beach/shoreline tank?

[hijiwii]

Has anyone ever done it before? I think it would be interesting set up, w/ fiddlers or some other semi-aquatic crab.

[gulfsurfer101]

I've had a quite similar setup. I have used one of those 12gallon nanocubes standard for locally harvested anemones. snails and hermits for a curing tank before anything went into my other tanks. I started by collecting about 10 pounds of brighly crushed shell sand that has nice pink and blues in it that I found rolling around in the surf here in the gulf of mexico. I used a large peice of rock from the jettie's and broke it into about five peices and used that for my LR. I collected about 150 unidentified anemomes from a local pier, and about 100 giant turbo snails that were all buched up with them and placed them in there with the nems. About three weeks later I noticed an explosion of blue legged crabs that seemed to be growing out of the sand I harvested. They made good food for my yelloe headed morray eel and the snails cleaned out my tank of all slime, algea, and detrius in a matter of days. It was a cool tank to watch stocked and loaded with different pods, I recently tore that tank down ad have sold it but I still have lots of snails and my nems have disperessed themselfs all over my rockwork giving it a tottally live look.

[hijiwii]

Wait, a 100 turbo snails and 150 anemones in a 12gal?

How big were they?

[wesleytf]

last time I was on the pacific side of mexico near puerto vallarta I found tons of tiny 'nems in the shoreline. 150 still sounds like a lot, though.

[hijiwii]

What I mean by shoreline is a sloping sandbed, creating an area of land.

[glennr1978]

What I mean by shoreline is a sloping sandbed, creating an area of land.

I think you would have a hard time keeping your shoreline a shoreline. Seems like the sand would shift and you would eventually just have a typical sand bed. I'm sure there has to be a way to pull it off. It's a cool idea none the less.

[matty0206]

What if you glued pieces of acrylic like baffles in a sump but so they were all the way against the bottom and got higher left to right then fill them with sand fill with water on the left untill it just reached the top of the second highest piece of acrylic. This way the acrylic would act as retaining walls for the sand. If you put them in like stairs you woul get a gradual slope all the way up to a dry beach without the sand being able to slip into the water! Just an idea! It makes sense in my head. lol

 

Here is my horrible example in paint!

[reeforreefoutyou]

matty 0206's idea is pretty good. I suggest that instead of acrylic you use something strong enough to keep the structure but porous enough to allow circulation, gas exchange etc. Use something like knitting mesh ( people use it to make HOB's into refugiums). With acrylic I would worry about what collects at the bottom of those chambers. Another point that I would research is whether having some of the sand exposed to air would act like a wet/dry and increase nitrates. Otherwise it is a really cool idea and I am sure it can be done. It kind of has a Charles Darwin aesthetic as I imagine things crawling out of the water for a little sun. Good luck

[matty0206]

I suggested acrylic because of the strength but you are right it needs to not be so "sealed". Maybe drill lots of tiny holes in the acrylic pieces? I like this idea alot and hope he figures it out so there can be a tank on nano-reef that adds some diversity!