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Under The Boardwalk


mechishark7

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mechishark7

Hey everyone, I'm new to biotopes so bear with me. I am building a biotope to showcase the organisms that would be found around the pilings under a boardwalk from the waters of Long Island, NY. I wanted the piling to be the centerpiece of the tank, so I built a DIY tank from a vase I got at Home Goods, a piece of 3" diameter PVC pipe, along with a pump and some fittings. The "piling" is made from the PVC pipe and will house the filtration and pump system.

 

Heres the tank build so far

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Cutting the overflow

 

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Testing

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I still have some work to do to finish up the hardware before I start collecting and stocking;

 

-I originally wanted to simulate a wooden piling, but looked into it and found it to be too difficult for such a small tank, so instead I am going to paint the PVC with krylon spray paint that simulates the look of hammered or distressed metal

 

-I have to seal the bottom of the PVC to prevent water from entering from the sand bed

 

-I also might have to upgrade the pump I was running to test the system (current 90GPH)

 

Completely empty to full, the tank is about 4.5 gallons

 

Stocking options;

 

Since I want this to simulate an old boardwalk piling and since I am completely stocking the tank from what I can find snorkeling here on Long Island, a main component of the tank I want to include are mussels on the center PVC pipe. They will hopefully also help slightly in filtration.

 

Beyond the mussels, I am just going to try and find a bunch of small rocks with grasses and growth on them to fill the bottom layer of the tank and any small fish I can find.

 

Luckily for me, although they may not fit in with my biotope, dozens of species of tropical fish are swept into the bays of Long Island from the gulf stream, so Butterflyfish and the like may be inhabiting this tank as well.

 

I'm not new to reef tanks but I am to biotopes so suggestions and advice are welcome!!!

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mechishark7

Butterflyfish in a vase?

I find them as juveniles about as large as a quarter, they won't be there forever, I know they grow way too large for a 4 gal vase

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Dr.Brain Coral

Oh man. This is going to be dope-a-potamus-rex!! You going to have aiptasia in here?



If you couldn't tell I love bio-topes

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mechishark7

Oh man. This is going to be dope-a-potamus-rex!! You going to have aiptasia in here?

 

Dope-a-potomus-rex, yes. Aiptasia, no :P

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Neat idea! With only 4.5 gallons, though, you won't want to put more than 1 little goby/blenny/cardinalfish/etc. Also, while using mussels for filtration is a nice idea in theory, I am highly skeptical that such a small tank will be able to provide enough waste to keep them alive; it is like trying to keep a mandarin in a 10g tank- there is no way that tank has enough copepods and amphipods in it to support the mandarin for more than a week or two. That doesn't mean you couldn't keep mussels in there, just that you should be prepared to feed them rather than expecting them to subsist solely on the waste of the other critters. Anyways, I can't wait to see how this turns out. I love it when people do local biotopes!

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mechishark7

 

Ive seen those little blennies before, they're real fast.

 

I'd like to keep some pipefish in the seaweed, but I heard they are rather difficult to keep

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mechishark7

I painted the piling with rustoleum forged hammered pewter spray paint, its supposed to give the appearance of textured metal but it didn't come out as well as the test did. Still looks alright though

 

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up close

 

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I'm going to let it dry for two days and then put it in the tank to get it going!

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Ive seen those little blennies before, they're real fast.

 

I'd like to keep some pipefish in the seaweed, but I heard they are rather difficult to keep

Pipefish can be difficult, yeah. Plus, they really shouldn't be kept in anything smaller than a 40B. Maybe someday if this little tank works well you could upgrade to a much larger tank (with much more pilings, of course) and keep pipefish and larger fish. It would make a hell of a tank! BTW, it is amazing how much that PVC looks like a metal pole! Nice work with the spray paint.

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mechishark7

Hmmm you could do a blue line or something or a white line I've seen piers and board walk piles like that

 

could you show me a pic or draw a pic of this?

 

Wow, so cool! I love the vase!

 

Thanks! :D:D Stick around to see how it progresses!

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Awesome! IMO I think it's a great idea, but would be best in a larger tank. Where Bufferflyfish could be kept permanently.

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mechishark7

I thought aiptasia are in the waters around where you are?

 

Oh, I didn't know that. Haven't seen any in my snorkeling adventures yet

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Cameron6796

Maybe I'm thinking of something else but the peir near my cottage is black with a thin blue band around the top

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Very cool.

 

 

Hope the rustoleum is salt water safe. I know krylon fusion is. Dunno about rustoleum. We shall find out when this build continues.

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Cameron6796

I think some cool barnacles and see grasses and maybe even for realism some miniature trash items like pop cans etc could really add to the overall look. You may not want to add little trinkets but I would if this were my build it would be cool to watch nature over take the "garbage" and recolonize it.

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