noah

Thats not a major prob. Fill your tank with fresh sea water, the cleanest you can find. run the tank for three to four weeks with just that water. don't be tempted to change it just yet. This gives the bacteria time to build up in the pump/ fillers you are using. About a week before you whish to put something in it then do a 25% water change.Shrimps are hardy little fellows so try one or two of thoes first. if they seen ok then you can move on to other stuff. As for lighting a lot of marine stuff requires it in ultra violet at different strenghts hence why different sponges are found at different depths. You can buy neon tubes for this job and can be found in most pet shops. you also require a normal tube as well or every thing will be blue. With neon tubes they don't give off as much heat as normal light bulbs. There are many gizzmos on the market this day and age for tanks choose carfully what you want. The best thing I got for my tank is a protine skimmer, expensive I know but the best thing for removing chemicals and nasties in the water. many people use these inccorrectly by leaving them on all the time they only need to be use for an hour in a 24 hr period less than that if the tank is balanced.

I don't know if the tank is going to be big enough for a marine set up. I run a four hundred ltr tank and in that i keep enonomies, shrip,one crab, one blennie and one bass. The smaller the tank the more mantance is required, If a problem does arise then it will very quickly go through the tank. Don't use any chemicals on the tank not even the one that are supposed to help start the water process. A more natural way is to heat the tank and put in a couple of black mollies in. Each day replace the fresh water with clean non poluted salt water, keep doing this until the salt specific gravity reaches 1.020-1.022 or the sallinity reading is 27 -29.6 depending on your reader. once this is acheved remove the mollies and place them in an other tank to reverse the process. Remove the heating and alow it all to cool then your tank should be ready for your first lodger.

Well done. Shame I have to wait awile before I get a crack at one of thoes

Had a few minor problems to sort out after the first run. Worked like hell on her today and ready to again tomorrow. sea state looks good for a fast run over the Taw/torrige bar so more time for fishing.

I know but small is bueatifull

Took my boat out today for the first time after owning it and spending stacks of money on it over the last few months. Launched at 10:30 from Appledore and instantly found the first problem, The out board wasn't getting full throtle, out with the tool box and job done. Just to be on the safe side took her up and down the estuary to check everything was in order. Satisfide with her it was time to try her out on the sea. what more of an excuse to try for mackeral do you need. The bonus fish was an unexpected Garfish. Foul hooked a joey mackeral shortly after, and now knowing that touching mackeral kills them I quikly hooked it up to a running line and let it go. With in 2 minutes the poor little sod met its maker with a cracking take. unfortunatly i was making the coffee at the time and by the time i responed it was all to late. Will be going out again on wednesday to see if i can hit it next time.

How and where would i be able to collect my own live sandeels. I have been told many ways of cathing them involving wellies, large hand held fine nets, stamping on the sand, digging and even bottles. What kind of enviroment are they found in? anyone on here help out?

An excelent post Leon, hopefully It will make some think twice before posting. Since last november everything i have caught has gone back, only cos they were all undersize. you may never know I may get something for the pot yet

Fantastic now I stand a chance of catching one for myself.

nice fish, green with envey. I lost a mackeral in the boot of my car the other week, found it the next day, you can still smell it now. mind you it keeps the missus out of the car now

I have a realy nice, young, hand reared senagal parrot for sale. Unfortunatly it was born with an eye missing and can not be sold through the pet trade. it is called Nelson and is 14 weeks old. It can fly but tends to crash into things at the moment. it's only just discovered that it can fly and with a missing eye is probabaly struggling to judge distances correctly. I am looking for £175 for the bird, if you need a cage I can do you a second hand cage at a fair price. This parrot is human imprinted and needs a good home. I would like to keep it myself but have to many birds already. Email me if intrested. it will be going to a bird sale on the 18th of this month if nobody is intrested.

When I lived on a farm in devon, a couple bought the run down farm cider press barn and converted it into nice little holiday homes. Within two months of moving in they complained that the cows were mooing and the sheep were barring and the tractor made the road dirty and was not in keeping with the countryside :confused: We got our own back by buying a scrapped car, parking it in thier drive way, placeing a brick on the accelerator pedal, starting the engine and walking away. we then complained about the state of there drive way and all the oil running into the drains. shame they had to pay for the clean up costs

Just done the same, see how it goes.

Dillydangle and my-self arranged to fish watermouth a few weeks ago. On arrival there, during the walk to the fishing mark I mentioned that one of the few fish that had eluded me so far had been a wrasse. It was low water and just on the turn when we got there. The mark we wanted had been taken by some holidaymakers so we moved around a bit more but were then fishing some rocky ground if the cast was wrong. Not to be put off by not getting our original mark, we set up, had a beer and chucked out. Not expecting much action for a while we settled down and started chatting. Just as I was having a sup of my beer, you've got it, my first wrasse. O.K. it's not going to break any records but it was still a nice fish of just over 1lb. The rest of the day went well with more wrasse, mackrel and one pollack.

The boat was moved two days before the parish council called on me. I had to move it as I needed to work on the hull and needed full all round acess. The bueaty of it all was they stood where the boat WAS and told me to move it. The blind leading the blind i think.

This, to me looks like a 16ft micro plus, but to my parish council it is a motor vehical with no road tax? Because it does not have any MOT or road tax I have to remove it from out side my house or they intend to start proceedings agaist me. I suppose it could be a ford capri

The bass in my tank seems to 'rest/sleep' in a hole away from the strong flow of the filters. These periods of rest can happen at any time but they do seem to coincide with low water. the strange thing is i am at least 20 miles from the coast and the tank is not tidale. the fish takes a while to 'wake up' if it is disturbed during this time. Also the bass will not take any food with in 10 mins of coming out of this 'rest' period.

The roads arn't good for fast travel and would recon that you need to allow yourself 2 to 2 1/2 hours driving . When there you have a fair walk in front of you from the car park. I don't want to put you off but if you do decide to come down give me a shout I'll see if I can join you.

If I have got the hull repair wrong it might be called the yellow submarine

Should be able to most of the coast here you'll get mackeral. thats if they've not been sucked up yet.

According to the local paper Baggy point has been fishing very well for tope of late. Dillydangler told me about the report so may be worth having a chat with him.

Mor-ni -pi i think it's ment to stand for more-nippy :confused:

maybe!! Just taking all the precautions i can.

Sam, will see what I can do, it's silly season for me at work at the mo,see if i can get a day off or two.

I am lead to belive that it is unlucky to rename a boat. So after spending a few hundred quid on my boat and several months working on her she is nearly ready for the big day. It's just i don't like the name on her and wish to change it. with all the bad luck I have, i don't want to tempt fate.