Yeah I'm thrilled, just want to get cracking, will be next month before I'll be able to get any live rock off the neighbour and afford to build up the rest I need.

Oh just remembered I need Live sand too!

live sand come in a bag and has a 1 year shelf life so not a problem, around £20 for 10lbs I think so only need 2 bag for you tank. only need 1 for my orca.

Tony

How deep do you layer it tony?

I've got some egg crating so know to put the live rock in first on the crate and then scoop the sand in around it, just not sure on the depth.

the standard guideline is 1 inch or less for shallow sandbed, 4 inches or more for deep sandbed, anything between tends to cause problems from what i read.

What are the pro's and con's of deep sand beds versus shallow? What would you go for???

Mine is around half an inch. Depend on what you're stock of fish you like. If you like goby that burrow in the sand or other fish that do that then near 2 inch would be sufficient but egg crate in the way ouch headache lol. Put live rocks on first then sand around them so you'll have enough sand to build up 2" as you have to count for the egg crates too.HTH

Tony

Cool, I'll aim for around the 2" mark then to adjust for the eggcrate.

Tank came this morning, WITHOUT STAND!

Got to wait another week for them to deliver it, I really should stop buying things online

Ok guys, do you mind telling me what I need and what I don't from the filter media supplied?

I know I don't need the ceramic rings (will do nicely for my Juwel ) and the bio-balls, but what about the big black sponges (Carbon???).

Can you tell me what I should put in each chamber?

In chamber 1: Skimmer and had two black sponges.
Chamber 2: Empty, refugium with live rock rubble???
Chamber 3: Heater, nothing else?
Chamber 4: Pump and spray bar pipe, nothing else?

Presumably I just stick the UV block on the outside of the tank???

Sorry for all the questions! Help appreciated!

Depend what your preference is, the black sponge even though it says carbon I find it strange and smell bad not like carbon and pick up junk easily so would cause nitrate high. Better to have the proper carbon active that come in net bag which u can put in the last chamber(pump chamber) and a bag of phosphate remover. If u prefer to use a chamber for live rubble and act like a refugium that is worthwhile. Instead of black sponges I used polyfilter wool which help to catch most of the debris etc and change them weekly as they're very cheap. I got koi polyfilter wool from ebay for £6 for 5 metres by 27" and 1.5" thick so that should last me a year cutting into 13"x2" strip for my orca and a little piece in the return chamber for extra back up. The skimmer and the heater has it own chamber which I leave it at that.HTH. Also bugger the stand did'nt come. How come when the tank came!

Tony