Another new (to me) aquarium!

[BorregoWrangler]

So with my fishless cycle finished, a water change and a few more plants I was able to get things really moving with my newest tank. I moved some of my fish stock around and picked up some new inhabitants.

First, two Needlenose Gar went into the 80. One came from a good LFS (local fish store) and the other I had been keeping an eye on at the Petco down the road, since it looked like he wasn't being fed or cared for at all! The next day in went the Pictus Catfish, then a Flagtail Cat. I also picked up a young Senegal Bichir. However, since he's so small (2") I didn't want to take the chance of him becoming dinner for the Needlenose so I moved my Marble Goby into the 60 gallon tank and put the Bichir into the 30 to grow out before putting him in the 80. Better than TV.

[BlueFJ]

Lookin' good!

[jgorm]

Looks cool! I ran a small 25 gallon (15 gal sump) reef tank for about 6 years. I had a planted fresh tank for about 3yrs before that. Salt water is a different beast and does not tolerate neglect at all. My tank was small but it had 4 lights, 2 24" fluorescent, one about 6500K and the other 10K. 100W MH as the main light, and a moon light. All lights would follow the sun (or moon) cycles, ie longer days in the summer. I had a fan to cool it down in the summer, and 3 heaters to make sure it was always at 78 in the winter. Automatic RO/DI water top off was necessary because it would use about a gallon a day in the summer time. I had the skimmer in the sump and ran a calcium reactor / CO2 injection with pH control, to avoid the constant dosing. I had 2 "wave" pumps that would randomly mix up the tank every 2 hrs or so. Reef tanks are super cool, but loads of $$$ and TONS of time. I'd be glad to help anybody design one. I must have read 3000+ pages on reef tanks and own all the main reference books.

[BorregoWrangler]

Looks cool! I ran a small 25 gallon (15 gal sump) reef tank for about 6 years. I had a planted fresh tank for about 3yrs before that. Salt water is a different beast and does not tolerate neglect at all. My tank was small but it had 4 lights, 2 24" fluorescent, one about 6500K and the other 10K. 100W MH as the main light, and a moon light. All lights would follow the sun (or moon) cycles, ie longer days in the summer. I had a fan to cool it down in the summer, and 3 heaters to make sure it was always at 78 in the winter. Automatic RO/DI water top off was necessary because it would use about a gallon a day in the summer time. I had the skimmer in the sump and ran a calcium reactor / CO2 injection with pH control, to avoid the constant dosing. I had 2 "wave" pumps that would randomly mix up the tank every 2 hrs or so. Reef tanks are super cool, but loads of $$$ and TONS of time. I'd be glad to help anybody design one. I must have read 3000+ pages on reef tanks and own all the main reference books.

Thanks! It looks like you really know your stuff. ^^^ That's why I've never gotten into saltwater aquariums. $$$ & time.

[salad_man]

Looks cool! I ran a small 25 gallon (15 gal sump) reef tank for about 6 years. I had a planted fresh tank for about 3yrs before that. Salt water is a different beast and does not tolerate neglect at all. My tank was small but it had 4 lights, 2 24" fluorescent, one about 6500K and the other 10K. 100W MH as the main light, and a moon light. All lights would follow the sun (or moon) cycles, ie longer days in the summer. I had a fan to cool it down in the summer, and 3 heaters to make sure it was always at 78 in the winter. Automatic RO/DI water top off was necessary because it would use about a gallon a day in the summer time. I had the skimmer in the sump and ran a calcium reactor / CO2 injection with pH control, to avoid the constant dosing. I had 2 "wave" pumps that would randomly mix up the tank every 2 hrs or so. Reef tanks are super cool, but loads of $$$ and TONS of time. I'd be glad to help anybody design one. I must have read 3000+ pages on reef tanks and own all the main reference books.

Thats great, I have an 80 gallon I am trying to put together at the moment, money and time like you said, maybe we can talk, and I can get some pointers, ha ha.

[jgorm]

Thats great, I have an 80 gallon I am trying to put together at the moment, money and time like you said, maybe we can talk, and I can get some pointers, ha ha.

Sure post up your goals and filtration design plans and i can go over them. IMO there should be no carbon or biological filtration on a coral tank, other than the live rock and live sand. A good skimmer is key, as well as a sump to get all the electronics out of the tank. The bigger the sump, the better everything will be. A super kick ass setup would have a small refugium (sp?) in the sump and those lights would run at night to keep the o2 levels constant in the tank. On any salt tank, make sure to top if off on a daily basis. Large tanks can evaporate amazing amounts of water on a daily basis and this will cause the salinity to increase (BAD). Make sure to always use ultrapure water like RO/DI or buy water from the scrips pier if you are near san diego. NEVER use salt water to top off the tank!! Salt does not evaporate, only pure water evaporates. That is probably the single biggest reason for failure for newbs on a salt tank.

[salad_man]

cool thanks, I have been researching here and there, so ill let you know when the time comes to start collecting everything

[BorregoWrangler]

A few pictures of my Marble Goby and a new Peacock Eel I just picked up.

This little guy (4") will end up getting huge (26") so one day I'll need to get him his very own tank.


New Peacock Eel.


Eating blood worms.


The Peacock eel is also known as the Siamese Spiny Eel, and its scientific name is Macrognathus siamensis. It belongs to the Family Mastacembelidae, the Spiny eel family. Just like many other eels, the Peacock eel has an elongated body. Wild specimens often grow up to 12 inches, but in captivity they will often stay around 6 inches. The Peacock eel has a dark brown back and light brown flanks, while they belly is much lighter. You can see a fine yellow line that runs from the snout and all the way to the caudal fin. At the dorsal and caudal fins the Peacock eel is decorated with five eye-spots. The colors and patterns will vary between geographically separated populations.

[BorregoWrangler]

Updates:

My Marbled Goby is now up to 8". I'll need to remove the three cichlids in that tank before they're eaten. I have two small Hujeta Gars growing out in my 29 gallon tank. Once they're big enough to go into the 80, I'll turn that into a breeder tank for feeders.

I also picked up a little Channel Catfish. He's in the 80 gallon tank now and quite active. In a year or two he'll be big enough to release into my in-law's pond.

While on vacation, the light timers went out and I lost some plants. I'll need to restock.

[salad_man]

Awesome, what kind of fish is that one eating the feeder? I got my tank up and running now, ill get some pics up. What plants do you have there, none of the ones I have found look nearly that cool for being live plants. Would you also recommend getting one of those co2 filters for the bottom of the tank?