals that inhabited these marine tanks:

Enter Marine Tank Gallery I: Salaria Pavo, Sponges, Algae, Boxlip mullet. 

Enter Marine Tank Gallery II: Red sea star, Crab.

Enter Marine Tank Gallery III: Invertebrates (shells), Shrimps, Blue mussel.

Enter Marine Tank Gallery IV: Fireworm, Damselfish, Lettered perk.

Enter Marine (Mediterranean) Anemones Gallery.

Enter Wrasses Gallery.

Enter Sea urchins Gallery.

Enter Red triplefin (Tripterygion tripteronotus) Gallery.

Enter Blennies Gallery.

Read article on Octopus vulgaris. 

 

 

< Prev   Next >