Set up for retired mother

[liquidnoise]

Dear All,

I used to be a hard core fish keeper, Aro and sting ray. I had a chance to set up a very small marine tank for my mum many many years ago.

I give up this hobby due to my work (fly alot).

During xmas, my mum suddenly wanted to start this hobby again cause she missed it. Btw, she used to sit infront of the tank looking at it after she returns from work.

Now that she is retiree, so if so free she gets really bored.

Should i start a small set up for her or mid size?

[liquidnoise]

BTW, she used to like to take out and arrange the live rocks. USed to have a cucumber i think (black in color).

[Guest]

You should start a new tank for your mum.. Healthy past time for her too LOL..

[dnsfpl]

what fish you intend to keep?

small tank, difficult to maintain water parameter

big tank, space constraint and higher setup cost

imo 2-3 feet is the best for beginners

[Aldrick]

Bro if thats the case all the more you should setup for ur mum and let her do the arranging of rocks while u tk care of the paremeters .

[liquidnoise]

You should start a new tank for your mum.. Healthy past time for her too LOL..

If i set up for her den its like she is not learning.

If worst situation will get a new tank, but wanna start small less expensive but can experience it first

The idea is for her to learn. The last time i set up everything (when i was younger with more time) for her. She just sit infront n watch. Keep telling me tat new things are growing in the rocks. It makes me happy coz she is happy.

Now she is retired, i wan her to learn coz i travel alot for work. But her ang moh no good. any chinese web site so she can read

[liquidnoise]

what fish you intend to keep?

small tank, difficult to maintain water parameter

big tank, space constraint and higher setup cost

imo 2-3 feet is the best for beginners

I totally agree with you. The flucation of water para is bigger. Space is not issue but old woman how too big also not very good. set up for marine among all the fish keeping i think the most ex. Plus she totally dunno abt fish keeping. I did all the wrk last time, she just enjoy looking.

Maybe 3 ft ok, 2ft also but depends wats there on sale. 3 ft my car still can fit. keke

[Bulldozer]

If i set up for her den its like she is not learning.

If worst situation will get a new tank, but wanna start small less expensive but can experience it first

The idea is for her to learn. The last time i set up everything (when i was younger with more time) for her. She just sit infront n watch. Keep telling me tat new things are growing in the rocks. It makes me happy coz she is happy.

Now she is retired, i wan her to learn coz i travel alot for work. But her ang moh no good. any chinese web site so she can read

You better find out if she wants to learn or just wanna relax her mind by watching the Fishes.

What you expect her to be may not be what she has in mind.

You are a nice son ... so I am sure she will tell you what she has in mind.

And maybe a FOWLR tank is good enough. not too troublesome ...

The main thing is for her to stay Happy & relax.

Eg. I LOVE to watch the Fishes swimming. I can sit in front of the tank and watch for the longest time BUT I do NOT wish to learn more than what my mind expects. So I dunno much about upkeeping of the tank and parameters etc..... So someone else do all those stuff.

Better find out from Mom what she expects ya .....

Thumbs Up to you !!!!!!!!!!!!

[bellinayu]

Most moms / parents / wives would enjoy watching the fishes and corals move / grow without bothering too much about the maintenance; however, as you have pointed out, you are too busy with yr work to maintain the tank for her so the designing of the tank and purchase of equipment is extremely important to cut down on the maintenance and making the hobby more hassle free.

I would recommend a shallow 2 ft tank to start with. Max ht of 1.5 ft so she can easily reach for things in the tank. The tank has to be placed near water change area so she can easily do the weekly water changes herself. Equipment keep to minimum. Chiller, return pump can tee off to FR, skimmer or UAS. She can do manual dosing herself. Go to a reliable tank maker if you don't intend to do the piping work yourself. However, you could also look around for good designed 2nd hand tanks in pasar malam.

[solasido]

My mum helps me take care of my tank when I am on holiday.

But I need to prepare everything ready and precise, so that she just performs standard simple maintenance (change filter wool, top up Carbonate/calcium/magnesium in the morning, top up at night. Feed fish once a day with e.g. max 10 grains of food).

I think you could use the same approach so that you would just need to monitor the tank, check parameters every few days

[liquidnoise]

You better find out if she wants to learn or just wanna relax her mind by watching the Fishes.

What you expect her to be may not be what she has in mind.

You are a nice son ... so I am sure she will tell you what she has in mind.

And maybe a FOWLR tank is good enough. not too troublesome ...

The main thing is for her to stay Happy & relax.

Eg. I LOVE to watch the Fishes swimming. I can sit in front of the tank and watch for the longest time BUT I do NOT wish to learn more than what my mind expects. So I dunno much about upkeeping of the tank and parameters etc..... So someone else do all those stuff.

Better find out from Mom what she expects ya .....

Thumbs Up to you !!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not a nice son for a start...just doing my little part to make her life alittle not so boring and not watch TV the whole day. Wats FOWLR?

She likes to see things growing in the rocks last time. We bought a few reefs. (sponge really cannot make it. all died). She keep saying the little flowers growing makes her really xcited.

Think a small one with easy to keep reefs, the ones with flowers type. maybe one lion fish coz i really like it. Wat abt star fish? easy to keep? maybe not chiller just a small fan to coll the water?

[liquidnoise]

Most moms / parents / wives would enjoy watching the fishes and corals move / grow without bothering too much about the maintenance; however, as you have pointed out, you are too busy with yr work to maintain the tank for her so the designing of the tank and purchase of equipment is extremely important to cut down on the maintenance and making the hobby more hassle free.

I would recommend a shallow 2 ft tank to start with. Max ht of 1.5 ft so she can easily reach for things in the tank. The tank has to be placed near water change area so she can easily do the weekly water changes herself. Equipment keep to minimum. Chiller, return pump can tee off to FR, skimmer or UAS. She can do manual dosing herself. Go to a reliable tank maker if you don't intend to do the piping work yourself. However, you could also look around for good designed 2nd hand tanks in pasar malam.

Hmm. for WC we have many pails and my dad can help. 2ft tank max i bucket. sorry wats FR? I was hoping to do without chiller but we will see. My dad and me are good with our hands. pipping work is no problem for us at all. Wats UAS? Shd i use cannister or IOS? cannister if leak will be huge headach. If small set up skimmer is in the tank? the last time the skimmer was a small one in the tank

[liquidnoise]

My mum helps me take care of my tank when I am on holiday.

But I need to prepare everything ready and precise, so that she just performs standard simple maintenance (change filter wool, top up Carbonate/calcium/magnesium in the morning, top up at night. Feed fish once a day with e.g. max 10 grains of food).

I think you could use the same approach so that you would just need to monitor the tank, check parameters every few days

The problem is i have really no experience with marine. for fresh water (aro and stingray) i used to be ok. But marine, i scrtach head with so many stuff the LFS tell us to buy i also dunno how to teach my mum coz i also dunno wat they are for. just buy last time end up messing the whole thing up

[liquidnoise]

quick question. Can i use diamond water? those that we plug in our tap to a kind of filteration system. I thnk it works on RO concept.

[liquidnoise]

I am so happy. maybe getting my mum her 1 ft marine tank tomorrow.....

[mengyang_neo]

Hi bro, if you want your mum to read chinese version regarding reefing can go to this site http://www.ph84.idv.tw/vbb/ . It is mostly in chinese.

As all the people pointed out, better to start off with a mid size tank, there is more room for mistake.

Simple rule - less fish is always easier. So for a start don't stock up too many fishes, this is the common mistake for starter, end up fishes kana ich and start to die and tank crash. passion die out and decom.

Depending where you stay can always go to a reefer place to learn from them, easier to see the set up and learn.

[johnmariados]

This will help with the abbreviations, cheers.

[bellinayu]

Those filtration systems are only suitable for drinking as it's only sediment and carbon for 2 stage and some only have 1 stage. You can use a TDS meter to test. it will probably give you a reading of more than 20 as such systems do not have DI media which strips yr water off everything. For sps tanks, reefers wouldn't settle less than 5-7 to keep nutrient low; however, if you don't want to invest in 4 to 5 stage ro/DI systems, you can use chemical conditioners to "soften" tap water. Do some research on designing yr tank if you are going with custom build. If you are buying the tank Off the shelf, then you're better off with an iOS system. What equipments will you be using? what are you using for nutirent export? protein skimmer, underflow algae scrubber, refugium etc. There are tons of info in the forum. I may be imbarking on a small tank size build so doing some research myself. These are the type of questions I ask myself. Also, what is yr budget? Btw, FR stands for fluidized reactor. Use a FR if you have a sump. If not, you can use filter bags containing po4 removal media if you are having an IOS system.

[bellinayu]

Just remembered, you can consider lumenaqua max200 IOS tank set sold by aquarium artist if you are getting a "off the shelf" tank. Refer to his sponsor thread. He also has a few other nano sets. I will be paying him a visit later in the afternoon at about 2pm so if you are free, I can meet you there.

[liquidnoise]

Hi bro, if you want your mum to read chinese version regarding reefing can go to this site http://www.ph84.idv.tw/vbb/ . It is mostly in chinese.

As all the people pointed out, better to start off with a mid size tank, there is more room for mistake.

Simple rule - less fish is always easier. So for a start don't stock up too many fishes, this is the common mistake for starter, end up fishes kana ich and start to die and tank crash. passion die out and decom.

Depending where you stay can always go to a reefer place to learn from them, easier to see the set up and learn.

Thanks alot.

Just to share, I used to be a hard core fresh water hobbyist. My peak was 2 numbers 6x2.5x2ft, 1 number of 6.5ft FGT and 1 number of 4x1.5x2. But I keep aro and stingrays. By chance we were given a small 2ft marine full set up. But as my parents were working and they do not know how to maintain. The tank crashed after 6 mths so we give the whole set away as well.

Hence, this time round I want my mum to do everything herself. If I can trouble for as many chinese marine website as possible so she can read.

For now, we got 1 ft tank with IOS.

[liquidnoise]

Those filtration systems are only suitable for drinking as it's only sediment and carbon for 2 stage and some only have 1 stage. You can use a TDS meter to test. it will probably give you a reading of more than 20 as such systems do not have DI media which strips yr water off everything. For sps tanks, reefers wouldn't settle less than 5-7 to keep nutrient low; however, if you don't want to invest in 4 to 5 stage ro/DI systems, you can use chemical conditioners to "soften" tap water. Do some research on designing yr tank if you are going with custom build. If you are buying the tank Off the shelf, then you're better off with an iOS system. What equipments will you be using? what are you using for nutirent export? protein skimmer, underflow algae scrubber, refugium etc. There are tons of info in the forum. I may be imbarking on a small tank size build so doing some research myself. These are the type of questions I ask myself. Also, what is yr budget? Btw, FR stands for fluidized reactor. Use a FR if you have a sump. If not, you can use filter bags containing po4 removal media if you are having an IOS system.

Just gotten a 1 ft tank with IOS. just gotten biohome and has a skimmer. Wah more then fresh water fish.

[liquidnoise]

Just remembered, you can consider lumenaqua max200 IOS tank set sold by aquarium artist if you are getting a "off the shelf" tank. Refer to his sponsor thread. He also has a few other nano sets. I will be paying him a visit later in the afternoon at about 2pm so if you are free, I can meet you there.

Sorry, just saw this message. We were in Skudai for my cousins daughters wedding. Missed the chance. BTW, u Eunice?

[liquidnoise]

Now she wants to wash and sun the sand and rocks plus rinse the tank and all. After which will cycle the tank for a week. I bought the marine water mix. But thinking if should buy the water instead. Maybe start off with marine mix so that she can learn to try it out herself. In future then buy water for convience

[bellinayu]

Hi. My full name is bellina but I'm known as belle in this community. One of the distintive difference in salt and fresh water is the no. Of equipment to sustain the tank . My advise is to cycle the tank longer. Cycle at least 1mth esp if you are using dead rocks or new live rocks as some leach po4. Within the first 10 days, recommend to dose bacteria daily and change water weekly. You can follow the recommended dosage. You will surely face algae problem during initial phase of first 3-4 mths. That's part and parcel of marine woes. Continue with yr water changes and you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. Prepare test kits to chk water perimeters before you add fishes. During cycling stage, you could add some cleaning crew like hermit crabs, snails to clean the tank. You can research on what cleaning crew to get.

[liquidnoise]

Hi. My full name is bellina but I'm known as belle in this community. One of the distintive difference in salt and fresh water is the no. Of equipment to sustain the tank . My advise is to cycle the tank longer. Cycle at least 1mth esp if you are using dead rocks or new live rocks as some leach po4. Within the first 10 days, recommend to dose bacteria daily and change water weekly. You can follow the recommended dosage. You will surely face algae problem during initial phase of first 3-4 mths. That's part and parcel of marine woes. Continue with yr water changes and you'll see the light at the end of the tunnel. Prepare test kits to chk water perimeters before you add fishes. During cycling stage, you could add some cleaning crew like hermit crabs, snails to clean the tank. You can research on what cleaning crew to get.

Thx belle, can i bring my mum to meet u? Perhaps one of your shopping trips so she can learn. We will not disturb you but just tag along to see wat to buy?