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Hello,
First & foremost, this is an excellent forum! I read & learn so much from here and can not begin to that you for all the information provided here. So much so, that I've decided to take the plunge.
I want to construct a 75 gallon (glass tank) reef system. I have a Eheim 2215 (not sure if it can be used at all) and a 75 gallon tank & stand, but want to do ALL my research BEFORE I pour the first drop of water (VX-RO-PD100 RO water that is).
I'm currently reading The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide by Julian Sprung along with several issues of Marine Fish & Reef magazine. I intend to read The Conscientious Marine Aquarist from cover to cover and acquire all the necessary hardware before even attempting to begin.
I want to incorporate into my reef a pair black and white Ocellaris clown fish, a pair of Percula clown fish, Heteractis magnifica, A whispy looking green Heteractis crispa (that I have only seen once), several Banggai Cardinalfish, a Scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, coral crabs, coral hermit crabs, and a Harlequin Serpent Star. And who knows what else as I progress.
I'm not sure about the team mates, but I want the tank to have a "well rounded" appearance with the vertebrates, invertebrates and live rock & sand.
I want the setup to be constructed in such a fashion as that for some unforeseen reason (power outage), I do not have 75 gallons of water flooding the two apartments below me. I also want the tank to be setup as maintenance minimal as possible. I have no problem doing maintenance as required...I just don't want my setup to require much. I believe that invariably this improves the quality of life of all inhabitants involved.
I intend to run just a tank with a 3" thick coarse & fine (live) sand substrate for 3 weeks before adding live rock. I then intend to run the system for for another 3 weeks before adding the invertebrates then 3 weeks before vertebrates. (This is all providing that water measurements are acceptable.)
Questions:
Am I headed in the right or wrong direction?
Is the Eheim 2215 useable?
Is an "accident proof" system possible?
Is my intended setup overcrowded?
Is my progression starting out too fast or too slow?
Any and all comments, criticisms, suggestions, etc. are welcomed & appreciated.
Thanks.
(note: looking to buy a skimmer, reactor (Phosban Reactor 150), heaters, lighting (Satellite Dual 24-hr lighting system), power heads, etc. Again, any and all suggestions, comments recommendations welcome.)
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no setup is accident proof. theres no guarantee that every piece of live rock will be free of pest animals, that every fish will go through quarantine without a disease being noticed, etc.
im sure someone like hailey or jeff N will help you out here, but ill give you a few tips.
1- to be as maintenance minimal as posible, you will only be able to have a very small number of fish in the tank. i mean like 3-4 3"-4" fish.
2- heteractis magnifica is a truly huge anemone that cannot be kept in a 75gal tank. it is also very difficult to care for and requires very intense light. therefore i think its best for you to not get one.
3- H. crispa is big as well, and requires even more light than H. magnifica. its best for you to not get any anemones until youve been in the hobby for a while. and even then, youll have to start out small.
4-by "coral hermit crab" i assume you mean the hermit crab that uses a "coral" as its shell. this "coral" is actually a colony of highly venomous hydrozoans and it is very difficult to care for. these hydrozoans injure any coral they touch by stinging them. therefore its best to keep this crab in a species tank.
5- to be "minimal maintenance" you will need to either get like 3-4 of the cardinalfish or 1-2 pair of clowns. or a pair of clowns and another 3"-4" fish, or like 5 1"-2" fish... ermm, you get the idea.
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"wanna go play with fire?"
"Tchyeah!"
Nano reef journal:
http://board.fishchannel.com/Topic202031-16-1.aspx
Check out the new vid at the bottom of the thread's page 2!
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New Member
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Last Login: 12/8/2009 6:18:40 PM
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Thanks for the input and advice.
When I spoke of accident proof, all I was referring to was the prevention of 75 gallons of water running down the walls of the apartments below me. (I have since found out that it is in fact possible to ensure that in the event of a power outage, I can prevent my water from running out onto the floors below.)
Thanks for the advice on what anemone NOT to get. Any suggestions on what to get when I do decide to get them?
Thanks again.
(BTW, just ordered a Vertex Puratek Deluxe 100 GPD RO/DI SYSTEM)
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[quote]Passafist (11/15/2009)
Thanks for the input and advice.
When I spoke of accident proof, all I was referring to was the prevention of 75 gallons of water running down the walls of the apartments below me. (I have since found out that it is in fact possible to ensure that in the event of a power outage, I can prevent my water from running out onto the floors below.)
Thanks for the advice on what anemone NOT to get. Any suggestions on what to get when I do decide to get them?
Thanks again.
(BTW, just ordered a Vertex Puratek Deluxe 100 GPD RO/DI SYSTEM)[/quote]
when you do get an anemone, get either a bubble tip anemone or a long tentacel anemone. and get the one with the brightest/darkest colors.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"wanna go play with fire?"
"Tchyeah!"
Nano reef journal:
http://board.fishchannel.com/Topic202031-16-1.aspx
Check out the new vid at the bottom of the thread's page 2!
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New Member
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Thanks
Now looking at an Aqua C Remora Pro Skimmer (HOB). Is there such a thing as too much skimmer? Looking at +100lb of Live rock and enough "live" sand (I realize it's what's IN the sand and not the sand itself) to produce 3" sand bed (DSB).
Thanks for the advice on the anemone...it'll be a while before I add anything since I have about 275 pages of The Conscientious Marine Aquarist to finish reading before I do anything other than acquire & assemble my hardware. Doubtful I will spill a drop of H2O before 2010.
So much (research) to do...so little time.
Thanks again.
These guys will be my first line of defense.
Note: This was posted on this forum and really got my attention...success & care for these and other creatures in my tank is paramount.
And if you want a host anemone, I would look for a larger tank...most get pretty big and they need absolutely pristine water conditions pretty much all the time (they can't take the fluctuation of parameters in a small tank). It is very important to care well for anemones given that most are wild collected, and they live basically indefinitely in the wild (in the hundreds of years), but most survive only a few months in aquariums.
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yeah, about the anemones... thats what ive been trying to say. theyre just not a good thing to buy. Clownfish dont need a host anemone. pairs of them have been seen living on/near large mushroom corals and other similar things.
im not sure what else i can say that will help... hmm...
would you like help with fish stocking options?
-------------------------------------------------------------
"wanna go play with fire?"
"Tchyeah!"
Nano reef journal:
http://board.fishchannel.com/Topic202031-16-1.aspx
Check out the new vid at the bottom of the thread's page 2!
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I'm always open to suggestions for fish stocking options.
But if I can't have an anemone then why even bother with salt water? It's the challenges of the journey that drew me to salt water. If I wanted safety & ease, I would have stayed with the Pacu's, Arowana's, Shovelnosed catfish, Zebra Spiney eels, loaches, tetra's, Oscars, etc. of the fresh water scene. (been there done that.)
Once I get my feet SOAKING WET in salt water, I invariably intend to run a picoreef in my office at work and here at home.
I'm pretty much thinking about going with a couple of Black & White clowns, a couple of Pajama Cardinalfish, a skunk cleaner shrimp and a "non hairy" brittle star. Throw in some Emerald crabs, Banded trochus snails and some GSP, along with 100lbs of live rock and 50lbs filler rock, an Aqua C Remora Pro Skimmer a couple of Koralia power heads and it should be time to fine tune my Christmas list.
Debating as to which water pumps to get in the Remora...Rio 1400 or Mag-Drive 3 water pumps?
The AquaC Remora Surface Prefilter Box saved me a lot of worry about running more water onto the floor than my carpet could soak up.
Hope a 48" Nova Extreme 8x54 watt T5HO w/ 4 Lunar Light System provides ample lighting. (it appears (no pun intended) to be better than the Satellite system I was looking at.)
Still in the research phase of the game with a lot of reading still to do.
As always any and all suggestions are welcome.
Note1: Please don't mistake my request for "minimal maintenance" as being lazy. People who purchase RO/DI systems don't do it and not make regular water changes and the like. I just want to disturb my tanks occupants as little as possible. They WILL be pampered better that most people pamper their children. Thanks again.
Note2: I'm not rich, just blessed to be able to spend time & money on the things I like.
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| Sounds good, you've got a plan. 5 and three quarters wpg sounds nice.
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Passafist, I see your vision!
A brightly glowing 75-gallon tank, gleaming white sand, a huge anemone on the left and another on the right. Each with a matched pair of clownfish darting in and out of its tentacles, nudging their little heads against their host as they gallop, looking so happy and secure. Little shelled critters crawling by on the sand, looking up at the clownfish as they go about their business.
Alas, this isn’t to be. Let me explain.
You’ve chosen two of the hardest anemones to keep in an aquarium. You’ve crowded them both into a 75-gallon tank. Each one alone needs, say, the full 75 gallon tank volume of pristine, well oxygenated water washed over it, in a brisk but diffuse flow, every few seconds to provide oxygen and remove wastes.
Your selection of clownfish is interesting. Both species, A. ocellaris and A. percula are possibly the least aggressive clowns available. I assume you’re aiming for mated pairs of each. That’s likely not a problem if you start with small specimens and let nature take its course.
What is a problem though is assuming you can have two mated pairs of clowns in the confines of a 75. Assuming you get those big anemones to stay in opposite corners, this might theoretically be possible. But if the anemones are closer (discounting chemical and physical warfare between the two for now), the two pairs of clowns will be in each others’ little faces.
You’ve never seen violence until you’ve seen clown-on-clown aggression. I lost three Clarkii clowns (dead, dead, dead) in the span of a couple of weeks when my big tomato clown decided to migrate to their side of the tank (a 90). They were simply in her way.
Assuming that you get the anemones to stay far from each other and live in the same small tank, I can tell you there’s absolutely no guarantee that you’ll end up with two clowns (matched or otherwise) in each. I think it’s just as likely to end up with four clowns in one and none in the other or even three and one or, heavens, two and two, but unmatched. Ocellaris and percula will interbreed.
Lastly on the subject of clownfish pairs, do acquire your specimens at different times or from different sources so you’re not breeding brothers and sisters. The black varieties are likely from a smaller gene pool to begin with. Try to keep that pool as diverse as possible so any offspring you may decide to raise in the future are viable and strong.
Easier to accomplish is a your desire to have a tank that won’t drain onto the floor while you’re asleep or at work.
Generally, you need a sump that is sized to receive at least an inch or two of water draining from the tank and you want to insure that you have no siphons coming out of the tank able to drain more than your sump can hold. You can accomplish this by drilling one or two small holes in each return just below where the water line is when your pumps are running.
The theory behind this, and it does work, is that once, say, an inch of water drains out of your tank, presumably into your sump, and the water level falls, these holes are exposed and allow air to enter the hose, breaking the siphon. Make sure to assemble the tank’s components so you have no pipes, tubing or hoses than can drain the tank that haven’t been “holed” to break the siphon when the water level drops much below normal.
Overflows by their nature are safe as they drain from just below the surface and “shut off” when the water level drops. They do tend to set the minimum water level in the tank though, in the following way: If your overflow is draining from the top 1.5” of water (common with toothed overflows), then the water level in the tank has to drop more than 1.5” before the overflows stop overflowing. In this case, you have to allow a full 1.5” of the tank’s water to drain into the sump without overflowing it.
Use pairs of hose clamps (plastic, not metal) on all tubing. Tighten the clamps by hand as tight as you can make them. Then use a pair of channel lock pliers to get one more “click” out of the clamps.
Your Eheim canister is usable as a chemical filter as well as a mechanical filter (from time to time, if you desire to “polish” your water for some reason). I would fill it with a mix of carbon and phosphate remover (or Chemi-Pure or Chemi-Pure Elite) in two media bags, and swap out one bag for a new one every month or as required. You don’t need the Phosban reactor. You can put those funds toward your sump or protein skimmer. You do need a good protein skimmer.
Do reconsider your original intent for this aquarium. Try the clowns, maybe just one pair, with or without a more hardy anemone. If your heart is set on keeping one of the Heteractis species, then I suggest you talk to people who are keeping them successfully and get their advice. No book can substitute for this first-hand knowledge from someone who’s actually doing it.
Your choice of reading material is excellent, but there’s a wide gap between reading “The Conscientious Marine Aquarist” and a keeping a Heteractis.
Best regards. I’ll post more when I’ve read and considered the rest of this thread.
Greetings to plecodiscus. It’s nice to have been mentioned, especially as I am still pretty new here.
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JeffN,
You do have insight as to what my vision is/was...
Having said that, I'll now reconsider my options in the selection of what will occupy my tank. I'll go with a pair of Black & White A. ocellaris clowns (each from different suppliers) and a more hardy anemone (perhaps a a Rose Bubble Tip Anemone). I am open to any suggestion on an anemone and have fully gotten the gist of the fact that I bit off more than my 75 gallon tank could chew with my selections.
I am more interested in invertebrates & coral than vertebrates. (But a pair Black & White A. ocellaris clowns are a MUST. They look like miniature orca's. ) A pair of clowns and a couple of Pajama Cardinals will suit me just fine. Along with the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, a hand full of snails and a couple of Emerald Crabs. That will be more than enough occupants to keep my attention. (too early to be interested in mating pairs of anything at this point.)
I like the idea of the sump, but have a glass tank that doesn't have holes already cut into it. (Fortunately, I have found someone willing to cut it for me in the event that I go this route) I am still entertaining the idea of a HOB Aqua C Remora Pro Protein Skimmer, just so that I DON'T have to go the sump route. Just something about a sump and all of the components inside that seems so overwhelmingly daunting in maintenance & upkeep. Again, I don't mind tanking care of my tank on a daily basis. I just don't want so many mechanical & otherwise parts that can possibly go bad, need replacement or excessive attention. Adding chemicals, doing water changes & test, emptying the skimmer, etc is no problem. Worrying about fitting, connections, pumps, etc is my concern.
Besides all of the above mentioned, there seems to me something mystical about having a tank where the MAJORITY of the work (both aerobic and anaerobic) done in a "seemingly" closed marine environment. If I have to scale down the occupants to learn & perfect this process...I will. But I would like to attempt such WITHOUT all the external components (and IMHO their worry). If this means 150~200lbs of live rock and TWO Aqua C Remora Pro Protein Skimmers hanging on the back (along with whatever else someone might feel I need to achieve this object) then so be it.
As always I appreciate all of you comments and suggestions. As you can see, I'm learning & it's a ebb & flow process. In learning from all that contribute here, I'm learning the limitations of what I can do (thusly changing what I hope to do) and as I change so does the options provided in this thread.
Thank you all and I hope that this dialog continues and invariably I end up with a marine aquarium we all can be proud of.
Passafist.
(Note: Please tell me more about "polishing" water with the Eheim canister...I was about to trash it as being a nitrate factory. )
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