Hi From Tasmania Australia

Hi Forum,

I live in Tasmania Australia. I have set up a small temperate reef aquarium a year or so a go to see how things worked and I have now decided to try and turn my 4x2x1.5 Aquarium into a Tasmanian Intertidal pool Bio Type. We have some interesting species down here and I look forward to showing them off as soon as I get my tank setup.

Welcome to the forum!! Would love some pics to tag along for the ride

It will take me about 9 weeks before the tank is ready for fish but I will be doing alot of diy stuff as I go along which I will post as I go and some pics of the critters we have down here.

Hi and welcome!

We're pretty good with DIY stuff over here. If you browse the some of the forums you'll find some interesting things.

Pics would be nice!

I have just organised for all my Cichlids in my tank to be gone by the weekend. So the tank will be cleaned and sea water should be in next weekend. Will hopefully post some pics this weekend of the progress

Sweet I just got my hookup for an Australian supplier, so you'll have to let me know what stuff you find so I can ask them for it on my orders

No worries, I am also trying to see if I can get a licence to export stuff from down here will know more in a few weeks time

NICE! Let me know how things go, its tough getting permitted, hang in there

Yeah it looks like unless you have heaps of money for a licence and are a ocean biologist you dont have a chance down here. But I will keep persisting. I have Just started making my DIY 3D Background I am tring for a limestone under water cliff look with nooks and crannies for shrinmp and other species to call home. I hope it will become covered with coraline algae and anenones etc here is a picture of the background



It still needs a few touch ups but I hope to have it in the aquarium by Monday will post more pics of the tank as it comes along:lol:

aquamans wrote:Yeah it looks like unless you have heaps of money for a licence and are a ocean biologist you dont have a chance down here. But I will keep persisting. I have Just started making my DIY 3D Background I am tring for a limestone under water cliff look with nooks and crannies for shrinmp and other species to call home. I hope it will become covered with coraline algae and anenones etc here is a picture of the background



It still needs a few touch ups but I hope to have it in the aquarium by Monday will post more pics of the tank as it comes along:lol:

It will no doubt be covered as long as there is good flow over the area.

That is a great background!!!

What did you make it out of???

A last picture before going in my tank.



Finally in the tank



And how I make these types of backgounds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m3ObHeaAcs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruy_oINzHAk&feature=channel&list=UL

Nice work. How long did it take?

Nice ..And welcome fellow temperate Aussie..(for some reasom my last message has gone so I will repeat it..)

Have you thought of placing the back ground in the Ocean to seed it ? Get things moving will save you alot of time.

Also if you plan to have leather Jackets ,you wont have much luck with Anenome's or small mussels etc unless you put them in the sump or on a protected reef shelf ,My little HS leather jacket eat the lot in 2 days on introduction and I had some nice pink and white Waratah's on my center feature rock..

If you need any help with local species Just yell, Ive keeped them on and off over the last 25 years so I have a good idea as to what can live together and their requirements..
I use a book called FISHES of the Australia's southern coast By rudie Kuiter ,best Ive found lots of pic's and good info on juv's, male and female species..HTH
What sort of filtration system are you going to be running?

You guys ever run into any of these little buggers down there?

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Brachaluteres-jacksonianus.html





I just got 5 of their northern cousin the Whitespotted Pygmy Filefish from Japan

Hi Snapper head,

Because the background floats I cant seed it in the ocean,

But I am heading out tonight to a sheltered bay which has alot of coraline algae and sealife on the rocks present. And I am going to put a whole lot of DIY Agrocrete rock I made up last year, and seed it for a few weeks how long do you think I should wait?

Bit of a bugger about the leather jacket eating all the mussels etc might have to reconsider that species lol.

I will deffinently try and get the book (FISHES of the Australia's southern coast By rudie Kuiter ) Thanks for the heads up with that will make things alot easier.

As for my filtration I am still thinking that one through. I was going to use a cannister filter with Matrix and live rock and clean the filter pads every two weeks. But I have been getting mixed answers to weather this will work. I will also be running 2 x venturi protein skimmers and a chiller I may also use an internal cannister filter as well.

I was also going to have a deep sand bed filter in the tank but if I am going to have a flathead I am not sure I can do the deep sand bed filter?

If the above filtration methods wont work I will be forced to build an internal wet dry filter on one side of the tank as my tank is made of tempered glass and I cant drill it and my last go at doing a diy overflow caused a huge overfow on to the loungeroom floor.

Any advice or info you are willing to give would be much apreciated

AE...We have similar looking ,trigger fish.. Is your Australian supplier from South Australia ??? The bloke I konw of should be able to get you Cowfish, triggers etc ..If not I have his contact details somewhere if you want it, He used to have an export Licence..

Aquaman...Tempered Glass bugger ..

For a Sump..The Hang on overflow boxes work just, if you add a float switch to the pumps power and get one with a vacuum pump start stop ...

If not a good canister will work fine just use one larger than required( i would double) so you can get plenty of Bio ,cold needs lots of Bio as it slower than tropical and good return flow keeps things growing well .

I love my sump its a great place to keep Algae and shrimp and any that get in the wier stay alive in the sump until needed and its become part of the whole aquarium even the DSB is interesting, my daughter loves watching the worms.

But remember the more motors you have the more heat you need to remove.

You have done a nice Job replicating the sand Stone . I will be going in that direction next time ,the real stuff was a bit nerve racking getting it in place..

I seed for 1-2 months using a Bouy to hold the collection near the surface ,I asked a private Jetty owner If I could use his area , so it was safe..I have a few herbivores to feed and this is the quickest way to keep a good supply .I rotate the rocks now to make it quicker.. I would give it at least 1 month for your rocks to get them started ,find a sunny spot with good flow and bugger all boats (oil).



Just looked at your Tank again...Could you put a Sump above your Tank?? Power head feed with overflow return..I will keep thinking..

Well I ended up selling my cannister fillter, and making a in tank sump filter. I will be covering up this up with a diy background and live rock.

The internal sump is only 40cm x 40cm x 13cm and only has enough room to house the following. 1st section, Pre filter and protein skimmer,
which over flows in to 2nd section, Filter pads, 500grams of Seachem matrix, and 10 plastic pot scrubbers. which flows in to the 3rd and last section
which will be live rock and the return pump.

On another note the misses has nagged me enough over the past month to move the aquarium which will be next to a window. so knowing that this is a no brainer even
with a chiller and the roman blinds she has said she will put up to stop heat and light.

But on the upside I have explained that doing this will turn the tank in to something like rotting sea weed on the beach which she assures me it wont lmao.

So I have now got a signed contract that if this happens and the tank goes belly up brcause of moving it next to the window that I will need to move the tank back
to its original position and I will need two whole weekends to myself to gather new species. ( Will make sure I only have inverts for the first go at it )

So It will be a disaster to start off with but I might get two full weekends to myself to do some collecting.

I am now trying to work out weather to use my local beach sand which is super fine or use something else? Was wondering what other people have used
in there tanks?

I used a mix of brought coral sand and local sand from the surf beach and tidal zone with a bit of mud to seed it with worms etc..

ok will do exactly that will have to wait until august for the chiller tax time. just want to get started but the tank gets to 20c so will have to wait bugger

20°c is still Temperate to sub tropical, you can still get things started ,Just stock with fish etc that can handle warmer zones ,any that can handle up to sydney can handle up to 23/24 °C without problems ,most gobies can handle it ,bream, leather jackets, puffers, shallow water Anenomes, rock pool life etc..

I like a summer temperature tank (18 -21 °C ) for the first month or 2 before stocking ,it gets the bio moving quicker etc..

Thats Great news I will be starting sooner than I fought. I have had my rock it the ocean for 3 weeks now so another 3 to go.

Here are some pics of my internal sump filter and what the tank looks like as of last night.

Sketch of how I hope the sump will work



Front view of Tank



Picture of Sump



Top View of Tank



And thanks for all the help Snapper Head it is much apreciated. How is the leather Jacket going with its colouring at the moment.

My pleasure.. Its a niche market so we might as well help each other out the LFS cant offer us much apart from hardware

The leather Jacket or "spike" as my Daughter calls him must be in the teenage puberty stage as he changes daily from Juv colors to Adult and somewhere in between ,some days he spends Hiding the next he's eating from my fingers..I have found a sinking 6mm pellet food he eats so Im hoping this will give him a few more nutrients to help with his colors.. and its a commercial tuna farm pellet so $19 kg is very nice compared to $45 for a little tub ..

Andy-snapperhead.

great build, i really like that back wall. it will be fun to watch stuff grow in and cover it.