Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

33G Custom Reef w/ full functioning Tide Pool style refugium


zhubbell

Recommended Posts

Alright, so the stand is being built and the acrylic is being picked up tomorrow....

The display is 24x18x18 with overflow to a sump in the stand below.

I know taht lionfish and eels both are not ideal reef inhabitants, but since both are somewhat rare, I'm going to set it up and let a few colonies of hardy, resilient corals to attach permenantly to rock, and grow alittle bit, and establish themselves so the occasional poke wont be the end of the colony.

From the sump, there will be a Tidepool refugium, mimicing the one featured in one of this months issues of a fish magazine (i cant think of which one off the top of my head, I subscribe to a few different ones)

It will be about 6G at low tide and 10G at high tide.

The Tide pool will be 14x14x14, and house fan worms, some cool inverts, clams, stars, maybe urchins, a bunch of crazy macros, a couple mangroves, a probably a couple nano gobies - I'm not 100% sure on stocking...

Let me know what you guys think...

 

By the way - heres the thread of my discussion that lead up to this tank:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=157285

Link to comment
I wouldnt put the eel in that small of a tank, thats torture GO LONG!!!

 

Be careful with that lion fish :)

 

A Dwarf eel maxes out at 12", thatll be plenty of room for it

Link to comment

I know, it's an ongoing argument everywhere thats about 50/50.

 

I, personally am against keeping eels in cubes unless its a 300g cube.

 

Go long man.

Link to comment

This is going to be a great tank. I have a dwarf lion in my reef and absolutely love it. I want a bigger tank now so I can get another one and have a pair.

Link to comment
I know, it's an ongoing argument everywhere thats about 50/50.

 

I, personally am against keeping eels in cubes unless its a 300g cube.

 

Go long man.

 

You think that a 12" eel needs 300g??

I mean, then why do you think its ok keeping any fish besides maybe a small damsel or gobie in even your 54G tank?

 

Kowalski - what kind of dwarf lion do you have???

I was leaning towards maybe a Fumanchu, but I haven't researched that exact species enough to be sure on size or anything really...

what inverts are you successfully keeping with the lion?

Link to comment

I have a little female dendrochirus brachypterus. As far as other tank inhabitants I have small hermits, a various assortment of snails and one large sally lightfoot. I cannot keep any kind of shrimp or small ornamental crabs, they would definately become lunch. Also, the fu manchu lions are supposedly the least hardy of the dwarf lions. There is an article online about them, I will try and find it for you.

 

Here is the article, it pretty much covers everything about lions.

 

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-11/...ature/index.php

Link to comment

i had a golden dwarf moray in a 10 for a year without a problem until i decided to take the lid off for some stupid reason...

you just have to remember that when they fast dont get tooo worried

Link to comment
i had a golden dwarf moray in a 10 for a year without a problem until i decided to take the lid off for some stupid reason...

you just have to remember that when they fast dont get tooo worried

 

Thats awesome, do you have any pics??

also what do you mean by when they fast???

 

Also - what did you have in the tank with it, anything??

Link to comment

Not to h/j but this seems like the perfect place to pose a couple of noob kinda questions. Are lions and eels not considered reef safe because they will eat crustations? They wont bother corals and anemones right? And what about snails, hermits, and stars?

Thanks and again sorry to hijack!

Link to comment
Not to h/j but this seems like the perfect place to pose a couple of noob kinda questions. Are lions and eels not considered reef safe because they will eat crustations? They wont bother corals and anemones right? And what about snails, hermits, and stars?

Thanks and again sorry to hijack!

 

No problem at all

not reef safe - you're mostly right, but an added issue that I've heard is with lionfish - they can poke corals with the spines, but thats why I plan on having large, well established corals.

snails and hermits are fine, I think stars are fine, and I've heard from people who even keep shrimp with a dwarf eel....

its a matter of keeping the animals full so they dont go for the inverts, I dont know that I'll tempt my fate with trying that, but I think I'll be able to keep some cool stuff - thinking decorator crab for one...

Link to comment

Another good one would be a frogfish or different scorpion fish....

 

They do really well with corals

Link to comment
You think that a 12" eel needs 300g??

I mean, then why do you think its ok keeping any fish besides maybe a small damsel or gobie in even your 54G tank?

 

It was an example of length actually.... It's your eel, do what you want with it... but its like keeping a great dane in a dorm room IMO.

Link to comment
Another good one would be a frogfish or different scorpion fish....

 

They do really well with corals

 

Yeah my lfs has an awesome frogfish for $49.95 that I have been eyeing! He also eats frozen which is nice! They just dont move very much and my wife wants something pretty so I dont know.

Link to comment

The macro for the tide pool style fuge i plan on aquiring next week on my trip to Aruba...

I'm ganna be scuba diving and snorkeling a ton!

 

Im so psyched!

Link to comment
It was an example of length actually.... It's your eel, do what you want with it... but its like keeping a great dane in a dorm room IMO.

 

imo thats nothing like it

i would think the great dane in a dorm room comparison is more like a snowflake in a 10

but theres another thing you have to realize about morays, they dont really travel

they stay in the same rock work, but they will go out to explore

im pretty sure i have pics on my computer at my parents house but none here

theyre awesome eels, i hand fed mine all the time

there really is no "reef-safe" eel since they all do eat crustaceans but dwarf eels are considered more reef safe mainly because they dont harm corals and they have a harder time consuming larger crustaceans, but they will eat anything that can fit in its mouth, mine ate a purple firefish

another thing about any eel you have to remember is that theyre messy, i did almost daily water changes just because i had access to water and because i didnt want my water to go nuts for any reason

i had mine with a perc and pink skunk clownfish

Link to comment
damnit I want a freakin eel now. It'll eat nano gobies wont it.... :(

 

Yes - it will - the nano gobies are in the 14" cube Tide Pool refugium that will sit next to the tank.

 

It will have a drain at 8" that has a ball valve, quite a bit closed off, so that it wont keep up with drainage fast enough that during high tide it still drains to 8" tall, and then it will have a larger, unrestricted drain at the top of the tank.

This is ganna be incredibly cool, and I think that the tidepool refuge is at least as cool as the strangely and interestingly stocked display, but its hard to describe before its set up, but trust me - it'll be awesome!

I'm looking for a 70W Viper clamp on to light the fuge, and the display will be lit with a 192W current PC fixture that I have for now anyway....

I will put a Tunze 9005 in the fuge sump,a nd I'm thinking a mag5 as the return for the display,a nd a mag 3 as the tidepool pump....

The tide pool will also need a koralina nano to keep the water from becoming stagnant during low tide, and its own heater - probably 50W i'm thinking?

Link to comment

Keep in mind eels are sneaky little buggers.

We woke up the other day to find our snowflake on the dinning room for stuck to it cuase he was out of the water so long. We wiggled his was though the overflow bow and the top.

 

My eel with eat smalls off the wall in the sand you name it.

 

As for my FuManChu he is a very lazy one. Sits so pretty on the rock.

 

ALSO THEY ARE MESSY EATERS!!!!

Link to comment
Keep in mind eels are sneaky little buggers.

We woke up the other day to find our snowflake on the dinning room for stuck to it cuase he was out of the water so long. We wiggled his was though the overflow bow and the top.

 

My eel with eat smalls off the wall in the sand you name it.

 

As for my FuManChu he is a very lazy one. Sits so pretty on the rock.

 

ALSO THEY ARE MESSY EATERS!!!!

 

 

Ya i know they're sneaky, I'm ganna do an overflow box that comes within a tenth of an inch of the lid, with teeth for the overflow being the width of my saw blade, ~.101"

 

I know they are messy as well, and hope in fact that they are, because the more nutrients going into the display tide pool refugium, the better, also I'm ganna have a Tunze 9005 skimmer (posssibly the 9010)

Link to comment

wow this should be a really interesting tank. Lionfish and morays rule. and a tidepool fuge. All awesome ideas.

 

Combining the two will be awesome!!!

 

I seriously Can't wait to see some pics.

Link to comment
wow this should be a really interesting tank. Lionfish and morays rule. and a tidepool fuge. All awesome ideas.

 

Combining the two will be awesome!!!

 

Thanks, I think so too!

This is the schedule of things:

 

Display and tide pool to be built by the time I leave for Aruba this Sunday.

Stand for display should be done by then too...

Sump will be built probably when I get home unfortunately, because I still have about 7 tanks to build for people before I leave besides my own.

 

I have the mag drives, I have the 24" fixture, i probably have the heaters I need, I need a couple more Koralinas, probably a 1 and a nano, I need a skimmer

I need an ATO, but I also need one for my reef, so that'll probably be a while

I need a 70W halide for over the tide pool, and I need to build the stand for the Tide Pool also....

 

One last question....

I have a big, tough guy Lemonpeel who was terrorizing my other fish in my old 65G tank, and now I have living alone in a 30g for now....could he live with the other two or is that gettin alittle insane - someone give me a reality check...

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...