# New tank



## MatE (Nov 30, 2009)

Picked up my new aquarium on the weekend,its 5x2x2,came with a hood and a sump tank.Cant wait to start setting it up,im going for the coral tank with a few fish.Any ideas on setups would be great.


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## Walker (Nov 30, 2009)

very good!!!


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## rash (Nov 30, 2009)

nice one Mat, you will have to keep us updated with the progress! I wanted a marine setup years ago, and the petshop told me it would cost me 10k to set up....... think they may have been having me on.......
Heres an idea, stick with freshwater and stick a file snake in there lol.
but yeh, i love the look of marine setups, the colours you can get are crazy!


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## GeckoJosh (Nov 30, 2009)

Where are u located?


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## merdelhuck (Nov 30, 2009)

well..if you find saltwater is to dear for you
freshwater is allways cheapest...and the fish are aswell

go for cichlids if you want bright colours

they are as close as you will get to salt water fish

look nice aswell


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## Chrisreptile (Nov 30, 2009)

Build up a nice wall with a heap of live rock.

Get it established then add some corals, a few small fish, a few shrimp and some snails


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## ChrisZhang (Nov 30, 2009)

Good luck setting it up, A while ago I wanted to go marine, and just get one mantis shrimp, they are so cool looking and have vibrant colours, what sort of fish were you looking at getting?
here is a peacock mantis shrimp (I think)


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## MatE (Dec 1, 2009)

Geckoman123 said:


> Where are u located?


Coffs Harbour.Thanks Ash.And ive kept cichlids,thats what i started of with(south american mainly)all the big scary ones lol.Ive also kept saltwater before but was told Bio-balls were the bees knees ,but have since learnt that they were the cause of the high nitrate level.So im going to do things a bit differently this time around.

MatE.


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## MatE (Dec 1, 2009)

ChrisZhang said:


> Good luck setting it up, A while ago I wanted to go marine, and just get one mantis shrimp, they are so cool looking and have vibrant colours, what sort of fish were you looking at getting?
> here is a peacock mantis shrimp (I think)


And i love Mantis shrimp,i saw a huge one when i was up at lady musgrave island a few weeks ago,but couldnt get a pic of him.I mainly want to keep the basic,with a nice pair of perculas,a angel or two more coral and anenomes.


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## MatE (Dec 1, 2009)

merdelhuck said:


> well..if you find saltwater is to dear for you
> freshwater is allways cheapest...and the fish are aswell
> 
> go for cichlids if you want bright colours
> ...


Oh i catch my own fish $50 for a permit and a good lung capacity lol.


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## ChrisZhang (Dec 1, 2009)

are you getting live rocks? because i have heard of a few people finding mantis shrimp, pistol shrimp and that living the rocks, and they have been eating and killing their fish lol.


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## MatE (Dec 1, 2009)

ChrisZhang said:


> are you getting live rocks? because i have heard of a few people finding mantis shrimp, pistol shrimp and that living the rocks, and they have been eating and killing their fish lol.


Yes ill probably be getting live rock,ill be careful and have a look over it,big mantis can break the glass in a tank with smaller thickness glass.


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## reptilefan95 (Dec 2, 2009)

Nice stuff mate try getting a lion fish!


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## MatE (Dec 3, 2009)

reptilefan95 said:


> Nice stuff mate try getting a lion fish!


I love lion fish,had a couple in my old tank but if it fits in there mouth its gone lol.


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## reptilefan95 (Dec 4, 2009)

thats true but there are the smaller variaties as in Dendrochirus Brachypterus (Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish) and Pterois zebra (Zebra Lionfish) They wouldnt be able to eat a full grown percula, but why perculas? I like the look of maroon clowns so much more!


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## MatE (Dec 12, 2009)

reptilefan95 said:


> thats true but there are the smaller variaties as in Dendrochirus Brachypterus (Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish) and Pterois zebra (Zebra Lionfish) They wouldnt be able to eat a full grown percula, but why perculas? I like the look of maroon clowns so much more!


Ok ill have a talk to our local petshop guy and ask him about some smaller species of lion fish.And i do like the maroon clowns,there is a local guy who breeds clowns,the black and whits version of the perculas they look great.Im off to the petshop tomoz to get my first live rock cant wait.


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## richoman_3 (Dec 12, 2009)

go freshwater tropical mate, so many options and i love the great colours on them,saltwater's pretty dear, it depends if u arnt experienced on fishkeeping saltwater is not an option coz u will spend $50-$80 for a fish wich may die but with tropical u spend $5-$10 for a nice fish


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## Shonfield (Dec 13, 2009)

God I hate mantis shrimp... They look nice, but from my experience you will never see it. I had one kill 2 clowns, 2 damsels, 2 gobies, 1 butterfly fish and the day after it killed my last fish I caught it. My advice is be careful when you first get the live rock and wait! Wait a few weeks and if you hear a tapping sounds on the glass then I'd try catch whatever is making that noise as it could kill your fish. It could be a harmless pistol shrimp or one of the mantis' that won't kill your fish but I'd rater be safe.

Also I went diving up at lady elliot island (best experience on the reef yet) a few days ago and I fell in love with the wrasses. I never thought they looked that good but now I have a very different view.

But yeah imo the best looking tanks have the rear wall and some or all of the side walls with live rock and lots of bright coral with some of the brightly coloured fish.

Lions are also great but some people think there boring because there not as active as most fish and will not really move for a day after eating while they digest (but on a reptile site I guess were used to that).

Good luck with it I love my marine tanks the only problem is I don't have one big enough for a shark!


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## MatE (Dec 13, 2009)

Thanks Shonfield for the reply im going to go slow with the setup and do it right this time around ive been doing my research and asking heaps of questions on setups.It helps when you have a good local petshop owner who is switched on.I love wrasses had a few of them when i had my first setup.I used to be able to hand feed my lion fish,but was careful cleaning the tank lol.


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## boxhead (Dec 13, 2009)

nice looking tank .have you thought about a chiller they.really helps on hot days .


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## -Matt- (Dec 13, 2009)

Best of luck with getting it all setup, Im sure it'll look unreal once finished!
Can I ask what petshop is helping you out?


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## potato matter (Dec 13, 2009)

I keep marines, they aren't as expensive as everyone says. Not including the tank, it only cost me $500 roughly, to get a pair of pink skunk clowns, 4kg live rock, a very good power filter, several powerheads and a bucket of salt.


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## MatE (Dec 13, 2009)

boxhead said:


> nice looking tank .have you thought about a chiller they.really helps on hot days .


Im doing a DIY chiller out of a bar freezer and 30mtr of tubing and a digital thermostat.


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## MatE (Dec 13, 2009)

Mattsnake said:


> Best of luck with getting it all setup, Im sure it'll look unreal once finished!
> Can I ask what petshop is helping you out?


His name is Paul he is at Toormina.


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## potato matter (Dec 13, 2009)

MatE said:


> Im doing a DIY chiller out of a bar freezer and 30mtr of tubing and a digital thermostat.


 
Any chances of pics of this chiller, would it be too much to ak for plans f the chiler


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## MatE (Dec 13, 2009)

vege_head said:


> Any chances of pics of this chiller, would it be too much to ak for plans f the chiler


Im still waiting for a few parts to show up but ill send you some pics when its done.


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## Shonfield (Dec 13, 2009)

MatE said:


> I used to be able to hand feed my lion fish,but was careful cleaning the tank lol.



Thats awesome. Mine will look at it from about 15-20cms away but waits till I drop it to attack. Although I probably wouldn't really want it to take it from my hand I have been stung by one once and I take big precautions to make sure it doesn't happen again haha.

I'd love to see pics of this diy chiller too.



vege_head said:


> I keep marines, they aren't as expensive as everyone says. Not including the tank, it only cost me $500 roughly, to get a pair of pink skunk clowns, 4kg live rock, a very good power filter, several powerheads and a bucket of salt.



With only 4kgs of live rock you must have a very small tank and for a 5 foot it will cost a lot more.


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## -Matt- (Dec 13, 2009)

MatE said:


> His name is Paul he is at Toormina.


 
Cool, Paul's a top bloke when it comes to this type of stuff...he helped me set up a marine tank and a large cichlid tank a few years back.


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## potato matter (Dec 14, 2009)

Shonfield said:


> Thats awesome. Mine will look at it from about 15-20cms away but waits till I drop it to attack. Although I probably wouldn't really want it to take it from my hand I have been stung by one once and I take big precautions to make sure it doesn't happen again haha.
> 
> I'd love to see pics of this diy chiller too.
> 
> ...


 
No actually it is a large tank. i'm experimenting with various filtration methods, other than live rock, and being able to sustain a large tank. So far, everything is going pretty well, apart from a slight increase in ammonia from 0 to 0.5, but thats not that bad. Plus i'm keeping pretty hardy fish inside it. But I suppose if you were getting a "proper" tank, it would cost more.


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