for sale with pics


And this is cheap



Sorry...............

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Some of my collection
1-1 Hog's islands, 2-1 Rosy boa's, 1-2 Brazilians, 1-2 Hognose, 10-15 Corns, 2-3 Albino APH, 1-1 Tortoise, 0-1 Bosc

A FOWLR isn't that much, only a couple hundred more than a freshwater.
But to do a reef PROPERLY, key word being properly, it is gonna cost you in the long run. The average fish is around $30, Premium Liverock is around $6 a pound...not sure about UK money.....and corals are never under $30. Not to mention the cost of keeping the thing running, you're looking at about $250 a year in water alone.

Definitely:

Well, I would say:

Here its about £5 for cheapy damsels, £11 for percula's, £30 for yellow tang, up to a few hundred for nicer fish.

Flipping eck... that works out too £6.60 per kilo. Here in the uk, you'd never get it for that! About £9 per kilo min, up to £20 per kilo (or more) for good stuff.

Yeh, I would say minimum of about £10 per some mushrooms, quickly rising up to £50-100.

Yeh, running costs are high... specially in time! lol.

For water though, buy salt in bulk and buy a RO unit for £40 or so... keeps those costs down.

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after 20 years of keeping marines and 8 years of proporgating hard corals i highly recomend buying this book before even buying the glass.
Amazon.co.uk: The Conscientious Marine Aquarist: A Commonsense Handbook for Successful Saltwater Hobbyists: Robert M. Fenner: Books
it'll be the best 30 quid you ever spend and will save you a lot more in the long run.
there are a number of uk based marinefishkeeping forums that are also helpful but be sure to check out the tanks of the peolpe that are giving out advise to you.
many MANY marine fish and corals are dyeing day after day after day inthe hobby due to incorrect advise and poor research.
i cannot stress enough how sensitive these wonderful creatures can be in the hands of an inexperienced keeper so be sure to get the three 'R's right....

'R'esearch!!!
'R'esearch!!!
'R'esearch!!!

another solid piece of advise is to avoid your local garden centre and look for a specialist as they will be more likely to sell you what you need and not rubbish like power filters and underpowered protein skimmers etc.

dont get me wrong it's not a cheap hobby but if yiu get it right it's VERY rewarding.

right people seem to be making this over complicated for you. What sort of tank are you looking for? Some nice fish on their own? corals? etc

If i were you i would go for a nice fish only tank, when people say that to me they often get a picture of a plain tank with 1 fish in it but i really dosnt have to be. You can get ocean rocks, reef rocks (dry LR) etc for really cheap, all different colour macro algaes (red, orange, greens etc to add colour) then the fish themseleves are beautiful.

To start i would say you want to get a decent sized tank so you can have more fish and wont be as limited in choice. a few of the statements i have read on the thread are misleading advice. The whole 1" of fish to X amount of gallons is usless. There are to many depending factors of a marine tank to make up a rule like that. Its down to water ammount, how you care for the tank (water chages and the like) and more.
And about the hydrometer being usless i have to disagree, i have used both the floating and swing arm and its more about using them/ reading them correctly. By all means buy a refractometer, but IMO with a fish only tank a hydrometer will be fine (personal exp)

now your basic fish only marine tank is not all that different from a freshwater tank, it is the addition of salt and different decor. I have done this tank before and i am again and it was very successful.

I think as much research as you can get at this point will only help you and get your mum to join in. Alot of the excitment of setting up a tank like this is the planning and the research.

BTW if you buy things like protien skimmers second hand you will save mega bucks. It dosnt have to be an expensive hobby
This post is from my own exp with fish only tank, and like the reptile hobby the marine hobby is very controversial and no two peoples tanks are the same (even if you own 2) and each has its own requirements. The only way we can help others is to look at our own and try to generalise into what we feel is good advice

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I have an underweight male leopard gecko in need of a home. If you can help please PM me for details (normal, adult male) South east London collection only. Not the ideal first animal! He's FREE but a good home is a must!

have to dissagree with the ocean rock comments sean.
ocean rock is useless in a marine tank. it has no filtration properties what-so-ever and only displaces water.all it ever does in new set up's is lead to macro algae issues and leeching up of excess phosphates and nitrates which will haunt you futher down the line.
'dead living rock' or reef bones are fine if you wish to seed it mixed with live rock and be prepared to wait ----up to---- a year for it to colonise and cycle fully.
good quality living rock,20 x flow and a decent skimmer from the likes of deltec or aquamedic will give you the nearest you can get to a naturalistic system....it's called 'the berlin method' and it's the method that works.


you are right that there are many ways to skin a cat but i have tried most of them over the last two decades.
berlin method,dsb's.miracle mud etc....believe me i have experimented with most but here's a few photos from a few of my tanks that use the method described above.....a la berlin!

my point about ocean rock wasnt about filteration as i was tanking about FO where a filter would provide this. It was to decorate the tank and give the fish somewhere to hide. Again 'reef bones' can be used W/O the addition of live rock for decor purposes. I have used these methods and i find ocean rock helps to buffer the PH in my water keeping my waters PH nice and stable. I wouldnt say it was usless in the marine aquarium, to filter a marine aquarium yes but thats not its purpose.

Lovely tanks BTW, im going for the regal, yellow tang mix in my 6x2x2 tank when its set up.

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I have an underweight male leopard gecko in need of a home. If you can help please PM me for details (normal, adult male) South east London collection only. Not the ideal first animal! He's FREE but a good home is a must!

exactly what 'fliteration' would you advise if using ocean rock in a FO system?

An external filter, internal power filter, wet dry filter. The same as your basic freshwater one. Live rock isnt your only option, Ocean rock is just a decoration, you seem to be talking about it as if i think it is a filteration method. I have used ocean rock and have never experianced any problems as far as water chemistry goes

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I have an underweight male leopard gecko in need of a home. If you can help please PM me for details (normal, adult male) South east London collection only. Not the ideal first animal! He's FREE but a good home is a must!

external,internal,trickle filters.....make nitrate....and even in a fish only system long term contact with this apparently innocous element eventually leads to stress,disease and guaranteed algae issues.
to try and keep up with exporting the stuff is a nightmare and as already said will also cause problems with micro algaes.
using these mechanical devices is no substitue for recreating a natural enviroment and they only take the waste disposal deposits to the nitrate stage before they are done.

like we said earlier though there's more than one way to skin a cat so post a few pics of your system up as you ran yours in a diferent way to mine with the use of power filters etc.