Nemo's new friends!

We went fish shopping again and this time our newcomers are from Distant Waters in Norwich. We have also installed a new surface skimmer to remove the oily crap from the top of the tank built up from leftover food and dust. We will be replacing this with a protein skimmer at some point.

Surface skimmer - that's Olaf circling it

Sad but true, it was extremely mesmerising watching this tank of clown fishes!

Olaf - platinum clown on the left; Rhubarb & Custard - royal gramma on the right

Rhubarb has spent his first evening hiding behind the filter and heater

Olaf and Nemo have become fast friends, with Nemo occasionally having to give Olaf a nip to put him in his place! Who do you think will become the dominant female?

Our new Arabica cowrie snail - Bella the beautiful shell!

Algae bloom!

What we came back to after a short weekend away in Wales! Many thanks to the Parker family for putting up with us btw (just in case any of you's are reading this)! I've been told these are diatoms and will soon be cleared by our cleaner crabs before they bloom again. It's so exciting to see our tank literally come to life!

Black drop!

I don't think I ever realised how obvious the wires were behind the tank until Marcel painted the back of the tank black! And considering how awkward it was to get behind the tank, he did an excellent job! Can't wait to get more fish now!

Newcomers!

Today we went shopping for a new heater and some water. We came away with neither of those and bought a halloween hermit crab, a clingfish and a green clown goby instead!

Meet Hyde! Not seen him since this picture was taken...may have something to do with being chased off by Nemo as soon as he entered the tank...

Sucker!

And...Mr No Name yet! Let me know if you have any great ideas!

The creatures are deployed!

The crabs, Nemo and live rock are first in the tank. Three days on and they survived! I was slightly worried Nemo was dying when I found him floating on his side at the top of the tank when the lights were off but turns out he was only sleeping, and a bit of food soon woke him up.

I found a crab claw at the bottom of the tank on the second day and thought maybe the crabs had been fighting. Marcel counted all their claws and they were all present so one must have simply shedded its skin. 

We found this wanderer hitching a ride on the live rock with an elusive crab who has yet to make a complete appearance!

Canary Nemo One!

Three days after the tank was filled, it was time to go fish shopping! We picked up three hermit crabs (with extra empty shells for them to move into when they get too big for theirs) and a common clown fish from Swallow Aquatics in East Harling.

Marcel also took his time choosing a piece of live rock which serves the purpose of introducing various algae and bacteria to the tank, providing hiding spaces and a food source for the animals, acting as a biological filter, and giving the tank a more natural appearance.

Water goes in!

After the tap water went in, Marcel added in Reef Crystals sea salt mixture and used a hydrometer to ensure we had the correct specific gravity and salt level. Water conditioner was also added - this apparently removes the impurities from tap water.

I was a little worried the water was going to stay cloudy and murky but it had mostly cleared up by the following day once the filter was turned on and the sand had settled. I was so excited, couldn't wait to start getting the fish and plants in!

Electrics and stuff

The next steps were boring but apparently necessary - installation of the filter system and heater which Marcel took care of.

As you can see, we went for a Fluval FX6 - £190 from ebay

The lights are actually providing quite a lot of heat as well so we are needing to buy a fan for when the lights are on

Arka Reef Ceramics

I never imagined shopping for rock would be so much fun! There were numerous designs to choose from and we picked three from Maidenhead Aquatics in Norwich. Slightly pricey at £260 for the lot but worth it to save on hassle and for good looking pieces of rock!

 

We love how there are pre-made shelves for the coral to sit on

The one on the left is a 3 pillar sat on top of an arch to increase its height

Home made rock fail :-(

We then attempted to create our own rock with a mixture of play sand, cement, salt and crushed oyster shell. The process was messy and fun but the end result was a bathtub full of crumbling rock! We gave up on that pretty quick and opted to buy some professionally made ones which looked much better than we could have hoped ours to turn out! The lovely assistant in her PJ's is Marcel's helpful 5 year old Polly!

Lights, check!

Having seen how expensive lights for coral can be, we decided to create our own. We bought 3 light fixtures from Homebase - each fixture holds 4 LED's and are priced at £45 each. Marcel then mounted all 3 onto a wooden base which he then spray painted black. All looking good, will update if they work!

Hunt for a tank

Marcel and I decided to expand our pet brood with some marine fish and he started by looking for a tank. He found this absolute bargain on gumtree for £140!