Garden Eel Room - Stocking begins!

[spinycheek]

If it were me, I'd stick with Caulerpa and Halimeda to get the green sea grass effect. It grows well and is undemanding. Turtle grass is the real sea grass, but it hates captivity and I don't know why. Too bad there aren't freshwater garden eels, so many cool freshawater grasses to choose from.

[Hammerstone]

I hope you find your eels and the grass you need. I'm rootin for you!!!

[dingusplease]

I hope you find your eels and the grass you need. I'm rootin for you!!!

 

Thanks!! Btw hope the frigid coral incident goes over well, they sending you a replacement?

 

If it were me, I'd stick with Caulerpa and Halimeda to get the green sea grass effect. It grows well and is undemanding. Turtle grass is the real sea grass, but it hates captivity and I don't know why. Too bad there aren't freshwater garden eels, so many cool freshawater grasses to choose from.

 

Halimeda looks promising... caulerpa seems like it could get to be a pain : P if it spreads too much.

Wish turtlegrass was easier, read an article saying they tons of light, and a specific spectrum. Lol if it were freshwater I'd have a planted tank

[Eisernes]

If it were me, I'd stick with Caulerpa and Halimeda to get the green sea grass effect. It grows well and is undemanding. Turtle grass is the real sea grass, but it hates captivity and I don't know why. Too bad there aren't freshwater garden eels, so many cool freshawater grasses to choose from.

Khuli loaches! My favorite of all the fishes. I would love to have a freshwater planted tank with like 100 of them in there.

[dingusplease]

Khuli loaches! My favorite of all the fishes. I would love to have a freshwater planted tank with like 100 of them in there.

They look remarkably similar haha...

 

Update:

- Cycle is moving along, expedited by a bunch of aiptasia-covered LR I bought to seed the dry stuff.

- 0mg/l NH2, 5mg/l NO2, 110mg/l NO3

- Planning to simultaneously introduce a copperbanded and pakistan (collare) butterflyfish.

- Other planned fish include:

- Half-black angel

- geometric hawkfish

- bristletooth tang

- starry blenny

- probably a chromis

 

Also, wanted to comment on the fact that reef tanks don't need to cost thousands of dollars.

 

*Whole setup, lights, tank, stand, plumbing, rock, sand, and all cost around $350 total!

[Benny314]

This build has really got me thinking on how much I want to have garden eels, so much so I've managed to dream up a way of maybe using the stand of my existing tank which is sort of built into the room and custom building a tank to work in the space I have and in the future.

 

Back at the end of 2014 when I first brought the marine tank up stairs before filling it and crossing my fingers it didn't end up in next doors garage below.

 

 

My plan to reuse the existing stand.

 

My current tank turns out to be a slightly odd shape, think it's built in meters and centimeters instead of the standard feet and inches so I have some slightly odd dimensions.

This is all currently dream land stuff. If I was to do this I'd be using acrylic and building the tank and sump myself from scratch.

It looks like it would be around £300 for acrylic just for the tank, so I really don't think this is happening anytime soon.

But if money gets freed up I would be considering building bits at a time to avoid one massive pocket hit lol. Like you my current setup hasn't cost much as I have DIY'd or snagged stuff cheap off ebay or locals selling up.

 

I've been dreaming about doing a drop off tank for a long while now, and then it hit me I could use a standard tank and with a partition create a drop off one side and a DSB the other, then just hide the DSB with the stand cladding. Everybody wins.

 

The only thing bothering me at the minute is weight. I don't know if all the sand in the DSB would be heavier than what I have currently, This tank has 6 inches less height than my current system and the acrylic will be lighter than the current tanks 10mm euro braced glass construction I think. But I don't know if the reduced volume of water and slightly lighter tank will cancel out the weight of the extra sand.

Our house is basically over 4 garages and the marine tank pokes out into the room so I'm relying on the joists holding the weight. All has been good with the current tank, but I wouldn't want to go any heavier lol.

[Simulated Fish]

 

They look remarkably similar haha...

 

Update:

- Cycle is moving along, expedited by a bunch of aiptasia-covered LR I bought to seed the dry stuff.

- 0mg/l NH2, 5mg/l NO2, 110mg/l NO3

- Planning to simultaneously introduce a copperbanded and pakistan (collare) butterflyfish.

- Other planned fish include:

- Half-black angel

- geometric hawkfish

- bristletooth tang

- starry blenny

- probably a chromis

 

Also, wanted to comment on the fact that reef tanks don't need to cost thousands of dollars.

 

*Whole setup, lights, tank, stand, plumbing, rock, sand, and all cost around $350 total!

Hey! I was on the hunt for a eel that would be happy in a 45g tank.

And stumbled upon this....

 

https://www.bluezooa...&pid=647&cid=17

 

Spotted Garden Eel for $39.99 I haven't dealt with them before but I thought you'd like to know

[Beer]

amazing build! I visited the new england aquarium a while ago and the garden eels were my favorite display.

I was going to mention the same thing. The garden eels were pretty amazing.

They have a decorator crab display next to them which was pretty cool as well.

 

 

I wonder if people's issues with the sea grasses is that they are running them under normal reef lighting. Sea grasses are in pretty shallow water and get plenty of red and green light where reef lighting is pretty weak in these spectrums. They may also get exposed to full sun at low tide. You would need plant lighting to over the grass areas to support them. You may be able to supplement red lighting to compensate, but I think the color rendering would be off and things would look weird.

Reefs are also pretty low nutrient environments. Sea grasses are usually in areas that would get exposed to higher nutrients. Running slightly higher nutrient levels may be necessary to feed the plants. Dosing may be required to keep nutrients balanced to prevent algae outbreaks (dosing nutrients seems counter intuitive to preventing algae, but keeping nutrients balanced allows the plants to outcompete algae. CO2 is part of that equation). You don't need to dose heavily to keep the plants alive, but if you want a lot of growth, it may be necessary. Some aquatic plants feed through roots, some use roots strictly for anchoring and feed through leaves, and some use a combination of roots, leaves, and stems to feed. You may be able to use root tabs to feed the plants, which would reduce the nutrients in the water column.

 

It might take some research to figure out what the sea grasses need to thrive. It may take running the tank like like a planted aquarium for a bit to get the sea grasses to grow well. You might consider establishing the grasses and then cutting nutrients back before adding other organisms, it would give you time while you search for your garden eels. You may need to figure out some balance and limit some coral types to get this to run well if you need to bump up certain nutrients in the water column. It would be more of a biotope if you run it this way.

[dingusplease]

This build has really got me thinking on how much I want to have garden eels, so much so I've managed to dream up a way of maybe using the stand of my existing tank which is sort of built into the room and custom building a tank to work in the space I have and in the future.

 

Back at the end of 2014 when I first brought the marine tank up stairs before filling it and crossing my fingers it didn't end up in next doors garage below.

 

My plan to reuse the existing stand.

 

 

My current tank turns out to be a slightly odd shape, think it's built in meters and centimeters instead of the standard feet and inches so I have some slightly odd dimensions.

This is all currently dream land stuff. If I was to do this I'd be using acrylic and building the tank and sump myself from scratch.

It looks like it would be around £300 for acrylic just for the tank, so I really don't think this is happening anytime soon.

But if money gets freed up I would be considering building bits at a time to avoid one massive pocket hit lol. Like you my current setup hasn't cost much as I have DIY'd or snagged stuff cheap off ebay or locals selling up.

 

I've been dreaming about doing a drop off tank for a long while now, and then it hit me I could use a standard tank and with a partition create a drop off one side and a DSB the other, then just hide the DSB with the stand cladding. Everybody wins.

 

The only thing bothering me at the minute is weight. I don't know if all the sand in the DSB would be heavier than what I have currently, This tank has 6 inches less height than my current system and the acrylic will be lighter than the current tanks 10mm euro braced glass construction I think. But I don't know if the reduced volume of water and slightly lighter tank will cancel out the weight of the extra sand.

Our house is basically over 4 garages and the marine tank pokes out into the room so I'm relying on the joists holding the weight. All has been good with the current tank, but I wouldn't want to go any heavier lol.

Design looks really well thought out, IMO the joists should hold the weight just fine. If you're unsure, spreading out the weight with a sturdy material like plywood seems to work well. And your tank looks wide enough anyway.

 

So you'd be building the tank with a DSB partition built-in?

 

Hey! I was on the hunt for a eel that would be happy in a 45g tank.

And stumbled upon this....

 

https://www.bluezooa...&pid=647&cid=17

 

Spotted Garden Eel for $39.99 I haven't dealt with them before but I thought you'd like to know

Bluezoo sounds like a pretty nice place from what I've heard -- thanks for the link.

I'm going to send them an email to see if they can do some sort of bulk discount for 10 eels, since $40 is pretty steep. I'll update here!

 

Btw, have you checked out the golden dwarf moray? They're expensive but I think they're reef safe.

 

I was going to mention the same thing. The garden eels were pretty amazing.

They have a decorator crab display next to them which was pretty cool as well.

 

 

I wonder if people's issues with the sea grasses is that they are running them under normal reef lighting. Sea grasses are in pretty shallow water and get plenty of red and green light where reef lighting is pretty weak in these spectrums. They may also get exposed to full sun at low tide. You would need plant lighting to over the grass areas to support them. You may be able to supplement red lighting to compensate, but I think the color rendering would be off and things would look weird.

Reefs are also pretty low nutrient environments. Sea grasses are usually in areas that would get exposed to higher nutrients. Running slightly higher nutrient levels may be necessary to feed the plants. Dosing may be required to keep nutrients balanced to prevent algae outbreaks (dosing nutrients seems counter intuitive to preventing algae, but keeping nutrients balanced allows the plants to outcompete algae. CO2 is part of that equation). You don't need to dose heavily to keep the plants alive, but if you want a lot of growth, it may be necessary. Some aquatic plants feed through roots, some use roots strictly for anchoring and feed through leaves, and some use a combination of roots, leaves, and stems to feed. You may be able to use root tabs to feed the plants, which would reduce the nutrients in the water column.

 

It might take some research to figure out what the sea grasses need to thrive. It may take running the tank like like a planted aquarium for a bit to get the sea grasses to grow well. You might consider establishing the grasses and then cutting nutrients back before adding other organisms, it would give you time while you search for your garden eels. You may need to figure out some balance and limit some coral types to get this to run well if you need to bump up certain nutrients in the water column. It would be more of a biotope if you run it this way.

Plants definitely seem to be a tricky aspect with garden eels -- some people say you need them, others run bare sand. I think it could definitely help provide natural shelter, plus pods for food.

 

Good point about the lighting, they probably need very high lighting, and higher nutrients than coral reefs. Seem naturally, actually, that grasses closer to the shore would act as a nutrient filter/buffer between tidal areas and reefs.

 

Makes sense to run higher nutrients, hadn't considered that. Any ideas on how to achieve that? I could run the skimmer on reduced hours maybe, feed a bit more, use bottled phytoplankton supplements, or even cut back on water changes. Not sure what effects LEDs will have on plant growth, with much more blue and white. I have one panel with some green and red, but probably no difference in effect.

 

I'm hoping to achieve a bit of a biotope with this tank, but hopefully still keep some corals that can withstand the seagrass/garden eel conditions.

[Mariaface]

 

 

Makes sense to run higher nutrients, hadn't considered that. Any ideas on how to achieve that? I could run the skimmer on reduced hours maybe, feed a bit more, use bottled phytoplankton supplements, or even cut back on water changes. Not sure what effects LEDs will have on plant growth, with much more blue and white. I have one panel with some green and red, but probably no difference in effect.

 

I'm hoping to achieve a bit of a biotope with this tank, but hopefully still keep some corals that can withstand the seagrass/garden eel conditions.

 

 

Plants are a little intense. You'll be adding the requirements of a planted tank to what's already there, so it may be good to do some research on planted tank forums as well. You're going to want to keep CO2, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium in check and balanced with the amount of light you provide. Then there are trace elements that'll need to be restored; I'm not sure if they'll overlap with the trace elements already in salt mixes.

[Simulated Fish]

Bluezoo sounds like a pretty nice place from what I've heard -- thanks for the link.

I'm going to send them an email to see if they can do some sort of bulk discount for 10 eels, since $40 is pretty steep. I'll update here!

 

Btw, have you checked out the golden dwarf moray? They're expensive but I think they're reef safe.

 

Yeah I would love on but my wife would kill me if I dropped $300 on livestock :/

[Benny314]

Design looks really well thought out, IMO the joists should hold the weight just fine. If you're unsure, spreading out the weight with a sturdy material like plywood seems to work well. And your tank looks wide enough anyway.

 

So you'd be building the tank with a DSB partition built-in?

 

Yes partition in the display. I've seen someone make a drop off tank by boxing off a section of their standard tank. This way doesn't waste that space.

 

I'm thinking this house is built the same as one down the road that I help clear out after a fire the year before last. The master bedroom of the house was over the garage which is where the fire was and the floor was held up by 8X2 joists spaced 12 inches apart (completely over kill). Should be plenty of support but we're renting so I wouldn't like to try and explain to the landlord how I wrote nextdoors car off in their garage with a fish tank lol.

 

 

Makes sense to run higher nutrients, hadn't considered that. Any ideas on how to achieve that? I could run the skimmer on reduced hours maybe, feed a bit more, use bottled phytoplankton supplements, or even cut back on water changes. Not sure what effects LEDs will have on plant growth, with much more blue and white. I have one panel with some green and red, but probably no difference in effect.

 

 

High nutrients shouldn't be an issue in an garden eel tank. My understanding is you have to feed regularly and fairly heavily causing high nutrient problems if you don't have robust filtration. Lighting would most likely be key, followed by trace element control and possibly CO2, not sure what the requirements are for salt water forna, also with all the water movement in a marine tank the chances are there would be enough gas exchange at the surface and as the water passes through the sump etc to keep the right balance of CO2 etc.

[Sal10104]

 

 

Btw, have you checked out the golden dwarf moray? They're expensive but I think they're reef safe.

 

 

 

They are reef safe i have one in my 95 they are pricy though i spent 100$ on mine had to buy him straight out of hawaii

[Benny314]

A lot of morays are considered reef safe with caution. Most will eat any sort of shrimp and some pick off crabs too. But people do successfully keep shrimp with a well fed eel. Like with puffers and angels kept with coral, some nip coral some don't it's luck of the draw.

[Sal10104]

A lot of morays are considered reef safe with caution. Most will eat any sort of shrimp and some pick off crabs too. But people do successfully keep shrimp with a well fed eel. Like with puffers and angels kept with coral, some nip coral some don't it's luck of the draw

All of them are reef safe.. they say "reef safe with caution" because when they grow they disturb the rocks thus tipping over/breaking corals

[dingusplease]

Just wanted to share an old vid of the picotope I had for a year and a half. Fun times

 

 

Here's a pic of it 5 months later:

 

 

And here's another vid

 

 

A lot of these corals are in a friend's tank, to be going into this one.

[dingusplease]

It's cycled! Added a longnose butterfly and firefish. More to come. Pics when become braver.

 

I bought them at my lfs, and fyi the ammo, no2, no3 have been zero for 6 days. Just wanted to take it slow and let the phyto bloom wear off

 

Considering a bicolor angel in the next couple of days. I'm aware the angel and butterfly are coral eating risks, and I haven't put any coral in the tank yet. I'm going to put all of my acros into a frag tank, to grow them out.

[Mirya]

Try messaging Phishy Business on Facebook. They were a LFS in Columbus, OH that unfortunately closed over the summer. They had a display tank in the store of garden eels and would periodically get them in for sale as well. They didn't have sea grass in their display tank, but they had a wide variety of macroalgaes in there. They may be able to give you a lead on who their old distributor was for the eels.

[Hammerstone]

Looking forward to seeing your tank!!

[dingusplease]

Try messaging Phishy Business on Facebook. They were a LFS in Columbus, OH that unfortunately closed over the summer. They had a display tank in the store of garden eels and would periodically get them in for sale as well. They didn't have sea grass in their display tank, but they had a wide variety of macroalgaes in there. They may be able to give you a lead on who their old distributor was for the eels.

 

Will do! Thanks for the contact. By the way, just added my first seagrasses.

[Beer]

Awesome, glad to see this making progress.

 

I ended up bringing my younger nephew to the New England Aquarium this week for his birthday. We had a blast.

I tried getting pictures of the garden eel tank, but due to the bend in the tank (it was a half round) I couldn't get any clear pictures. They were white bodied with yellow bands. They were also fairly small, about the width of my pinky finger for the biggest ones. There was no sea grass in the tank. They could come from varying locations and some species may do well without the sea grasses.

 

Personally I'd try to go with the sea grasses, I think it would look more interesting.

[dingusplease]

Awesome, glad to see this making progress.

 

I ended up bringing my younger nephew to the New England Aquarium this week for his birthday. We had a blast.

I tried getting pictures of the garden eel tank, but due to the bend in the tank (it was a half round) I couldn't get any clear pictures. They were white bodied with yellow bands. They were also fairly small, about the width of my pinky finger for the biggest ones. There was no sea grass in the tank. They could come from varying locations and some species may do well without the sea grasses.

 

Personally I'd try to go with the sea grasses, I think it would look more interesting.

 

Always fun to see kids taking an interest at the public aquarium! You probably saw Gorgasia preclara. I agree I think seagrasses add a lot of visual interest to a sandbed.

[dingusplease]

Update: Added a few friendly fish to the tank, until I find the eels. Related to the eel sourcing, I'm in communication with a public aquarium, who may be able to help find a suitable population.

 

The fish:

- Longnose butterfly

- Firefish

- Bicolor angel

- Baby blue tang

 

I may be moving in less than a year, and plan to set up a larger tank for frags and the blue tang there. Hoping for a shallow 275!

It would be a custom 18*84*48

[Hammerstone]

Moving tanks is no fun!? Upgrading is though lol.

[michaelrzachmann]

Stumbled upon this before. This guy is a member here. Maybe ask him for some info on getting them? his username is andrewkw